Dun-Dun-Dun
The script for this page was two pages long. I'm entirely too verbose. ---EDIT--- By request, I'm gonna go-ahead and share the original script. Some of it is full of over-explaining that I did as notes to myself on how to convey people, and some of it was just cut out for space time and/or clarity. If you'd prefer to be surprised by the identity of Lilac Arm in the last panel on Friday, read this script later. :D ----- Selkie 558 INT – EVENING – MEETING ROOM – MARLA B SANDERSON ELEMENTARY TODD SMITH stands before the PTA assembly. He is stiff and nervous, but trying to be authoritative. His posture changes as the address moves on, shifting to a more dynamic and determined presence by the end of the page. TODD: Ladies and Gentlemen, some of you know me, but for those who don't, I'm Todd Smith. My daughter, Selkie Smith, attends this school along with all of your children. TODD: She has a rare and unique genetic condition that drastically affects her appearance and requires extra care to address special needs stemming from it. TODD: My daughter has been attacked by other children, in a matter dire enough to require my leaving work in the middle of the day, twice in the two and half months since this semester started. The assembly reacts as TODD describes SELKIE'S recent trials. Their reactions vary between disgust, anger, and bored disinterest. BARBARA and TRUNCHBULL react to the descriptions of the scenarios containing their respective children. BARBARA clenches her teeth in an embarrassed forced smile and talks under her breath to herself. TODD (VO): On the very first school day of the semester, another student covertly followed my daughter to the bathroom, stole the shirt off her back, and ran off to leave her half-clothed in the middle of the school. BARBARA (embarrassed, muttering to herself): Please don't say my name please don't say my name... TRUNCHBULL holds his arms against his chest defensively and looks at the floor, saying nothing. TODD (VO): Last week, she was physically assaulted by a kid strong enough to lift her off the ground and SHAKE her. She kicked him in self-defense to break his grip on her, and was suspended for half a week. Closer shot of TRUNCHBULL; he looks bothered, angry yet remorseful. His instincts are screaming to speak out in his son's defense, but he also knows the action was indefensible. He also knows he can't hide from the truth of it, but he still desperately wants too. TODD (VO): I found out later the boy returned to school the next day with NO PUNISHMENT. His parents worked over the principal until he rescinded the attacker's punishment. On top of that, the attack had been WITNESSED by two staff members, who were silenced when they spoke up against the decision. HOWARD, MIRANDA, and NATHANIEL look at TODD with disapproval. Todd's coming off as ranting, and taking up time. MIRANDA: Mister Smith, what is it you're proposing, exactly? TODD: I'm proposing that we call for a review of the school's policies regarding bullying and tighten up enforcement. A clear cut case of self-defense shouldn't receive a worse punishment than the attacker. JOHN ASHTON raises his hand, chiming in. He sees an opportunity to shut down the effort to undermine him and call out his behavior, and he intends to take it. JOHN: Mister Smith, as the Principal of this school, I can assure you I acted within district guidelines for the entirety of both scenarios involving your daughter. And unless you can substantiate these claims of “silencing people”, I don't think it's appropriate to waste everyone's time with a rant. CHRIS THOMPSON raises his hand at half-mast. He is obscured by the panel composition, with his hand framing the assembly turning to see who is speaking. CHRIS: Yeah, about that. I dunno what Mister Smith's got, John, but I sure got something to back that claim up.
Personally, I love Walls-o-Text.
And is that Mina in the last panel? Please please please.
This is gonna be fun.
Friday will tell. Presumably.
If you look at Monday’s you’ll see a guy in the same colour shirt leaning against the wall in the back. I believe it is him. But my Perspective could be off and it is Mina. I just don’t think she’d call him Johnny.
It’s the gym teacher he fired.
Dis gon b gud
Nah, the hand is African-American, I think it’s the gym teacher who got fired over the shirt.
It’s Either Mina OR the secretary (name escapes me) OR the officer who interrogated him. Either way, I can almost feel the noose tightening round his neck. And I’m sure he can too.
