“They’ll paint you as unstable to discredit the report on Dorsey.

The narrative writes itself: troubled teacher fixates on a little girl, harasses the family, gets suspended. It’s retaliation, and it’s an old playbook.” “So what do we do?” “We don’t play defense.

We corroborate — inside that building.

Do you have anyone?”

I sat with that for a moment, because it clarified something I had felt but hadn’t been able to name.

From the outside, what was being done to me looked like a series of separate misfortunes — a suspicious mother, a nervous principal, a hard-eyed lawyer, an old cleared file surfacing at the worst possible time.