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First, I'd like to thank all the readers following the Princess series and for their comments. I also want to thank Sephrena for all her hard work with this story. We've had our ups and downs with regard to where I want the story to go, and if I agree with her point of view then I'll allow it into the story. Last night Sephrena called me to look at what she had done and sent an Email of the latest chapter. I explained that I had guests and would look at it in the morning, but no sooner, but that I trusted her judgement on where the story is going, so I released it to be posted. There were things I didn't like about the rewrite, but that's neither here nor there. Please don't get the idea that I felt it was poorly written, because it wasn't. Some of what I was trying to convey was lost in the translation and that's all. Shame on me. I won't release another chapter until I'm satisfied with where it's going. Secondly, some readers are upset with Lynn's mother for her hard line stance with Miss Benson. You know what? I would be too. As a parent, I have six kids, so I've been there and done that. I'll relate a story about my son which pretty much sums up how I feel about Susan Collins anger. My son attended School of the Arts in San Francisco, SOTA, for short. He was a miserable student and lucky to get C's and D's. There was one thing he excelled at though, singing and acting. All lead parts in school musicals were done by Seniors and the rest by whom ever past the audition. Erik landed the part of Tony in Westside Story as a Junior. During his Senior year The play Guys and Dolls was planed around him. His part was Sky Masterson, the lead. The report card before the play was to open came home and Erik had fallen below the magical 2.0 grade average, which meant he would be out of the play. My wife and I were fine about that as it would be a good lesson for Erik that with effort or lack of there are consequences. The next day the school called and said it would be all right if Erik was still in the play. Sorry, we said, but that wouldn't be right and he was out of the production. They set up a meeting and begged us to let Erik remain in the play. No way was our reply. We told the school flat out that he didn't deserve to be in the play because of his grades. It was at that point they begged us and asked if he brought his grades up above 2.0 could he then perform? They also mentioned that the play would have been canceled if he couldn't perform. I don't know if that was true or not, but we relented. The school had one on one sessions with Erik until his grade went above 2.0. During the meeting my wife and I both were less than quiet about how we felt concerning the matter. Now concerning Lynn Collins, if she was my son or daughter and what had happened to her, I too would have gone ballistic. I know there are lots that will disagree with me, but, Susan didn't go off on Lynn, but the person that should have known better that to screw with a students head. Finally, remember, this is just FICTION. If the improbable didn't happen there wouldn't be a story and it wouldn't give us a reason to vent. I love you all, Arecee
Comments
Simular Case
Arecee, I had the same thing happen (Not a Gender Problem, But simular) to one of my three boys also and I know if what happen with Lynn, I would of felt the same way! A Friend; Richard
Richard
Arecee - I am in complete agreement with you as a parent.
Arecee,
I completely agree with you as a parent. Oh, it probably could have been said a little more civily, but the fact of the matter, is the principal was wrong, 100% here.
There should have been no option for Lynn and Mandy, but to come clean, and be exposed to the school. Yes it would be embarassing for the school, and probably would have been almost a reward in part to them since that was what the prank was all about after all. But to allow them to continue on with the charade, and to encourage it by providing breast forms and additional money for the purchase of clothing, well... I'd be calling for her head.
The ONLY reason for Susan to back off at this point is that it would be somewhat dangerous for Lynn to now be outed to the school, since she has decided this is the path she needs to take.
I actually just started reading this a few days ago, and had not had a chance to comment on the chapter, this probably should have gone there, but since you brought it up here...
Anyway, so far I am enjoying the story. I had not read the original, and it is tempting to go read ahead in it, but I'm determined to be good and wait..
Hugs,
Kristy
I have to accept the blame
because in all reality, the few things Arecee is upset about is still present in the chapter. We should have gone over it. I should have insisted more. But I cannot demand it. I am happy Arecee will now sit, read and discuss these now with me to ensure they are in fact how he wanted it. This is his story and I wanted his final satisfaction and stamp of approval on my cleaning up of his script for each chapter. I wanted that from the beginning. It just wasn't so for every chapter.
As he mentioned, it will not affect the story in terms of where its going, its more like choice of wording on a few things and in one case, I did accidentally change a word that was critical, as I was not careful enough in my proofing and thought I saw it as something else, so it changed what Arecee wanted to express.
