Chapter 7: School Board Blue Moons

The schools themselves had been less than enthusiastic about allowing their students to walk around the school nude, even if it was required for a TV show to be broadcast nationally. It wasn't a desire to cover their butts that had caused the principals to kick this decision up to the Board level: they were all hoping desperately for the Board to come down with a resounding "no".

The Board members suddenly found themselves besieged with pressure from both sides. The religious, "pro-decency" crowd were anti, the religious "getting back to Adam and Eve" crowd were pro, the secular naturists were pro, and so on. The NEA, being pro, dangled some tasty carrots in front of the Board to entice them to approve.

On the Sunday, the special in-camera session was held. Allowed in were the parents and children involved in Sunshine Studios' latest TV show, currently filming, and an adviser sent by the NEA. To the surprise of absolutely nobody in the audience, her name was Amy O'Reilly.

"We have a number of items on the docket this afternoon," Board Chairman Grant Winslow advised as he brought the meeting to order. May I have a motion to have Ms. Amy O'Reilly admitted to the meeting?"

So moved, seconded, and passed.

She addressed the first item, changing the dress code to permit full nudity. "Before we proceed, I think it would be instructive if we were to experience the environment as the schools would. I recommend we have the children in the audience disrobe, and stay that way until the Board has finished with the nudity in schools issue."

Grant almost swallowed his Adam's apple. There were a few "Oh"'s and "Ah"'s from around the table. Finally he got the courage to speak. "I don't think this needs a motion from the Board. It's probably a good idea." Everyone nodded their heads, some very reluctantly. "Any opposed?" Nobody dared to stick up their hands.

"Very well, then, we'll take a two-minute break."

Quickly, Tanya and Kim undressed. Their friends were just as fast; nobody wanted to centre themselves out by being the last one undressing. Everyone had anticipated the need for nudity and had brought towels to sit on.

Grant rapidly brought the meeting back to order. "Now, before we proceed with The Debate, there are some budgeting items that are related to the Issue to be Debated that must be brought to the Board's attention." Everyone heard distinctly the capitalized letters in The Debate.

He picked up a list he'd written out. "First, if we proceed, we have a donation coming of new chemistry and biology lab equipment, replacing the old worn-out equipment in both middle and high schools." Everyone was impressed by that. "Plus, another mysterious donation of sports equipment suitable for both levels, including our high school's weightlifting gear. Replacement of the Home Economics class stoves and some additional gear for that. A goose to our capital repair and replacement fund. Additional books for the school libraries, including funding an elementary library. And endowments to fund an additional English teacher and three librarians. The cost for new math textbooks for all grades will be picked up." He looked up gravely at his fellow Board members. "All contingent upon permitting students to walk our hallowed halls in the nude." He put the note aside. "That's several hundred thousand dollars' worth of contributions. Some will permit us to lower our parents' taxes, others will allow us to offer a better education without spending a dime of school tax dollars. Well? Is the disruption of naked students enough to override the benefits of all these generous offers?"

"How firm are these offers?" one sharp-nosed old buzzard wanted to know.

Grant assured her, "Very. There's a man in the hallway with a cellphone. If we say 'yes', he's got a series of numbers to call. The lab equipment will be here within the week, installed next weekend. The textbooks will be here in 48 hours. The money for the additional staff arrives in our bank account tomorrow, and I've got resumes for the additional slots, we'd be able to fill them with start dates in the next couple of weeks."

The discussion raged for about an hour before they decided to think about it for the rest of the meeting, and settle some of the other items. They quickly went through approval of contracts for capital repair, the status of the budget year-to-date (which reminded them how useful this money on offer would be), and a few miscellaneous issues. Finally, Grant reopened debate on the nudity issue.

"I'd note," Amy offered, "That through the last two hours you've had a respectful, quiet and remarkably non-disruptive audience, including a significant proportion of nude students."

Grant glanced at the audience and chuckled. "You're right. I'd forgotten we'd had them strip at the start of the meeting. Anybody else perturbed by the nudity in the audience?"

"OK, I'll entertain a motion to at least give it a semester's trial, from now until the Christmas break. We'll have the principals submit a report at that time, with either a recommendation to continue or darned good reasons to discontinue – and they'll have to be danged good, otherwise we'll be in for it when they ask for their money back."

Everyone gulped at that. Reluctantly, the motion was approved, seconded and passed. It allowed any full-time student at any school covered by the Board to attend in the nude – but they'd have to dress if they were breaking the school rules in any way, or if the teacher could raise a valid objection in terms of safety.

"Oh, good," reflected Tanya unenthusiastically "I'm going to be naked for the rest of my life."

"I'm not objecting," Gus smiled at her.

"I don't imagine you would."

Amy O'Reilly gave a brief lecture to a full assembly of high school students at 8:30 sharp on Monday morning: yes, you will have fellow students nude; yes you're allowed to go nude as well, if you want to; here's how to behave when around nude students and when you're nude yourself. She emphasized the need for towels to sit on for the nude students and the need for all students to behave respectfully, "Which is how you should be behaving around all students. Being nude isn't an offer for sex, it's a way of dressing and of being natural."

Just before the students were released to their regular classrooms, a deliveryman dressed in a boiler suit appeared at the corner of the assembly hall stage. The Principal went over and talked to him, then drew one of the teachers over. Hurried words were exchanged. The Principal walked over to the microphone.

"We will have new refrigerators, freezers and ranges installed in the Home Economics kitchen by the end of today." There was a little cheer from those students taking Home Ec. Much of their old equipment dated back to when the school was built, at the height of the baby boom. The local greasy spoon, Elroy's, had newer appliances, and it could trace its history to the 1920's. "That class, today, will meet in the library." The amendment to the dress code had already started to pay dividends.

The library, Tanya found out, was not exactly the best place to hold Home Economics. The lesson today didn't need the cooking equipment being installed, but it did need to avoid interruptions. A crew of technicians arrived halfway through the morning, right at the start of her class, and started replacing all of the software with the latest versions, adding hardware and turning the library computers into terminals hanging off a fancy, high-end server.