Chapter 13 - The Crestwood Ethics Fair
By the spring of the following year, Crestwood Preparatory Academy was a completely different institution.
The dark-green mold in the lower-school cafeteria was gone, replaced by state-of-the-art stainless steel ventilation systems and transparent inspection panels where parents could check the water purity metrics on a digital tablet by the entrance.
Headmaster Victor Hale had taken an "early, indefinite sabbatical" to spend more time with his golf clubs in Florida, and a new headmistress—a former public health advocate from the state university—had been appointed by the board with unanimous approval from the faculty and staff.
To mark the one-year anniversary of the settlement, the school established the Moore-Abernathy Annual Civic Integrity Award, presented every spring to the student who demonstrated the most courageous defense of truth and community safety.
When the first recipient was announced during the spring assembly, the entire auditorium turned their heads toward the front row.
It wasn't a high school senior with a four-point-zero GPA or the son of a state senator.
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It was a ten-year-old girl in a clean pleated skirt and polished Mary Janes, holding a brand-new, bright blue folder filled with blank paper and a freshly sharpened black Sharpie.
As I walked up to the stage to receive the gleaming silver plaque from my mother’s hands, the applause wasn't polite or cautious. It shook the rafters.
