Chapter 22

I was surprised to see my father in the outer office talking to Mr. Seiling and a balding man who looked like he was in his fifties. The man was being affable, but dad and Mr. Seiling did not look happy.

Dad went and hugged me. This was somewhat out of character for him. The Johanssons were huggers by nature, but my dad was more reserved and would seldom hug me in public.

“Tommy. It seems like Principal Martin has taken steps to try to get you expelled,” said Dad.

“It’s truly laughable, to say the least,” growled Mr. Seiling.

The balding man looked at me. “Son, I’m Dr. Lester, the Superintendent of Schools. I understand that you have a perfect record academically and have never been considered a disciplinary problem, according to Vice-Principal Seiling here. Do you have any idea of why your principal would be trying to get you expelled?”

“No, Sir, except that he doesn’t seem to like me much,” I replied.

The man frowned. “That doesn’t seem like a good reason to expel someone.”

“My teachers have told me that Mr. Thomas has been specifically asking if I am causing trouble in class.”

“How do you know this?”

“They’ve told me.”

“Which teachers?” he asked.

My eyes narrowed. “I’m not going to tell you.”

The man frowned. “I can see why your principal doesn’t like you.”

“Because my son is a loyal friend, who does not want to betray a trust?” asked my father.

“Look, Mr. Matthews. I hired Principal Martin five years ago. I’ve never known the man to be unreasonable. Let’s see what he has to say. I’m sure that this is a big misunderstanding or perhaps young Mr. Matthews is guilty of some infraction...”

“I’m sorry, Dr. Lester, but I am in charge of student discipline at this school and I’ve seen no evidence of any wrongdoing on Thomas Matthews’s part. He’s an exemplary student. In fact, I’m told he has the highest grade point average of any eighth-grader. From a disciplinary standpoint, I’ve never had him in my office until last week when Mr. Martin ordered me to bring him there. If the young man has been accused of any school-related disciplinary matter, Mr. Martin should have brought it to my attention, because it is my job to ensure discipline at this school, not his,” stated Mr. Seiling.

Dr. Lester sighed and seemed somewhat annoyed at my father’s next question.

“Why is he keeping us waiting? I have a meeting with a client in Pittsburgh this afternoon.”

“We’ve only been here for about fifteen minutes,” said the man.

“Well, I’m missing Introduction to Physical Science right now and I have a lab report that I need to present,” I complained.

“That is if you’re still attending school here after this meeting,” said Dr. Lester.

Man, I loved my father. ‘The look’ appeared and I knew that the superintendent had stepped in it.

“Dr. Lester, I’ll tell you the same thing I told Vice-Principal Thomas last night. If I’m not satisfied that my son is treated fairly in this meeting, I’ll be through with you and you will become Mrs. Langdon’s problem.

“Marcia Langdon? The Chairperson of the Board of Ed?”

“Yes.”

“And what does she have to do with any of this?”

“She’s your boss, right?”

“Technically, I suppose, but I work independently of the Board of Education.”

“Only to a point. If I can prove that you are colluding with other members of the Elks Club to get back at either my son or my brother-in-law as a favor to Edgar Blanton. We’ll see how long you keep your job.”

“What do you know?” he paled.

“I have spoken with a neighbor of mine, Mark Turner. Apparently after the Elks club meeting Monday night, he witnessed Mr. Martin bragging how we going to get Tommy expelled and how it would ‘teach those upstarts not to mess with Edgar.’”

“I was at that meeting and I don’t recall Perry Martin making such a statement.”

“Be that as it may, Mark said that Hal Jeffers expressed the opinion that it would help his baseball team, as they have to play Tommy’s team and Tommy getting expelled from school would mean him getting removed from baseball too.”

Dr. Lester blanched. “I knew nothing about this!”

“I’m sure you didn’t, but do you really think that Tommy is capable of doing something worthy of getting himself expelled, after hearing from Mr. Seiling who is the vice-principal of the school in-charge of student discipline?”

“Certainly not on the surface,” he looked at me and continued. “From all indications, you are an exceptional young man, Tommy. Still we need to hear what Mr. Martin has to say.”

Dad nodded. “I still expect a thorough examination of any evidence that they have concerning Tommy. As an attorney, I’m a good judge of character, Dr. Lester. I was not impressed with either Mr. Martin or Mr. Thomas. Neither man seemed particularly forthcoming about Tommy’s so-called violations and from talking to my neighbor, it seems that Martin is grinding Edgar Blanton’s axe.”

“Well, we’ll get to the bottom of it one way or another,” said Dr. Lester.

About five minutes later, Vice-Principal Thomas came out of Principal Martin’s office. When he saw me and Dad, he glared at us. “He’ll see you now.” He then turned to Mr. Seiling. “Jeff, Mr. Martin wants those 3^rd quarter disciplinary reports and statistics immediately.”

“He just asked about them this morning,” complained Mr. Seiling. “They’re typically not due for another ten days.”

