Thanks for reading, and for helping me get this story publication-ready. I accidently re-submitted an earlier draft, after trying unsuccessfully to add more tags (racism, New Orleans, student rights.)

And thanks for your thoughts on how compulsory education is against the 14th amendment. In earlier times, young folks (if they were lucky) went to school for a few years to learn to read, write, and figure. Then they went to work, usually on their family farms.

Then came the industrial revolution, with children laboring in filthy dangerous factories, and all the horrors that entailed. After some time, child labor was outlawed, due to humanitarian concerns as well as concerns that children are paid less and so compete unfairly with adults in the labor market.

This was when compulsory education was instituted. Its main purpose was not to educate. It was to warehouse youth who no longer worked in factories, keep them occupied and out of mischief. and instill the work habits they would need in a few years when they would become industrial wage-earners.

The young folks all know this on some level. That's why most kids hate school.