Chapter 58

Wednesday was about the same as Tuesday. Once again, things livened up in History. Mrs. Jenkins stood in front of the class and got us to quiet down.

"OK. Who can remember what I told you to think about for class today? Ronald?"

"Something about a new law where kids can't wear clothes to school."

"Very good. There has been some discussion that many of the problems at school are caused by clothing. Would anyone like to take a guess at what some of these might be?"

"Gang colors."

"Yes. There have been multiple incidents of violence because someone was offended by the color of certain articles of clothing on another or the articles of clothing themselves. This is not to be confused with people who have no fashion sense."

There was some semi-polite laughter when she said that.

"Any other problems with clothing?"

"Guns."

"Very good. Clothing often offers a way of hiding not only guns, but weapons of all sorts. Knives, chains, pipes, brass knuckles and other weapons have all been concealed under clothing. What else?"

"How about drugs?"

"Certainly. The very nature of most drugs is that very little is required to provide the desired effect. This allows them to be hidden with relative ease no matter what a person is wearing. The same can be said about alcohol and the demon tobacco. Can somebody think of another one? Anybody? OK. I'll give you one some teachers are concerned about. You may not be aware of this, but there are some students out there who try to cheat on tests. They write notes on their arms, put small pieces of paper in their socks, all kinds of depraved things like that. These would be harder to conceal without clothing."

Ralph raised his hand. "How are they going to do this? Are they going to make everyone come to school naked? What about when it's cold or rainy?"

"These are all things that are being discussed. One proposal is to have the students arrive at school wearing clothes, then they would go to their P.E. locker room and strip down. While both sexes would be walking around school in the nude, it offends some people the have them dress or undress together. Some propose setting up metal detectors at the entrances just in case someone tries to smuggle a weapon into the gym. Others suggest having armed guards patrolling the area. As far as the weather is concerned, all classrooms have heaters. Some construction will probably be required to keep people from getting wet going between classes. Does anybody else have any comments? Maria?"

"I made a choice many years ago that the only man I would let see me naked would be my husband. Could I opt out of this program or whatever you call it?"

"I'm afraid not, Maria. Once this passes, it will be universal. You will not be allowed to wear clothes on the school campus. If you won't follow the rules voluntarily, you will be helped, at gunpoint if necessary."

"This seems totally unfair. What gives them the right to say I have to walk around school naked?"

"It has been determined time after time that people under 18 are not capable of looking after themselves. Therefore, it's up to the people in authority, the guardians who know to take care of them. It one or two of you suffers, it's for the greater good so it's acceptable. In fact, I'm sure the schools will hire more councilors so those students who disagree with the policy can be shown the error of their ways."

I raised my hand. "This is insane. You can't punish the whole student body because a couple of percent wear gang colors or hide guns or a joint or two."

"On the contrary, Jill, it's no more insane than making millions of people remove their shoes before they're allowed on an airplane because one person out of trillions or quadrillions of air passengers smuggled an incendiary device on board an airplane in his shoe. One that was so poorly constructed, I might add, that it didn't work. Or preventing everyone who flies from taking shampoo or conditioner on the plane, even if it's locked away in the luggage area where no one can get to it because several people are suspected of doing a test to see if items that could be mixed together to create an explosive could be brought onto an airplane. It's no more insane than being put on a government watch list so that you are under constant surveillance and your phone lines and email are monitored because someone stole your social security number. It's no more insane than treating everyone like a criminal because there are some bad guys out there.

"This country was founded by people who decided enough is enough and that they were not going to be ruled by others who claimed to know what was best and were going to tax and enslave the majority of the people. Those men said it is the duty of a suppressed citizenry to stand up and fight against the oppression. And it has grown from that land of rights and freedoms into a country where anyone who even complains about conditions runs the risk of getting strip searched every time he decides to fly to visit his mother for her birthday and runs the risk of an IRS audit every year.

"There is no proposal that clothing be outlawed in schools that I'm aware of aside from some stories on adult web sites. But the very fact that not one of you stood up and called me a liar when I said there was, illustrates the trouble this country is in. The United States of America was founded on freedom. We have gotten so used to the government wiping our butts for us that we think nothing of giving away freedom after freedom for some mythical protection from some mythical enemy that takes more and more money from our paychecks each week."

The bell rang and everyone started to leave.

"Don't forget to read chapter 12 for tomorrow."

Creative writing was more of the same. Today's compositions ranged from boring papers read by bored students to somewhat interesting topics written poorly to one that eventually had the whole class spellbound.

That paper was written by none other than Julie Harris. That's right — Miss Boobage. I sit at the left hand desk in the front row. Julie sits a desk or two behind the middle of the classroom. I've noticed her talking with a couple of kids on either side of her before and after class but she isn't overly friendly with the rest of the class. Not that I'm putting her down or anything. I talk socially to those around me but I'm not really friendly with anyone in the class. My point is, Julie has some friends but she's not cheerleader popular. That's an opinion based on observations of someone I'm not very observant of, for what it's worth.

The composition was supposed to be about something that excites us. She got up in front of the class and started, "I've decided to talk about dressage."

I've mentioned that when it came time to comment on the compositions, there were occasional anonymous comments. Well, as soon as she said that, some Homer Simpson wannabee said, "Boooor innng."

There were a couple of laughs and Julie's face dropped a bit and Mr. Perkins told everyone to show some class and settle down.

"First, I suppose I should define dressage. It's essentially the skill of using one's body to make a horse do what you want."

"She could get me to do what she wants with that body."

Julie looked like she wanted to cry. I was torn between wanting to go up to her and giving her a hug and wanting to find that guy and giving him a knee between the legs. I was compelled to do neither because that's not done in a classroom.