The rumours started circulating around Hour of Grace Senior High School that a student was going to be dismissed. Who was the student was the question on the lips of almost every student.

It would be first dismissal since the school was established in the year 1994.

What was the offense was yet another issue to be communicated to the whole student body as soon as the teacher on duty had conducted the usual morning devotion.

Schools and colleges have a set of rules and regulations which every student is expected to abide by and some of these concern social vices such as smoking, stealing, drunkenness and sexual misconduct. Perhaps a student might have disobeyed a teacher or one of the numerous school regulations had been broken, I thought.

"A boy had invited a girl to the boys dormitory during yesterday's entertainment period and the were caught red-handed by the school senior house master popularly known as 'Sikkens'.

This is one of the most serious offences that a student may commit.

This news hit the school premises but who brought this information to the students?
It wasn't known, but to every rumour, there is some truth in it.

Entertainment was one of the compulsory social gatherings every student was expected to attend without any excuse whatsoever, so why should two students a boy and a girl escape from yesterday's eventful afternoon entertainment full of jokes, singing and dance, exciting poetry recitals and stage acts by the school's drummer troup?

That was the topic among students that morning. Nobody could substantiate his or her allegations or buttress them with facts or figures.

Within a matter of minutes, another rumor came that one of the senior male students had beaten a teacher in town last night and that the teacher had since been admitted to the hospital.

Who was this teacher? Even this piece was only a rumour. Students began standing in groups intoning their views about the two issues of dismissal and the offences that might have been committed.

Before the drum could be sounded for the service to begin at eight o'clock, majority of the student population had already taken their place under the tree which was pretty much unusual. They were standing in their numbers just to listen to the pronouncement of the punishments and find out who the culprits might be.

Almost all staff members arrived in from the staff common room and as soon as the service was about to start, it started to rain causing the service to an end, students run helter-skelter to their various dormitories................

Read Part Two Here Whose Fault Is It Part Two