I think it’s the guy in the pink shirt who was lounging against the wall in the last panel of the previous page (notice the sleeve on the arm is pink also) but I’m not sure who he is…
I kinda like the semi-shaded page (but I’m also an artist so I like seeing wip)
Isn’t that Mr. Thompson, the gym teacher who was fired despite not actually being at fault?
Not only the sleeve, but you can just BARELY see part of his arm and hand, along the very edge.
Now that Dave has posted the script, we know exactly who it is… and exactly how he knows what happened.
Why did he say her last name? Just sounds – strange. “I’m Todd Smith. My daughter Selkie attends school…”. If his name is Smith, and she’s his daughter, it just makes sense that her name is also Smith. If they had different names – “I’m Todd Smith, and my daughter, Selkie Johnson…” – that would make sense, but what he said is just – huh?
I can answer that! As someone who’s had siblings adopted, I can tell you that not all adopted children change their names. Some keep their full birth names, some just change the last name, and some change the name altogether.
It’s especially more common in older children to keep their full names. So perhaps Todd was clarifying since adopted parents do not always change the last name of their new child to fit theirs.
I understand that completely, as my daughter is adopted (that’s what got me reading this comic) and she kept her original name. And when I had step-kids, I referred to them as my kids, and would say stuff like, “I’m John Smith and this is my daughter Sally Jones”. So, as I said, if they had different names, I could see him using her full name. But they don’t.
It would be the same for married people. If she took his name then you would just say her first name – I’m John Smith and this is my wife Mary – but if she didn’t, you’d use her full name – I’m Joe DiMaggio and this is my wife, Marylin Monroe.
WOW!… i though she was killed because the political enemies of Kennedy wanting to mess up HIS career… are you saying that she really got killed because Joe found out she was cheating on him instead? 😀
At the time of Kennedy she was Mrs. Arthur Miller (the playwright), and then only for one year (they were divorced in 1961). She was Mrs. Joe only in 1954, so I don’t think he had her whacked. Although I hear he was greatly annoyed when they had to shoot the subway scene from Seven Year Itch over and over, and the crew got to keep gawking at his wife’s bloomers.
Between seeing the comic and clicking to see the comments, colours suddenly appeared. Heh.
Anyhow, shirt colour in the last panel is not the same as Agent Smith’s, so that at least takes him out of the equation.
To me, it actually makes sense that Todd would give Selkie’s last time, in a ‘Yes, she’s adopted, but I don’t give a damn, she’s still my daughter’ sort of way.
And as for the verbosity… Dave, can you be bribed into posting the original?
For this time sure, but as a caveat I probably won’t make a habit of sharing the scripts.
Added it to the Commentary. 🙂
And you didn’t even have to be bribed… Too easy, Dave, too easy. :p
They’re BAAAAA-aaaack!
http://i.imgur.com/ZiV9ZfY.jpg
Who, the Asian pretty ladies?
Eh. Better than were-elephants.
Maybe they´re Asian pretty lady were-elephants?
Ughh, he didn’t think of throwing Trunchbull under the bus?
Because that’s an issue for another time. Right now, Todd is addressing the school’s bizarro policies. Addressing the Trunchbulls’ parenting/bullying of faculty and staff would not be productive or germane; Todd can address that later.
Preferably tomorrow, at dawn, at ten paces.
I was talking about _Ashton the princepal_ throwing Barbarian Trunchbull under the bus.
Oh, well that’s just simple cowardice.
That’s justified revenge, if he’s going down he should make sure someone who really deserves it goes down with him.
What IS Todd’s point here? On neither occasion was Selkie attacked because of her condition.
And this really isn’t the place to bring this up. It should be done in a private meeting with the Superintendant of Schools.
