Making Faces

In the sixth grade the teacher Mrs. Aide’s Husband was a circuit court judge for the city and every once in a while when someone got out of hand in her class she would hold court much like her husband.
On one occasion, I heard a noise behind me and I promptly turned around to see what was going on. The kid right behind me (Marty) held up his hand in class room and said, ”Mark Phenicie is making faces at me”!! Then everyone in the class laughed out loud and I knew I was in big trouble!!
I never liked Marty because his mannerisms were effeminate. He even lived in a pink house that had a fence around the front yard and Mark and Marty were not allowed outside the fenced area. His twin brother Mark, were the teacher’s pets from as far back as I could remember, I couldn’t figure out what the attraction was.

Well, the teacher immediately called me up to the front of the class and asked in front of everyone if I was making faces to which I said “no”. So she announced that: “court was in session and anyone who witnessed it was to hold up their hands”. The entire class raised their hands, even the kids in the front row of the class held up their hands and they couldn’t have possibly seen me. It was at that point I knew that it was just not my day!! Either I was going crazy or they all wanted to see some action.

For punishment she took a poll and the result was that I had to make faces for the entire class and if I stopped I would get a paddled. So I smiled and twisted my face a couple of different ways and then I quit. Wham!! Went the paddle!!

Man, this was so wrong and stupid at the same time! So each time I stopped she hit me with the paddle again Wham!!!, Wham!!! and again Wham!!! until I started up with the faces. This went on several times until she finally gave up and told me to sit down and shut up and pay attention.
Sometimes I’ve wondered how these types of injustices get settled when in the scripture God tells us that “vengeance is mine says the Lord, I will repay those who harm you”.
It should be noted however that later in life this same kid who falsely accused me of making faces at him grew up and actually became a school teacher himself in the same system and was later convicted on several counts of child molestation to which he went to prison.