Chapter 8

The scene at Norwich Academy the following Monday morning was quite different from any other morning. The arriving students were all subdued, walking into the building and keeping mostly to themselves. Occasionally a few kids gathered to exchange some hasty comments but broke up just as quickly. Amelia, still moving fairly carefully, went to the office and handed in a note from the hospital that stated that she was not to engage in any strenuous activity or one where her surgical area could become exposed to injury.

After the children were settled in their first classroom and the final bell rang, their teacher announced that in five minutes, after attendance was taken, they would all leave for the auditorium where the head teacher would explain how the Program would be run. A sigh ran through the classroom.

Soon the school was gathered in the auditorium. Mr Hanford went to the podium.

“Greetings. I know you’re not looking forward to this new development at our school,” he began.

There was an affirming murmur from the students.

“We need to introduce this Naked in School Program here. Look at the Program this way. Norwich Academy is a performing arts school in addition to its other specialties, and we’d like you all to think of the Program as part of your learning about performance arts. I’m sure you’re well aware of how much nudity exists in plays and cinema so we’d like you to view your participation as a performance here at school.”

There was a loud grumbling of objection from the audience.

He went on, “Yes, I know you’re not convinced, but we need to put the best face on a situation which is really beyond the control of our school. Now you may have noticed some unfamiliar people in the room and here on the stage. Since this is the first time that the Program is being introduced into an independent school, the local Education Authority—that’s the group of officials which oversees the state schools—has provided us with a few security people who are familiar with the Program from other schools in the borough. And also up here on the stage is Mr Simon Whiston, who is a local representative for the National Program Committee.”

There was some subdued hissing.

“Please stop that and be polite,” Hanford warned. “Now you all received a copy of the National Program Committee’s pupil booklet, the Program booklet, last week. All the rules for the Program are in it. While you’re participating in the Program, complete nudity is required during school hours and also if you’re attending or participating at any school-sponsored activities during your week. As the rules say, any attempt to hide or cover up, like using your rucksack or for girls, doing something like using your hair to cover your chest, is a Program violation and violations can result in your being required to repeat for another week.

“The Program is supposed to teach you to overcome your modesty and become familiar with the bodies of both sexes and accept your own body and its sexuality. That’s why there’s a Program rule called ‘Reasonable Requests.’ Any pupil is permitted to touch or fondle the sexual organs of a Program participant, as long as the participant isn’t physically harmed—but pupils will not be allowed to put a foreign object into any body cavity of another pupil. In most cases, the Program participant can decide what he or she thinks is ‘reasonable, ‘ but untoward refusals are considered a Program violation, so you’re urged to allow most Requests or suffer unwanted consequences.

“The next topic I have to cover is called ‘Relief.’ Because of the heightened sexual pressure the naked pupils will have, especially if they’ve been fondled, participants will have an opportunity to masturbate to orgasm with or without assistance of another pupil during the beginning of any class. This must be done where the class can see the participant as it’s another teaching component of the Program. And the Program was also made part of the teaching curriculum and it requires teachers to use Program students for any necessary teaching demonstration, including things like being a model for sex studies in biology or as a figure model in art or photography.

“Let me remind you again that refusing Reasonable Requests and not participating in classroom demonstrations are Program violations, and some violations can extend one’s Program participation time by days or weeks.

“Finally, boy and girl participants must use the locker rooms, showers, and rest room facilities of the opposite sex during their Program week. Children who are in sports or performing arts will participate in those activities naked as well. We expect that you will be familiar with all of the Program rules as spelled out in your Program booklet, so be sure to read it to know what your responsibilities are. Not following a rule because you’re not familiar with it, isn’t an excuse. An inadvertent violation must be treated the same as an intentional violation.

“After we’re done here and before you return to classes, all girls in the school will need to see the nurse to get the contraceptive injection that the Program requires. This will be done in the gym, by classes, and every girl will receive the shot today. Now, we asked for volunteers for the first Program group but no one came forward, so pupils were selected randomly to start today. Before we call these pupils, I’ll make a last call. Does anyone want to volunteer and have your week done with now? No one? Okay. We’ve selected four pupils each from the tens and elevens and both the lower and upper sixth form; that’s sixteen pupils, and we’ll continue doing this until everyone has participated. When your name is called, please come up to the stage. First, from the tens...”

He read four names. There were a few gasps, but no one stood. Hanford looked at the audience.

“I read four names. Please come up here.”

A voice rang out, “Just say NO!”

A boy stood and called, “I’m not participating! I’m not going up there!”

Several others shouted, “Me too!” “I’m not doing it!”

