It was the beginning of a new school year and Stephen Williams was a High school History teacher. This would be his third year working in that position. He was setting up the classroom and getting to know the students that first week. By Wednesday he had already pegged most of the trouble makers. By Thursday, he had learned most of their names (the troublemakers that is, with a class of 27 students, in his homeroom alone, and about 130 overall, he still had a way to go to learn them all). Some student he knew just by having seen them around school the previous year, or because they had a sibling in his class before. On Fridy, toward the end of the day, he got a call on his classroom phone."Mr. Williams" the voice on the phone said, it was the voice of Paula the office receptionist, "Mrs. Douglas would like to talk with you after school today."Ok," he said "I will be there".As he hung up, he got a bad feeling. Just because the principal wanted to talk to him wasn't necessarily a sign of trouble, but something in his gut just didn't sit right. He had already sent several kids to the office that week, were they going to talk to him about how he should be handling more issues within the classroom? In any case, there was only about 15 minutes until dismissal, he wouldn't have to wait too long to find out."OK class, it's time to get ready to go home."The class knew by that point what they had to do, they were to clean, but a few were hesitant to do so. "Come on guys, help clean". said Isabella, one of his more well-behaved students. Directing her comment primarily to a group of boys in the corner who were just sitting there. After the students cleaned and Mr. Williams made a note of which ones did and which ones didn't he said " You all, enjoy your weekend"."You too Mr. Stephens" said a number of the students as they left.Once he had dismissed all the students, he headed to the office, still nervous about what they might want to talk to him about. When he got there, Paula called Mrs. Douglas. "Mrs. Douglas, Mr. Williams is here to see you"."OK send him in" the principal said.He walked into the room where the older, heavyset African American woman sat behind her desk labeled with a plaque "Mrs. Jacqueline Douglas" with the word" Principal" underneath.
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She got up and shook Mr. Williams hand while offering him a seat in front of her. Also with her in the room was the school counselor, Miss Li, who was also currently acting Vice Principal.
"Mr. Williams, it has come to our attention that there are certain activities you in which like to participate outside school." Immediately he felt a cold chill run up his back (He felt terror, oh no, this was it, he was found out, he was going to be fired now, he had read bout teachers getting fired for similar things)"Um, what kind of activates?" he asked, playing dumb."I get the feeling you know," Mrs. Douglas continued. "But to ask it bluntly, do you participate in nudist activates outside school?"Mr. Williams sat there for a few seconds, that felt like an eternity, there was no use denying it so he nodded sheepishly while saying "yes Ma'am". At this point it felt as if his heart raced about 1 million beats a minute."Alright" said Mrs. Douglas "in any case, our source expressed some concern so we promised to talk to you. We would just like you to know that we do not have an issue as long as you don't make an issue of it. As I am sure you know, we are not allowed to discriminate based on religion, sexual orientation, or lifestyle, and this qualifies under the last category. We will also keep your secret as best we can, and please don't discuss it with the students.""Oh, I wouldn't dream of it" he said. As his heart rate started to return to normal."If anyone gives you any trouble let us know" added Miss Li, who up to this point had been silently observing. He was relieved, it was nice to have such supportive administration. In fact, how had they found out though? He was not sure if they had found out about the end of the year party however that happened the year before. Had a student at the party told? He had spent a lot of time at the nudist resort over the summer, perhaps a parent saw him there, but of course in either case, they would have been there for the same reason he, but perhaps figured he had more to lose. Why did it matter how they found out? The point was, the administration knew and he wasn't in trouble. "Is that all Mrs. Douglas, Miss Li?" He asked. "Yes sir, you are free to go". Replied Mrs. Douglas. With that he shook their hands and walked out the door. As he left the office, he sighed a big sigh of relief. He needed to get home. It had been enough of a stressful week.
