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January 2022
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"Here at Futures Academy, we have zero tolerance for physical altercations..." the fair-skinned woman, Principal Suarez, tells Romeo's parents in her office, "We've decided to expel your son for the rest of the year."
"What?!" Shantey exclaims, and Tae touches her hand to keep her calm. She takes a deep breath to keep from going off. "Okay... why does he need to be expelled? The fight wasn't that bad. He barely had a cut on his lip."
"Your son barely had a cut on his lip." Principal Suarez emphasizes, "The other boy, Thomas Dixon, doesn't just have a scratch on his lips. He suffered more injuries. I have proof of that."
She turns the computer screen to the parents and presses a button to start playing the video that was caught on tape by the hallway video camera with no sound. Romeo walks the hallway by himself and three teen boys was walking by when one peanut-skinned boy purposely bumped his arm.
Romeo quickly turned around, saying something, and it turned into a heated argument between he and the other boy. Romeo pushed him hard to where he fell into his two friends. And out of embarrassment, the teen boy swung and punched Romeo in the mouth— resulting in the cut on his lip.
Then, Romeo spazzed out of control and quickly got into his semi-crouch stance; dropping his bookbag and sending two punches to the boy's face. With his footwork, hand speed, and defensive blocking, the teen boy couldn't keep up and stumbled back into the lockers. Romeo practically used the boy as the punch bag he hits when he would go to boxing classes when he was younger.
The teen boy fell on the ground, curling up, Romeo sent hits to his head.
When security guards rushed over and grabbed Romeo, the principal pauses the video and turns her computer screen back to her. She opens her mouth and says, "Thomas's parent's says that he went to the hospital for a concussion and a fractured jaw. And with your son looking as if he is trained to fight, they're pressing charges on him. Assault."
