My sister reminded me of something I should have written into the story, but forgot about (there's so very much to write). It makes an entertaining postscript:
The teacher dismissed for, sued for and found guilty of sexual harassment...what happened to him? Was he:
A) Run out of town by an angry mob of pitchfork-wielding fathers?
B) Socially ostracized into a cabin in the woods, never to be heard from again?
C) None of the above.
The answer is C. He reinvented himself as a local financial planner.
'Who are his clients?' you might ask. 'Who would be immoral enough to give their ducats to a pedophile?' Teachers from Jamestown, New York, of course. Not all of them, but last I heard, the bulk of his client roster is made up of Jamestown teachers who go to him with their savings to plan for retirement.
So you're an educator, and it is your job to work with children, and you buddy buddy up to a man who was found guilty in a court of law for harassing an underage girl--a trial at which once-humiliated, still-enraged girls volunteered to give testimony; YOUR FORMER STUDENTS--and you give that man your business so that he may continue to hang like an Ascaris worm from the bowels of Jamestown education by profiting off your earnings, conflict of interest business which makes you morally complicit in the abuse of youngsters...
...do you give a flying fuck about children? If not, why are you working with them? You're creepy, that's why, and somebody ought to fucking fire your ass.
I'm certain all sorts of "What the fucks" will come to me later. For now, I'm tired of talking about the place. Who wants to remember they grew up in a town where "come suck my dick in the practice room" is okay, but a lesbian principal isn't?
I got a lot of really nice comments about the story, which are always great to get, but I must say I was especially honored to get the compliment that came to me from a regular poster on our company messageboard:
Great Work
Wow...
So I always figured you probably knew my sisters; but certainly wouldn't have guessed you were with them the day of.
I've been waiting a long time for your exposition of Jamestown. That was really insightful, poignant and disturbingly accurate. Very well done, many thanks for taking the time to do that so well.
Best of luck in hippytown; and to your father's well-being after his bout with pneumonia.
-Chris Wilson
If Kathy Wilson's son thinks you did a decent job writing about the grand quirk that is Jamestown, then you most certainly did.
Posted by The Bunny at 2:37 PM