I think he’s providing background for what will becoming the point/proposition he’ll propose. If he was to just come out & say “I think the polices are bad & the principal isn’t doing his job” there would then be required explanation & examples, and he’s bringing them up first to get it over with and to show his ire at everything (and hopefully get some parents worked up by the events as well)
It’s usually a lot easier to get people worked up about something if they know what’s going on first (and, by emphasizing that she’s his child, and the classmate of their children, he plants the seed that these same events could happen to their children as well) instead of giving a proposal, followed by what lead up to it (why need a solution if there’s no problem?)
Exactly.
Even if he didn´t say anything else now, he´s laid the groundwork for Chris Thompson and Mina explaining exactly how the principal mishandled those incidents.
– Hobbit made Keisha the scapegoat for the shirt incident, even though she literally couldn´t have done it, until Heather confessed to it
– Hobbit terminated Thompson for daring to not only object to making Keisha the scapegoat, but also be RIGHT about Keisha being innocent
– Hobbit punished the victim of severe physical assault for defending herself (for all we know, the only reason Selkie didn´t die or suffer more severe injuries than she did is that she kicked Truck in the nuts)
– Hobbit let a student who physically assaulted a younger, smaller student to the point that she had to go to hospital get off completely free
– Hobbit threatened to terminate staff members who objected to the two previous points
– Hobbit tried to prevent Selkie from proving that Truck was physically assaulting YET MORE students
Am I missing anything? Even if I´m not, by that point the other parents should be afraid for their children´s well-being if Hobbit is allowed to continue acting like he does.
Great Summary. I think you got everything covered there.
But I have to object that calling Ashton a Hobbit is discriminating
…to those friendly little people 😉
And only suspending Selkie and *possibly* trying to take away her cell phone are in accordance to any kind of policy by any stretch of imagination.
Technically, Hobbit didn’t follow the Rules of Order – he should have said an official-looking thing like ‘point of clarification’ etc. before speaking – so he’s technically interrupting Todd 🙂 wonder what the PTA’s gonna do about that!
To quote Pirates of the Carribean, “Damn the Rules. They´re more like guidelines, anyway.”
After doing some back search in the comics, and based on DKnight’s comments, I can safely conclude that it is indeed the old Gym teacher. I’m thinking that “someone” coughminacough gave him a call letting him know what Todd was up to so that he can come and back him up. Sounds like the “Nassttyy little Hobbitss” is going up s#!t creek without a paddle.
I got the last panel and said “Dun dun duun ” then scrolled down and saw you had written the same thing! I’m still laughing!
Maybe it’s just me, but how on Earth is letting the kid who first attacked the other kid go without punishment within the same guidelines that said to punish the kid who fought back in self defense?
Shools often do that, punish the victim, especially if the victim is a minority, in middle school , I was scapegoated for almost everything so they didn’t have to deal with parents saying their snowflake was innocent, I even got ISS when I was gone that day for a Drs appointment and had proof of such, some how I still did what they said I was guilty of, despite multiple people saying I had not been in school, then in Highschoool, I about got detention for trying to turn in a student for threatening my life, I was apparently just trying to ruin one of their basketball stars reputations ( he went to jail twice for stabbing people) and I got attacked and knocked a kid out, he had come at me with a piece of metal from shop class, I had the choice of me and mom not pressing charges or Id be expelled and charged with assault my self, again despite a witness corroborating my story and that witness being a staff member (later terminated due to breach of contract in which that rule was just added then removed after their termination) and whats more is all the racist comments that were straight out ignored by teachers and being told it was just a harmless joke and to man up
I think I know where Todd is heading.
It doesn’t matter what the policies are, if they aren’t being enforced evenly. I suspect he has read the policies about bullying and is about to quote chapter and verse at Hobbit, then point by point go over where Hobbit didn’t follow said chapter and verse. There may or may not be outside/impartial witnesses, either spontaneous or salted.
And I’ll be in the corner by the popcorn machine.
woot!, at least we don’t need a “Confusion Corner” in here yet…
I’m reading through these backwards(because it’s easier to just do that until I see something I remember than trying to find where I left off) and… after reading the transcript I realized Todd never actually made his proposal.