Hellside Elementary

By Sylvia Griffin

Organized crime tries to take over the public school where Linda Garza, a fifth grade teacher and Carlos Lopez, a school resource officer, are employed. With the help of the legendary La Llorona, both Linda and Carlos are made aware of those who would turn students into criminals.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Borderline Publishing
• Release date: Sep 20, 2011
• ISBN: 9781936408344

Book preview

Hellside Elementary School

Sylvia Griffin

Published by Borderline Publishing at Smashwords

Copyright 2011 by Sylvia Griffin

Other Books by Sylvia Griffin

The Little Black Schoolhouse

Hellside Elementary School

terraspace.orb

Play by Sylvia Griffin with music by Mark Griffin

Memorandum: Murder

Musical with script and lyrics by Sylvia Griffin and music by Mark Griffin

Once Upon a Trial or Storybook Scandals

This book is dedicated to my father and mother, my first teachers.

Contents

THE ASSOCIATION

THE POLICE

DR MATTHEW BROWN

GREGORY BURKE

QUESTIONS

ANSWERS

A NEW SCHOOL YEAR

THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

THE SECOND DAY OFSCHOOL

BEREAVEMENT

THE STUFFED CAT

LUNCH

THANKSGIVING

THE NEW DRUG COMBINATION

BARBARA GIBBS

AFTERMATH

CHRISTMAS

SCHOOL, AS USUAL?

THE PLUMED SERPENT

LEONARD RICHTER

THE ASSOCIATION

The man known as Al sat in his office looking puzzled as he listened to what Eddy was telling him.

Honest, Al. I’m tellin’ it ta ya straight. Each one of them Nazis was all there in tha’ Leonard’s house except tha’ Ted Hegel.

Ted Hegel?

"Yeah, ya know, the vice principal.

An’ then this kid walks up ta the house like he’s in a daze an’ goes righ’ in.

No one forced him to go into the house?

No. He was all alone. An’ then tha’ Ted Hegel drives up with tha’ Mexican teacher—ya know, the one who’s engaged ta marry tha’ Leonard—an’ they walks into tha’ house.

Did Ted force her into the house?

"No again. She walks in of her own free will.

"Then after a couple of hours, tha’ Mexican dame an’ tha’ kid walks out an’ goes away. I didn’ follow them ’cause ya tol’ me ta watch that house.

Well, Al, after they leaves, I see all this smoke comin’ from the basement, an’ I heared fire engines. An’ then the whole house explodes. It was a weird explosion, ’cause it shoul’ of been louder, an’ the heat was so terrible. The fire an’ heat didn’ spread ta other houses. It jis’ sort of act’ like it was glue’ right ta tha’ spot in a weird white-hot light that hurt my eyes. An’ then jis’ sudden the light an’ heat stopped an’ I could see. An’ there was nothin’ there! No house! Nothin’! No ashes! Nothin’ but dirt! Nothin’ but dirt! I ain’ never seen nothin’ like it before. It was all gone ’fore the fire engines even got there. It was real scary.

Didn’t Ted, Leonard, that fifth grade teacher Frieda, or any of the school volunteers escape?

Nope, Al. The only ones who ever left was tha’ Mexican dame an’ the kid.

Hmm, said Al. I always knew there was something strange about Linda Garza. Why would she and a Nazi racist plan to marry?

Maybe she didn’ know he was a racist. I think we was the only ones tha’ knew any of them was Nazis.

Al walked over to his office window and stared out into space as though he were in deep thought. Then he said, That could be true. Maybe she didn’t know about him. But it still doesn’t answer the question. Why would Leonard Richter want to marry a brown-skinned Mexican woman?

Fer cover? No one’d suspect a Nazi marrie’ ta a woman who plain ain’ no Aryan.

It’s got to be more than that, Eddy. We won’t be safe until we know the truth about her. She might have been working with them for some unfathomable reason and been fortunate enough to leave before the fire. Or she might have sabotaged that house and only allowed the boy and herself to escape. Either way I’ve got to find out about her and learn what she knows about us.

