Chapter Ten

Same day

Kurt's bad feeling escalated into outright dread when he was ushered into Sue Sylvester's office and saw David Karofsky, an older man likely his father and his own dad, Burt Hummel sitting in chairs around Sue's desk. Kurt slipped into the one empty chair when Sue silently indicated it was for him.

"Do you know why you're here, Kurt?" asked Sue.

"I would like to know why we're both here." Burt cut in. "Has this boy been bullying you son?" he asked Kurt indicating David.

"I think you'll find it's the other way around," the man accompanying Dave responded.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, I believe introductions are in order," Sue announced, starting the meeting. She introduced herself first, as acting principal and explained that Figgins was away with the flu, she then introduced David and Paul Karofsky to Kurt and Burt Hummel.

Once the introductions were over, Burt immediately turned to Paul and said, "please explain what you mean by suggesting my son has been bullying yours."

"Dave, perhaps you should explain," said Paul giving the floor to his son.

"Um, my facebook page was hacked and all my preferences and interests were changed," mumbled Dave glancing briefly at Kurt and Burt. "Kurt was the only one in the library when I left my page open."

Burt looked at Kurt who was flushed red and refusing to look up at anyone. It was obvious he was guilty as charged. Burt struggled to understand. "Okay, but what is all the fuss about? Surely kids play jokes on each other all the time. I'm sure Kurt meant nothing by it."

Paul pulled out a stack of papers stapled together from a folder in his lap. "I took screen capture shots of the facebook page and the entries. I drew a line between the last update Dave made and the start of the new updates, there is a second penciled line after the last new update. Underneath are the comments and reactions of people visiting Dave's page. Ms. Sylvester already has copy. This one is for you to look over." Paul said as he reached over and gave Burt a copy.

The silence was uncomfortable as Burt quietly read the new updates and comments. Burt's breath became heavier and his face flushed with anger as he continued to read. Kurt gradually sank down in his chair wishing it would swallow him up.

Burt finally looked up, his face was red and his hands were visibly shaking. He was absolutely livid. "You are accusing my son of writing this crap?" he managed to grind out obviously trying to control his temper. He turned to Kurt, "Kurt! Tell them! Tell me you didn't do this."

Kurt flinched at his father's plea and burst into tears. "Dad I can't." sobbed Kurt "I - I did do it."

"WHY? Why would you do such a thing?" asked Burt shocked to the core. "It's – it's monstrous!"

Kurt cried harder, he was gasping so much he could hardly get out the words. "It started out as a joke, but I just – I just. I just got going and couldn't stop."

"A joke? A lot of this stuff is profane. All of it's so cruel. I can't even believe you could think some of this vile crap up! You're my child!" Burt said the last bit plaintively and painfully.

"I'm so sorry Dad!" Kurt wailed and sagged further in his chair and covered up his face with his hands. Other than Kurt's muffled sobbing, everyone else was deadly quiet as the enormity of the problem sank in.

"What happens now?" Burt asked Paul quietly.

Paul looked at Kurt and addressed him knowing that Burt was listening intently.

"Kurt, I can see you are very sorry and contrite but I don't think you fully understand the seriousness of what you have done. As soon as Dave showed me his facebook page, I told him to scrub his page and remove himself from facebook, but that doesn't stop some of the content from being passed on from person to person. Hundreds if not thousands of people could view some of the slanderous comments about David and there is nothing we can do to stop it. I'm sure you know that we have libel and slander laws in this country. Now you are a minor so it does not apply to you, but I could hold your Dad responsible and file a civil suit against him. Your little prank has endangered your home and your future of your father's business if I sue." Paul watched as Kurt just stared back at him slack jawed with the colour slowly draining out of his face.

Paul was satisfied that Kurt understood so far so he continued. "That is what can happen in civil law. I haven't mentioned the police yet. We have had several death threats to Dave on his face book page as well as people phoning us, threatening violence because of the comments you made, pretending to be him. If we did bring the police in, they may charge you with fraud for impersonating David or even attempted involuntary manslaughter."

Kurt looked out of his depth so Paul explained. "Involuntary" manslaughter is usually defined as negligently – perhaps I should say unintentionally causing the death of a person. The 'attempt' requires a person to intentionally take a substantial step towards committing the target offense. In other words, by pretending to be Dave and deliberately inciting hatred against him by making provocative remarks on sites that actively hate homosexuals, you placed him in grave danger."

