Chapter 9: Registering

When the winter holiday break began, Drew and Connor decided to spend at least several days staying in the Ritters’ home. Jennifer had some of her friends come for several afternoon get-togethers and that’s when the two met more of Jennifer’s close friends.

Two of her friends were unique—doubly unique. They were identical twin boys named Justin and Jason, who were so identical that it was almost impossible to tell them apart. They were sophomores but were great friends of Jennifer’s; she had known them since she was in kindergarten and had dated both of them.

When Jennifer was alone with Drew, Drew asked about the twins.

“You know, how do you tell them apart? Even their voices are alike.”

Jennifer laughed. “Yeah, it’s funny. The twins can even fool their own parents sometimes. You know what those jokesters do sometimes? They think that they’re being cute.”

“What?”

“They’ve switched around on the gals sometimes; they said it’s just for fun, but we don’t know if we’re with Jason or Justin.”

“That’s not very nice,” Drew commented.

“Yeah, but us girls got a secret about that—you can’t ever tell them, okay?”

Drew made a zipping gesture at her mouth. “Lips are sealed.”

“We found out that we could tell them apart, except how we do it isn’t very socially acceptable. See, Justin’s erection bends a bit to the right while Jason’s bends left,” Jennifer giggled.

“Shit, you and your friends know that? I won’t ask how. Or maybe I will.”

Jennifer laughed. “Hand jobs. And some girls do oral ... I haven’t done that yet, though. Soon, maybe.”

Drew sighed. “Yeah, so I’m not shocked at all, after what I saw in the Program during that first school week. Those hand jobs were so ... embarrassing to watch—seeing the BJs was worse. And humiliating for the kid to have it done in front of everyone. Our biology teacher had that done to a naked kid twice, and then had kids take turns giving him a blow job.”

“Shit. That was in front of the whole class, you said, right?”

“Yeah. And the teacher tried to get the girl to jill off for the class; she couldn’t, so she had the naked boy do oral on her to try to get her to cum. She was soooo humiliated and scared that she didn’t respond.”

“Oh fuck. That really happened in a classroom?”

“Oh yeah, sure. The crap I saw ... disgusting. For me, um, you know, I haven’t really started puberty yet and my, um, it’s called libido, right? Know the word?”

“Uh huh, I do.”

“So I didn’t get horny when I saw that crap. That girl too, the teacher said that she wasn’t stimulated ‘cause of a low libido. That made the poor girl cringe even more.”

“Damn. You went through torture, Drew.”

“If it was bad for me, think of those naked girls, how it was for them. Big fuckin’ yikes.”

“I can’t even imagine.”

The end of the holidays arrived and several events immediately involved Connor and Drew. The first was getting registered in Etown High. They had assembled their charter school transcripts plus the copies of their middle school records for the high school. Connor’s caseworker in Massachusetts had obtained his records and had forwarded them and the high school had received Drew’s records too. They were now duly registered in the school.

Second, the social services interviews for both had been scheduled, and when they were completed, their court dates were set up. On the third Monday of the month, Drew and Connor, their attorney, their caseworkers, and the Ritters, attended the two hearings for the guardianship decrees. The judge’s gavel taps sounded and the decisions were official.

They celebrated with the Ritters and Gelb at a local restaurant that evening.

Going to school “in person” felt wonderful to the two kids. They were making friends left and right ... literally. There was a real dichotomy with the students who attended the school. About half of the students were socially sort-of liberal—the left, while a slightly greater number were socially and religiously conservative—the right. Of course, as the two of them learned, as this was central Pennsylvania, the meaning of “liberal” and “left” was only relative. The most liberal of the kids they became friendly with were just somewhat less conservative than the rest.

In early February, Connor had asked Justin about what he had noticed about the various groups of kids.

“Justin, I’ve noticed some small differences in the way lots of kids dress here. I was used to seeing kids wearing flashy clothes and girls challenging the dress-code hem lengths back at my old school. I don’t see that here.”

Justin laughed. “Yeah, this is Lancaster County. York, Berks, and Lebanon Counties are next door too, it’s all part of Pennsylvania Dutch Country here. I’m sure you know about the Amish?”

“The buggies and old-style farmers? Sure.”

“So this whole area has German Reformed, Moravian, and other German Christian sects, plus a huge concentration of Anabaptists, Protestant sects that started in Switzerland, I think, or maybe southern Germany. The Amish are one of those sects and they’re very insular, keep to themselves, educate their own kids, and don’t use modern tech like phones or even cars, That’s the reason for the buggies.

