Floys photo[/caption]

Looking at the administrator and counselor, I noticed they quietly sat there and didnt utter a word. The principal sat there, attempting to think of an excuse. I tried to break the silence after several minutes. I asked him if he remembered the senior officers who destroyed a library lock, and the school punished them with a fine of $125 a couple of years ago. They were sent home early. But three students came back to school and apologized. The principal nodded his head, even though he was puzzled about why I said this.

One of the kids was my son. He was the vice president. I told him, "When you called me to pick the kids up, I asked my husband to come home early. So when I brought back my son and a couple of his friends, both my husband and I asked them why they did such a thing. Didnt they know they had done a bad thing? Surprisingly, they shook their heads. I was shocked because they insisted it was a senior tradition to destroy something on school property. They said that they didnt want to do it, but the junior students claimed that if the seniors did not do anything, they would.

Wow, What a tradition! We were speechless. I then asked them if they loved their home and whether they would destroy anything in their home, and they said no. I questioned them if they liked their school, and they said yes. I continued, "Dont you consider school your second home? Besides your own home, you spend the most time at school." They seemed to understand gradually, and they realized that this tradition was wrong. They went back to school and apologized to the principal.

During their graduation ceremony, a news reporter asked them if there was anything they wanted to advise the juniors. You may not know what they said, but I would like to tell you. They said, "Dont repeat what we did to the school."The room was silent after I finished the story. The administrator and counselor remained tongue-tied. But the principal didnt want to give up. He said that he would let the student body make the final decision.

A few days after our meeting, the principal called me and asked me to meet him in his office the next Monday. I was confused as to what else he could have to say to me, but on Saturday night, I received a phone call from my daughters classmate, Robert. He apologized to me because he used my daughter as a scapegoat for his wrongdoing in the school. He felt guilty and couldnt sleep. He informed me he would be going into the principals office to clear my daughters name on Monday. I told him that the principal wanted to meet with me at the same time. He suggested for me to wait to see the principal until after he told the principal the truth. Sure enough, the secretary told me that I could go home, and I did not need to meet with the principal after Roberts confession. Even so, I still had to worry about what the student body meeting would designate as my daughters punishment.

And so the student body held their meeting. The meeting lasted five hours. Finally, they decided they would not remove my daughters title, but she would have to attend a "rehab school." for one week. My daughter was happy that she could keep her title, but she was worried about going to that school because she was told it was only for the problematic students to go. Unexpectedly, she came home from "rehab school" that first day happy. She told me that she knew the teacher well because she had gone to the school office to help them many times. All of the so-called "problematic kids" just had outrageous behavior: maybe they didnt get enough love from a parent or experienced the divorce of the parents, etc. They were good kids; they just needed love. Im glad she got this experience to learn how powerful love is and how love can affect others and, more importantly, love others.

I thought that all of the problems were solved and that I could take it easy. Then, I was told that the school magazine was going to run a big article about the incident. Immediately, I contacted the newspaper adviser, and I explained the situation to her. She agreed not to publish the article, but she called me the next day, telling me that some of the students wanted to make a big deal out of it.

I requested to meet with the editors. After the meeting, they all had different opinions, and I later found out that one editor in particular who insisted on publishing the article had run for my daughters position and lost to her. In the end, I told them how I felt about the whole thing. I said, "One day, you will reach my age, and you will think back on what you did when you were young, especially the things you regret." I assured them that they would regret it if they were to publish it. If they made a large spectacle out of it, their friend (aka my daughter) would have no choice but to leave their school that she loves so much and leave her friends. She would have faced criticism and shame from the whole school. In the end, I could only ask them to search within to find out what they should do. I knew that, honestly, I had come to an end. There was nothing I could do but to leave everything to God.

When the newspaper came out, there was a small section about this incident. But even with that tiny article, it proved that Gods wisdom was far greater than ours. Because when the students picked up the newspaper after the class, they went home for three weeks of Chrismas break. Of course by the time they got back from the holidays, the kids had forgotten what had happened!

The Thanksgiving day this year happens to fall on both of my daughter and her fathers birthday. Thinking back of what had transpired to my daughter during her high school years, I was thankful that God stepped in when I ran out of my strength and wisdom to solve her issue then. Now, I realize the precious experience she encountered before has made her what she is today -a beautiful person who is confident, passionate, loving, and considerate to everyone she comes in contact with.

Never do I know all the challenges turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

              Happy birthday to you, Floy!  I Love you! 

