Robin's mother came to school to take her home, Kelley. I'm sure it was difficult for her to go back to school the next day. But maybe the scene I made eased it a bit for her.
She was a quiet girl and even more quiet, and sad, the next few days in school. I remember trying to get her to laugh. This teacher would hit us with her pointer, girls too. Jay, Josh (both liked to get into trouble too) and I couldn't care less about being hit with the pointer. We even held contests to see who would have the most welts on their arms at the end of the day. It bothered me that she hit others, especially the girls. So when the teacher excused herself to go to the bathroom and left ol' Naomi, with her stupid notebook, in charge of the class, I went up to the blackboard and broke her pointer in two. I looked at Naomi and told her "You better not tell." When I sat down, I saw that Robin was giggling. I felt better. Then the teacher returned and saw that her pointer was broken and asked "Who did this?" I raised my hand. She gave me a long, hard look and threw the broken pointer in the basket. Then she pulled out a yardstick and put it on the blackboard. I kept looking at her for a long time. Finally she put the yardstick back into the closet.