“Well, he wants them now, so you better get working on them,” he grinned.

Dad glared at Mr. Thomas and then looked at Dr. Lester. “Now that’s convenient.”

I saw a defeated look come across the superintendent’s face. He then looked at Mr. Seiling. “I think that Mr. Martin can wait for those statistics. This is far more important.”

Mr. Thomas’ face puckered up as if he was sucking on a lemon. “It’s just a kid’s father throwing his weight around.”

“Mr. Thomas, I demand that you apologize to Mr. Matthews right now. That is the rudest response to a parent I’ve ever seen!” yelled Dr. Lester.

“Aw, Burt, I...”

“It’s DOCTOR LESTER to you Vice-Principal Thomas! We may be brothers of the same lodge, but your rudeness and now lack of professionalism is appalling! Now apologize or you’ll receive a formal reprimand!”

“I apologize,” muttered Mr. Thomas.

“To be honest, I don’t particularly care what this man thinks or says privately, but I will not have him publicly defaming my son,” said my father, walking into the Principal’s office. I followed behind him followed by Dr. Lester and the two vice-principals.

Mr. Martin stood up behind his desk. “Dr. Lester, it’s always wonderful to see you, but you don’t really need to be here, I have everything under control.”

“Are you still determined to suspend Thomas Matthews and suggesting that I expel him?” asked the superintendent.

“I’m afraid we really don’t have much of a choice,” Mr. Martin said grimly, shaking his head.

Now my dad looked ticked off. “And just what doesn’t ‘give you a choice?’” sarcasm just dripping off his tone of his question.

“This paper, I’m afraid,” he said holding up what appeared to be a student written paper.

When I looked at it closely, I noticed that it was the one that I had written last quarter on Romeo and Juliet for Mrs. Douglas.

“Did you write this paper?” he asked, handing it to me.

I looked at it and went through the pages. I noticed some problems right away. It appeared that there was no ‘end notes’ page which we were told we could use instead of traditional footnotes. There was a funny smell to the paper too.

“Yes, but it appears to be missing the end notes page,” I said.

“Well from what I can tell, based upon the way this paper was written, it did not require an end notes page.”

I frowned. “Of course it needed an end note page and I wrote one. I had to because I cited Shakespeare and several literary critics for this paper.”

He took the paper back from me. “From what I see you didn’t cite anyone but yourself,” he smiled. “And that is where the problem lies. You wrote this paper as if you were not only the critic providing completely original thought, but you also failed to credit to the playwright for the original work itself,” he frowned and shook his head dramatically. “That is plagiarism, plain and simple, Mr. Matthews. Plagiarism is grounds for suspension, but since Tommy had the disciplinary issue last week...”

“We discussed that last week. You had no documented proof of any violation Tommy had committed. If you remember what I said, if you did not remove this scurrilous charge, I would file a lawsuit against you,” stated my father.

The principal gasped briefly, but then seemed to recover. “Do what you want. We’ll see if they believe me, a respected educator or a plagiarist.” He then turned to Mr. Thomas. “You’ll need to document a written reprimand to Sarah Douglas for giving an ‘A’ to such an obviously plagiarized piece.”

“Give me that paper!” snarled my dad.

My dad took the paper from Mr. Martin’s hands and a disgusted look passed over his face as he looked at me, then his look softened. He then looked at Mr. Martin. “This paper has been doctored.”

“What do you mean?” asked Dr. Lester.”

Dad pointed to the paper. “Do you see these marks? It looks like correction fluid was used on them.”

Dr., Lester looked confused, so my dad continued. “You know, ‘White Out’.”

“Even plagiarists make mistakes,” said Mr. Martin.

“By removing all of the quotation marks from the paper? Funny how there are no examples of any other mistakes being ‘whited out’.” He then touched something. “It appears dry, but I can still smell the ‘White Out’ on the paper and in this room.”

I saw a bottle of ‘White Out’ next to the typewriter on Mr. Martin’s desk.

Mr. Martin frowned. “Are you insinuating something?”

“No. I’m not insinuating anything, Principal Martin. I am stating that you deliberately removed all of the quotation marks from this paper and destroyed the end note sheet to pass this off as plagiarism,” said Dad.

“That’s a serious allegation,” acknowledged Dr. Lester.

“It is, but it’s also the truth,” said my father. “I even see the bottle he used next to the typewriter and the smell is still in the room and on the paper.”

Mr. Martin simply grinned. “I was correcting some correspondences that I had typed this morning.”

“And can you show them to me?” asked my dad.

“I already sent them out. Even if I hadn’t, they were confidential,” he sneered.

“Well, son, what do you have to say for yourself,” asked Dr. Lester.

Then something occurred to me. I had them! I had the lying weasels! I couldn’t help it. I smiled and winked at my dad. He looked confused and shrugged at me. For once in my life, I out-Perry Masoned Perry Mason. “That is not the paper I turned in. It has been modified by ‘white out’ and the end notes page is not there.”