"You must believe me Mr. Karofsky, that when I made those remarks on those religious sites, I did not for one instant think that some of their members would threaten his life. I hadn't thought it through that far. I just didn't think at all! If I had paused to think it through, I would have logged Dave off of facebook and left the library. I can't believe how stupid I've been. I am so sorry! " Kurt pleaded, humbled and scared out of his wits.

"Well there was one good thing to come out of all this. Last night my son David came out to me." Paul reached over and grabbed his son's shoulder and squeezed it affectionately and smiled at him proudly. "It would have been better if he was able to come out when and how he wanted to, but it's all out in the open now and my family had a long talk and a good cry and we are ready to fully support him. David has decided that now the closet has burst wide open, so to speak, he's not going back inside."

"Your son is gay?" Burt asked and the Karofsky men nodded.

Burt turned to his son, "did you know he was gay?" Kurt nodded sadly not looking at his dad.

"Kurt! You knew he was gay and closeted and you outed him! I know how tough it has been for you as the only out gay student in McKinley. I've seen you fight homophobia in this small-minded town over and over. Even though you have tried to keep a brave face I know how people's stupid remarks have hurt you and how wearing it is on you. I've wept for you knowing how hard you try and what you go through daily and I'm sure I don't even know the half of it. You know what it's like to be a confused gay teen trying to find himself. I would have expected you to encourage David and help him out. Instead, not only did you out him but you've publically humiliated him."

"I'm not proud of what I did!" protested Kurt.

"I certainly hope not. I hope you are thoroughly ashamed of yourself because for the first time in my life, I'm ashamed of you." Even though Burt said the last few words quietly, Kurt's whole body jerked as if he'd been struck.

Burt continued mournfully, "I know you are aware of gay teens committing suicide. We talk about it all the time. What if David had no support from home or felt he wouldn't get any? What if he was unsure of himself or depressed? He could easily have committed suicide over this because there have been boys that have gone and done just that for less reasons than this. Did you even consider that?"

Kurt paled and looked over to David wide-eyed. "No," he said, shaking his head. "It never occurred to me that you might have killed yourself because of what I did. I'm so sorry!"

"Well Kurt," interjected Paul "I never finished answering your Dad's earlier question – What happens next? Last night I was extremely angry. I was going to call the police, sue your family, and sue the school! But David talked me out of it. He explained to me that you both recently went through a very tough time with your Dad's heart attack and Dave's worried that litigation would bring on another one. He also told me that despite this deplorable episode, you are generally a good kid and he didn't want to see your future destroyed over a terrible mistake. My boy is very forgiving, I don't know if I would have been in his situation. Eventually I calmed down, and we have decided NOT to bring in the police or sue your family and the school," Paul raised his hand as he saw hope renew in the faces of both Hummel men. "There is one condition, however. Kurt has to make public reparation."

"What does that mean exactly?" Burt asked.

"We've talked it over with acting principal Sylvester and we came up with a plan. Ms. Sylvester would you like to describe it?"

Sue who had been attentively watching the entire interaction between the two families quickly took the floor.

"This Friday afternoon we are going to have the entire school attend an assembly. There we'll discuss bullying and its implications. We will have various speakers from youth groups speaking out against bullying and aggressive behaviour and give suggestions how to combat it. Kurt here will be one of the speakers. He will have a speech ready explaining how he hacked into Dave's facebook page, how absolutely wrong he was in doing so and he will apologise publically to David and to the whole school."

Sue looked over to Kurt, "Well lady pants, I think you had better agree to this, because you now know what the alternative is."

Kurt nodded, swallowed hard and answered. "Yes coach, I mean acting principal Sylvester, I will apologise to David publically, it's the least I could do."

"Good!" Paul said. He leaned forward and gazed at Kurt "let's discuss this apology of yours."

AN: POINT ONE - I am no lawyer and I don't know American Laws, but I did do some research about the legal ramifications of Kurt's actions and this is how I came up with Paul's explanation. I hope it sounds realistic enough.

POINT TWO - (SPOILER ALERT - Don't read this if you haven't seen Episode 5 The First Time) Is anybody else as dissappointed as I was with Dave Karofsky's small scene in Glee last night? At least we found out why he hasn't been seen in season three - he goes to another school!

Aaaggghhh! How convenient for the show's writers. Not so convenient for us Kurtofsky shippers. Luckily we have fan fiction - we can have still Dave roam the halls of Mckenley secretly or openly lusting after Kurt all we want.