After the FES meeting ends, the parish office receives a report of unethical conduct regarding Marianne as it relates to the entire process of selecting who will attend VA next Fall on exchange.
Then, back from the holidays, a student in French II asks for help with vocabulary when the student is doing an exercise in past tenses in French:
"Comment on dit I bet en français?" (How do we say "I bet" in French?) the student asks her, not knowing much.
"Il y a plusieurs traductions possibles. Parier, miser ou gager. Mais les plus formelles sont parier ou miser" (There are several possible translations: parier, miser ou gager. But the more formal ones are parier or miser).
"Alors j'ai parié que..."(Then I bet that..) the student continues rambling about what he was going to write on the worksheet, before Flo moves to another student asking for help on that exercise.
"Tu as parié quoi?" (What did you bet?) his neighbor asks him, upon overhearing that he made a bet.
I didn't bet with or on my current neighbor, but I still bet with someone else in this class. Time to finish the exercise in past tenses and write sentences that show when to use which past tense; there are three of these that matter for this course, imparfait, passé simple and passé composé, the student then proceeds to write on another piece of paper that he lost his bet, in French, without being more specific as to the nature of the bet. But before he can do anything with that handwritten note, he finishes the exercise.
When he finished the exercise, he promptly throws the handwritten note, under the form of a paper plane, in the direction of the winning bettor. However, the plane in flight catches Flo's eye and then the losing bettor senses trouble brewing.
"J'ai perdu mon pari..." (I lost my wager) the student throwing the paper plane sighs when he gets caught.
"Peu importe ce que tu as parié, ou sur quoi, les paris sont interdits ici! Tu vas aller au bureau de la directrice, maintenant!" (No matter what you bet, or what you bet on, gambling is not allowed here! You will go to the principal's office, now!) Flo warns the plane thrower.
As per usual for when a student is taken to the principal's office, the rest of the class seems to take it easy, and complete work for this course or for other courses, depending on the student.
When that student arrives at the principal's office, he can tell something's coming for him. And nothing good.
"I caught him throwing a note in a paper plane in French class, and apparently the plane contains evidence that he lost a bet and hence was gambling" Flo explains to the principal, showing her angry face.
"Before I can judge whether the gambling charge is appropriate, bring in the person with whom the bet was made" Marianne orders Flo, who promptly left the office to return to the classroom and fetch the plane's recipient.
Gambling? Wattpad High had a few students eating suspensions for gambling. Most students who got caught gambling made romance-based wagers, and a few others sought to punish gamblers to earn back what they lost, Marianne muses while awaiting the arrival of the other party in the alleged gambling. So-called bad boys often made bets on whether they can get particular girls to have sex or dates with them, usually girls who actually put in the work in class.
When the winner of that particular bet arrives a few minutes later, Marianne is left wondering if the charge Florence accuses him of is warranted.
"Let me make this clear: if there is no wager, and he only threw a paper plane, he will only be punished for disrupting the class" Marianne lays down the possible punishments of the plane thrower. The winner of the bet arrives, paper plane in hand:
"Why did you drag me here after losing the wager?" the winner asks the loser. "You lost the bet, you owe me..." he is interrupted by the principal.
"What did you wager about?" Marianne asks the two boys, believing it's key to determine their punishments.
"It's about whether he could both date and have sex with..." the winner then names a junior girl, Marissa, whom the pair believed she should get sexual experience before graduation.
The two boys fight over their share of responsibility over the wager. However, in doing so, they are just digging deeper into trouble. Grave-deep almost.
Flo leaves early in the fight, bewildered by just how much room romance and sex can take in the lives of those who aren't anywhere close to her high school self. And also because she believed it was an issue she had no further involvement. I knew teenagers are going to get in trouble to varying degrees, but until now, I believed that romance-induced discipline problems occurred anywhere but in class. Maybe I got lucky, even though French is one of the languages people associate with romance. However, there are no more cliques today than there were in my student days here, Florence starts getting her inner dialogue going before the next stage of the lesson starts.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Meanwhile, as the two boys keep fighting each other in the principal's office... they only delay the inevitable.
"So let me get this straight. You had this kid here attempt to have sex with one of our quiz bowlers so that you can provoke a love triangle with our first chair drummer!" Marianne is about to scream, filled with rage against the two would-be bad boys.
