Theodore Boone: The Scandal by John Grisham Page A

I’m about to be fired from my job at East Middle School.”
    “On what grounds?”
    “The school thinks I’m involved in a cheating scandal, one that involves the standardized tests for eighth graders.”
    Mrs. Boone scribbled some notes and thought about this. “Well, Geneva, I’m not sure I should take your case. You see, I have a son who’s in the eighth grade at Strattenburg.”
    “I know,” she interrupted. “I’ve heard of Theo. Through a friend of a friend.”
    “I guess a lot of people know Theo. Anyway, Theo is a very bright kid and a good student, and he missed the Honors track by one point. Personally, I don’t like the tests and I don’t approve of the tracking system in place at the high school, and I know that Theo will do well in any school, at any level. But it seems as though you and I may have a conflict because of Theo and the tests results.”
    “I’ve thought about that, and I think that when the truth comes out it won’t make any difference. The tests results will probably be thrown out, and, frankly, I don’t know what will happen after that. I’ll be gone, and maybe Theo will get another chance. Or maybe the scores for all the kids will be adjusted. I just don’t know.”
    “Are you here to tell me the truth?”
    Geneva paused and looked away. “I have a question.”
    “Okay.”
    “If you’re my lawyer, anything I tell you stays in this room, right?”
    “Absolutely.”
    “You can’t tell anyone?”
    “Never. A lawyer must keep her clients’ secrets in strict confidence. The only exception is when the lawyer believes the client may do harm to others, but that’s never happened in my career.”
    “Well, then, are you my lawyer?”
    “If we can agree to keep Theo out of it, yes, I’ll represent you.”
    “I can do that, but can you? You’re his mother.”
    “I’m also a professional, Geneva. I keep my family life at home. Theo is going to be fine regardless.”
    “Will he know that I’m your client?”
    “Normally, Theo does not know who my clients are, but there’s always the chance he’ll find out. It shouldn’t matter. Why don’t you tell me your story, and then we’ll decide whether we should go forward together? And again, anything you tell me will be kept in confidence.”
    “Okay.” Geneva took a deep breath and began with the events of that morning: the investigators and their polygraph; the immediate suspensions of her four colleagues; her likely suspension, too. The more she talked the more she wanted to talk. Mrs. Boone listened carefully as she took a few notes.
    Geneva eventually worked her way back to the beginning. “I’m sure you know that East has many low income kids. It’s in that part of town, plus the school board tends to assign most new students to East. So we have a lot of immigrant families, a lot of kids using English as a second language and trying hard to learn it. We, the teachers, think it’s unfair to place so many of these kids at East, but we’re not in charge of that. And we love our kids. They show up every day with big smiles and happy hearts, ready to learn. They may not always have lunch money or have had something for breakfast, so we take care of them. No one goes hungry. I think we have to work harder as educators, because we often stay late to tutor kids who are struggling with the language. And we’re there at night to meet with the parents, many of whom work two and three jobs and can’t stop by the school during the day. Our students have to translate, which is often difficult. I have two Vietnamese kids in my class and their parents speak almost no English, but they care deeply and they want their kids to succeed. I guess what I’m saying is that the rules are a little different at East. And it’s so frustrating to watch our kids struggle with the standardized tests, and then score lower than the others, and then get labeled as slow learners or dumb kids. They’re not dumb, and they don’t deserve to