Why not let well-enough alone, Al? They’re all gone now. They can’t interfere with yer plans. Ya won’ learn anythin’ from her anyways. The school year’s almost over, an’ she’ll be leavin’.

How do you know she’ll be leaving? Al asked, quickly turning away from the window.

Cathy told me. She says their principal Gregory Burke has made tha’ Mexican’s life miserable, ’cause she won’ go ta bed with him. Ya know how he treat’ tha’ readin’ teacher when she wouldn’ give in ta him.

No, I don’t. Al walked back to his chair and sat down. Tell me about the reading teacher, he said.

He trie’ ta git her fire’, but there was too many parents tha’ like the way she teach’ their kids. So he moves her ta the hall ta teach. He don’ let her have more than a desk. No bookcase, no books, nothin’.

What did he do with the teaching materials she did have?

He throw them out and had them burn’.

Didn’t she protest?

She did tha’, but she’s only a teacher. No one take her part. But she not give up. She gits her a bookcase an’ buys more books, but he throw them out too. So then she gives up.

What did they do with the room she did have?

Gave it ta the janitor.

The janitor? Where was the janitor before that? Al persisted.

He was in the furnace room.

He should have stayed there. It is more important for children to learn to read than for a custodian to have an office.

Ta Greg, it’s more important’ ta have a playmate. Only he couldn’t force it on tha’ readin’ teacher. And he ain’ goin’ ta do it ta tha’ Mexican dame. He’ll git her fired, and tha’ll be that.

Al sighed and leaned back in his chair. Well, Cathy should know the way things are at Northside Elementary. I’m glad we placed her in the school. She truly is a gifted and talented teacher. But Gregory Burke is not going to get rid of Linda Garza, at least not until I know what’s going on.

Then Al looked at Eddy and said, Look, I want you to search her apartment and see what you can find out about her.

Sure thing, Al. Good as done.

After Eddy had left, Al thought about his last words Good as done. Al knew those words were true. Eddy is a good man to have working for me, he reflected.

——————

Eddy was a young man in his early twenties, about fifteen years younger than Al. He didn’t really know much about Al except that he worked for him and Al was high up in the Association. He knew Al wasn’t his real name, just as Eddy wasn’t his. When you were underground in the organization, you were given a pseudonym so all the others in the Association couldn’t find out about you. This was a protection against those who might try to betray the organization.

Of course, there were some who had to keep their legal names. Cathy Wright, the gifted and talented teacher at Northside Elementary, and Zane Babcock, who taught sixth grade there, were two members of the Association who had to retain their true names. Neither Cathy nor Zane had ever really wanted to get involved in crime. Cathy was a single mother with one child. Zane had a wife and two children. Both had been struggling to support their families on a teacher’s salary when they supposed they had found a lucrative way to supplement their meager salaries. By the time they were aware of what was going on, it was too late to quit the Association without losing their lives. They accepted this situation by rationalizing their criminal activities as necessary for the survival of their families. It was tolerable to destroy the children of others in order to protect their own offspring. They talked themselves into believing they were only following natural law through providing for one’s own by preying on others.

Eddy hadn’t really wanted to get involved in crime either. He had a brilliant mind in many ways, but in school he had been a failure. He had been good at math, even though he had not learned to read and write well. Spelling had been a complete mystery to him. He had really tried to learn. He wasn’t lazy. He knew he’d had good teachers. But somehow, as hard as he tried, he just couldn’t learn what the other children picked up easily.

He had a superior social sense and an unusual understanding of human nature. With his mechanical mind he could fix almost anything. He was also blessed with an unusual amount of what people would call common sense. His undoing was that he also had the American dream of material security and didn’t have the educational skills to achieve his vision. He had thought, Why should guys who’re dumber tha’ me make lots of money ’cause they can read, write, an’ talk like people thinks they should? There was no way Eddy with his poor oral language and inability to read and write well would ever be able to have a job that would equal his ambition for material means and respectability.

