School Memories: Judgment Day

Lazy! Disrespectful! Not interested in studies! Bad attitude towards extracurricular activities! One by one, our teachers accused us. They said they felt as though they had hand-picked all the delinquents and placed them in S.2D. “Every time I look at the timetable and it’s time to teach S.2D, I think of resigning.” “This class is hopeless!” “Wild animals! Wild cats!” It was judgment day for us. The list of our transgressions was long and unforgivable; we deserved no mercy. Almost all fifty of us were always up to no good. When we weren’t making excessive noise, we were giving teachers ridiculous nicknames. But the school administration was forbearing. After all, they had figured, we were just high-spirited teenagers. But our misdeeds had become more frequent and worse with time. So when we humiliated the head girl on a general assembly and made a student teacher cry in the same week, they decided that they had had enough. They called an emergency meeting for all the stakeholders; the school administration, teachers, student leaders, laboratory attendants…everyone except the rest of the students. All our eyes were downcast. We were guiltier than the devil. We were going to hell or someplace familiar. Then the verdict came; we were no longer welcome at the school and we were supposed to be off the school premises by 8:00.m the next day. The air was thick, filled with quiet sobs and the smell of carbon dioxide. I started to think of quick and painless ways to take my own life. In my opinion, death had to be easier than facing my mother. Then Susan Mahoro stood up and said: “I participated in the activities but yesterday I realised that I was sinning and I gave my life to Christ. I beg to be forgiven.” Then she knelt down. One by one, we all repented in tears and begged for a second chance. We all knelt down. We were lectured, threatened, given ultimatums and then finally forgiven. But as repeat offenders, our crimes couldn’t go unpunished so we were handed hoes and we toiled away in the school garden for seven days. Within three days, judgement day was far gone from our minds and we were causing chaos again. Unrepentant sinners!