Just Cause

by Sandee Blanchette

The brilliance of the plan was in its simplicity. They drank like fish so no one would question alcohol poisoning. The punch bowl was laced with cyanide. As they started their weekly party ritual they were completely oblivious to the fact that each sip was killing them.

They had so many male guests. Promiscuity was rampant. Obviously this terrible deed must have been done by a jealous ex-lover. Crimes of passion are sadly common. I can attest to this. I see and hear everything, I am the RA.

They were gone. The halls were quiet. I could sleep without be awakened by drunken screaming, pounding feet or rattling beds. I was overjoyed. I hadn't had a full night's sleep all semester. Finally, peace and quiet had been attained.

I attended the funerals. I brought flowers and laid them on the graves. I gave sympathy to the families. "Such nice girls," I said. "Such a shame."

The well-being of my residents is my greatest concern. I made the phone call to security the night after the deadly revelry. I asked them to please come by. I hadn't seen or heard from my residents since last night. I was worried, so worried.

I was there when they opened the door. I was one of the first to see the frozen party.

They partied Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Such a waste of tuition money. How hard on the kidney's; just imagine the medical bills they would have in their later years.

They never studied. I never saw one of them with a book. They kept others from studying and sleeping. Such rude young women, so disruptive to our academic community.

I am the RA. It is my job to sponsor an environment that is conducive to academic pursuits. I am given certain tools to work with to try to achieve this. I am armed with referral sheets, judicial reports and community service hours. They, however, were immune to my arsenal. All shots I fired missed and they continued to violate sanctions.

I didn't have a full nights sleep until the night they passed on. I felt so rested. I know I had done the right thing.

In RA training they tell us to use our best judgment when dealing with a difficult situation. If we acted in a logical manner than they would back us up.

I did what I had to do. It was necessary to do something drastic to control my floor. I did not do this on a whim. I planned everything so carefully. There was no unnecessary damage done to the building. I contained the incident to only one room so that there was as little extra work for our cleaning women as possible. I took others into consideration.

I am the RA. My floor is now so well behaved. They are so well behaved. They are so quiet, people can study.

I am a good RA. I have been praised for how well I handled this difficult situation. They say that I acted strong to help other residents through this. They are so pleased by how close and well behaved the remainder of my residents are.

I got rid of the problem. Everything is now beautiful. The grades for each Residence Hall were just posted. My RD called me. My floor has the highest GPA on campus. That would never have happened if the others still lived there.

Next year I have been transferred to a different building that has a reputation of being really wild, but that's OK. I am the RA, I can handle it.