Looking at the administrator and counselor, I noticed they quietly sat there and didn’t utter a word. The principal sat there, attempting to think of an excuse. I tried to break the silence after several minutes. I asked him if he remembered the senior officers who destroyed a library lock, and the school punished them with a fine of $125 a couple of years ago. They were sent home early. But three students came back to school and apologized. The principal nodded his head, even though he was puzzled about why I said this.
One of the kids was my son. He was the vice president. I told him, “When you called me to pick the kids up, I asked my husband to come home early. So when I brought back my son and a couple of his friends, both my husband and I asked them why they did such a thing. Didn’t they know they had done a bad thing? Surprisingly, they shook their heads. I was shocked because they insisted it was a senior tradition to destroy something on school property. They said that they didn’t want to do it, but the junior students claimed that if the seniors did not do anything, they would.
Wow, What a tradition! We were speechless. I then asked them if they loved their home and whether they would destroy anything in their home, and they said no. I questioned them if they liked their school, and they said yes. I continued, “Don’t you consider school your second home? Besides your own home, you spend the most time at school.” They seemed to understand gradually, and they realized that this tradition was wrong. They went back to school and apologized to the principal.
During their graduation ceremony, a news reporter asked them if there was anything they wanted to advise the juniors. You may not know what they said, but I would like to tell you. They said, “Don’t repeat what we did to the school.”The room was silent after I finished the story. The administrator and counselor remained tongue-tied. But the principal didn’t want to give up. He said that he would let the student body make the final decision.
A few days after our meeting, the principal called me and asked me to meet him in his office the next Monday. I was confused as to what else he could have to say to me, but on Saturday night, I received a phone call from my daughter’s classmate, Robert. He apologized to me because he used my daughter as a scapegoat for his wrongdoing in the school. He felt guilty and couldn’t sleep. He informed me he would be going into the principal’s office to clear my daughter’s name on Monday. I told him that the principal wanted to meet with me at the same time. He suggested for me to wait to see the principal until after he told the principal the truth. Sure enough, the secretary told me that I could go home, and I did not need to meet with the principal after Robert’s confession. Even so, I still had to worry about what the student body meeting would designate as my daughter’s punishment.
And so the student body held their meeting. The meeting lasted five hours. Finally, they decided they would not remove my daughter’s title, but she would have to attend a “rehab school.” for one week. My daughter was happy that she could keep her title, but she was worried about going to that school because she was told it was only for the problematic students to go. Unexpectedly, she came home from “rehab school” that first day happy. She told me that she knew the teacher well because she had gone to the school office to help them many times. All of the so-called “problematic kids” just had outrageous behavior: maybe they didn’t get enough love from a parent or experienced the divorce of the parents, etc. They were good kids; they just needed love. I’m glad she got this experience to learn how powerful love is and how love can affect others and, more importantly, love others.
I thought that all of the problems were solved and that I could take it easy. Then, I was told that the school magazine was going to run a big article about the incident. Immediately, I contacted the newspaper adviser, and I explained the situation to her. She agreed not to publish the article, but she called me the next day, telling me that some of the students wanted to make a big deal out of it.
I requested to meet with the editors. After the meeting, they all had different opinions, and I later found out that one editor in particular who insisted on publishing the article had run for my daughter’s position and lost to her. In the end, I told them how I felt about the whole thing. I said, “One day, you will reach my age, and you will think back on what you did when you were young, especially the things you regret.” I assured them that they would regret it if they were to publish it. If they made a large spectacle out of it, their friend (aka my daughter) would have no choice but to leave their school that she loves so much and leave her friends. She would have faced criticism and shame from the whole school. In the end, I could only ask them to search within to find out what they should do. I knew that, honestly, I had come to an end. There was nothing I could do but to leave everything to God.
When the newspaper came out, there was a small section about this incident. But even with that tiny article, it proved that God’s wisdom was far greater than ours. Because when the students picked up the newspaper after the class, they went home for three weeks of Chrismas break. Of course by the time they got back from the holidays the kids had forgotten what had happened!
The Thanksgiving day this year happens to fall on both of my daughter and her father’s birthday. Thinking back of what had transpired to my daughter during her high school years, I was thankful that God stepped in when I ran out of my strength and wisdom to solve her issue then. Now, I realize the precious experience she encountered before has made her what she is today -a beautiful person who is confident, passionate, loving, and considerate to everyone she comes in contact with.
Never do I know all the challenges turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
Happy birthday to you, Floy! I Love you!
