Chapter 11: Battle Stations

The following week, the school’s soccer team practices began with the first two days being the team tryouts. Some JV members were attempting to move up into the varsity and a dozen incoming freshmen showed up; all of them had played in the summer league and Drew thought that several were quite good. After warmups and stretching, and a mile run on the track, the coach had some of the experienced players do a skills check on the team hopefuls. The coach had Drew work with a group of four on ball handling, passing, and shooting. By the end of the week, the JV and varsity team rosters were almost set.

After practice, two of the team’s seniors, Robin and Marcie, pulled Drew aside to talk. They were among the initial group of resistance planners and therefore, sort of leaders of the senior division.

“I heard that the school district’s officials got wind of the resistance movement,” Marcie told Drew. “Not our group’s part, but the church kids—how they will be objecting to their religious freedom being violated.”

“That’s right,” Robin said. “There were some fiery sermons about the Program in lots of churches in the area this summer. A lot of those parents have been calling the school to tell them that they’re forbidding their kids from taking part. My aunt’s a secretary in the school district office and she said lots of parents have refused to sign the liability waiver forms the school sent out.”

“Oh, that’s good news,” Drew said. “I wonder how many kids consider themselves to be conservatives?”

“Yeah, my aunt told me a little about that. This fall, the high school’s registered right around 1185 kids. So that means there’s roughly 300 per grade. She told me that based on area demographics and where the families live, about 650 kids come from religiously conservative families.”

“Wow, more than half the school,” Drew replied. “So those kids will probably all refuse to strip.”

“Yeah, and so will our resistance recruits,” Marcie said. “We have more than 200, I think ... oh, there’s Allison. And Will. Hey Allison!” she called. “Need to give you both some info.”

Allison came over. “About the ‘movement’?” she made finger quotes.

“Sure,” Marcie answered. “Hi, Will.”

“Yeah, how’s it goin’?”

“Good so far.”

William Bennett was a junior on the boy’s soccer team. Drew had first met him at the soccer pick-up game where she had attracted the attention of the boys’ coach. He was one of the resistance leaders for the junior class.

Marcie continued, “We’re talking about the religious kids and how they’re most likely gonna refuse to strip when they get picked. And what we should do too. From the mailing that Dr Slater sent to the parents, it looks like they planned to pick kids randomly, but that won’t work, from what Robin found out. She heard that the religious kids will probably refuse, so if they call kids to the stage, and more than half refuse to go up there, Slater will have a big problem, right? Drew told us about the fighting that happened at her old high school, and we read those Instagram posts where kids mentioned physically resisting being stripped at their school’s starting assembly.”

“I think that they’ll hand-pick the kids for stripping at the assembly,” Robin said. “Slater’s very careful; he hates controversy, so I’m betting that he’ll try to avoid a showdown.”

“Okay, we’ll assume a very hostile audience,” Drew told them. “My pastor gave several sermons about how bad the Program is for kids and he told me that other preachers gave sermons that were almost a call-to-arms to parents—and their kids—to support having the kids resist participating. So the kids will be primed, and if fighting breaks out, it could turn into a riot. We don’t want that.”

The others agreed.

“So we need to figure out what to put out on the text message tree,” Drew continued. “Everyone knows about the ‘no excessive force’ in the assault law? The info about that was one of the first things we all discussed.”

Robin nodded. “Yeah, everyone was happy to hear that forced stripping, where someone restrains you and pulls your clothes off, then that’s illegal. But if you don’t actively resist them doing it, a teacher can undress you. So should we put a text out that says if your name is called, you should ignore the call and just stay put?”

“That’s what I think,” Drew answered. “Hey, let me do this, in case Slater doesn’t know that he can’t use force. I’ll ask my lawyer to send a message to him and the school board that quotes that part of the assault law. Maybe he can even say that violations could be charged as a felonious sexual assault on a minor. He also told Connor and me that if they do try to use physical force, then kids can fight back. If they do, then the school will risk a riot. So maybe this will put Slater on notice that physical force can’t be used. He can threaten, like the graduation threat, or maybe give detention or kick someone off a team or club, but he can’t suspend a kid for refusing, my lawyer told us.”

“Hey, if a whole lot of us refuse, there’d be no room in the detention room, right?” Allison laughed.

“Okay then,” Robin said. “We’ll put out a text that says to refuse if you get picked and reminds them that forcing to get stripped isn’t allowed. Is that okay with everyone?”

It was.

The Ritter family returned from their vacation at the end of the third week of August and Drew and Connor brought them up to date on the resistance planning.