                    Birthday cake by Lynn Yang

校長看他們(教務長及學生顧問)默默坐在那裡不出一聲，他只好自己再找理由，想了半天未能想出什麼，我只好打破沉黙，再問他一個問題「記得二年前應屆畢業生的代表們集體破壞學校圖書櫃的鎖的事，你罰他們每人120元，也罰他們提早下課，但有幾個學生回來跟你道歉的事吧!」校長用困惑的眼光看著我，一麵點點頭。 「其中學校的副主席是我的兒子，當你打電話通知我們家長時，我立刻請我先生提早下班趕回來，等孩子跟二個同學一起回來後，我們立刻想辦法去找出他們作錯事的原因。我問他們他們知道自己作錯了嗎?居然全部搖頭，讓我嚇一跳。他們堅持說「因為應屆畢業生破壞學校的東西是傳統，我們本來不要作的，但高二學生說我們不作他們便要採取行動，我們只好作了。」

我不想說太多，我只是簡單地問他們是否愛他們自己的家「當然」，他們說。 「那麼，你們會去破壞自己家的東西嗎?」「當然不會」「那麼你們愛不愛學校呢?」「是的」，「它是否可算第二個家呢?因為你們除了自己的家以外，花最多時間的地方就是學校。」他們聽之有理,「那麼你們也會去跟從明明知道不對的傳統，去破壞它嗎?」他們是聰明的孩子一點便懂，他們也立刻了解到他們的做錯了。這就是為什麼他們回到學校向你道歉的原因。當他們在畢業典禮，被新聞記者問到有什麼話他們要跟高二學弟說?你們可能不知道他們說了什麼?他們說「不要對我們的學校做我們作過的錯事。」

等我說完，房間突然變得一片沉寂。教務長及學生顧問在整個會議一句話也沒有說。但是校長還是不想放棄，他說，他將讓學生代表團體作出決定，會議將會在二天內舉行。

我們見面幾天后，校長打電話給我，讓我下週一去他的辦公室見他。我不知道他還能對我說些什麼，但周六晚上，我接到了女兒同學羅伯特的電話。他向我道歉，因為他把我女兒當作他在學校做錯事的替罪羊。他感到內疚，無法入睡。他告訴我他星期一要去校長辦公室為我女兒洗脫罪名。我告訴他校長想和我同時見面。他建議我等到他把真相告訴校長後再去見校長。果然，秘書告訴我可以回家了，在羅伯特坦白之後，我不需要去見校長。即便如此，我還是擔心學生會會把什麼作為對我女兒的懲罰。

學生代表團體的會議果然如期舉行，他們整整開了5個半小時的會，決定不取消女兒啦啦隊長的頭銜。但她需要去特別感化學校一個星期。女兒對此一方面感到高興，但另一方面對要去特別感化學校憂心忡忡，聽說那是給問題學生去的地方。

沒想到，她很高興的從感化學校回來。她告訴我，不僅她跟負責的老師很熟，而那些所謂的“問題孩子”是因從離婚或單親家庭中得不到愛的同學，他們行為有點乖張而已，其實他們都是好孩子，只是需要愛而己! 她能有這種難得的經歷，是何等祝福。藉此她更了解到愛的重要性，更知道如何愛人。

我認為這個問題己經結束，但又聽到校刋將要炒作這事件。我又立刻與負責報紙的老師連絡，她完全同意也不會發表這事件，可是她第二天又打電話給我說學生編輯想炒作這事件。

我只好請求約見所有的編輯。一共5人，包括女孩和男孩。經過半小時的會議，他們中間意見開始分歧。我知道，堅持要登的學生，曾經是女兒在學校的選舉時的對手。我只能再說出我的心底話了，我告訴他們有一天他們等到我的年齡，他們回想起他們年輕的時候做了什麼遺憾的事。我保證，這事肯定會是他們後悔的一件。因為他們的炒作這件事，他們的朋友-也就是我女兒，不得不離開她寶貝的學校，以及包含妳們在內的朋友們。因為她沒法承受由整個學校來的批評和屈辱。我最後只能請他們由內心去尋求該如何作。說實話我已經走到了盡頭，結果只能交給神性了。

到最後報刋出來時，只有一個編輯登出了一小篇關於這事件的文章，但是神性的智慧遠超過我們， 因為當學生下課拿了校刋後，便回家度將近三個星期的聖誕假期。當然等假期回來這些小孩子己經忘了所發生的事了!

今年的感恩節恰好是我女兒和她父親的生日。回想起女兒高中時期發生的事情，我很高興上帝在我用光了力氣和智慧,仍然不能解決她的問題時介入了。現在，我終於明白了,她之前所遇到的寶貴經驗使她成為了今天的她-一個美麗的人，充滿信心，熱情，愛心和 體貼照顧與她接觸的每個人。

誰會想所有挑戰竟然是偽裝的祝福。