[Sidenote: Passing Answers]
“You may all take your books home tonight—every one. Don’t bring any
pencils or paper with you to school tomorrow. Don’t bring any notebooks
or any notes in your pockets.” This was Miss Justin’s announcement to
her eighth graders in preparation for a coming examination.
The next day she shifted her classes so that no one sat in front of a
classmate, and gave a history and a German test at the same time.
Clarabelle sat at the rear of the second tier of seats; across the aisle
sat Thurman.
“Thurman, what was that you picked up from the floor just now?”
“I don’t know. I h’ain’t picked up nothin’,” was Thurman’s confused
reply.
“Now see here, Thurman, I saw you pick up a small piece of paper. Don’t
you make a move until you hand me that paper.”
Thurman could hardly obey this order, though he did make some effort to
keep quiet. Miss Justin came to him, demanded the paper, was refused,
boxed Thurman savagely on the left ear and went back to her desk.
Thurman had said he had no paper and Miss J. could not be sure that he
lied. After school Phronsie came to her teacher, saying, “Here is a
paper that seemed to blow over to my desk. I thought I should give it to
you since you told us we could not have notes in school today.”
Miss Justin looked through her papers and found that Clarabelle’s hand
had written the notes on the history lesson—dates of the presidential
administration with one error. Turning to Thurman’s paper she found the
list, including the error; the proof was conclusive.
She thought, “Thurman has already had one smart blow from me today. I’ll
mark his paper off 20% for cheating. That gives him two penalties. But
Clarabelle! She’s taken a fancy to that boy and stops at nothing. I must
give her a penalty.”
Next morning she confronted her pupil with the evidence and gave her a
choice between two alternatives: to write a letter describing her act of
helping another to cheat and to read it to the pupils in her room; or
she might face the superintendent with Miss Justin, who would tell the
story and abide by his decision.
Clarabelle got permission to take a day for deliberation. Her parents
were angered and decided to take her out of school. She never returned.