“There are other Anabaptist sects too and there’s a huge number who live in the Etown area. They’re the Mennonites, the Brethren, and the Charity church. They’re all mostly very religiously and socially conservative and are supposed to dress modestly, at least the adults do. They allow the kids a bit more clothing freedom but the kids still dress like you see. Solid colored shirts with collars and front-buttoned, plain-colored pants. Black or brown shoes. That what you mean?”

“Yeah. Girls’ clothing too...”

“Right. Follows the Bible, be modest in dress and behavior. No flashy clothes. Never call attention to how you look. That’s how they usually dress...”

Stacy and Drew had joined them and Stacy picked up on Justin’s comments.

“Yeah, my Mennonite friends do prefer plain clothes,” Stacy said. “It represents humility, they say. They’re taught to avoid signs of personal vanity and loud colors or patterns call attention to the person and should be avoided. They follow the Bible literally and the Bible says that righteous people are modest.”

“That does sound familiar,” Connor told them. “I’m a Lutheran and my pastor does frequently preach about modesty and humility. Nothing about clothes, though.”

“Yeah, but Connor? See how he and his wife dress?” Drew reminded him.

“Jeez, you’re right. Mrs Neumann too.”

“Sure, the Lutherans are kinda like the Mennonites in that way,” Justin said. “Social justice, service to community, accepting the literal truth of the Bible’s words; there are quite a few things that are similar.”

“Hey Justin, how’d you get to be such an expert?” Stacy laughed.

“Our pastor. We’re Baptists and the pastor gave our Bible class an into to the area’s religions.”

“So how many of the kids in school do you think come from religious families?” Drew asked.

“Stacy? What do you think? A little more than half?” Justin asked.

“Um. That seems right. Lots go to church regularly, too.”

“To our church also,” Connor told them. “I met maybe about twenty who are at services at least twice a month—mostly upperclassmen, for some reason. So this is a conservative area. I never paid it much attention, but it does seen different somehow from the Boston region where Drew and I came from.”

“Boston? Super liberal there,” Justin said.

“Maybe. The working-class exurbs to the north were much more right-wing, I think,” Drew answered. “My father was always ranting about ‘those f-ing liberals’ in Boston.”

In late April, the first sign of bad news for the kids in the high school appeared. The Supreme Court’s hearing of a challenge to the “Social Awareness Act,” the law which had authorised the Naked in School Program, took place, and from the justices’ questioning of the attorneys presenting their arguments, virtually all of the media commentators predicted that the Court would uphold the law. The justices seemed to believe that the Fifth Amendment’s right of privacy only extended to adults, not children.

Then in May, TV news stories began appearing, reporting on the federal government’s warnings that unless Pennsylvania immediately began running the Program in its schools, federal educational assistance payments would cease.

This news brought consternation to the kids at Etown High School and Connor and Drew were dismayed at hearing that news.

“I suppose we saw that coming, sweetie. After all, it was a national law,” Connor told her.

“You’re right. But ... well ... we can prepare to resist it, right? Let’s talk to Wayne and see what we can do legally.”

“You always have great ideas, honey.”

They set up a meeting with Gelb to discuss their options.

“From your stories about your Program experience, Connor and Drew, I’m taking a wild guess that you’d object to participating if you’re selected,” Gelb observed when they met.

“Funny man,” Connor retorted. “We want to know about any legal objections we can make.”

“I’ve seen the materials that the feds have provided to the state Education Department. Our firm’s main offices are in Harrisburg, as you know, and we have lots of contacts in state government. It appears that the state legislature is poised to allow it to start in schools this fall. You could switch back to that charter school; I don’t see how it’s possible for an on-line school which serves all ages can run a nudity program.”

“I suppose we could do that, but Drew and I decided that we wouldn’t run away again.”

“That’s good. Do you have any specific questions?”

“Yeah. One is force. Can someone—an adult—actually grab a kid and pull off their clothes? Legally?”

“That’s something being discussed all over the legal community, including among law enforcement officials and prosecutors too. That’s sexual battery by definition and for a minor, it’s child sexual abuse. Legally, sexual abuse is defined as any form of sexual contact or behavior, or even threats to do so, which occurs absent the explicit consent of the victim. But in the case of a child, they cannot give legal consent, so any contact would automatically be illegal. The felony of child sexual abuse includes pressuring—or even requesting—a child to engage in sexual activities, which can include making a child strip or stripping them by force.”

