A conversation with Ms. Burke

So, I was so upset about what had happened with Sydney and Simone that I ended up talking with Ms. Burke about it. (In addition, Kelly, the mom of one of Rachel's friends, Libby, had mentioned that Rachel and Sydney seemed to spend all their time together and that she tried to separate them at Brownie meetings because they were monopolizing each other. And, more disturbingly, that Sydney was unfriendly to Kelly and that Rachel, when she was in Sydney's company, was unfriendly, too. Kelly said that it seemed that a cloud had come over Rachel this year, which I pegged to Sydney's influence.)

Ms. Burke, who is something like 26, said she would talk to her mom, who is also a teacher, about how she had kept her daughter away from girls who were bad influences in middle school. But she clearly remembers that there was one girl that her mother forbade her to have sleepovers with (even though, Ms. Burke acknowledged, she probably could have handled the situation on her own and her father would have okayed the sleepovers because he wasn't really aware of what was going on).

She also, much to my relief, said she would recommend against Rachel and Sydney being placed in the same third-grade class next year. Drew and I plan to write a letter to the principal reinforcing that next month, just to be sure.