"Yes, I understand. I'll take appropriate action. Yes. Goodbye." He turned to his daughter. "Daughter," he said, "did you say 'Fuck' in front of your classroom?" She kept her eyes on the floor. "Yes."

He put his feet on the floor and leaned toward her. "Why did you do that?"

She fidgeted, looked back and forth on the floor, and said, "I don't know."

"You're going to sit there until I get a believable answer to that question, so I suggest you think about it." He turned away.

She sat, and fidgeted, looked around, and looked at the back of her father's head. She said, "I guess I wanted to make everyone mad."

Her father turned to look at her and smiled. "You seem to have done that very well," he said. "I'd call that a lesson in effective communication. Here." He gave her a dollar.

"What?" she said.

"I think you've learned something valuable today. I'm rewarding you."

She held the dollar and looked at it. "Do I still have to do detention?" she asked.

"Of course," he said. "That's part of the lesson. Their space, their rules, your decision."

"That's just fucking great," she said.

"Yes, it is."