Up The Down Staircase

CHECK ONE: PARENT OR GUARDIAN

REACHED

NOT REACHED

BY TELEPHONE

BY TELEGRAM

TO: PARENT OR GUARDIAN OF _____________

WE REGRET TO INFORM You THAT YOUR

SON ____________________________

DAUGHTER _______________________

* * *

INTRASCHOOL COMMUNICATION

FROM: 508

TO: 304

Dear Syl—

Anything I can do?

Bea

* * *

FROM: JAMES J. MCHABE, ADM. ASST.

TO: ALL TEACHERS

YOU ARE REQUESTED NOT TO OBSTRUCT ANY INFORMATION THE POLICE WISH TO HAVE, PROVIDED YOU WERE A DIRECT WITNESS TO THE OCCURRENCE, IN WHICH CASE YOU ARE TO REPORT TO THE OFFICE AT ONCE.

JJ McH

* * *

INTRASCHOOL COMMUNICATION

FROM: H. Pastorfield, Room 307

TO: S. Barrett, Room 304

Dear Sylvia,

What's the latest? Did Paul show up yet? I understand she left him a love letter! That's what happens when sex drives are repressed. This whole business should be aired out in the open!

Henrietta

* * *

FROM: JAMES J. MCHABE, ADM. ASST.

TO: ALL TEACHERS

THE NEXT TWO PERIODS WILL BE SHORTENED TO 38 MINUTES EACH, TO MAKE UP FOR THE LONG 1st PERIOD DUE TO THE UNFORTUNATE INCIDENT.

TO PREVENT IRREGULARITIES IN THE FUTURE, TEACHERS MUST REDOUBLE THEIR VIGILANCE AT ALL TIMES. NO ROOM IS TO BE LEFT UNCOVERED AT ANY TIME, WHEN NOT IN USE.

JJ McH

* * *

Disregard bells.

Sadie Finch

School Clerk

* * *

TELEPHONE MESSAGE

FOR: Miss Barrett, 304

In answer to your call, Hospital called back to say no change in condition.

Dear Miss Barrett,

If you're free, can you relieve me in the Health Office for a while? I must lie down someplace.

Frances Egan

School Nurse

* * *

INTRASCHOOL COMMUNICATION

FROM: Mary Lewis, Main Office

TO: S. Barrett, Room 304

Dear Sylvia—

Paul just breezed in!

Guess who's been punching him in every morning? —Sadie Finch!

Mary

* * *

Dear Miss Barrett,

It has been a great shock to all of us, particularly to those who, like you, knew the child. If you wish to be excused from your classes, I shall be glad to take them over.

Sincerely,

Samuel Bester

* * *

Sylvia!

Just stepped into a hornet's nest.

I am the villain of the melodrama.

Was I supposed to encourage a neurotic adolescent?

My real crime seems to be that I wasn't in my room the first period—even though I have no class. How could I know she would walk in and do it?

They tell me her fall was broken by the ledge below the window. Thank God for small mercies!

She left me a note full of dots and renunciation. It had to do with a love letter she had sent me, which I handled in the only way possible.

I can use a drink.

Meet me for lunch?