Hanford looked at the teachers who were seated on the aisles. “Teachers, please identify these pupils as I read their names from all four class years...”

He read the entire list of names as the teachers pointed to the children called; four of the children named were not in the room. The teachers coaxed several of the children out of their seats and up to the stage, but most refused to budge.

Then Mr Whiston came to the podium and spoke quietly to Hanford. “After I saw that flyer from last week, I expected this. You’ll need to have your teachers bring them to the stage, using force if they have to.”

“I can’t do that,” Hanford whispered back. “We can’t use force; a law was cited to our governors that makes using force a criminal offense. The governors directed me not to use force.”

Whiston retorted, “The Program overrides any of those laws.”

“I’m not going to tell my teachers to do that and risk being arrested,” Hanford replied.

Whiston scowled. “All right then, I’ll tell the security people.” He turned to the microphone. “Security, please bring the pupils who’ve refused up to the stage.”

There was a series of minor tussles with a few of the boys and after several minutes, there were twelve children who had been brought to the stage but then seven of them ran backstage and disappeared, then three more snuck off while the security men ran backstage to find the seven. Chaos began; the three security men couldn’t keep up with the children trying to evade them and the teachers were trying to keep the children quiet. Meanwhile, many children in the audience were chanting, “Just say no!” over and over. In the commotion, about a third of the children managed to slip out of the auditorium while Hanford and the teachers were trying to restore order.

Whiston called the security men to stop and Hanford gradually restored order to the room.

Whiston looked at the small group of four pupils left cowering on stage; they were too frightened to resist. “Security, please bring three more pupils up here and keep holding them,” he said, “and children, you will obey or I assure you that the consequences will be rather harsh. If you don’t comply, we will have you arrested and jailed; you’ll find that really unpleasant, I’m sure.”

The security men began a flurry of activity and started trying to grab children who were near the aisles. Suddenly a man grabbed Amelia’s arm.

“Come with me, missy,” the man growled at her.

“NO! I have a medical excuse!” she screamed.

“No matter, there’s no excuses,” he said as he pulled her along.

Amelia activated the alert button Kevin had given her and her mini-phone beeped quietly, but the man was holding both of her hands, keeping her from using the voice function.

While Amelia was being virtually carried onto the stage, the other two security people were dragging two other children, a year eleven boy and a year ten girl onto the stage.

“Strip them,” Whiston told the men. “Do that girl first,” he said, pointing at the struggling, terrified year ten girl, “I’ll hold this girl.”

He took Amelia’s arms while the two men started to pull off the girl’s clothes while she screamed. She crossed her legs, attempting to prevent her panties from being pulled off, but the man grabbed its gusset and yanked, tearing it, and then ripped her panties the rest of the way off her. Now she was naked and was forced into a chair where one continued to hold her while the other came back to hold Amelia, letting Whiston return to the podium.

“The Program teaches you pupils about shedding your modesty, so we’ll now ask this girl to show us how she masturbates,” he announced. Turning to the girl, he ordered, “Stroke your fanny, girl. You’ll have to let the boys do that for Reasonable Requests, you know.”

“I can’t,” she wailed. “I’m cut there!”

“What do you mean, you can’t? Cut where?” Whiston asked

He told the man holding her to spread her legs and show her where to stroke herself. The man grabbed her hand and moved it toward her vulva and just as it got close, she jerked her hand out of his and his fingers jammed into her crotch. She screamed in pain.

“What the bloody hell?” the man pulled back, looking closely at her vulva. “What’s wrong with your...”

A boy in the audience, standing in the middle of his row at the back of the room, was shouting with the others to stop hurting the girl while trying to push his way out of his aisle, but he couldn’t make much progress in getting around the jumping, screaming kids blocking his way.

One of the teachers called, “Stop right now! She must have had her sex parts cut in that ritual genital operation they do! You just hurt her badly!”

“Okay, let her go and help me with this other girl instead.” Whiston called and the man who had stripped the girl joined the other holding Amelia, while two girls who were still on the stage went to the naked, hysterical girl and were trying to comfort her.

Amelia screamed at the two men as they began pulling her clothes off, “No! Stop, stop! No! I’ve just had surgery in my privates—someone please help!”

From the audience two of her friends called, “Stop, stop, you’ll hurt her!” and two boys who were on the stage, their initial shock gone from witnessing the first girl’s stripping, rushed over and tried to pull the men away but the men brushed them off.

Meanwhile, the boy in the audience who had been trying to leave his seating aisle had finally pushed his way out and was now leaping up the stage stairs while shouting, “That’s enough, get away from her, you bloody perverts!”

