57: Rebuttal

Cassie and I had known the basic content of each other's opening argument. We'd been working on them in my bedroom for the past four weeks. We shared information back and forth. I gave her the material that I was sure she would use in her rebuttal. We didn't know the exact content and that bit about the Supreme Court ruling was brilliant. I wasn't sure how I'd rebut that. I figured if I didn't have contradictory evidence, I could divert it into a different channel. We were both scrambling madly to get our points together. The whole gymnasium was buzzing on the main floor. The student body was maintaining discipline, though, and only occasionally did someone whisper to a neighbor. This had to be incredibly hard for them. It seemed like we'd had no time at all when Ms. Hammer rang the bell to begin the rebuttal. Cassie stood to give her rebuttal. I was still scribbling.

"Mr. Frost has, presumably, given an accurate picture of the School Board's rationale for the new regulations and he is persuasive. But I ask you for a moment to remove the shine of his presence on the stage and listen to his words." Good going, Cassie. Make my point for me. "If we are to believe his assertions, then we have re-entered the medieval age. Children and especially women... girls ... are merely chattel to be bargained away. I am surprised the School Board has not issued chastity belts. The argument holds that boys are not responsible in cases of rape, but are merely doing what their hormone-driven bodies must do when faced with the shape of a woman's body. Mother—my beautiful mother—hide yourself, for nowhere is safe. I, too, have the words of a superintendent of schools. This comes from Dr. Richard Patterson, Superintendent of the Kokomo School Corporation, a district only slightly larger than St. Joe Valley and one of our great rivals in basketball. Like Dr. Dewey, Dr. Patterson holds a Masters' in Education with PhDs—yes plural—in Educational Psychology and in Sociology. He says, and I quote,

There are no reputable studies that associate dress with rape. Rape is a violent crime of violent people. It is not about sex, but about power. It is most often inflicted by persons seeking to show their worth through domination over a weaker person. No dress code will stop or discourage a rapist. Young men and old men are responsible for their own actions and should be prosecuted accordingly. Therefore, we have simplified the dress code to exclude dress that could be commonly considered distractive from the intent of being in school—that of getting an education.

"Dr. Patterson was not the only authority on this subject and was able to cite no less than seven independent studies supporting his position. The opposition can cite only the word of Dr. Dewey.

"Mr. Frost has frequently referred to the honor of the gentlemen of the School Board as protectors of our virtue. I suggest that like my own father—and I'm sorry, Father, I love you—they are unable to separate their belief in a vengeful God from rational thinking about the reality of high school life today. We are not living in the time of the Israelites, or even of Jesus. We live in a global society influenced by a global media. I cite the most recent issue of Elle magazine in which a model known as 'Heaven' but who we here at St. Joe Valley know as our former classmate Joanne Barnes, poses on the cover. None of us ... None of the young women dressed in our new school uniform of prison stripes, can ever hope to be a symbol of beauty and sensuality like Heaven is. But we all look at her and aspire to emulate both her poise and presence and the loving good nature we all know she possesses.

"Our School Board Chairperson, did, indeed, sell twenty acres of worthless land to the District for a new school. That land has not produced a crop in five years because it has been under water. The rough estimates for importing enough fill to make the site buildable far exceed the cost of the original site and will increase the school building budget by as much as fifteen percent. This is the same kind of fiscal responsibility that is willing to risk teachers' strikes and civil suits to put forth their real agenda of making education into subjugation. Overturning the new conduct regulations is only the first step that we as a people must undertake."

Way to go! Now I was going to drive a stake into the hearts of our student body and make them hate me forever. I prayed that one day, they'd forgive me. I just stood at the podium and looked around a moment. People started moving. I let the clock run a full minute.

"Sadly, fellow students, I must tell you that Miss Clinton has erred. She has proposed that we are adults. That we reach the age of consent at sixteen. We are children. At sixteen, certainly we can get a driver's license so if we are lucky, we can borrow our parents' car. But what does 'the age of consent' really mean? It means that when she turns sixteen, Cassie can legally have sex with a person the age of our School Board members and they cannot be prosecuted for it. It doesn't mean you are grown up. Oh! But you say, seniors, that you will be eighteen and then really an adult. Why? Because you can vote? Because you can be sent to a foreign war to be killed in battle? Will you also be able to buy a drink? Sign loan papers without a co-signer? Oh, no. That will wait until you are twenty-one and then you are truly an adult. Unless you want to rent a car or take out a mortgage to buy property. You will need to wait until you are an adult of twenty-five years to do that. And if you have political ambitions, let us not forget that you cannot run for president of the United States until you have reached the age of thirty-five. Adulthood is not a magic number that we reach in high school. It is a long slow process and we need to take every minute of childhood that we can and treasure it. Thank the men of the School Board for keeping us in childhood a few years longer.