“We hear that the kids from the more religious families—the church kids—are mostly not going to be at that first assembly,” Connor told them.

“What about the others?” Michael asked. “You talk to any of the upperclassmen?”

“Oh yeah, absolutely,” Drew answered. “Robin and Marcie from my team—seniors—have taken a lot of the lead on organizing, such as it is. You get those texts?”

“We did,” Jennifer said. “So nothing new since then?”

“Not really,” Drew replied. “Myself, I suppose I’ll go to that damn assembly, despite what happened when I went to that first one in my old school. I panicked and ran out ‘cause seeing a girl get stripped like that brought back all those memories. Now that I know that I won’t get forced, I guess I can handle it. Also, I know that I can fight back if anyone tries grabbing me.”

“What are the others doing?” Jennifer continued.

“They said they’ll do the same as Connor and me.”

“I’m gonna check with the twins to see what their plans are,” Jennifer said. “Jeez, we’re away for several weeks and all that stuff happened.”

“A lot of it was with Drew’s teammates,” Connor said. “You should call Randy and see what the guys on the football team plan on doing.”

“Yeah, good idea,” Jennifer agreed.

She did and Randy told her that the team members were planning to protect kids who were actively resisting if a school official tried using physical force.

Later, Jennifer told that to Drew. “And Randy said that his teammates know to use the least force. They plan to just get the resisting kid away. They saw the warning in the text not to cause a riot.”

Drew nodded, “Good.”

Since the Monday before Labor Day was a late school registration day, that Tuesday was the first day of classes, but it was spent mostly for administrative topics like locker assignments and issuing textbooks. The teachers used their class times to talk about expectations and to go over the term’s curriculum.

During the day, Drew got to talk to some of the kids whom she knew were Mennonites; it wasn’t from their clothes since they were dressed like most other kids, but modestly. She had previously learned about their church affiliation when talking to them back in the spring.

“Johan, what are you guys doing about that Program crap?” Drew asked when she walked up to the group that he was with.

He was talking with Sarah, Henry, and Katherine.

“Hi, Drew. We were just talking about that. Say, our pastor gave some great sermons over the summer and said your pastor had provided a lot of the info for them. Did your pastor deliver anti-Program sermons too?”

“Oh, you bet he did,” Drew replied. “Did you get a handout too? Where the Program abuses were listed?”

“Yeah and they were shocking, awful,” Sarah answered. “You mentioned last spring that you were in a school where things like that happened.”

“Right, and those stories were from me and a friend who still goes there. Do you know what you guys—members of the Anabaptist churches—are gonna do in two weeks, when they start the thing?”

“We know kids from two other churches pretty well; one’s a Brethren church. They say that they’re gonna boycott the assembly. Others we know, but not well, will probably skip it also. We probably are too, our parents will back us for sure,” Johan answered.

“Good,” Drew replied. “If a large number of kids resist, then their punishment options get fewer. Say, I wonder how many of us come from religious families? I count myself in one since I go to a Lutheran church. It’s not in the more conservative synod but most of our members are very socially conservative.”

“I was curious about that last year,” Henry said. “When I started high school, I wondered how many kids here shared my convictions, so I did a little checking. I’m guessing that about 170 to 180 sophs go to a conservative church that preaches following biblical precepts closely.”

“That’s more than half of the class size, right, Johan?” Katherine asked. “You were the freshman council rep, so you’d know.”

“It is more than half. There should be 289 sophomores,” he replied. “Not counting for new kids or people moving away.”

Henry was looking thoughtful and he then spoke. “Um, seventeen kids that I know of in home room are religious, too. Out of thirty-two.”

“Wow, okay then. Even if only half of the religious-family kids refuse, then that’s still about a quarter of the school,” Drew said. “And I know that about two hundred of the rest—let’s call them the ‘unenlightened ones’...”

The others laughed.

“Yeah, those, they’re gonna resist too. And friends of friends on the football squad told me that they’ll rescue any kids if a teacher tries using physical force. But they can’t help anyone who goes to the office if they get called on a Monday.”

“They’d help us kids too? Not only their friends?” Katherine asked.

“They said everyone,” Drew affirmed. “Hey, if you guys want, we’ve set up a text alert tree. I can add one of you to my messaging group for you to get our Program alerts; then you can add whoever to your own contacts. If everyone gets the messages, we can more than double the coverage.”

“That sounds like a cool idea, Drew. I’ll be happy to be your contact,” Johan said.

They exchanged phone numbers.

