Principal Carter's eyes widened. "And you've been sitting in a seventh-grade math class all year, being told you don't belong?"
"I belong with my friends," Marcus said firmly. "Being smart doesn't mean I should be isolated from other kids my age."
"But surely," Mr. Wittmann interjected, apparently unable to help himself, "keeping him in regular classes is holding him back! He should be in advanced programs, special schools—"
"Like the ones that would have accepted him if he were white?" Dr. Johnson's voice cut like a blade. "The same programs you assumed he couldn't qualify for? The opportunities you never told him about because you'd already decided he wasn't worthy?"
Mr. Wittmann fell silent again, the contradiction in his positions apparently just occurring to him.
Principal Carter's phone buzzed. She glanced at it, and her expression shifted. "It seems word has gotten out. I have three school board members asking what's happening, and..." She paused, reading further. "...a local news station asking if it's true that a student was discriminated against for solving an impossible math problem."
"How did they—" Mr. Wittmann started, then stopped, remembering all the phones that had been out during the incident.
"Social media," Principal Carter said dryly. "Several students posted videos. They're already going viral. The headline seems to be: 'Racist Teacher Offers Salary to Black Student for Solving Problem, Loses.'"
Mr. Wittmann's face went from pale to positively ghostly. "This could ruin me," he whispered.
"Your actions could ruin you," James Johnson corrected. "The videos are just evidence."
There was a knock at the door, and Principal Carter's assistant peeked in. "Sorry to interrupt, but there's a Professor David Chen on video call. He says Dr. Johnson asked him to verify some mathematical work."
Dr. Johnson smiled. "David is the head of MIT's mathematics department. I thought an independent verification might be helpful, given Mr. Wittmann's continued skepticism."