"Barack Obama, Report to the Principle's Office, Again"

Barry opened the door and saw Principal Sam glowering at him. He walked sheepishly towards the overly large chair once more and climbed up into it.

"Barry, it appears that I've made another mistake by believing you when you said you'd clean up the mess downstairs in the boiler room."

Barry replied, "But Sir, I can explain everything. That spill was a direct result of that transfer student from England, Beppie. He's the one who lit the cherry bomb and flushed it down the toilet on the second floor. A bunch of kids told me he did it."

Principal Sam said, "Barry, perhaps I gave you too much leeway and authority too soon. I trusted you when I shouldn't have."

"But Sir, just look at the people that I've got lined up to clean the boiler room. There's Linda, the President of the Debate Team, and Kyle, the vice-president of the chess club, then there's Roger, the secretary for the National Honor Society. Suzy, president of the Science Club..."

"None of whom has ever swung a mop, judging by the mess that's still down there. What about you? Do you intend to just stand by and watch your classmates do all the work?"

"Well, Sir, somebody has to organize them. How else would anything get done without an organizer?"

An exasperated Principal Sam leaned forward for emphasis. "This institution has functioned quite well for years without anyone to "organize" things, especially something as simple and straightforward as a clean up in the boiler room."

"But Principal Sam, we need to find out all the reasons why this happened. Like where Beppie bought the cherry bomb and the lighter, both of which are prohibited on school grounds, I might remin.."

"I already know the rules".

Principal Sam's voice grew louder. "Barry, your efforts leave much to be desired. I gave you the task you said you wanted. You told me you'd handle everything and we'd be back to normal by now. It's been two weeks and what should have been done the day the pipe burst still hasn't been done. All I hear from you is excuses and finger-pointing. That's a poor response to any crisis. Is this how you'd do it in real life?"

Sam sighed. "Just as an exercise, what would you propose to prevent this from happening again, Barry?"

"Oh, that's simple, Sir. We'll just close all the bathrooms!"