“Then how do the school people get away with it?” Drew asked. “Since it’s a felony.”

“What I’ve read is that the state AGs—attorneys general—have followed the guidance of the U.S. attorney general in that they won’t prosecute because the nudity is defined as a school-approved educational activity and so long as excessive force is not used, no one would be arrested. The major problem with that guidance is that ‘excessive force’ isn’t defined. And the student can be asked to strip and be helped if they’re nervous or reluctantly willing—’coerced’ is the proper term.”

“Wow, that’s such a load of BS,” Connor exclaimed. “Okay though, if I’m touched by an adult and don’t want to be touched, then I can resist by moving away? Then I assume if the adult comes after me and tries grabbing me, that’s excessive force and I can fight the person off?”

“You have the right to protect yourself against a citizen. You can’t against a sworn law enforcement officer.”

“Yeah. I know that. But they wouldn’t have cops in the schools stripping kids, I’m guessing.”

Drew broke in. “I hate violence and wouldn’t want to use it unless I’m forced. When I ran out of the school, I couldn’t think of a way to resist ‘cause of the panic I felt. I knew that I couldn’t return because they’d just force me if I refused. And the principal threatened me with legal consequences, so I assumed that he meant that they’d get the police involved. At the first Program assembly, a police car did come to the school, and I had assumed that it was to back up the stripping. I found out later that it was because of the fighting. So I’ve had lots of time to think about what I could have done if I knew about it beforehand, and thought of ways to oppose taking part. But it would need a group of kids to oppose it, something like doing civil disobedience. I told Connor about what I thought of while we were traveling here; it was some way of organizing the kids to oppose the Program.

“I couldn’t think of how to set something up like that till now, and I got this thought. You remember how our pastor found the family that became our guardians? That could be the way to organize to help us resist. Pastor Will is a member of this area’s council of clergy and it includes all of the ultra-conservative churches like the Mennonites and Brethren. Their groups, also the Lutherans, Baptists, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, all of them, preach modesty. I can ask Pastor to get the word out to all the churches about how the Program damages kids and destroys any modesty, and maybe their leaders’ sermons can talk about the importance of modesty and encourage all their kids to resist taking part. When the kids get called, they just stay away from where they’d get stripped and, yeah, they can claim it’s their religions freedom, right? The Supreme Court’s gonna say that the Fifth Amendment doesn’t apply to kids ‘cause its language mentions property and kids can’t own property. But everyone, kids too, have religious freedom.”

“Wow, Drew, you did it again!” Connor exclaimed. “What a great idea!”

“I totally agree,” Gelb commented. “I’m sure that the local clergy will be very able to mobilize their youth. Their parents too.”

“Yeah, and for the other kids who don’t have the church background to say that their religious beliefs demand personal modesty, maybe my idea of civil disobedience might work. Organizing student strikes and mass refusals to cooperate, maybe. Possibly it could be organized on the social media channels that most kids follow. And maybe doing that could even get TV or newspaper attention on the terrors that kids in the Program have to experience.”

“More excellent ideas, Drew. Did you really need me? It appears that you’ve come up with an effective anti-Program strategy on your own,” Gelb chuckled.

“Yeah, Drew’s got an impressive mind,” Connor said as he gave her a one-armed hug. “She keeps coming up with these good ideas. But what can we do about the graduating threat? At our last school, the principal told us that if you failed to participate, you wouldn’t graduate high school.”

“I didn’t see anything in the federal law that addresses student graduation. The law only requires that schools establish and run the Program. It doesn’t get into details; the OSA, the Office of Social Awareness, writes the Program regs. They get published in the Federal Register for a period of public comment and then they can become effective. But a federal agency cannot dictate a rule that interferes with a state law unless interstate commerce is involved, and our state education law specifies the sole requirements for graduation.”

“So the not graduating was a threat to further compel the kids to comply—oh, and it would make their parents more likely tell the kids to obey.”

“That’s right, Connor, I think that you’ve figured that out pretty well. Okay, good. So everything else is going well for you?” Gelb asked.

“All good,” Connor said. “Thanks for the info about that assault stuff. I suppose the best way to respond to demands to strip is to ignore them and walk.”

“Exactly. Try to avoid any physical confrontation. So are we done?”

“Sure. And thanks again,” Connor said as Drew nodded, smiling.