The turning point in her campaign for change came after an incident in the parking
lot near the school one day. A skinny Hispanic student on his way home was surrounded,
pushed and shoved and urged to fight by a chubby black student. Frightened, his head
lowered, he walked away; then he started running. He was chased into the parking lot where – to the delight of a swollen pack of onlookers, howling for action, and jumping on parked cars for a better view – he turned suddenly and fought back. With swift ferocity.
Pulling a knife from his bag he went after his tormentor, plunging the knife within an
inch of the lungs.
The incident raised a furor. The city tabloids, at the time running opinion pieces on the proposal to ask city employees to take up residency in the city, sent in reporters.
Television vans with channel numbers boldly identified parked around the school the
following morning. Reporters waited on the sidewalk to interview teachers hurrying in.
Many teachers stopped long enough to express distress at the damage done to cars
when students jumped on them. Mrs. Viola Haliburton was stopped and she agreed to
give a lengthy interview before hand held microphones.
On the evening news she was allowed only thirty seconds of exposure; she complained
bitterly about this to everyone who saw her on TV. She'd said much more, a lot more, than was actually shown; they'd edited out important words. Still, thirty seconds of edited
television exposure added up to thirty seconds of recorded fame.
One reporter made mention of the racial imbalance at the school ("a staff overwhelm-
ingly white in a district predominantly black".) She observed that Mrs. Haliburton was one of few black teachers at the school "trying to make a difference".
The interview, while raising her profile as a community spokesperson, incensed many
in the building whose cars had, or had not, suffered damage. (Mr. Lightbody was beside
himself with rage; he hadn't heard one spoken word about damaged teacher cars.) Many kept up their good-humoured relations with her, though privately they considered Mrs. Haliburton's television interview unfair and divisive.
Days later, disturbed by the adverse publicity the school had received, the District
Superintendent paid a visit. She noticed students lounging outside Mrs. Ossinoff's office
on the second floor and demanded to know why they were not in classrooms receiving
instruction. The explanation she was given did not please her. Near the end of the
spring term Mrs. Ossinoff was suddenly relieved of her post.
They didn't have to look very far for her replacement – someone with impressive credentials and status (a recent TV interviewee), who lived in the community and felt impelled to "give back" to the community. As the new program coordinator Mrs. Haliburton was considered just right for the job.
(from "Ah Mikhail O Fidel!", a novel by N.D.Williams, 2001)
FARJOURNEY CARIBBEAN 