So Eddy had turned to crime. In the Association he was respected and had the good things of the earth for which he yearned. He liked working for Al, who had all the polish of a businessman and spoke correct English in a cultured, modulated voice. Al treated him as an equal and recognized all of his talents and abilities. Oh, there were times when Al’s coldness and cruelty terrified him. Most people would never have seen the hard, ruthless man underneath Al’s warm, benign veneer. However, Eddy’s sensitivities immediately saw through him. Nevertheless, Eddy liked him because Al also was able to see through Eddy’s lack of language ability and recognize his fine mind. He liked Cathy, too. He had always attracted gifted and talented people to him. His only friends in school had been either LD (Learning Disabled) students like himself or GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) students. His classroom teachers could never figure out why students with excellent academic ability liked him.

Most people considered Eddy to be dumb. It is surprising how many people consider lack of intelligence as the only cause of poor language achievement. The few who did realize Eddy’s fine mind wondered why he couldn’t at least read without stumbling over every other word. Was it because he had had poor classroom teachers, or was it because he was lazy? They were unaware of any other reasons except these two.

At first, Eddy had been ostracized by so-called normal, average children in school because they thought he was retarded. But finally, he achieved recognition from this group of his peers by giving his teachers a difficult time in class. Most of his teachers considered him to be a true troublemaker. They couldn’t reach him on a personal level in order to get him to behave because he would outsmart them in every device they used on him. He had enough empathy for their problem with him not to make teaching completely impossible for them; he only caused sufficient uproar to let the other children know he was there and was more powerful than his teachers.

Then the humiliation began. He was stuck with school volunteers who had no idea of how to teach reading to a student with his problems except to tell him he wasn’t really trying. Finally, in fifth grade his problem was presented to MDT, the multidisciplinary team comprised of the school psychologist, principal, assistant principal, volunteer manager, speech and language pathologist, nurse, counselor, GATE teacher, Low-IQ special education teacher, LD teacher, and anyone else they could think of on the faculty who might have some information on Eddy. The psychologist gave him an IQ test. The speech and language pathologist tested his hearing, speech, and oral vocabulary. The nurse checked his vision. The LD teacher gave him a Woodcock-Johnson achievement test. His parents were told that he had a high IQ, both in the verbal and non-verbal areas. The speech teacher said his receptive vocabulary was excellent, although his inability to express himself well was a little unusual for such receptive language knowledge. The LD teacher said he had low performance on reading and written language. The nurse said his vision was excellent. The entire MDT agreed he was learning disabled. At the CST (Child Study Team) meeting which added parents or legal guardians to the team, Eddy’s parents asked, You mean he is dyslexic?

The answer came back, No. Dyslexia is a myth. It does not exist. Anyway, it only means seeing things backwards and your son sees things just fine. But he is learning disabled.

That can’t be, his mother objected. He learns quickly. Just show him once how to do something, and he’s got it.

Nevertheless, the parents went along with the system—which usually is a good system unless educational corners are cut. Eddy had an IEP (Individual Educational Plan) written up by a learning disabilities teacher who was state certified on the minimal level. The only reason she had ever had any classes in reading was because professors who taught reading at the university level were appalled that LD teachers were not required to have any classes in reading. Finally, the state said that an LD teacher should have the same reading classes as the classroom teacher. However, an LD teacher, just as a school administrator, was not required to have been a classroom teacher first and have experience teaching different grade levels. The state had a shortage of both LD teachers and administrators; so they had to turn them out as quickly as possible. The required courses in understanding and filling out paper work to meet federal and state laws did not allow room for other classes such as reading, math, science, and social studies. Reading disabilities were entirely outside of Eddy’s LD teacher’s knowledge. She also had no idea of how to interact with the classroom teacher or the classroom curriculum. Her IEP was a typical plan that allowed an aide with a high school diploma and two weeks training from the LD teacher to work with five other students in a small group on the same material using the same methods with each student. The aide was carrying out the instructions of the LD teacher who had to devote her time to the endless paperwork that the law required to be done for LD students. Eddy missed out on most of what was going on in the classroom.

