Return Day Number One

The first day in the CSB student “readmission” process occurred today, with senior classes (S4 and S6) getting first priority in view of their exam preparation.  All in all, the board had a good idea in calling parents and students together in this way.  Kevin, Scott, and anyone else who cared to air their views, all got ample time to speak, including a half dozen or more parents, a handful of staff, and even a couple of students over the course of a four to five hour assembly.  I’m not feeling too well so I mostly sat and listened and tried to discern cultural nuances as people told proverbs whose point eluded me (though everyone else would laugh knowingly).  Basically the parent take on events was:  thank God and thank Kevin that the students were sent home before they caused real damage thereby incurring expenses for their parents, and now you students we know that injustice happens but stop whining and just buckle down to your studies so you can finish and succeed, we’ve all been disciplined and it did us good, so get on with it.  The student take was muted, since few spoke, but I still sense unease.  The staff take was that they can’t do their job if students are undisciplined and dangerous, that they care about students but they won’t put up with demanding attitudes and certainly not with violence.  Scott’s plea was for everyone to realize they are on the same team, but I think we’re a long ways from achieving that.  The staff have been too scared, too pushed into the corner by the threat of harm.  They want a few students to be identified and expelled.  They spoke of their hearts remaining open, but it will take a miracle of prayer and forgiveness for that to really happen.  What did come out of today was a peaceful return, a severe reprimand to students, a clarification that students can not control the school, and a general appreciation and alliance between parents and teachers.  

Personally I am relieved that it went as well as it did.  The process has been a far cry from the Peacemaker ideal that we are studying, but perhaps as close as we can come given the maturity and experience of the staff and the students.  Discipline requires mutual love and respect.  I fail my children, and they rebel against me, but we have the permanent commitment to continue on in relationship.  How that plays out at a boarding school where most of the staff are too young to be parents, and most of the students have lacked genuine parental input over the course of their lives, remains to be seen.  My personal students had been questioned and singled out as potential ring-leaders, so I went into the day with the sickening dread that one or more could be expelled, a tragedy for their lives as well as for my kids’ cross-cultural friendships and trust.  So far so good, the three in S4 and S6 are all readmitted, though the ominous mention of “ongoing investigation” continues.  The S1 class will return Friday, S2’s Monday, finishing with S3 and S5 Wednesday a week from today.  We are praying for genuine reconciliation, and for faith to believe it can happen.