"This is not a matter for courts to decide. It is a matter of school policy applied equally to all students who attend our school. Our School Board was elected and given authority. Cassie, when your father voted to put Concerned Taxpayers in office, he signed guardianship of you over to them. Don't you see that even if your father miraculously lifted some restriction from you and let you kiss a boyfriend or wear a short skirt, that he no longer has that authority? He gave it to the School Board. They are your guardians through their agents, our teachers, eight hours or more a day. Your father cannot overrule them.

"It is the will of the people—and this country is a country in which the tyranny of the majority will always rule the minority—it is the will of the people to have these new rules in effect and therefore they must stay in effect."

When Cassie looked at me there was a trace of moisture in her eyes and I willed her not to cry. She had to stay strong. It was a foregone conclusion that she would get the 'C' in this debate. We'd set it up in such a way that the five members of the Concerned Tax Payers and the School Superintendent had to vote for me or admit that they should rethink things. Well, I'd happily take the 'C' if they went that direction, but there was really no hope for it. I could see in her eyes, though, that Cassie was going to take a big hit in her concluding remarks. We weren't supposed to present any new evidence or arguments in the summary. Even the two independent judges were going to have to take that into consideration, but just knowing how passionate Cassie was, I knew I couldn't stop her if I tried.

"Mr. Superintendent, Members of the School Board, Judges, and Friends, we must summarize this debate and await your final judgment. We are passionate about what we believe. Perhaps that has not come across in our arguments. The student body of St. Joe Valley High School feels oppressed by these regulations that have been forced upon us without our consent. Look around you. Look in the bleachers at fifteen hundred students who stand united against this so-called policy forced upon us. What do those striped shirts mean? We believe we have been reduced to prisoners instead of students. We have been subjected to arbitrary rules that have nothing to do with our education. If rape is an act of the powerful over the helpless, then we collectively have been raped by the people our parents voted into office.

"It is no longer an issue of whether or not these arbitrary rules should be reversed. They must be reversed. You face a student body united. If you expel us all, there will simply be no St. Joe Valley High School for you to rule over. This resolution must pass."

Holy shit. I don't know if they all caught it or not, but Cassie just threatened out-and-out rebellion. There was not much I could do about that except hope that Cassie would accept me as one of her minions in the coming revolution. I stood for my final remarks. Be a rock, I reminded myself in Whitney's voice.

"Passion is irrelevant. Debate is about the rational argument for or against a proposition. Mr. Superintendent, Members of the School Board, Judges, Family, and Friends. You really don't have a choice tonight. You put these men in power. You elected them to represent you in the governance of this School District. You empowered them to hire a Superintendent as chief executive over the education of all your children. Their will is your will. You have already voted to accept my arguments.

"You cannot unvote that by standing and saying that these new policies should be reversed. There is only one forum in which you can do that and it comes on November third. Tonight, you have no choice but to vote with me. On Election Day, you can vote your heart, your passion, and your children's love. Today, you must vote to uphold the decisions that you empowered. There is no simpler choice."

The entire student body and well over half the parents and adults in the audience stood to support Cassie and pass the resolution. Only four judges stood. Predictably, it was the two outside judges and the two independent School Board members. A smattering of adults and all five Concerned Taxpayer Board Members stood with the Superintendent to give the debate to me. As Ms. Hammer was concluding the session with thanks to the judges, the entire student body stood, put their hands behind their heads, and marched out of the gym. Finally, the curtain closed and Cassie rushed across the stage and threw herself into my arms.

"You were so wonderful," I said. "Elections for class officers are next week. You are a shoo-in for president. Will you run, Cass?"

"Not unless you kiss me right now. And mean it." I obliged.

Tuesday was predictable in a way. Everyone wore their prison shirts. So far, no one was in violation of the dress code. We arrived at school wondering what the Board's response would be. We found out five minutes into first period. The PA system crackled to life. It wasn't Principal Darnell's voice, however.

"Students, this is Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Leonard Dewey. You've had your fun. Congratulations. Effective tomorrow, your so-called school uniform that resembles prison shirts is added to the list of banned clothing. The School Board has no intention of revisiting the new dress, conduct, and zero tolerance policies. Return to normal, approved attire on Wednesday or face immediate suspension. This is not a joke. You will focus on your education and not on silly political maneuverings. That is the end of this announcement."

Coach Mitchell looked at us. We all sat quietly at our desks.

"Does anyone know a seamstress that can get me one of those shirts?" he asked.

At lunch, there was a lot of chatter and people just gathered around our table. There was no question that they were waiting for someone to tell them what to do. I offered Cassie a hand and she stepped up onto the table. We all scrambled to get our food out of the way. There was a lot of applause and foot stamping when Cassie was visible.