校长看他们(教务长及学生顾问)默默坐在那里不出一声,他只好自己再找理由,想了半天未能想出什么,我只好打破沉黙,再问他一个问题「记得二年前应届毕业生的代表们集体破坏学校图书柜的锁的事,你罚他们每人120元,也罚他们提早下课,但有几个学生回来跟你道歉的事吧!」校长用困惑的眼光看着我,一面点点头。 「其中学校的副主席是我的儿子,当你打电话通知我们家长时,我立刻请我先生提早下班赶回来,等孩子跟二个同学一起回来后,我们立刻想办法去找出他们作错事的原因。我问他们他们知道自己作错了吗?居然全部摇头,让我吓一跳。他们坚持说「因为应届毕业生破坏学校的东西是传统,我们本来不要作的,但高二学生说我们不作他们便要采取行动,我们只好作了。」
我不想说太多,我只是简单地问他们是否爱他们自己的家「当然」,他们说。 「那么,你们会去破坏自己家的东西吗?」「当然不会」「那么你们爱不爱学校呢?」「是的」,「它是否可算第二个家呢?因为你们除了自己的家以外,花最多时间的地方就是学校。」他们听之有理,「那么你们也会去跟从明明知道不对的传统,去破坏它吗?」他们是聪明的孩子一点便懂,他们也立刻了解到他们的做错了。这就是为什么他们回到学校向你道歉的原因。当他们在毕业典礼,被新闻记者问到有什么话他们要跟高二学弟说?你们可能不知道他们说了什么?他们说「不要对我们的学校做我们作过的错事。」
等我说完,房间突然变得一片沉寂。教务长及学生顾问在整个会议一句话也没有说。但是校长还是不想放弃,他说,他将让学生代表团体作出决定,会议将会在二天内举行。
我们见面几天后,校长打电话给我,让我下周一去他的办公室见他。我不知道他还能对我说些什么,但周六晚上,我接到了女儿同学罗伯特的电话。他向我道歉,因为他把我女儿当作他在学校做错事的替罪羊。他感到内疚,无法入睡。他告诉我他星期一要去校长办公室为我女儿洗脱罪名。我告诉他校长想和我同时见面。他建议我等到他把真相告诉校长后再去见校长。果然,秘书告诉我可以回家了,在罗伯特坦白之后,我不需要去见校长。即便如此,我还是担心学生会会把什么作为对我女儿的惩罚。
学生代表团体的会议果然如期举行,他们整整开了5个半小时的会,决定不取消女儿啦啦队长的头衔。但她需要去特别感化学校一个星期。女儿对此一方面感到高兴,但另一方面对要去特别感化学校忧心忡忡,听说那是给问题学生去的地方。
没想到,她很高兴的从感化学校回来。她告诉我,不仅她跟负责的老师很熟,而那些所谓的“问题孩子”是因从离婚或单亲家庭中得不到爱的同学,他们行为有点乖张而已,其实他们都是好孩子,只是需要爱而己! 她能有这种难得的经历,是何等祝福。借此她更了解到爱的重要性,更知道如何爱人。
我认为这个问题己经结束,但又听到校刋将要炒作这事件。我又立刻与负责报纸的老师连络,她完全同意也不会发表这事件,可是她第二天又打电话给我说学生编辑想炒作这事件。
我只好请求约见所有的编辑。一共5人,包括女孩和男孩。经过半小时的会议,
他们中间意见开始分歧。我知道,坚持要登的学生,曾经是女儿在学校的选举时的对手。我只能再说出我的心底话了,我告诉他们有一天他们等到我的年龄,他们回想起他们年轻的时候做了什么遗憾的事。我保证,这事肯定会是他们后悔的一件。因为他们的炒作这件事,他们的朋友-也就是我女儿,不得不离开她宝贝的学校,以及包含妳们在内的朋友们。因为她没法承受由整个学校来的批评和屈辱。我最后只能请他们由内心去寻求该如何作。说实话我已经走到了尽头,结果只能交给神性了。
到最后报刋出来时,只有一个编辑登出了一小篇关于这事件的文章,但是神性的智慧远超过我们, 因为当学生下课拿了校刋后,便回家度将近三个星期的圣诞假期。当然等假期回来这些小孩子己经忘了所发生的事了!
今年的感恩节恰好是我女儿和她父亲的生日。 回想起女儿高中时期发生的事情,我很高兴上帝在我用光了力气和智慧,仍然不能解决她的问题时介入了。 现在,我终于明白了,她之前所遇到的宝贵经验使她成为了今天的她-一个美丽的人,充满信心,热情,爱心和 体贴照顾与她接触的每个人。
谁会想所有挑战竟然是伪装的祝福。