In secondary school there were no classes to train a student for a trade. The legislators felt the school was only there to prepare students for college. The curriculum was set up to get the student ready for a high school diploma that would only be received by those who could pass a written, heavily language-laden, academic test. Eddy knew he didn’t stand a chance. So he dropped out of school.

But he did stand a chance in the Association—no, more than a chance. He belonged. He was respected, needed, and well paid.

——————

At noon on Easter Sunday, Eddy, carrying a tool kit and wearing overalls, walked over to Linda Garza’s apartment. He knocked on the door. There was no answer. Had Linda responded, he would have told her he was a maintenance man checking out the apartment. Eddy quickly picked the lock. If he should find her in the apartment, he would still use the maintenance man story and say he had knocked and, receiving no answer, had used his passkey.

In the apartment Eddy was startled to find the Mexican-American teacher fully dressed in her bed. She was in a deep sleep. Eddy knew she wasn’t likely to awaken while he was there.

He noticed a sheet of paper on the table. Looking at it closely, he could tell it was a legal document that she had signed. He recognized the words Valley and School. He put the paper in his tool kit. He began to search her drawers and found a letter that also had Valley and School on the letterhead. In her wastebasket he discovered a paper that had been torn in two and had the same words on them. He put these into his tool kit, too. He couldn’t find anything else in the apartment that he thought would be of interest to Al.

He smiled as he left Linda that day. She not only hadn’t heard him, but she was sleeping so soundly she hadn’t changed her position in bed.

——————

Al looked at the contents of Eddy’s tool kit. He saw that the torn letter was written to reject a contract to teach in the Fertile Valley School District. It thanked the superintendent for the contract but stated that Linda would be giving up teaching because she was getting married. The letter Eddy took from Linda’s drawer was one from the same school district and stated that a contract was enclosed. Al could tell from the letter’s contents that this was the school district where Linda had taught before coming to the Lincoln School District. The legal document Eddy had first seen and which was signed by Linda Garza was a contract to return and teach next year in the Fertile Valley School District.

It was easy for Al to see the sequence of events. Linda had received a contract to teach from her former school district. She had written to them rejecting it because she planned to marry Leonard. But now, she knew Leonard was dead and no longer there to protect her from the sexual harassment of Gregory Burke. If she stayed in the Lincoln School District, she would either have to become Gregory’s whore or be fired as an unfit teacher, which would ruin her career. Thus she had signed the contract with the Fertile Valley School District soon after returning from Leonard’s house, maybe planning to write a letter of acceptance to accompany it when she wasn’t so tired. From what Eddy had said, she was obviously exhausted. No doubt she would have mailed the contract upon awakening.

It’s a good thing Eddy took that contract when he did, thought Al. I don’t want her leaving town. She must stay until I find out what she knows. Signing the contract means she knows Leonard is dead. But how could she have known so quickly? Did she kill all of them? If she did, for whom is she working? If she didn’t, she has to know who did. Yes, it is a stroke of luck Eddy found the contract before she had a chance to mail it.

Aloud he said, You did exactly the right thing by taking the contract and letters. You always make the correct decisions. I wish I had a hundred men like you, Eddy.

Eddy beamed with pleasure at the praise. His heart filled with the pride of a job well done.

THE POLICE

When Linda awoke, it was almost evening. She turned the phone on. Immediately it started ringing. She picked up the receiver and asked, Hello?

This is Grace. Thank goodness, I’ve finally got you. I’ve been calling you off and on all day.

Linda thought, I should have left the phone turned off. I know Grace is a good friend and my colleague fifth grade teacher, but she never stops talking. Aloud she simply asked, Why?

