The Fight by Elizabeth Karre

Author:Elizabeth Karre
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lerner Publishing Group

“W

e’ll get together again soon!” Zoe called out as everyone split up. She fell into step with me. “Need a ride home?”

“Uh, OK,” I said. The girl I thought was Zoe’s girlfriend had disappeared. Zoe led me to her car in the parking lot.

“So, my mom wants to tell someone that no adult helped Dominic, but I told her she can’t because then his parents would find out,” I said as Zoe backed her car out.

“Yeah, the teachers and administrators not helping kids who are being bullied for being gay is the biggest problem,” she said. “I mean, for some of us. Some of us don’t get as much hassle, maybe just because we’re more confident or whatever. But I worry about kids like Emilio and Nessa. I think they’ve had some problems.”

Nessa must have been one of the girls at the meeting, I thought. “So does Mr. Salazar stand up for kids if they’re called names?” I asked.

Zoe twisted her mouth like before. “I’ve seen him be a pansy about it.” She stopped and snorted. “You know what I mean. He tells kids to knock it off, but he doesn’t really address it. Not like I think he would if it were something else. Like calling someone—” she looked at me. “You know, a racist name or something. Where do you live again?”

When I was getting out of the car, Zoe leaned over to look at me. “Hey, if your mom is cool and like into PTA stuff, maybe you could ask her if there’s something going on, something big. I think there’s something the teachers and stuff are scared about. I’ll ask my parents too. And the GSA will meet again, soon. Bye.”

Before my mom got home, I spent some time thinking about what to tell her. She was into PTA stuff and did know a lot of people. I wasn’t going to mention the GSA meeting, though. I wasn’t sure why I didn’t want to tell her about it.

I talked to her while she was making dinner so she was a little distracted.

“So I was talking to some other kids about Dominic being bullied,” I said. “And it sounds like other kids have had problems and the teachers haven’t really helped. And Matteo said all the gay people were missing from my Harlem Renaissance unit. And the band’s not playing Aaron Copland. So do you think that there’s like a thing about gay people in the school?”

Mom looked up from her recipe. “What? Honey, I’m confused.” She turned to the cupboard. “Two tablespoons,” she muttered.

“Like maybe it’s the principal who hates gay people and all the teachers and administrators know that,” I said.

My mom looked skeptical. “Even if that were true, the principal can’t … there are policies about bullying and what has to be covered in the curriculum…”

She looked thoughtful for a moment. “But there was that group of parents last year who were really vocal about something at the school having to do with … homosexuality.

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