Dead Poets Society

door.
    “Expelled,” Meeks
said flatly.
    Todd stood stunned.
“What did you tell them?” Todd asked, again through the door.
    “Nothing they didn’t
already know,” Meeks said.
    Todd turned away. He
returned to his window and watched as Knox was escorted back to the dorm.
Again, Todd peered into the hall. Knox and Hager entered. Knox’s chin quivered,
on the verge of breaking down, and he went into his room, quietly closing the
door. Todd stepped back into his room and leaned against the wall. He was
shaken as he realized that Knox had been broken. Then he heard his own name
called.
    “Todd Anderson.” It
was Dr. Hager. He waited at the end of the hallway. Todd took a deep breath and
looked up at the ceiling. He opened the door and walked slowly toward the
teacher.
    Dr. Hager shuffled
across the campus, huffing and puffing from the obvious strain of all the
running back and forth. He stopped outside the administration building, caught
his breath, and walked in.
    Todd followed Hager
up the staircase leading toMr. Nolan’s office, feeling
like a man climbing to the gallows.
    Nolan sat at his
desk, and Todd was startled to see his parents seated nearby.
    “Dad, Mom,” he said.
    “Have a seat, Mr.
Anderson,” Nolan ordered.
    Todd sat in the
empty chair that had been placed in front of Nolan’s desk. He looked at his
parents, who sat steely-eyed and grim. A drop of perspiration fell from his
brow and stained his shirt.
    “Mr. Anderson, I
think we’ve pretty well put together what’s happened here. You do admit to
being a part of this Dead Poets Society?” Nolan asked.
    Todd looked at his
parents and at Nolan. He closed his eyes. Before he could nod “yes,” his father
spoke.
    “Answer him!” Mr. Anderson
said angrily.
    “Yes,” Todd said
faintly.
    “I can’t hear you,
Todd,” Nolan said.
    “Yes, sir,” Todd
answered, not much louder than before.
    Nolan looked at Todd
and his parents. He held up a piece of paper. “I have here a detailed
description of what went on at your meetings. It describes how your teacher,
Mr. Keating, encouraged you boys to organize the club and use it as a source of
inspiration for reckless, self-indulgent behavior. It describes how Mr.
Keating, both in and out of the classroom, encouraged Neil Perry to follow this
obsession of acting when he knew it went directly against the explicit orders
of Neil’s parents. It is Mr. Keating’s blatant abuse of his position as a
teacher that led directly to Neil Perry’s death.” Nolan handed the paper to
Todd. “Read this carefully, Todd,” Nolan added. “If you don’t have anything to
add or amend, sign it.”
    Todd took the paper
and read it, spending a long time doing so. By the time he finished, his hands
and the paper were shaking. He looked up. “What... what is going... to...
happen... to Mr. Keating?” he asked Nolan.
    His father stood up
and shook his fist. “What does that have to do with you?”
    “It’s all right, Mr.
Anderson,” Nolan said. “Sit down please. I want him to know.” He turned to
Todd. “We are not yet clear as to whether Mr. Keating has broken any laws. If
he has, he will be prosecuted. What we can do—and yours and the other
signatures will help to guarantee it—is see to it that Mr. Keating will never
teach again.“
    “Never... teach...?”
Todd stammered. His father stood again and moved toward Todd. “I’ve had
enough,” he shouted. “Sign the paper, Todd.”
    “Please, darling,”
his mother said from her seat. “For our sakes.”
    “But... teaching is
his life! It means everything to him!” Todd cried.
    “What do you care?”
Mr. Anderson shouted.
    “What do you care
about me?” Todd shouted back. “He cares about me! You don’t!”
    Todd’s father stood
over him, white with rage, and picked up the pen. “Sign the paper, Todd,” he
ordered.
    Todd shook his head.
“No. I won’t sign it.“
    “Todd!” his mother
cried out.
    “It’s not true! I
won’t sign it.”
    Todd’s father
grabbed the pen and tried to put it back in Todd’s hand. Nolan stood up.
    “That’s all right.
Let him suffer the consequences,” he said. He walked around his desk to stand
in front of Todd. “You think you can save Mr. Keating?” Nolan asked. “You saw
it, boy, we have the signatures of all the others. But, if you don’t sign,
you’re on disciplinary probation for the rest of the year. You’ll do work duty
every afternoon and every weekend. And, if you set foot off