Chapter 9: The Hearing

The board met in the school theater, and by six o'clock every seat was taken.

People stood along the walls. A television crew had set up a camera at the back.

I sat in the front row between my grandmother and Noemi, in my blazer, with the hospital chart in my lap.

The paramedic sat behind me in her full navy uniform. She had her hat on her knee.

Seven board members faced us from a long table on the stage.

My father sat at a smaller table to the side, next to a lawyer in a gray suit.

My mother sat behind him, and she didn't look at me.

Three rows back, Lindsey sat next to a woman I had only seen at school fundraisers.

Lindsey's mother had pale hair in a neat bob and a cream coat buttoned to the neck.

She held her purse on her lap with both hands.

The board chair tapped the microphone.

"This is an open hearing on a student conduct matter," he said. "Marisol Salcedo is charged with disrupting an assembly.

"We will hear from her first."

"I'd like to hear from her," my father's lawyer said. "Briefly."

I walked up to the witness chair.

My legs felt thin, but they held me.

"Miss Salcedo," the lawyer said, "on Friday you took the microphone at a school assembly and accused your father of endangering you."

"Yes."

"You told six hundred people he put you at risk."

"Yes."

"Do you understand that your father was following a policy?"

"I understand he said so," I said.

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