Page 102 - The Mending Season

People’s voices rose. “What did she do?”“She wouldn’t just attack her. What did the White girl do?” “She didn’t like her? Ao\ No, no. What did she do? She didsomething.”“I don’t think she did anything. Our children are not alwaysfree from blame.”This was coming from the same person who had said that our children were not always “well behaved”.It was the first time that I had appreciated elders speaking as if I was not there. I did not want to say anything. I imag­ ined for a moment that the paper was speaking about another school. After all, what had happened at our school was surely not big enough to make newspaper headlines? Then I remem­ bered Sister Cecilia saying that the appointment of our new, non-White head girl had been announced in the same paper.Finally someone said, “Let’s hear what the paper says”, and people gave the woman with the paper a chance to read.The Black girl - said to have been in the schoolfor afew years - comesfrom a single-parent home. Her mother has sofa r not come to apologize or speak on her child's behalf. The White girlsparents have been in constant touch with the school. Their daughter is one o fthe school's best athletes and has won several awards. Both have taken time awayfrom their busy lives to have aface-to-face meet­ ing with the schoolprincipal.Mrs Allison, the principal\ said\ “We deeply regret any distress that this may have caused thefamily. This is a well-integrated school\ and we do not believe this was a racial issue. Our students are o f many different colours. They work and play side by side every day. There have been no racial tensions thusfar."Theparents maintain that the attack had everything to do with their child's skin colour. They are looking into takingpossible legal action against the school.102