They Rejected My Daughter novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Haskins Alone

"You have the floor, Ms. Walmsley," the board president said.

She walked to the aisle and stopped in the open space in front of the dais, with no microphone and no notes.

"I teach eighth-grade homeroom at Ridgeline," she said. "On the twelfth of December I sat at my own computer and typed the math roster."

"Don't," Haskins said.

"He stood behind my chair and read me the names. Eight names, in order. When he got to the fourth one, I told him Ruby Sharples had the highest score in the district."

She turned her head and looked at him.

"You said I wasn't on the committee. You said my renewal letter was in your top drawer, and you tapped it."

"That is a lie," Haskins said.

"I kept the original roster on a flash drive. It has the math teacher's name on it and the date he sent it. Dr. Lund has it."

She swallowed.

"I also kept a list. Three children, three springs. Every time a name came off the roster, a booster donation came in that same week. I wrote the dollar amounts down at home because I couldn't stop thinking about them."

She was crying now, and she did not wipe her face.

"I let a child's mother stand in my hallway and I told her not to do anything rash," she said. "I'd like that to be on the record too."

Nobody spoke.

Then, at the back of the room, a chair scraped.

A thin woman in a gray cardigan stood up beside the door.

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