Family is Forever (Sequel to Running on Insulin)

Chapter 44

The next day, Friday, Tyler and I drove Sam to school. And went into the office. Sam accompanied me. She was not happy and was still pleading with me to not report what Adam had said. I hugged her and told her no one should ever say things like what he did to others.  Ever.

"Good morning, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph," Ms Tracey said as the three of us walked into the office. Tyler looked angry, I tried to keep my cool and Sam looked dejected. "To what do we owe the pleasure?"

"We need to speak with the principal," Tyler said. "Now."

"What's the matter?" Ms. Tracey asked, taken aback.

"It's something we'd rather discuss with Mr. Jones," Tyler said.

Ms. Tracey called into his office and she sent us straight in.

"Good morning," he said brightly. "How can I help you?"

"We have a problem with one of Samantha's classmates.  And it's pretty serious," Tyler said.

"What's the problem?"

"You have a bullying issue here. Adam - I don't know his last name - has been bullying Samantha and one of her classmates. It wasn't anything too concerning until he beat her up, which you suspended him for.

Now he's escalated. You know what happened to Samantha in November. It seems that Adam has told Samantha that her birth father should have finished what he started. What what's it he said?" Tyler asked Samantha.

Fear crossed her face.

"Samantha, we don't tolerate bullying here. What did Adam say to you?"

"He," Samantha said quietly.  "He said he wished Stanley had killed me."

The principal frowned and then picked up his phone. He asked Ms. Tracey to call Adam into the office and to contact his parents as well and have them come in.

"We take this very seriously here. Samantha, you get on to class and if your parents don't mind, I'm going to ask them to stay. We will deal with Adam and his parents. I won't put you through that. Okay?"

Samantha nodded but looked terrified.

"It'll be okay, baby," I said to her. "And we'll pick you up after school and tell you what happens. Okay?"

She nodded, gave us both hugs and then went off to her first class. I sighed.

"She's still dealing with what happened and this may have set her back some," I explained to the principal. "It's unacceptable that one kid would say such a thing to another."

"Agreed," the principal said. "We've had problems with Adam before and he may have just had his last strike. We will, of course, let him tell his side, though how he is going to defend his words without lying, should be interesting. His assault on Samantha was the worst he's done, but wishing death on another student, that's grounds for expulsion. We do have to do our due diligence and let him state his side, but that's more a formality."

"Can't you just kick this kid out?" Tyler asked, getting visibly angry.

"I'm afraid not. It's a process. I don't agree with it because it often means the victim continues to be victimized while this plays out."

Tyler sighed and made his hands into fists.  He was trying to keep his composure.

About five minutes later, a slim boy about Samantha's age was let into the room. His eyes widened when he saw us sitting there.

"Adam. These are Samantha's parents," the principal said. "They've just come in to tell me you said something to Samantha that you must know is not only against the school conduct code, but also falls under bullying and harassment."

Adam opened his mouth to speak but the principal put his hand up.

"I will give you the chance to defend yourself, but not before your parents arrive."

His face registered more fear again.

We waited about twenty more minutes before a man and a woman came storming in the door.

"What did you do this time?" The man, we could only assume was Adam's father, said.

"Nothing!" Adam said.

"Sure. We got called down to the school because you did nothing," his mother said.

Adam slumped in his chair, clearly looking to play the victim in this. It wasn't going to work.

"Mr and Mrs. Trainer, I'd like to introduce you to Mr and Mrs Joseph. Samantha's parents."

"Samantha?" The mother asked. "Samantha. The girl you beat up last term?"

Adam slunk further into his chair.

"As you likely know, Samantha was kidnapped by her biological father back in November. She was so traumatized that she had to have a tutor to her home because she was unable to return to school. She recovered and returned this week.

It would seem your son told her that he wished her biological father had killed her, which as may recall, from the news, was his intention," the principal said.

"ADAM!" His mother exclaimed. "Please tell me you didn't tell that girl you wished her dead!"

"I never said that!" Adam said.

"Then what was it you did say?" His father fumed.

"I said her dad should have finished what he started," he mumbled.

"That's the same thing!" Tyler fumed.

"Mr. and Mrs. Trainer, we have done everything we can to try to teach your son that this behaviour is intolerable. The suspension for the assault on Samantha, in my opinion should have been an expulsion. Now that he's escalated to this, I have no choice but to expel Adam from Appleton Middle School. Effective immediately. Ms. Tracey will accompany you to Adam's locker and you will clean it out and be off school property. By 9:30 am. If Adam is found on school grounds at any time after that, the police will be called for trespassing.

Do I make myself clear?"

Adam's parents looked angrily at their son. I looked at the kid and found I couldn't find any sympathy for him.

The principal let us go, but not until Adam's parents apologized to us, and they made Adam apologize. We left while the Trainers did whatever was needed to be done to expel Adam.

It was at least one win for Samantha.

We went home from there and while Sam was at school, I got in touch with the lawyer. He informed me there was no option. Sam had to be at the reading of the will.  I sighed, not looking forward to telling her the news.

And we still had the letter from Gillingham to deal with. Sam had decided not to read it last night and had brought it down to the kitchen at dinner time.

"I won't sleep if that's in my room," she'd said.

I couldn't blame her to be honest.