The Fake Ebola Outbreak

It was what felt like the longest walk of my life. I had just been called down to the principal’s office. But what for? I wondered. I had never been called down to the principal’s office, nor had I ever got in trouble in school. Until now, in 6th grade. I entered the office with butterflies, no, nails in my stomach. 

“Good morning Kayla, please have a seat.” The principal said in his monotone voice. I could not tell if he was angry, upset, happy, annoyed and it made me even more uneasy. 

“Morning,” I replied quietly as I sunk down in the chair across from his desk. 

“ Do you remember who you sat with this morning and what you guys talked about?” he asked trying to jog my memory.

I thought about who I sat with. It was my boyfriend’s sister. I had asked her why he had not gotten on the bus this morning. I could not really remember anything else we talked about.  So I told him, 

“I was sitting with Shianne and I asked her why Nicky hadn’t come to school today.” I was a little less worried at this point, cause why would it be a problem wanting to know where my boyfriend was? 

“Do you remember telling her that your dad is ‘being testing for ebola today?’” He asked, sounding a little annoyed and acting as though I purposefully avoided that conversation with Shianne. 

“Oh yes,” I replied, “My dad has an appointment today cause he has had some health problems going on lately and my oldest brother said maybe it could be ebola. So I think they’re going to check him.”

At the time I had not realized the issue with my statement. All I knew was that dad was sick and my brother had said something about it being this new deadly disease called Ebola. Well, little did I know that Shianne got scared cause if my dad had it, wouldn’t that mean I could have it? So she texted her mom and other kids on the bus who had heard me had texted their parents. So all morning there were frantic parents calling the school and coming to pick their kids up from school. 

“I’m going to need you to stay in the nurse’s office while I call your parents and get this figured out. But you cannot go back to class.” My principal told me. Now I could tell he was annoyed by the tone of his voice. 

So there I sat in the nurse’s office all morning crying because I could not understand what I had done wrong. All I said was that he was having some tests done. I did not say it to cause harm to anyone or scare anybody. So why could I not go back to class? Needless to say the principal had to get in contact with my parents to find out what was going on and tell them what I had done.

Later in the day I found out that my principal had to call the CDC. when I heard that all I could think of was men coming into the nurse’s office in the big white suits, like I had seen in the movie ET I used to watch with my grandpa, and taking me away to be poked and prodded like a test subject. But when it was all over, the only thing they did as tell my principal that they did not see me as a threat and it was safe to release me. My parents had to come to the school and talk to the principal, dad was pretty mad. 

“I know she didn’t mean any harm in what she said, but as the principal I have to suspend her because of the extent of chaos it caused.” My principal explained to us before the long quiet car ride home. My story even ended up in the newspaper which made me want to vomit because I was so embarrassed. After my two day suspension I thought I would be the laughing stock of the school but when I went back that next Monday I had learned that someone spilled their milk on them at lunch and my story seemed like history. In the end, I learned to be careful who to tell things to, and to not take anything my brother said seriously. 

Photo by Thirteen Of Clubs on Foter.com / CC BY-SA