The Long Way Home

by Phillip Overton

  ****

  “Mrs Small?” The teacher called from the front of the room. Rowena looked up to see Mrs Grimstone sitting at her big desk at the front of the classroom. She was motioning with her finger for her to come forward.

  ‘You arrogant old bag!’ Rowena muttered silently under her breath as she got out from behind the tiny little desk. She put Simon’s school books back into his desk and closed the lid. Nearly half of the other parents had already left. So far she had sat through her boring little introduction speech, her student expectation ravings and her curriculum outline for the remainder of the year. Now there was only the one-on-one parent interview left to complete and she would be free to leave.

  “Pleased to meet you.” Rowena extended her hand. Mrs Grimstone shook it briefly but didn’t get out of her chair.

  “Please, take a seat.” She motioned towards the two empty chairs in front of her desk.

  Rowena sat uneasily in one of the hard wooden chairs, reminded again of the fact that she was one of only two single parents that had turned up tonight. The other was a lady in her late 20’s that had showed up with eight month old twins who couldn’t stop crying for more than two minutes. Not surprisingly the teacher had seen her first and spared her from being constantly stared at by the other parents for the rest of the evening.

  “Now Mrs Small, I wanted to talk to you in particular tonight regarding your son’s conduct.” She began. “I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting you but I am sure you are familiar with our school principal on account of your son’s, at times disruptive behaviour.”

  ‘Oh no,’ she thought as embarrassment flushed through her cheeks. ‘She’s exactly like Simon had described her.’

  “Now due to his poor academic results for the first half of the year and on account of the amount of time he has missed this last semester, I’m sorry to say that Simon is well behind the other students in this class. Along with this, the school is concerned with his poor behaviour both in the class and amongst the other students in the playground.” She continued without seeming to draw a breath. “We have earmarked Simon to be held back a grade next year….”

  “What?” Rowena interrupted, the old lady was by now getting under her skin.

  “It is the school’s recommendation that Simon be made to repeat grade three next year.”

  “I heard you the first time,” she snapped. “How can you sit there and say that knowing full well all that Simon has had to go through these past few months?”

  “Yes, I do sympathise with you Mrs Small.” She cleared the pleasantries out of the way before she leant back in her chair and fidgeted with her biro. “But the school takes the line that Simon’s unfortunate incident was the direct result of violating school policies. Had his behaviour met with the standard expected of each student the whole episode would have been avoidable. Simon has to take responsibility for his own actions.”

  “I think you are being totally heartless.” Rowena blasted her, trying to keep her voice to a soft whisper so as not be noticed by the other parents still in the room. “He was in a coma for goodness sake for five and a half weeks, only to find out he lost both of his grandparents when he came out of it.”

  “What would you like me to do about it then Mrs Small?” She casually asked, turning the onus back on her.

  “I don’t know.” Rowena paused trying to think of something to say. “Cut him some slack I guess.”

  “I want to show you something Mrs Small.” The teacher said opening a folder and turning it around to face Rowena so that she could read it. “I haven’t completely finished writing my comments for each subject, but as you can see the half yearly results have been filled in for Simon’s report card. His test results were pretty disappointing to say the least, for Mathematics he got an E, English an F, Social Studies an F, Art an E, even in Physical Education he got an E simply for not participating. The only shining light was History where he somehow managed to achieve a C. What I want to suggest Mrs Small is that after the July school holidays we start Simon back in grade two. Now we can only do this with your written consent so what I propose is….”

  “Absolutely not! With all my son has been through do you honestly think the best thing I can do is send him back a grade and cause him to lose his friends?”

  “Simon would have the chance to make new friends that he would then move back up to grade three with next year. As it stands, he is one of the youngest students in the third grade and seems to be struggling in the lowest class. We are purely looking at this from an academic perspective Mrs Small. Simon is simply not keeping up with the rest of the class.”

  “But surely that was only because of the amount of time that he has been away from school.”

  “Mrs Small, you’ve had to collect your son from the principal’s office three times this year, are you aware that he has been sent there on 18 other occasions? He is regularly in detention during lunch breaks, continually disruptive in class and has not once this year handed in completed homework or assignments.”

  “He at least deserves a chance to catch up in the second half of the year. I’m not going to agree to send him back to grade two so you’re just going to have to deal with that!” Rowena snapped at her. Any parents that were still present in the room had hushed their conversations and found themselves listening in.

  “I understand Mrs Small.” The teacher accepted. “However, please understand that at the end of the year it will come down to my recommendation and much improved grades in order for Simon to become a year four student. In my opinion, nothing short of a miracle will see that Simon doesn’t do the third grade all over again.”

  “Just one more question then before I go.” Rowena asked.

  “Sure, why not.” Mrs Grimstone replied smugly.

  “Apart from his obviously poor grades, have you had any problem with his behaviour in the last couple of months, you know, has he got into any trouble since he’s been back at school?”

  “Come to think of it no, not since he’s been back.” She answered, slightly puzzled that she hadn’t sat back and taken note of that before. “But that hardly makes him a good student. He has a history of poor….”

  “Behaviour.” Rowena rudely finished the sentence for her. “Since he’s come out of the coma however I’ve noticed he’s been a different kid at home. It seems that if anyone has a problem here it’s you. If he has poor grades, maybe it’s because he has a poor teacher!”

  Rowena stood to her feet, letting the chair scrape noisily across the floor as she stared at the stunned face of her sons’ teacher.

  “Thanks for dragging me down here for nothing. You have a good night now won’t you.”