Chapter 7

Monday was their first day attending their new school and Kevin and Denise got to the office early, bringing their Korean school records. As they expected, they were sent to Mrs Joyson, their counselor.

“Welcome back,” she said. “Was the trip everything you expected?”

“It was better than our best expectations, Mrs Joyson,” Denise told her. “The classwork was intense, but the whole experience was awesome.”

Kevin nodded his agreement.

“That’s excellent, nice to hear you had a productive time.” She reviewed their Korean transcripts and their files. “Okay, guys, it looks like you’re all set. I’ll send a copy of your class reports to your teachers so they can enter these grades. You’ve got your schedules. I gave your teachers a memo about you back in September, but let me give you these notes anyway in case they forgot that you’d be coming in the middle of the term.”

Then they went off to their home-room classroom. The teacher took their notes and greeted them and then the two began to talk to some of the entering students, those who were social enough or curious enough to take notice of two new people. Their home room, it seemed, was composed of seniors only.

Soon the announcements came on, and then a list of names was read.

“Oh, no! Oh, shit,” a girl exclaimed, and began to cry.

“Damn!” a boy muttered.

Denise looked at the two. “Program?” she asked of no one in particular.

“Yeah,” a few kids around her answered.

Denise got up and went to the girl. Kevin looked, went to the boy, and brought him to Denise and the girl.

“You’re scared,” Denise stated.

“I can’t do this!” she sobbed.

Kevin whispered in Denise’s ear, “Honey, she’s almost like you were—look, she’s shaking. We have to help them, but let’s do it the right way this time now, okay?”

Denise nodded and took the girl’s hands.

“You really don’t have to do it, you know. Just don’t go. You too,” she said, looking at the boy.

“What do you mean? They make us!” the boy exclaimed.

The teacher came over to them. “You need to go to the office now,” she said.

Kevin said, “We’ll go with them part way ... we need to tell them something.”

“Well, okay, but then come right back...”

The four went into the hall and Kevin told them to follow him. He led them to the hall near the office as he watched more kids walking reluctantly toward the office door.

“Hey, all you guys! Come here before you go in, okay?” Kevin called. They gathered around. “Do they physically force you to strip in there if you don’t do it?”

One of the guys answered, “No, the principal threatens with extra time in the Program and you can’t graduate.”

“The Program is changing, you know,” Kevin continued. “You can get away with refusing. Just don’t go in. Hey, if you’re over 18, you’re an adult—you don’t have to strip then, at all. They can’t use physical force. We heard that from some college students who successfully ran a school-wide Program resistance last year in California. If everyone refuses, like at that school, then the Program will die out, you know. Anyone over 18?”

A few were, including the two from Kevin’s classroom.

“You guys don’t have to participate at all, then,” Denise told them. “If you’re brave enough to participate, then go ahead and do it. But if you’re REALLY super brave, you can resist and won’t have to endure all this humiliation by turning around and going back to your classrooms. And you’ll be supporting all the kids who’ll get called after you, too. Say this mantra: Just say no!”

They were all staring at her, open-mouthed.

“Wow, are you for real?” one teen asked.

“Very real. Listen, we have proof that the Program is bad for learning. We saw a study done at Avery University from last year that showed that doing the Program drops student grades a lot,” Kevin explained. “So you’d be helping yourselves and lots of other students if you refuse and it catches on. So be really brave; it’s a whole lot harder than just submitting—much, much harder than giving in to them. It’s passive resistance, and it’s really hard to do, but it causes revolutions.”

Denise went on. “We’ve got to get back to class, but remember, Just say no!”

She and Kevin turned and walked away; their two classmates rushed to catch up behind them.

“Holy shit,” the guy breathed. “Hey, I’m Tony Mathers—this is Audrey Birch. Yeah, we’re both 18, and wow, this is exciting! Oh, look at that, no one is going in!”

The kids who had come to the office area were beginning to scatter, heading back to their classrooms.

“We’re gonna be in deep shit over this, but I don’t really give an F,” Audrey muttered. “I was so scared I almost peed myself.”

Denise took her arm. “Gal, just stand up for your rights. They can’t force you. And as an adult, you have the adult right of privacy, even overruling your parents’ approval for your being in the Program. The others—the younger ones—will have a tougher time, so they’ll need your support. Tell your friends what’s happening and the Just say no movement will take off.”

They had reached their room, so the four entered.