He rushed up and grabbed the shoulder of the man holding onto Amelia’s arms and pulled him back. The man let her go, turned, and angrily lashed out at the boy, intending to push him away as he had to the other two boys. Instead, the boy twisted around, bent over at his waist, and struck out with his foot, hitting the man square in his gut. The man yelled in shock and pain, flew back and went down, sliding across the floor and writhing in pain.

Meanwhile, Amelia, wearing only her bra and panties now and freed from the grasp of her first assailant, was left facing the man who had been trying to tear her panties off. She took a half step back away from him while trying to pull his hands off of her panties. He straightened up and tried to grab her shoulders but she pushed him back and with a swift motion, kneed him in the groin. He gasped and collapsed, clutching himself, and curled into a ball on the floor. While that was happening, the third security person had rushed at the boy. He reached out to grab the boy’s arm but was taken in a shoulder throw and found himself flying across the stage and crashed into a chair.

The stage was in an absolute turmoil now. Amelia hobbled off toward the left wing, supported by her two friends who had run up to help her while two other girls half-carried the sobbing, naked girl and her clothes with them. While that was happening, Whiston himself went after the boy, trying to grab him, only to suffer a crushing hip throw, landing him across several chairs. He slid to the floor, groaning and out of action.

Just then, three police officers appeared, coming on a run through the auditorium doors.

“What’s all this, now?” one shouted, climbing up the stage steps. “We got a call about an assault here.”

The boy, who was bending over his victims, apparently checking them for major injuries, turned to the officer.

“These four men assaulted a number of children here, two sexually. I tried to stop them. They may have injured the two girls. These berks aren’t seriously injured but probably will need medical care.”

“What the bloody hell?” another officer shouted. “It was a sexual assault?”

“Yes sir,” the boy said, indicating the four men who were gradually beginning to recover. “These blokes assaulted a number of children here. Here comes the head teacher, he’ll sort you.”

While the boy was talking, Hanford, who had been involved in trying to calm several hysterical children and one distraught teacher, had rushed over.

“Officer, I’m Clarence Hanford, the head teacher. We were holding a Naked in School assembly...”

“Augh! That bloody nonsense!” an officer grunted.

“ ... I tried to tell them—those people from the LEA—not to force the children, it’s against the law...”

The boy interrupted, “Section 58 of the Children Act of 2004, actually.”

Hanford and the officers all stopped and looked at him.

“Very good, Jeremy, and how do you know that, and judo too?” Hanford asked.

“Sir, I know you read that law and human rights blog, you’re always after my mum to get me to stop doing it. And it’s not judo; I know taekwondo.” Jeremy said.

The first officer interrupted, “Sod it! We have to see about injuries? Did you say there were injuries to children?”

Jeremy tried to see where the girls went and noticed the group in the wings comforting each other; the two stripped girls were now in clothes again but the fronts of both of their blouses appeared to be torn.

“Over there, it would seem,” he pointed.

“Jason, get some bracelets on those four blokes before they’ve recovered now and we’ll sort them later,” the first officer ordered. “The girls over there are really crying. Tom, maybe we should call to get Jennie over here?” he asked the other officer. “And a detective.”

“I’ll call. Jennie wasn’t far away when this call came. I have medics on the way too.” He keyed his mic and spoke into it. A dozen seconds later his radio squawked back; he replied and then said, “She’ll be here soon.”

Meanwhile, the first officer had turned to Hanford. “Okay sir, let’s get sorted here now. I’m Constable Jones. We’ll need more investigators so we’ll get a detective to follow up, but I need to get some statements right now. But first, I need to check on those girls. Tom, stay here with the head teacher and this boy; get their statement.”

He went to where the girls were trying to calm down the sobbing girl; she was in a chair and Amelia was squatting next to her, holding her and talking softly into her ear and she was nodding, tears streaming down her face. The other girls were rubbing her back.

Jones came up to the little group. “Excuse me, ladies. I’m Constable Jones. Was anyone injured here?”

Amelia looked up as the girl started crying anew. “Hana was jabbed in her privates,” she whispered. “It really hurt her badly, she can’t walk, but I don’t think she can deal with a man now...”

Suddenly a woman officer appeared at the auditorium door. Jones looked over and waved to her and she came running up to the stage.

“Ah, good timing, Jennie. This girl, Hana, was possibly assaulted and injured in her groin. Could you see if she needs medical attention?” To Amelia, he said, “Constable Bartlett can talk to your friend. Miss Hana?” he took her hand. “Can you talk to Officer Bartlett?”