Early this morning there was a huge explosion and fire at Leonard’s place. The whole house no longer exists. It’s been reported in the news all day. I found out about it as soon as I got home from church.

You were at church, Grace?

"Yes, I know that comes as a shock to people who know me. I would never have thought to go to any church by myself where I didn’t know anyone. But Marni invited me to go with her. Of course, I said I would not attend a church that did not allow me to drink. I figured Marni’s church didn’t allow its members to drink, since she always says she doesn’t drink because of religious reasons. But Marni said her religious reasons for not drinking were personal and had nothing to do with the church she attended. So I went with her.

"Well anyway, when I got back from church, I turned on the news and found out about the explosion.

Is Leonard there with you? asked Grace.

No, he isn’t.

I wondered if you’d been with him because you haven’t been home. Where have you been?

I haven’t felt well today, replied Linda. I turned the phone off and went to bed.

Are you sick?

Not really. Just tired.

Do you know where Leonard could be? asked Grace.

No, answered Linda. But he probably was at home when the explosion occurred. He was a physicist and had a lab in the basement. One of his experiments might have caused the explosion.

I didn’t know he was a physicist.

He was brushing up on physics in his lab so he could support us as a scientist after we were married. Linda’s voice broke into sobs as she said these last words, but she continued, He knew he couldn’t support a family on a teacher’s salary, and he didn’t want me to work.

I don’t want to upset you, said Grace. "I can tell you think he’s dead and that his preparations to support you are the cause. I don’t mean to be unsympathetic, but I think like a lawyer because of my husband.

Whatever feelings you have, continued Grace, keep them inside and don’t tell anyone else about Leonard being a physicist and having a lab in the basement. The police are going to be investigating, and you’ll have to answer an endless amount of questions if you tell what you know.

Why will the police be investigating? asked Linda with fear in her heart.

That explosion and fire weren’t normal. According to one of the neighbors, the explosion occurred after he noticed a fire coming from the basement. He had already called the fire department about the smoke that was coming from the house. The explosion was unusually quiet. Most of the neighbors slept right through it.

How could that be? thought Linda. Chad and I both heard it loudly enough to turn around and look.

But the one who phoned the fire department, continued Grace, "said there was a flash of light that hurt his eyes. By the time the firemen got there, it was all over. The fire had not only failed to spread to other homes, but nothing was left except dirt. And that dirt was cool. They can’t figure out what happened. There must have been unbelievable heat to turn everything into dust, and yet the earth was cool. No one can explain scientifically what happened.

Also, continued Grace, "Frieda’s and Ted’s cars were there along with several cars of the school’s volunteers. They haven’t been able to locate Leonard, Frieda, Ted or any of the school volunteers. Because you were engaged to Leonard, they’re bound to question you.

Listen, Linda. If things get rough, tell the police you want your lawyer present. Jeremy will be your lawyer. He’ll do it for nothing since you don’t have much money. My husband’s that kind of a man: good and generous.

Thank you, responded Linda as she thought, The last man I want representing me is her lecherous husband Jeremy. But aloud she said, I don’t think I’ll have any trouble with the police because I don’t know anything.

Well, a person always knows more than they think they do—like you knowing about Leonard’s lab and his being a physicist. So just don’t say anything. Don’t give out any information you don’t have to.

I’ll do as you say. I know you are right. Thank you so much for your advice.

That’s OK, Grace told her. That’s what friends are for, to help each other.

Linda placed the receiver on the telephone and walked over to her table.

The contract, she thought as she looked at her empty table. Where is the contract I signed this morning? It’s not on the table. I could have sworn I left it on the table.

In desperation she searched the entire apartment. She pulled out every drawer and emptied its contents. She also looked under and behind every piece of furniture. Not only could she not find the contract she thought she had signed, but also she could not find the letter which had accompanied the contract. She was even unable to find the answering letter she had torn up. It was not in her wastebasket.

Frustrated and bewildered, she thought, Did I dream the whole thing