"Thank you. I'm sorry things didn't go so well," she started.

"What do we do, Cassie?" I was sure I recognized that voice and sure enough, Rob was a couple rows deep.

"First, let me bring my mentor and partner up here," she said. She offered me her hand and I stood up beside her. The applause wasn't quite so enthusiastic. "Now. Let me first say that the 'C' I got in debate is a badge I will wear proudly all year long."

"And the 'A' I got is a badge of shame I will wear, as well."

"We've tried radical obedience for the past month to show how ridiculous these new rules are and you've all done really well. I know what a strain it's been. I don't even do anything normally that's against these new rules and it was a strain on me." Everyone laughed.

"Are you okay, Cassie?" George called out.

"Well, my father hasn't spoken to me since the debate, but other than that, I'm okay. Thanks, George."

"So what do we do now?"

"Like I said, radical obedience didn't work, so now it's time for civil disobedience. We will defy the banning of our shirts. If anyone needs another shirt, see one of the seamstresses and we'll go into production. But please remember, the root of civil disobedience is to be civil. Our teachers and even our school administrators are on our side. Don't disrespect them. Brian?"

"This isn't going to be easy. We might all end up losing vacation or some other penalty. But I don't know if you all saw the News at Ten last night since we didn't get out until after nine and everybody was pretty distracted. WBBT ran excerpts of the debate and actually had a political analyst go over it. Our real task now is to get the voters out and get a new slate of School Board members elected. We've got a lot of community support."

"You two on the table. You are suspended from school for disruptive conduct effective immediately." I looked at the back of the room and saw Superintendent Dewey standing in the doorway. He was demanding attention, but he wasn't about to wade into the crowd of students.

"So it starts," I said. "Thank you, sir. For how long are we free from your tyranny, sir?"

"You are suspended until class on Monday. You will not be allowed at any school event. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir."

"The same is true of anyone wearing one of those shirts tomorrow."

"We'll be waiting for you all outside the school grounds," I called. I raised Cassie's hand and we stepped off the table and made our way out of the cafeteria to hoots and applause.

Cassie and I suddenly had a free day to ourselves. Of course, the first thing on our agenda was to walk home, which took about an hour, but then we did what teenagers thrown together in the aftermath of an emotional outburst do. We planned a demonstration. People started showing up as soon as school was out and we moved from my house over to the Methodist Church basement. I took my Mac and printer with me when Donna came by and in a few minutes, I started printing leaflets. By some fluke at the school, our parents hadn't been notified of our suspension yet. You gotta love bureaucracy. Dr. Dewey suspended us. I'm sure Principal Darnell wasn't filing any reports. St. Luke's had become sewing central, so it was mostly guys with Cassie, Donna, Rhonda and me working on the posters and fliers.

Jeremy Hawthorne had organized a team to go to the Unitarian Church and make a huge sign. He was a junior and I'd met him when I did that bit part for the drama group last fall. He was quite an artist and knew stage construction really well. I was amazed at what he'd come up with in a few quick sketches. They needed to work fast, though, in order to get the new school sign finished and mounted before dawn tomorrow. I couldn't wait to see the new "Lake Dewey, future home of St. Joe Valley Penitentiary, an Island Prison" sign go up where the current "Future Home of St. Joe Valley Trojans" sign was standing. It was too good, really. The entire twenty acre plot was under water with all the rain we'd had the past week.

Ty and Sandra came in about five-thirty.

"We made it and got the exact district map from the elections office. We need everyone with a car to drive tomorrow so we can cover the entire district before anyone has a chance to figure out what happened."

"While Ty was in the county clerk's office, I coordinated with the cheerleaders and we got yard signs from all the candidates opposing the Concerned Taxpayers. They were all happy to give us all the signs they still had when we told them we were going to be unofficial campaign volunteers. All of the candidates were at the debate last night and were right with us. If we swing this election, it will be a new world in November," Sandra said.

"Don't forget, the new Board won't take office until January. These dicks can still do a lot of damage."

"Look at the editorial in today's News," Ty said. "I'm surprised Rhonda didn't give you a copy this morning."

"We really haven't had time to connect with everything happening," I said, taking the paper. 'Student debate lampoons School Board, ' the headline read.

"Look at the Trib," Shelly said as she joined us. The Tribune was the local evening paper and came out about the same time school got out. Most people picked it up on the way home from work. This was no editorial. We made headlines and both Cassie and I sank in our seats. 'Student debaters suspended in confrontation with superintendent.' I bet Mom, Dad, and Mr. and Mrs. Clinton were all wondering just where their children were now.

"We'd better get a ride home," I said. "Can anyone give us a lift?"

"May I seek sanctuary in this church?" Cassie pled. "I face certain death if I'm forced to return to my homeland."