Hana looked up.

Amelia hugged her. “It’s okay now, Hana, you’re safe. Talk to the lady officer.”

Tisa interrupted, “Amelia, weren’t you hurt too? They were really manhandling you there and they did get your skirt pulled off.”

Bartlett looked at her sharply. “Oh! Are you hurt too?”

“It’s okay, Hana needs help first,” Amelia said, holding her torn blouse together with one hand. “They tore off my top and tried to tear off my panties but a boy stopped them.”

Suddenly they were distracted by Kevin, who burst through the auditorium doors and came running up to the stage, calling Amelia’s name.

“Amelia? Are you okay?” he shouted. He ran over and embraced her.

Jones looked at the confusion and shook his head. “We really need to get this bloody mess sorted ... Jason, please check on the call for a detective and ambulance, and ask for another unit. And tell those four berks to shut up; we’re not letting them loose until we know what happened. Tom,” he called to the third officer who was talking to Hanford and Jeremy; he had asked them to stay away from the girls, “I want to talk to those two you’re with. And you, sir,” to Kevin, “just who are you?”

“I’m Amelia’s guardian. I called the police about this assault in progress here. Amelia alerted me that she was in trouble. I have the audio from her phone that was recorded during the assault,” Kevin explained.

Then Jones moved aside and Kevin could see the three people standing near the podium, there was a police officer talking with two people; then the two people turned toward Kevin, watching Constable Jones walking toward them, and Kevin recognized Hanford and Jeremy.

“Jeremy? Jeremy Porter?” Kevin called out. “What are you doing here?”

Jeremy looked over at Kevin. “Kevin? This is my school! What are YOU doing here?”

Hanford glanced at Kevin and suddenly recognized him. “Mr Coris? What the hell are you doing here... ?”

Jones rolled his eyes. “Shit,” he muttered, “What a sodding mess ... I see we’re in for a lot of explaining.” Aloud, “All right, I’ll need to get some statements...” he broke off as he saw Amelia running toward Jeremy.

She ran up to him and hugged him.

“OH! It was you! You were the one who saved me from that creature! Thank-you-thank-you!” She pulled back and looked at Jeremy again. “OH! I’ve seen you! You’re in some of my classes!” she cried. “And your name’s Jeremy? And you know Kevin ... Are you the Jeremy who Kevin and Denise are always talking about ... and I never connected the names and didn’t remember your last name and never knew you went to school here and...”

“Shhhh,” Jeremy stopped her running on. “Yeah—you must be the Amelia who my folks said lived with Kevin? Wow. This is unbelievable.”

“Oh god, I can’t believe this. Denise said she wanted me to meet you ... ohmygod, look at me!” She tried to cover her half-exposed chest, pulling the torn blouse closed tighter. She hugged him again. “You really did save me...” Tears began flowing.

“You’re okay now, Amelia. I couldn’t stand seeing what those perverts were doing to you girls. But hey, that was one mean kick you gave that berk, girl!”

“But you ... you took three men and just ... two of them are huge! And you just threw them like nothing...” Amelia went on.

Meanwhile Kevin had hurried up and was listening, happy to see that Amelia didn’t appear to be seriously frightened or hurt. “So you saved my honorary sister, Jeremy. If she got herself jabbed in her privates it would have caused her permanent damage. She just had surgery there. Amelia, are you okay? Maybe we should let Dr Singh check you.”

Jones turned to Amelia. “Miss, you sure you’re okay? Did one of them hurt you?”

Amelia looked around at him. “No, Jeremy stopped that guy before he stuck his fingers into my crotch like they did to Hana. But I was dragged around the room and then my legs got pulled on. That’s when Jeremy stopped him,” she said through her tears.

Kevin turned Amelia toward him and whispered in her ear, “Darling, are you really all right? You’ve gotten a bad shock and a reaction to it might hit you in a few minutes.”

“If you’re with me I’ll cope,” she whispered back, wiping her tears with the back of her hand. “I have Jeremy with me too,” she said as she reached out to Jeremy, who looked at her and put a protective arm around her shoulder. She leaned into his chest.

The other police and medics began arriving; they put Hana on a gurney and left with Bartlett. A man in a rumpled suit walked up to the group. “Hi, Jonesy. Fill me in on what you’ve got here. Folks, I’m Detective Sergeant Conners.”

Jones told him the few facts he had heard. “Mostly we were trying to get things settled down. This gent...” he pointed to Kevin “ ... says he has an audio recording of what happened.”

“Okay, then. Jonesy, do you think we need to get independent witness statements?” Conners asked.