Dear Judy,
Our principal just died. He was awful. He used to pick on some of the kids for absolutely no reason. They got detention just because he didn’t like them.
There are kids in our high school who everybody knows do lots of drugs and don’t even bother to hide what they’re doing and he never even punished them because their parents had money, so there’s a big difference in the way he treated some of us, and the way he treated others.
Now that he’s dead I want to cheer, especially because we have a new principal who seems a lot nicer. My mother says I can’t go around showing how I feel, and also that I should write you for advice. I think, why should I act like a hypocrite pretending that’s it’s awful he’s dead? Especially since I think it’s great and so do a lot of my friends.
Who’s right?
Terri
Dear Terri,
Your mother’s right.
Here’s why: Let’s say you go around showing how thrilled you are that the principal is dead — who’s that going to impress? Convince? Kids who disliked your late principal are going to still dislike him. Those who got away with smoking dope on school property are going to think his passing a full-blown tragedy.
Also, consider this: the new principal, who is nice, might not be impressed by someone cheering her predecessor’s death.
No one says you have to be a hypocrite. No sense in coming to school in black or weeping copiously, if you don’t feel like it. But sometimes saying nothing about an event is the smartest thing anyone can do.
Thanks for writing
Judy