“What?” the teacher said, startled. “Tony, Audrey—you’re supposed to be in the Program.”

“No,” Audrey replied. “We’re not gonna participate. We’re in the Just say no! movement.”

The class tittered and began chattering when the speakers came to life.

“Students, five minutes ago we announced the names of the week’s Program participants. You must come to the office at once. Those students are...”

“What do you mean, ‘just say no’?” the teacher asked when the names were read again.

“It means we’re not doing the Program,” Tony said. “We’re 18 and can’t be forced to strip.”

The teacher looked at them and then at Kevin and Denise. “You had something to do with this, I’m certain.”

Denise looked at her. “Yes, ma’am. We simply told them that they have personal rights and refusal to walk around naked is one of those rights. What they decide to do, then, is their choice, but Kevin and I feel they made the proper choice.”

The classroom erupted in cheers and a number of kids got out of their seats to talk to Kevin, Denise, Tony, and Audrey. The teacher shrugged and, since the bell would ring in a few minutes, decided to just let events play out. Home room was that kind of period, after all, when students organized their day and generally interacted quietly together.

Kevin and Denise found that they shared many classes with Audrey and Tony, who were both incredibly grateful to them for intervening when they had been called to participate. When the four reached their first class and Kevin and Denise gave that teacher their notes, the teacher was ready for them and gave them packets of work and assignments for work that was due that week. Then the bell rang to start the period. About ten minutes into the class, a man walked in and called for Audrey and Tony.

Tony asked, “Yes, I’m here, what is it?”

“You were to report to the office. You and Miss Birch. Come now,” he said.

“We’re not participating. We’re over 18 and we refuse,” Tony answered.

“You can’t refuse...”

“Sir? We certainly can refuse,” Audrey interrupted. “We are not participating. We have the legal right not to as adults.”

“I order you to come with me,” he responded.

“And if we go, what’s the purpose of going with you?” Tony asked.

“The purpose is that you are to go into the Program, and there’s now an additional penalty week added too,” he said, louder.

“Well, I’m not going anywhere then...” Tony began.

The teacher interrupted. “Mr Winters, please. I need to continue this class. Apparently they won’t go, so you’ll have to find some other way to convince them. Please?”

“I’ll be contacting your parents over this, then. You’ll hear from me soon,” Winters said and left the room.

A few hours later, while at lunch, Kevin heard that Winters, who was an assistant principal, had visited a number of classrooms, while another person, a vice principal, had gone to other rooms, all trying to get the called students to participate. Kevin and Denise saw a few naked kids at a table in the lunchroom’s corner, so they went over.

“Hi, we chickened out,” one guy said as they came up.

A girl chimed in, “Yeah, my parents wouldn’t like my going against what the school says. There’s about five or six of us, but the others I know about—we don’t like doing this, but I’m gonna try. I spoke to four so far and we’re not gonna allow those Requests and we’re not gonna let teachers use us for any humiliating demos either. And if they try punishing us with additional time, they can go take a hike! So we’re doing the lite version of refusing, I guess,” she finished.

“Well, that works—that’s really a good way of refusing, too,” Denise commented. “We just want to get the word out and however people can refuse, even if it’s just a little, will be super. It takes a lot of effort and courage to start something like this, so don’t feel that you aren’t helping too.”

The naked kids smiled and the girl who had spoken said, “Jeez, thank you! Thank you for the encouragement—I thought I was a failure at resisting...”

“Oh, no! Never think that,” Denise told her. “Any push-back, even tiny amounts, is important. You as one person, doing a little, is as important as a bunch doing a lot, ‘cause a bunch of small efforts can move mountains, just remember.”

“Wow. That’s powerful,” one of the boys said.

Everyone in the little group thanked Denise for her words.

The next period, Denise and Kevin were called to the office.

“Well, here we go,” Kevin said as they walked to the office. “They probably figured out who started this movement.”

They were shown to a room and when they walked in, Mr Winters was seated behind the desk.

“You are Kevin Coris and Denise Roberts? Okay, I’m Mr Winters, the assistant principal. Please sit. I’ve learned that you two are behind this refusal to participate in the Program. Is that true?”

“Sir, Denise and I are opposed to the whole idea—the Program objectives are invalid and are damaging to students, both psychologically and academically, and that damage has been demonstrated in some recent published studies. All we did was to tell the students what their individual rights are. We told them that they had the choice to participate or not; that they couldn’t be forced if they chose not to do it.”