"Concerning Nathaniel?"
"Yes, in a way. As you know, Miss Sangfroid, children aren't sheltered from violence in images or words any longer. The effects of television violence are debated year after year and nobody does anything about it. The way children behave today at this school is the way they might have behaved in Harlem or the Bronx ten years ago. I see more and more children who aren't sheltered from baseness. It's more than just catching a couple older children smoking in the bathroom once every few months: drug addiction, brawls, foul mouths—fouler than anything I would ever have imagined. These base influences make the children something different than children and I suspect that not being allowed to be innocent they won't see anything good in themselves or the world when they are adults — just the baseness. Wouldn't you think so? They would become full of rage."
"I don't know," she said circumspectly. "Let's hear specifics if you are talking about Nathaniel."
"You are surely aware of him swearing the way he does or if he doesn't swear in front of you—"
"He does sometimes."
"Okay," he reaffirmed mildly. He found some satisfaction in the honesty. "Then maybe there are too many R-rated videos being played at home or other media where he might be hearing words like—"
"Fuck? From me, but he only uses words like this in choice situations."
"Lady, there are no choice situations for that," scoffed the vice- principal.
"I don't like the pejorative way you said the word, "lady." She stood up. She couldn't imagine being called a more vulgar word."
"I think we should talk about this. Sorry, I didn't mean to be disrespectful. You are obviously highly educated and I want to hear what you have to say. If we don't talk about it now sooner or later he'll get into trouble even if we ignore it this time."