Roland Yardley was referred to the state bar and to prosecutors on conspiracy and obstruction counts; leaking a cleared personnel file to smear a mandated reporter turns out to be the kind of thing that ends a legal career rather than a teaching one.

The district, suddenly and loudly contrite, asked me to come back — a settlement, a public apology, Delia reinstated with back pay.

I said yes on one condition: that Halcombe’s office be gutted and turned into something useful.

A full-time child-advocacy counselor now works in that room, with a real budget and a door that stays open, so that the next child who cannot sit down has somewhere to go besides the back of a classroom and the mercy of one teacher who happened to be paying attention.

I insisted on that condition for a reason I tried, badly, to explain to the board when they asked why a settlement wasn’t enough.

A settlement is a check written to make a lawsuit go away; it changes a ledger and nothing else.