So the whole week goes by and I hear almost nothing from Hil. I think Lars has her on lock down. The less she talks to me about the problem, the more we can pretend it does not exist.

But on Friday, when the kids joyously return to me, I get the skinny.

While I have been playing a game of semantics all week with McDuff, who has this supremely annoying habit of inserting statements within the text of the email he’s received and then replying to it, making it very hard to understand what on Earth he’s babbling incoherently about in his pseudo-intellectual game, Esther the Molester was temporarily removed from class.

But two days later, with Hil’s chutzpah back up to normal levels, we all agreed Esther could return to Art class so long as the teacher kept them separated (no joint mosaic projects, for instance) and there was no contact during class time.

While I was searching the school district website for the elusive student-against-student harassment/bullying complaint form or the electronic submission system McDuff “had in the works” 8 months ago, or some indication where at school Hil might grab a few of these forms, (one for now, and a few for the situations that are bound to happen later…) Hil was sweating it out in Art class evidently.

Seems either the teacher was not apprised of her role as traffic cop when Esther returned to class, or she was incapable of performing the role. And perhaps Esther did not get the memo, or simply chose to ignore it. Because for two days in a row, Esther came and sat next to Hil and talked to everyone around her for a few minutes during some free-for-all period of time in class. And on another day, simply asked the other kids are Hil’s table if she could join them and pulled up a chair and studiously attended class elbow distance from Hil, who felt powerless to object.

Finally, after several emails back and forth, I get the form in a pdf attached to an email. The email, incredulously references the insipid poster I railed against last year. It apparently leads the kids down a trail of breadcrumbs to the idiotic form.

And I in turn, send my own email to the Principal Short-timer and Mrs. Nilan, in response to the one where Mrs. Nilan had told me about the plan to reintroduce Esther to civilian life:

"My impression from this email is that Esther would understand that she is to have no contact with Hil and her admission to Art hinges on that agreement.

She evidently is unaware or has no intention of complying, as today, she asked to join Hil’s and table in Art class and one of the kids agreed to have her join them.

Hil felt unable to object. The teacher should have.

Please remove Esther once again from the class. She can not be trusted to comply and the school is not capable to ensure that that she does.

Please confirm your understanding of this request."

In the mean time, McDuff is hatching a plan.