Drew was quite happy that nothing seemed to have interfered with the beginning of the school’s soccer season. She was now a starter, slotted to play defense at the fullback or stopper positions, depending on the game plan. Their first league game was scheduled for after school on Thursday.

Several of the girls had a question for Coach Aberman and Georgette, their spokesman, asked it.

“Coach, when the Program starts, are we going to have to play naked?”

“I got that settled late this summer,” the coach said. “The legal uniform rules are very clear and they’re set based on national and state high school athletic commission regulations. Those organizations have emphatically refused to change the uniform regs, which say that uniforms must be uniform—everyone wears the identical outfit, goalies excepted, and the uniforms for the home team must be dark colors, while the visitors must wear a solid white. Illegal uniforms may result in the ejection of the player or even a team forfeit. So there will be no naked players in soccer, despite what the school administration wants or expects.”

The girls smiled and cheered at hearing that news.

In her Thursday game, Drew scored her first high school goal of the season. Like her first assist from the prior season, the goal started from a defensive tackle—not hers, but one of the back line players, and Drew was the first to get to the ball before it crossed the touchline. She trapped the ball and then kicked a short lob over the head of the three opposing players approaching her; juked her way through them and gathered in the bouncing ball. From there she had a clear path almost through the midfield. With her speed, she was outracing everyone except Natalie, her striker, who was dashing upfield, and three defenders who were angling back toward the penalty box to prevent a long-distance shot. After a single give-and-go with Natalie, Drew charged straight at the fullback, who was coming out to defend against her, but got momentarily frozen at the sight of this tall, muscular apparition running hard and straight at her. About five yards in front of the penalty box, Drew zipped around the defender with her roulette, leaving that player flat-footed. The other defenders were trying to get into position between Drew and the goal but first, they didn’t know which side Drew would go toward and second, they weren’t fast enough, as Drew faked the goalie left but smashed a shot into the right upper corner of the net. That proved to be the winning goal as her team won the game, 2-1.

The short week following Labor Day brought two more games and Drew’s team won both, with wider margins than their first one. Her team was proving to have an extremely strong defense, one that opponents were having a difficult time solving. Obviously, Coach Aberman was highly pleased with Drew’s playing.

Then the weekend arrived and Drew’s and Connor’s thoughts turned to what Monday’s events would bring. They both exchanged a number of texts with the other members of their little planning group, but those were mostly to reassure those in the group.

It was Monday morning. The day of the Program assembly.

When the starting bell rang to begin the home room period, Drew saw that there were eleven kids absent out of 32 in the classroom.

“A third of the class isn’t here today!” she whispered to Connor. “Sweet!”

The teacher asked the class if anyone knew why so many were absent today and most of the kids in the room growled back at her, “Program!”

When the bell sounded to end home room, Connor and Drew began to walk from their home room classroom to the auditorium. As they went, they noticed that six more of who they thought of as the “observant” kids, those whom they knew from their home room, were sneaking away to the various school exit doors; they weren’t going toward the auditorium at all. Since their classroom was fairly distant from the auditorium, they were among the last group to enter, and when the remaining kids arrived, Drew saw that more than half of the seats were empty. She pointed that out to Connor and he chuckled. When the bell rang, the principal went to the podium and looked out into the hall.

“Where is everyone?” he turned and repeated the question to someone on the stage behind him.

The conversation on the stage was almost inaudible but the microphone picked up a little of the voice; Drew could hear someone say that they were checking with the office.

“Stand by, students,” Dr Slater said into the mic. “We’re checking on the attendance here.”

Two minutes later, he announced, “More than half of the student body isn’t here...”

He was drowned out by applause and cheering.

“All students were told in the August mailing that attendance at this assembly was mandatory. We will not tolerate this kind of disregard of school rules; I’m fully aware of the unpopularity of the Naked in School Program, but students must not miss important meetings like this one. We will begin the Program this morning as planned. You’ve all received the Program booklet, but I’ll cover the important points now.

“The federal government has decided that in order to foster social and sexual awareness among our teenagers, Congress has passed a law called the ‘Social Awareness Act.’ That act has created the Naked in School Program, or the Program for short. In my early August letter to your parents, I wrote about how the Program is designed to help you teens to become more comfortable with your bodies and with your sexuality overall. The Program is designed to accomplish this by having each of you, when your own turn comes, to spend one full week attending classes and all school functions while completely naked.”

Widespread grumbling and hisses sounded in the room but Slater ignored it and went on.

