SSC 2010: Defiance: A Story of Courage, by JC Leonhardt

"Pardon me, young lady, but we do not wear head coverings in the classroom. Remove your scarf at once, please."

Tarja had stood there defiantly at the back of the classroom and said no.

"Excuse me? I don't believe I heard that correctly."

"I said no. I won't remove my hijab."

And that was the end of that. Her teacher had ordered her to the principal's office and she had obeyed.

She recalled the titters from the rest of the girls in the classroom, their teasing comments.

Oh, she's in for it now...

She's really asking for it...

He won't go easy on her...

She didn't care. She was proud of who she was. No authority figure in any school could take that from her.

She had waited several minutes on the hard wooden bench outside the office before Mr. Richards called her in.

"So, you were sent here for dress code violation, I understand?"

"Yes," she replied.

"Of course, you know that wearing any kind of head covering inside the classroom is a violation of school policy?"

Of course she knew. But even within rules, there was still honor. Still, she doubted Mr. Richards would understand. No one had so far since she arrived in America.

"I am not allowed to remove my hijab. It is a matter of decency and respect for my religion."

"I don't think I need remind you, young lady, that we here in America follow separation of church and state and that as long as you are in this institution you will adhere to our rules. Is that understood?"

His tone was stern, his words firm.

"Now, I will give you one last chance. Remove you scarf or face the consequences."

Tarja remained perfectly still, defiant amidst the intolerance.

"No. I will not."

Mr. Richards had simply nodded at her response and withdrew the hickory stick from the cupboard.

"Remove your bottoms, including your underpants."

Tarja didn't know how to respond to this command. She reflected on what her parents had taught her about modesty- because of this, she had been very careful not to reveal herself in public. She had never exposed her lower regions to a boy, unlike many other girls she knew.

After a brief moment, she began removing her skirt and underpants slowly, one at a time.

She was now standing bottomless before Mr. Richards, who inspected her up and down.

How uncomfortable she had felt, standing there like that before a strange man.

"Turn around and face the desk, then bend over."

She did as she was told.

Smack after smack rained down on her backside, the agony almost unbearable. She didn't know what was worse- the pain of the blows or the shame of her nakedness. Later, she would find out.

Sitting on a rock, outside the schoolyard, the girls approached her.

"So, how was it?" one of the girls had asked, mockingly. "Was it fun?"

"I'm surprised she can still sit after that," the other said, before they pranced off, laughing.

He had hurt her, she thought. But she hadn't removed her hijab.

He had hurt her, but her pride remained intact.

Crimson Kid email

This story seemed to reverse itself in tone about two-thirds of the way through reading it, which somewhat jarred my perceptions.

It started out as a fairly realistic narrative dealing with a serious social and political issue, the question of majority rule (via institutional restrictions on student dress) vs, minority rights (individual religious practice), and I was willing to engage in the moderate 'suspension of disbelief' required to accept a female student being paddled over her clothing in a modern-day public school.

However, once the schoolgirl protagonist (Tarja) was instructed by the male principal to remove her skirt and panties, exposing not only her buttocks but even her genitals to his gaze, that stretched my 'suspension of disbelief' to the snapping point in what seemingly had started out as a rather somber treatment of a difficult legal issue. In a lighthearted, none-too-serious 'fantasy fodder' story I might've been able to psychologically deal with the extreme unreality of such an embarrassing (and unethical) paddling, but not in this context--especially as the narrative ended realistically by expressing the punished girl's sullen but resolute attitude towards her humbling (yet also strengthening) experience.

To give the author credit, in this scenario a sound spanking was the obvious choice of discipline in a case wherein assigning detentions or suspending the student could (and likely would) have been subject to reversal by higher educational authorities, thereby weakening the unfair treatment's effect. Once the paddling had been administered it couldn't be rescinded, in the sense of the victim's physical and psychological pain being eliminated retroactively--Tarja's sore seat and sense of humiliation wouldn't disappear even if the principal were to lose his job and face criminal charges, which in a RL situation would be highly probable.

I obviously would've been more impressed with this story if the protagonist's corporal punishment had matched the realism of the rest of the narrative...