I had written things down on a piece of paper.

And within about four minutes I found myself in a conversation I had not prepared for, because Mr.

Buchwald asked me a question that I have since learned is the standard question and that every parent in this situation gets asked.

He asked what Julian wanted.

Not unkindly.

It is not a stupid question.

It is, in fact, a question that good practice requires you to ask, because a fifteen-year-old who is dragged into an office and identified as a complainant can have a substantially worse week afterward, and any administrator who has been doing this for more than a year knows it.

And the answer was that Julian did not want anything to happen.