“Were you threatened if you told?”

“Yes.”

She wrote everything down.

That was the first time I realized how dangerous language like “tradition” could become.

Call it hazing, and adults start picturing embarrassing haircuts.

Call it what happened?

Five older students restrained a fourteen-year-old and intentionally burned him.

Words determine what people are willing to see.

PART 9 — PRINCIPAL HOLLOWAY

Dennis Holloway met me the next morning.