“The intent of the Program is to expose you to the opposite sex as much as possible during your week to free you of any personal modesty or shyness. As a Program participant, you are not allowed to cover any part of your body using your hands, backpack, hair, or whatever. The only total nudity exception is footwear and socks; also, for safety reasons, the wearing of aprons in labs and shop classes will be allowed. In P.E. classes and sports activities, the coaches may allow jockstraps and cups; or for girls who provide medical documentation, sports bras may be permitted. The complete rules about protective equipment can be found in the Program booklets mailed to your parents.

“If you attempt to avoid any of the rules and requirements of the Program, such as covering yourself, or not complying with teachers’ or other students’ Program requests, you can expect appropriate punishments to be given. This may be detention, spending additional time in the Program, or not being allowed to graduate. Let me remind you all that this is a national Program; it soon will be running in all high schools in the country, so you cannot move to avoid it. You must spend your week in the Program in order to graduate.”

The murmuring and hisses had increased in volume now so Slater paused.

“Stop that rudeness. I know that you are displeased with having the Program forced on you, but since it’s federal law, we all must comply even though we dislike it. Now let me go over the basic Program requirements to summarize them. Each week we will be selecting four students from each grade, senior to freshman, two boys and two girls. For their full participation week, these sixteen students will be naked while attending all classes and any school-related activities, whether on campus or off. We will encourage these students to partner up to help and support each other, but we won’t assign partners. Every Monday morning we will name the students selected for that week; those selections will be randomly made from the student body.

“Those selected students will be summoned to the assistant principal’s office during the home room period every Monday morning; any further instructions will be given to them at that time, and then they will be required to strip and place their clothes in the boxes we’ll provide. After Monday morning, participants will be required to undress in front of the school, or in the lobby when the weather doesn’t permit outdoor nudity, and place their clothes into those boxes. After school is over for the day, the boxes will be made available for the students to retrieve their garments.

“We encourage selected students to form partnerships. If you do decide to partner with a fellow participant, you can benefit from the mutual support of the arrangement, since it’s likely that each of you will have challenging moments during your week. Talking to your partner can help you in getting through those times.”

Sighs from the audience; the reality of what they were hearing was becoming apparent.

“I will cover your personal responsibilities in the Program now. First, to ensure that each of you teens are conditioned to lose your modesty, you will be required to comply with the requests of your peers. This is called ‘Reasonable Requests’ in the Program rules. Requests such as posing and touching your body will be considered reasonable by definition; however, such touching is limited to the body’s exterior. That means that nothing is to be inserted into you unless you agree, and the word ‘nothing’ includes fingers. However, you may not decline any Request for posing, no matter how humiliating you think the pose might be, since the Program is to get you over any excessive modesty. In the same vein, you cannot decline being touched by others.”

Grumbling could be heard again.

“Requests are only permitted before and after school and during hall passing. Not in classrooms or during the first half of the lunch period. Since the term ‘Reasonable Requests’ includes the word ‘reasonable.’ I’ll explain what that means. The reasonableness of any Request is partly up to you, the participant. But use caution in deciding whether or not to deny a Request. If there is any dispute about the Request’s reasonableness, and if a complaint is made about your denial, then the matter will be decided by myself or one of the other faculty or staff. If we believe that the denial was for frivolous reasons, we will assess an appropriate punishment.

“Your next responsibility as a participant will be to assist your teachers in their lessons. This assistance may go beyond the normal Reasonable Request rules, in that teachers will be given wider leeway in using your bodies as training aids. However, any penetration of your body by a teacher’s action will still require your permission.

“All Program participants are required to use the restrooms of the opposite sex. In your P.E. classes, you will use the locker rooms and showers of the opposite sex. To limit the use of the restrooms for hiding from receiving Requests, you will be limited to a maximum of three five-minute trips per day. We don’t plan on counting everyone’s rest-room trips, but if we become aware of your hiding from other students, we will take corrective measures.

“We expect that with the constant nudity and exposure to others, plus the genital fondling that the Program encourages during the Reasonable Requests of hall passing, that you will become aroused by the natural sexual tension that this will produce. To alleviate that tension, during the first five minutes of each class, you may elect to obtain release from your sexual arousal. We call that ‘Relief,’ and you can elect to masturbate or have assistance in obtaining an orgasm. Relief will be taken at the front of the classroom where everyone can watch, and if you choose to have assistance, the teacher will select your helper for you. You must not be embarrassed at requesting Relief, since sexual arousal is a totally natural state, and seeing the release from this arousal will be enlightening for your class.”