I Complete The Story By Adding The Next Chapter Or Section
CHAPTER 50: Part 1
The rest of the board meeting went relatively swift. The members of the board all commented that I was a remarkable young LADY, and that they would be sure that I was treated better in the future. They all wished me luck on the tryouts next week. At that point the opposing parents all hissed and left unhappily. We all left at the end of the open session at about eight-thirty.
Everyone in my group seemed to think we’d won a fairly large victory. I honestly wasn’t so sure. What had been gained by this? I guess at least I knew where everyone stood now.
Wednesday came and went in much the same way as Tuesday. - fairly calm. When we got to school in the morning I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were no protestors across the street. I took that as a good omen and went through my first three classes with absolutely no negative incidents - not even a single note.
Then fourth hour I got called to the office.
Going to the office recently had been about as terrible of an experience as I could have. I was not expecting this time to be any different. I was slightly reassured though when I saw my Mom and Mr. Hancock were standing there.
“Hi,” I said to them. “What’s going on?”
“They want to discuss what happened Monday with Mrs. Hinther,” my Mom told me.
“Who wants to discuss?” I asked.
“Mr. Jameson, the school board president, and the school district’s attorney.”
“Okay…” I said.
We were led into that well overused conference room fairly soon after I got there. Before we sat down Amy’s Dad told me quietly, “Tiffany, don’t say anything unless I tell you to. This could get interesting depending on what they’re trying to do.”
I gave him a strange look. ‘What defined interesting to him/’ I thought, but nodded.
“Okay thank you for coming down Mr. Hancock, Mrs Jacobson. We had wanted to talk to you about Monday’s incident sooner - but wanted to make sure our investigation was complete.” Mr. Jameson began.
“We appreciate that,” Mr. Hancock replied. “What have you determined?”
“Well mainly that Monday’s incident should never have happened. Mr. Henry has confirmed Tiffany’s original story that the whole thing got out of hand when Mrs. Hinther refused to let Tiffany ‘record the conversation’ or contact an adult to speak on her behalf. Truthfully, we do not believe she was out of line to refuse the recording - but she went against district policies when she refused to let Tiffany call home.”
“I agree with that,” Mr. Hancock responded.
“Tiffany was in the wrong however when she refused Mrs. Hinther’s directive to come back to her office.” Mr. Jameson continued.
“I disagree Mr. Jameson. As events later panned out Tiffany had every right to be scared that things would get out of hand without another adult present. Tiffany did the only sensible thing she could do in her situation. In no way did she cause any sort of harm or destruction to anyone or anything. She also didn’t just storm off to class - she instead sat down very responsibly in the office where she could still be monitored. I would consider it to be a very grave error on your part if you were to try and punish her for this matter.” Mr. Hancock responded.
“We do not intend to push this matter at all Mr. Hancock, we are in fact going to give Ms. Jacobson a pass on this incident,” he said with a nod to me. “We do acknowledge you felt cornered without any choices. I think you did choose the better of the choices here.”
“Thanks,” I said. Mr. Hancock had nodded that I could speak.
“Now what about the more serious of the incidents?” Mr. Hancock began. “We walked in seeing Mrs. Hinther clearly manhandling Tiffany without just cause.”
“This is indeed an incident we consider to be grave and troubling Mr. Hancock. We cannot discuss any pending action against Mrs. Hinther, as it is a personal issue, but it will not happen again.”
“Well that’s not going to cut it as far as we’re concerned. The lawsuit against the district is going to stand unless we have assurances that
A - Mrs. Hinther will not have any further contact with Tiffany.
B - Tiffany and her mother are guaranteed there will be no retribution for this incident, and
C - Tiffany will be guaranteed more protection and aid against any further bullying and harassment.”
“Mr. Hancock the district will not be bullied into getting rid of an employee,” the school’s attorney stated. “We brought you in here because we wish to look into settling this matter out of court. Honestly we understand that you have good cause to be concerned here and we just want to get this matter taken care of swiftly.”
Okay… What’s going on? They didn’t want to get rid of Mrs. Hinther? Wasn’t it in their best interest to get rid of her and not pay off a lawsuit?
“We’re listening,” Mr. Hancock said.
“Your lawsuit calls for damages of Fifty-Thousand dollars, we’d like to talk about Two-Thousand dollars.”
“You’re kidding right?” Mr. Hancock said. “If you really want tp sttle this out of court - which believe me in court you are going to lose, and lose badly - we need to talk at least Twenty-Five Thousand.”
“Mr. Hancock I don’t think the court would consider someone grabbing someone by the arm worth twenty-five grand.”
“No, if it was just that I would agree. However it was the pinnacle of abuse and neglect that an administrator in your district was allowed to partake in. I have notes and recordings, as do my clients, of the verbal abuse that Tiffany took in our initial meeting with you all. There were also later incidents that occurred and as such we believe that the district knowingly let an abusive administrator let Tiffany get physically and psychologically abused.”
“We also have her psychiatrist who will testify as to the specific damages that the bullying she has encountered - not just this year - have caused. I can’t guarantee that we’ll get Fifty Thousand out of this, but Two-Thousand for a settlement is insulting,” Mr. Hancock concluded.