At Wattpad High, nearly all love triangles that caused discipline problems had two boys fighting for a girl's attention. Here, while it still happens, at least it's better balanced; this one was about causing a second girl to fight for one of the culprits' attention. Maybe the differences between VA and Wattpad are mostly confined to the academic arena, the principal then proceeds to open the PA system. And meting out punishment openly for everyone to know.
"Attention all students, starting today, gambling will no longer be tolerated on campus! Because we caught..." Marianne then lists the infractions committed by the two bad boys, along with their names. "Since they attempted to provoke a love triangle by less than savory means, they're both suspended out-of-school for three days! Any future student caught gambling will be suspended out of school for at least one day"
While teachers still learn from their students, what teachers actually learn from students just won't be the same as what they learn from us! Because my interactions with the students are mostly either in class or on the debate team, I deal with their romantic lives indirectly only, Flo sighs upon hearing about the suspension of the bad boys for a romantic wager. While being sexually active wasn't a big deal for me, and, really, the entire upper crust of the VA academic hierarchy back then, I didn't keep tabs on their sex lives at all.
Then, at recess, the junior female quiz bowler comes to Flo, beaming with gratitude for the condemnation of the two boys who made her last semester a nightmare.
"Thank you. They got what they deserved" Marissa, the junior female quiz bowler, then tells Flo, also taking French II, just not in the same section as those two boys.
"I admit that I am a bit puzzled by their actions, all I knew was that dating was so important to so many, and now I realize that some people would prefer dating a better student over being a better student themselves. Because there's a wide academic gap between you and these two boys"
"Now I understand why that guy tried so desperately to date me! He needed help!"
"However, please understand that not all boys are as relationship-obsessed as these two" Flo starts giving out some wisdom.
Then she starts thinking of new ideas for stuff such as the old-fashioned dictation, to be done during the next session, and for all sections of both her courses. Including but not limited to, the prevention of sexually transmitted infections, or STIs, so long as she remains within the parameters given by the law and, in the case of STI prevention, it's medically accurate. Because she has come to realize, from what has transpired in the principal's office, that her students are actually more sexually active than she initially believed.
Speaking of STI protection, Louisiana law makes no provision in whether to teach it, and when, so she assumes that she is allowed to cover it in a dictation.
-----------------------
When the next scheduled dictation occurs, one week later, she made sure to preface the dictation of the day by a remark about the balance between relationships and life outside of a relationship. Because it's something she believes students would do well to learn.
"Avant que la dictée commence, je dois vous avertir. Vous en êtes peut-être à vos premières expériences en amour, mais il ne faut pas sacrifier ses besoins et désirs personnels pour être ou rester en couple!" (Before the dictation begins, I must warn you. You might have your first experiences with love, but you must not sacrifice personal needs and wants to be or stay in a relationship!) Flo warns her students before the dictation begins.
Several students feel a little unwell about being told the cold, hard truth about safe sex. Or where sexual safety fits in healthy living. And a few may even start questioning why Flo can suddenly start teaching sex ed in their minds, or at least where the content of the dictation comes from. But they refrain from doing so until it ends.
"Pourquoi parler d'ITS et de condoms?" (Why talk about STIs and condoms?) a student asks a question about the dictation before the grading period for it begins.
"Qui es-tu pour parler d'ITS et de condoms?" (Who are you to talk about STIs and condoms?) another student asks, believing Flo is covering topics out of her area of expertise.
"Personne d'autre ne voulait couvrir les ITS et comment les prévenir; prévenir les ITS vous permet de faire l'amour et d'avoir le maximum de vos relations amoureuses, s'il y a lieu, en toute sécurité!" (No one else wanted to cover STIs and how to prevent them; preventing STIs allow you to have sex and safely make the most out of your relationships, if any!)
The answer key to this dictation is actually a Quebec government page on this very topic, which is shown on the screen for everyone to see. The most advanced 2 French courses on offer have both become monsters in that in-class material covers a wide range of topics parents deem important to cover, but other teachers are unwilling or unable to cover, the students start finding where they got spelling, grammar and syntax wrong on their own copies. At the end of the class...
"Unlike the French I teacher, at least you're willing to have us read or write about topics our parents know are important going forward; the French I teacher would prefer to have us read about culture and history" Marissa comments on how her French teachers have changed from oneto the other. "If I have enough room to take AP French next year, I will take it"