In all 7 errors are present in chapter 10. The intent and idea of the chapter are really about the same, including Ms. Collin's argument with Ms. Benson. What is in disagreement, is minor to this chapter, but critical for future chapters.
You also have to understand that Arecee is writing this in his spare time between his work and family life which consumes a lot of his time. So I do have to decipher and go back to make sure names match and some dates and things like this. For the most part, I catch those easily because I have a list of chaps the characters the intent and the subplots.
But ultimately, all of this, is my failure. I should have been more insistent, I should have purposefully not posted and waited. I would have been going against the author's wishes, but then he would have been able to go back over and provide the needed feedback and stamp his approval on my cleaning. Something.
I'm sorry Dad. But it is... my fault.
Sephrena Lynn Miller
BigCloset TopShelf
TGLibrary.com
Susan Collins Anger
Good for her going off on the principal; teachers and school officials are supposed to act in the best interest of their students and parents should do what they can to make sure that the interests of the students are put first, not the interests of the school or the professional "face" its teachers and administrators. I don't know of any school that doesn't require parental consent for participation in extra curricular activities. If Mindy and Lynn forged parental consent, then the moment they admitted the truth, Ms. Benson would have known that there was no parental consent and she had a legal obligation to inform and involve Lynn's mother. It appears that Ms. Benson really was more interested in covering her own backside than protecting the school.
What Ms. Benson did in the story was abuse because it put Lynn at risk. It doesn't matter that it helped Lynn realize her truth, it put her at risk. What if some of the boys on the team wanted to go after her? What if the coach had an ax to grind because of the "deception" and encouraged her former team mates to attack Lynn? What if there had been a slip up at one of the events and Lynn was outed? Aside from the issue of consent for participation in extra curricular events, Lynn's mother should have been part of what was going on from the moment that Lynn and Mindy copped to the truth because of the risks to Lynn as well as her having to present as female for the rest of the semester.
Reading how Lynn's mother reacted towards the principal triggered memories that literally brought tears to my eyes because of how I was treated in school. I always did my schoolwork and was prepared. Even in elementary school this was enough to piss off the kids in my class who were the jocks because none of them really cared about academics so I was on their shit list for making things harder for them. A week after I started 5th grade, my family moved and I was enrolled in a new school. My new teacher took an instant dislike to me. She was verbally and emotionally abusive to me in class. Of course that gave the jocks in my new class license to make my life even more miserable- before, during and after school. My mother didn't believe it because "a teacher would never do anything like that" even though I came home from school crying and depressed and for the first time in my life didn't want to go to school. The same teacher falsified my grades and test scores and what should have been A's and B's were C's and D's and then convinced my mother that I needed to be put in a lower grade for the rest of the year to get me out of her class. I had to go to summer school to make up the grade. My mother told me that she had never been so embarrassed in her life and because of the shame I put her through, I was grounded from the day I was taken out of that teacher's class until I finished summer school and made up the grade. After that experience, school was a chore and it was difficult for me to trust teachers, even the ones who were trying to help me. My grades were always pretty good, but I didn't do any more than I really had to to get my grades.
30 years later, I was at my mother's house when I saw the teacher's obit in the paper. I made a snide comment under my breath and my mother asked what was going on so I told her. She then made a nasty comment about the teacher and I asked her why she said that. She then told me that my 6th grade teacher (this was long before there were middle schools) couldn't understand why I had such low grades and that it was unheard of to demote someone the way I was. She took it upon herself to find out the truth and looked at test records, the many surviving examples of my school work, etc. and told my mother what really happened; she even told my mother that, when she asked my former teacher about me, the teacher got angry and went on a rant about how horrible it had been having a student transferred into her class after the semester began and if that wasn't bad enough, I was a terrible student a disciplinary problem and that there was something wrong with me. I asked my mother why she hadn't told me sooner, she said that there was nothing that could be done by the time she was told the truth. I asked her how come she ignored all my pain and problems that I had with the teacher and she said children always have problems with teachers and how was she to know. To her dying day, my mother never apologized for not telling me the truth for all those years, much less for not questioning why, all of a sudden I went from being a good student to being an underachiever and disciplinary problem.
Arecee, you have made Lynn's mom a very good example of a parent who will advocate for what is right for her child. The real world needs more parents like the one you created for Lynn. If my mother had been half the parent that Lynn's is, I would have that that I had died and gone to heaven. Keep up the good work.