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came to get me out of class. It was a long walk down the hall because I didn’t know what to expect, but the meeting went much better than I thought it would.
    Mr. Gardner asked what happened, and I explained about Nate (Spencer had already ratted on him) and how his making fun of us got all the kids aroLife is so unfair. I wish I Life is so unfair. I wish I Life is so unfair. I wish I und us laughing. Mr. Gardner wanted to know who the kids were, and I said it’s a different group every day, and that it would be too hard to single out anyone. Allen then piped up and said if Nate found out we told on him, he might beat the crap out of us. Allen said he wanted to forget about the whole thing, and I agreed.
    Allen’s dad said he wanted to have a meeting with Nate and his parents. Allen and I tried to convince him it would be the biggest mistake in the world to do that. My dad said we need to learn how to deal with Nate, because the world is full of Nates.
    Mr. Gardner is a pretty cool guy, and he said that he understood how we felt, because he was a fat kid in high school. He’s still pretty heavy, but no one wanted to point out the obvious. Besides, it’s not as bad for adults, especially principals. I know it’s a stereotype, but I bet there are more fat principals than skinny ones. Let’s face it, kids are more accepting of heavy adults than heavy kids. Half the parents at our school are overweight, but you don’t really notice. With kids it’s different—there aren’t as many of us, though Mr. Gardner said that’s starting to change, which isn’t a good thing.
    Allen’s parents said they thought the teachers should do a better job monitoring the students’ behavior, and that Allen and I shouldn’t have to worry about being picked on all the time. Mr. Gardner agreed. He said he’s really been on the teachers’ cases about watching for kids harassing others. He thinks he sees an improvement and hasn’t had any real complaints until this incident. (I wanted to bring up Mr. L and how Nate gets away with murder in his class, but didn’t think it would change anything.) Mr. Gardner said he’s going to put more teachers on cafeteria duty now that’s he’s aware of the problem. I wanted to point out that more teachers wouldn’t help that much, because most of them just stand around talking to one another, rather than watching the kids. Unless you have teachers sitting on lifeguard stands and carrying paintball guns, kids are going to get away with stuff.
    My dad must have read my mind, because he said putting more teachers in the cafeteria doesn’t really fix the problem. He said moral issues, like how to treat one another, should be discussed more often. My dad suggested teachers discuss some of these issues in homeroom. That way kids could talk about things like bullying and low self-esteem, and then maybe kids would get a glimpse of how the picked-on kids feel.
    Mr. Gardner said he thought my dad’s ideas were all good ones, but because it’s a public school, the law won’t allow that kind of teaching. It’s too much like religion and there isn’t time with all that the teachers have to cover. My dad shook his head and said, “That’s ridiculous. I’m not talking about teaching religion, but simple respect for humanity. Since when is the golden rule religion?”
    Mr. Gardner again agreed with my dad, but said any teaching outside the curriculum would get a teacher fired, so most teachers stick with what is safe. I thought about some of the things you say in class, and they definitely are not safe. Like what you said about Pap and how he picks on Huck Finn. He bullies Huck because he’s insecure about himself. That made me see Nate in a whole new light. I think he picks on people because he wants to look cool in front of the girls. If he thought he was already cool, he wouldn’t need to