Chapter 9: What the Files Said
The public records request came back in eleven days.
Rochelle called Diane on a Thursday afternoon, and the flatness in her voice said everything before the words did.
"I have the files," Rochelle said.
"Can you come to my office?"
Diane arranged for Marcus to go to a neighbor's after school.
She took the bus to Rochelle's office on the fourth floor of a building downtown, sat across from her at a desk covered in neat stacks of paper, and read.
The first complaint had been filed seven years ago by a parent named Gloria Watkins.
Her daughter, a ten-year-old named Simone, had come home and told her mother that Mrs.
Gallagher had told the class that some students had to work twice as hard because they started with less natural ability.
Simone had been the only Black student in the class that year.
The complaint had been reviewed by the then-assistant principal, a man named Robert Fielding.
His written response, dated twelve days after the complaint was filed, read: *After speaking with Mrs.
Gallagher and reviewing the classroom context, I find no evidence of discriminatory intent.
Matter resolved.*
Diane set the page down.
"He spoke to Mrs.
Gallagher," she said.
"That's the entire investigation," Rochelle confirmed.
The second complaint had been filed four years ago.
A parent named David Osei.
His son, a boy named Kwame, had been made to stand at the front of the class and read aloud from a passage he had not been given advance notice of — a passage, his father noted, that contained historical descriptions of enslaved people.
When Kwame stumbled over a word, Mrs.
Gallagher had said, in front of the class, that perhaps he should practice reading at home more.
The complaint had been reviewed by Principal Hargrove himself.
His written response: *I have spoken with Mrs.
Gallagher regarding appropriate classroom material selection.
She has acknowledged the concern and committed to greater sensitivity in future lesson planning.
Matter resolved.*
Diane read that one twice.
"Hargrove knew," she said.
"He knew something was wrong," Rochelle said carefully.
"Whether he understood the full pattern — that's what the investigation will need to determine."
"He sat across from me in his office and told me this would be a thorough and transparent investigation." Diane's voice was even.
"He was one of the people who decided to leave her in that room."
Rochelle didn't contradict her.
"There's one more," Rochelle said.
She slid a third page across the desk.
This one wasn't a formal complaint.
It was an internal email, obtained through the records request, sent by a teaching aide named Carol Simms to Principal Hargrove fourteen months ago.
It was three sentences long.
*Gerald — I want to flag something I overheard in Patricia's classroom last week.
I don't want to make a formal complaint but I think you should know.
She told a student, and I'm quoting directly: "Children like you do better in different environments."*
Below it, Hargrove's reply: *Thanks for letting me know, Carol.
I'll have a word.*
No follow-up.
No documentation.
No record of any conversation.
Diane set the page down on top of the others.
"Children like you," she said quietly.
"Yes," Rochelle said.
Neither of them spoke for a moment.
"Gloria Watkins," Diane said.
"David Osei.
Do you have contact information?"
May you like
Rochelle opened a folder.
"I was hoping you'd ask that."