The rest of the board meeting went relatively swift. The members of the board all commented that I was a remarkable young LADY, and that they would be sure that I was treated better in the future. They all wished me luck on the tryouts next week. At that point the opposing parents all hissed and left unhappily. We all left at the end of the open session at about eight-thirty.
Everyone in my group seemed to think we’d won a fairly large victory. I honestly wasn’t so sure. What had been gained by this? I guess at least I knew where everyone stood now.
Wednesday came and went in much the same way as Tuesday. - fairly calm. When we got to school in the morning I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were no protestors across the street. I took that as a good omen and went through my first three classes with absolutely no negative incidents - not even a single note.
Then fourth hour I got called to the office.
Going to the office recently had been about as terrible of an experience as I could have. I was not expecting this time to be any different. I was slightly reassured though when I saw my Mom and Mr. Hancock were standing there.
“Hi,” I said to them. “What’s going on?”
“They want to discuss what happened Monday with Mrs. Hinther,” my Mom told me.
“Who wants to discuss?” I asked.
“Mr. Jameson, the school board president, and the school district’s attorney.”
“Okay…” I said.
We were led into that well overused conference room fairly soon after I got there. Before we sat down Amy’s Dad told me quietly, “Tiffany, don’t say anything unless I tell you to. This could get interesting depending on what they’re trying to do.”
I gave him a strange look. ‘What defined interesting to him/’ I thought, but nodded.
“Okay thank you for coming down Mr. Hancock, Mrs Jacobson. We had wanted to talk to you about Monday’s incident sooner - but wanted to make sure our investigation was complete.” Mr. Jameson began.
“We appreciate that,” Mr. Hancock replied. “What have you determined?”
“Well mainly that Monday’s incident should never have happened. Mr. Henry has confirmed Tiffany’s original story that the whole thing got out of hand when Mrs. Hinther refused to let Tiffany ‘record the conversation’ or contact an adult to speak on her behalf. Truthfully, we do not believe she was out of line to refuse the recording - but she went against district policies when she refused to let Tiffany call home.”
“I agree with that,” Mr. Hancock responded.
“Tiffany was in the wrong however when she refused Mrs. Hinther’s directive to come back to her office.” Mr. Jameson continued.
“I disagree Mr. Jameson. As events later panned out Tiffany had every right to be scared that things would get out of hand without another adult present. Tiffany did the only sensible thing she could do in her situation. In no way did she cause any sort of harm or destruction to anyone or anything. She also didn’t just storm off to class - she instead sat down very responsibly in the office where she could still be monitored. I would consider it to be a very grave error on your part if you were to try and punish her for this matter.” Mr. Hancock responded.
“We do not intend to push this matter at all Mr. Hancock, we are in fact going to give Ms. Jacobson a pass on this incident,” he said with a nod to me. “We do acknowledge you felt cornered without any choices. I think you did choose the better of the choices here.”
“Thanks,” I said. Mr. Hancock had nodded that I could speak.
“Now what about the more serious of the incidents?” Mr. Hancock began. “We walked in seeing Mrs. Hinther clearly manhandling Tiffany without just cause.”
“This is indeed an incident we consider to be grave and troubling Mr. Hancock. We cannot discuss any pending action against Mrs. Hinther, as it is a personal issue, but it will not happen again.”
“Well that’s not going to cut it as far as we’re concerned. The lawsuit against the district is going to stand unless we have assurances that
A - Mrs. Hinther will not have any further contact with Tiffany.
B - Tiffany and her mother are guaranteed there will be no retribution for this incident, and
C - Tiffany will be guaranteed more protection and aid against any further bullying and harassment.”
“Mr. Hancock the district will not be bullied into getting rid of an employee,” the school’s attorney stated. “We brought you in here because we wish to look into settling this matter out of court. Honestly we understand that you have good cause to be concerned here and we just want to get this matter taken care of swiftly.”
Okay… What’s going on? They didn’t want to get rid of Mrs. Hinther? Wasn’t it in their best interest to get rid of her and not pay off a lawsuit?
“We’re listening,” Mr. Hancock said.
“Your lawsuit calls for damages of Fifty-Thousand dollars, we’d like to talk about Two-Thousand dollars.”
“You’re kidding right?” Mr. Hancock said. “If you really want tp sttle this out of court - which believe me in court you are going to lose, and lose badly - we need to talk at least Twenty-Five Thousand.”
“Mr. Hancock I don’t think the court would consider someone grabbing someone by the arm worth twenty-five grand.”
“No, if it was just that I would agree. However it was the pinnacle of abuse and neglect that an administrator in your district was allowed to partake in. I have notes and recordings, as do my clients, of the verbal abuse that Tiffany took in our initial meeting with you all. There were also later incidents that occurred and as such we believe that the district knowingly let an abusive administrator let Tiffany get physically and psychologically abused.”
“We also have her psychiatrist who will testify as to the specific damages that the bullying she has encountered - not just this year - have caused. I can’t guarantee that we’ll get Fifty Thousand out of this, but Two-Thousand for a settlement is insulting,” Mr. Hancock concluded.
By:
oldgrumpy
Age:
51-55
,
Male
