SPACE ODDITIES

CHANGE

When he got back to school, Bowie was the new hero. He saw his popularity skyrocket. Shelly and her toadies were suspended for two weeks since the fight incident. It was the most significant sanction given out in the last ten years of the school's history. But for Mrs. Martin, it was not enough.

"Do you know this morning when I got in my car, I was overwhelmed by a sensation of relief. Not because Zila Richards is alive, I was thankful that Bowie Norton saved her.

"Thanks to him, all of us teachers can live happily without being weighed by guilt, but that's how we teachers survive in this school. It's not the first time a student shields us from something unpleasant," Mrs. Martin said.

"Mrs. Martin, that is inappropriate."

"Inappropriate, what is inappropriate is our attitude. Most of us only worry about school stats," Mrs. Martin said while looking at Mr. Coroner, who turned his head the other way.

"Our school thinks because it's a small city, our kids are all without problems," the teacher continued.

"Zila Richards, problems were beyond our jurisdiction. She had problems at home," Ms. Claymore said to protest.

"Okay, then let's talk about our jurisdiction," Mrs. Martin pursued.

"Zila had raw rotten fish put in her locker for a month, and what did we do? We gave her a month worth of detentions and made her clean the chewing of desks for troubling public order in the school. None of us even asked for her side of the story. Oh, and we did our job too when we asked her to clean up the stage after the school fair incident."

"Mrs. Martin, what do you want us to do? Kids will be kids."

"Oh, my goodness, Mr. Schroeder. Okay, listen, we are clearly not prepared. Our kids have issues, and even if they don't, we have to think they do hypothetically.
We have to anticipate and not ignore the first signs, isn't that so, Mr. Carlson?"

"To be honest, I wish Zila Richards was dead. It sounds cruel, but ironically it would have knocked the senses into all of you. I'm not feeling guilty right now. I ringed the alarm, maybe I should have done more, but at least I did something," said Mr. Carlson, the counselor.

"At the same time, it's what you are paid for," Mr. Coroner added.

Mrs. Martin tried to bring the debate back to its initial state as she suspected Mr. Coroner of wanting to draw away the other teachers' attention.

"You know, the other day, I watched 13 issues on Netflix."

"It's 13 reasons," Mr. Carlson corrected.

"Yes, 13 reasons, and I saw our school's reflection," Mrs. Martin pursued.

"We've got kids with breast implants, girls who put on weight and disappear a week because they went to get an abortion in another state. Boys and girls who could enter a matchstick body contest because they are taking being anorexic to the next level, and kids looked down upon because they don't fit our standards. We have transgender and lgbtq+ kids who are lost and don't know who to turn to; we're supposed to be supporting them.
We are all aware of all those issues, but all we care about is school statistics and having our sports teams win trophies."

"Personally, Zila Richards is not a lost cause; I mean education-wise. If she attended all her subjects, she could even be in the top 10, I think," Ms. Oishimi said.

"There are two and a half months left of this school year. Her aunt has already informed us Zila will be doing her senior year in Illanoia," Mr. Thomson, the school principal, said.

"Zila can't get into Illanoia with her grades," Mr. Coroner said, annoyed as he shuffled in his seat.

"According to what I've heard, they made an exception considering she is now a resident of that side of the city and the circumstances which we all know. I think one of her relatives has friends working there. Anyway, she won't be a problem for long."

"There you go again with the word problem, anyway, let's make the last two months of this child's school year a peaceful one," Mrs. Martin concluded.