The following story did not happen to me. I made the whole thing up. I could've happened though.
I was sitting in a conference room with a five-person panel, the disciplinary panel for the school where I teach. It was an evening meeting. They were being discrete. It's a private school and there is no public-disclosure requirement, so I hoped that if things turned-out badly, they would agree to keep things confidential and not ruin my career.
I'd been accused of 'Salacious Behavior'. I had to look up salacious: "arousing or appealing to sexual desire or imagination". There was an obscure paragraph in the school's code of conduct and 'Salacious Behavior' was grounds for immediate dismissal. I was in big trouble. My name is Carrie (Carolyn) Jones. With me was my 'employee representative' and good friend, Amanda.
Here's how it went:
The panel chair, Mr. Humphries, made an opening statement. "Ms. Jones, you have been charged with salacious conduct which is grounds for disciplinary action under the school code of conduct, chapter 5, section 814(e). I have your signature acknowledging that you received and read the school 'Code of Conduct' when you joined our faculty eight years ago."
They had given me a bunch of stuff to sign including a paper about this code of conduct. I never read it, not expecting to ever have any trouble. I'd always been a 'straight arrow', never doing anything of the least bit controversial or improper.
I said, "I signed that paper along with many others. I don't remember it, though."
Mr. H continued. "Well, whether you read it or not, you are responsible for knowing the contents and abiding by them. We are here to conduct a hearing into alleged salacious conduct by you on a Saturday night, two weeks ago."
I pretended to be ignorant of anything controversial and said, "When? Gee, I don't remember where I was that night. I think I was reading a book and preparing lesson plans." I teach senior English and social studies. They ignored my comment, knowing I was lying.
Mr. H introduced the panel: Beulah W., an assistant principal; Clark F., the school principal; Benjamin G, a fellow teacher; and Walter S., also member of the school Board of Directors. Clark, the school principal was clearly uncomfortable and mumbled about 'just forgetting about it'. I'll try to keep straight on who's who and what their position was.
Mr. H introduced the 'presenter' of the alleged disciplinary offense, Zelda Simmons. She was another assistant principal and a real bitch. I'd had some run-ins with her a few times over scheduling field trips and curriculum. She thought she knew more about American government than I did and we clashed.
Zelda S started, "On Saturday night, two weeks ago, Miss Jones engaged in salacious conduct at a local strip club. With numerous people in attendance, she stripped totally naked and performed sex acts with some of the attendees. I will present photos that have been circulating among the faculty and some of the recently graduated students (all over 18)."
Buelah the other assistant principal, asked, "Were any current students or minors present at this event?"
Zelda answered, "Not to our knowledge."
My representative, Amanda offered, "It's an alleged incident." Then she added, "The establishment in question, 'Billy's Gentleman's Club' is not a strip club."
Zelda countered, "I understand that the 'gentlemen' go there to see women dance topless, and perform 'lap dances' for selected customers."
Amanda had no good answer for that, but said, "The event where the alleged behavior took place was a private affair, a charity event for a disabled fireman. It was held in a separate room from the public areas of the club."
She continued, "They have a strict policy of 'carding' everyone who enters. They've never been found in violation of state or local codes. The event in question was for the benefit of a public servant, a fireman who was injured in the performance of his duties."
They ignored her objections and didn't ask her how she knew so much about the policies of the gentlemen's club.
In reality, the club was connected to local politicians who often visited for 'informal' meetings, so they could do just about anything they wanted.
Fellow teacher, Benjamin G. said, "I've driven by that place, but I've never been inside. It has quite a reputation, though."
Zelda continued, "We have photos of Ms. Jones dancing naked." She proceeded to display some photos on the video screen in the small conference room where we were meeting.
Amanda objected, "Showing photos of Ms. Jones naked is a violation of her privacy."
Her objection was noted, but they kept showing the photos.
The photos were of me. There was a whole series of photos that covered the entire night. Zelda had put them together chronologically. It was charity event and a number of teachers and other people had run a 5 K race with people donating money based on how far we ran. I had raised $200 and the total for everyone was about $3,000. After the run, many of the participants and the donors adjourned to the closest bar, Billy's Gentleman's Club.
My friend Steph (Stephanie) and I had been drinking shots and participating in the raucous behavior of everyone in the crowd. Things started to get out of hand when someone asked Stephanie to dance on the little platform that the dancers used when the bar was open to the public. This event was private and they hadn't booked any strippers. Those arranging things hadn't thought the crowd would be interested in nude dancing, but they were wrong. The charity was for a man who had been injured in the 'line of duty', a fireman, Andrew. Most of the crowd were his friends or fellow-workers. My husband Jake was an acquaintance and was there too. They were drinking and almost everyone, including the women, wanted to see some 'skin'.