I raised my hand to ask a question in class and my teacher had escorted out by security.

The accusation in my apartment, the Instagram post, raising my hand in class, the professor calling security, and the pills appearing in my bag. Dean Gonzalez listened without interrupting.

She took notes on a tablet. When I finished, she looked at Harper and asked about the procedural violations.

Harper listed each one: calling security without cause, searching a student without proper authority, making accusations without evidence, using family connections to target a student. Dean Gonzalez closed the folders and leaned back in her chair.

She said she needed to tell us something. The professor had two previous complaints in her file about showing favoritism to family members in her classes.

One involved giving a nephew a better grade than he earned. Another involved helping a cousin get into a program he didn’t qualify for.

She also had a written warning from 3 years ago about inappropriate use of authority during a grade dispute. This wasn’t the first time the professor had crossed lines.

This incident fit a pattern of misconduct. It wasn’t an isolated mistake or misunderstanding.

The dean said that changed how seriously they had to treat the situation. She thanked us for documenting everything so thoroughly.

She said formal proceedings would begin immediately. Dean Gonzalez picked up her phone right there in front of us and made two calls.

The first was to the department chair, telling them the professor was suspended right away and someone else needed to take over her classes starting tomorrow. The second was to someone in student conduct, explaining she was opening a formal case against Lily for filing false accusations and messing with evidence.

She used those exact words while looking straight at me like she wanted me to know she was taking this seriously. Harper and my mom exchanged looks and I could tell they were both surprised at how fast this was moving.

The dean hung up and told us the professor wouldn’t be allowed on campus during the investigation and Lily would be notified of the charges against her within 24 hours. She shook my hand and said she was sorry this happened to me and that the university failed to protect me properly.

Friends and Foes

We left the administration building and I felt like I could actually breathe for the first time in days. My mom hugged me in the parking lot and Harper said she’d follow up on everything to make sure the proceedings moved forward.

I went back to my dorm room, which still felt weird knowing Lily was just down the hall. My phone buzzed around 8 that night.

A text from April asking if we could meet for coffee. She said she’d been watching everything happen and felt terrible about believing Lily without asking questions.

She also said she had information that might help my case. I stared at the message for a solid minute trying to figure out if this was some kind of trap.

Harper had told me to document everything, so I screenshotted the text and sent it to her asking what I should do. She replied within 5 minutes saying I should meet April but bring my mom and her along as witnesses.

We set it up for the next morning at the coffee shop on campus. I barely slept that night wondering what April wanted to tell me.

My mom drove back up early and met me outside the coffee shop at 9:00. Harper showed up right after, looking professional with a folder under her arm.

April was already inside at a corner table, looking nervous and picking at her napkin. She stood up when she saw us and her eyes were red like she’d been crying.

We all sat down and April started talking before anyone could even order drinks. She admitted that Lily asked her to lie about checking the security cameras together.

April never actually looked at any footage herself. She just took Lily’s word that I was the only one home Thursday afternoon.

She said Lily showed her some screenshots that looked official and she didn’t think to question it because why would her roommate lie about something that serious? April kept apologizing and saying she should have verified things herself instead of just going along with whatever Lily said.

My mom asked April why she was coming forward now and April said because she realized Lily had been lying about a lot of things. She explained that Lily had been asking to borrow money from all the roommates over the past few weeks and getting really angry when people said no.

Lily tried to get April to give her $300 just last week claiming it was an emergency but wouldn’t explain what the emergency actually was. April said no because she didn’t have that kind of money to spare and Lily didn’t talk to her for 2 days after that.

April also mentioned that Lily had been acting paranoid and secretive, always on her phone and leaving the apartment at weird times. She said looking back on it now, the whole theft accusation seemed like Lily was projecting her own money problems onto me.

Harper was taking notes the whole time and asked April if she’d be willing to put all this in a written statement. April nodded and said she would do whatever it took to help fix this mess.

We were still sitting there when my phone buzzed with a text from Shiloh. It was long and I had to scroll to read the whole thing.

She was apologizing and explaining that she saw Lily going through my backpack 2 days before the classroom incident happened. Shiloh said she was coming out of the bathroom and saw Lily in my room with my backpack open on my bed.

Lily claimed she was just borrowing a pen, but Shiloh thought it was weird because Lily had her own stuff and why would she need to dig through my bag? Shiloh didn’t think much of it at the time because roommates borrow things, but now she realized Lily was probably planting those pills everyone found later.

She said she felt horrible for not speaking up sooner and for believing Lily’s story about the money. She wanted to know if there was anything she could do to help and said she’d testify or write a statement or whatever I needed.

I showed the text to Harper and my mom and April. Harper actually smiled for the first time since I’d met her and said this was exactly the kind of evidence we needed.

The Undeniable Pattern

Harper pulled out her laptop right there in the coffee shop and had April type up her statement while everything was fresh. She also had me forward Shiloh’s text to her email so she could add it to our evidence file.

She explained that we now had proof Lily made up the camera story, had a clear money motive, and had the chance to plant evidence in both the Venmo situation and the pills incident.

“This moved our case from circumstantial to pretty much undeniable because we could show a pattern of behavior and opportunity.” Harper said.

My mom asked what happens next and Harper said the university’s disciplinary process would move forward, but we should also be prepared for the school to try to settle this quickly to avoid liability.

“Universities hate this kind of publicity and the fact that a professor was involved made it even worse for them.” Harper said.

Sure enough, 2 days later, my mom got a call from someone identifying themselves as the university’s legal counsel. They wanted to schedule a meeting to discuss the situation.

Harper called me as soon as my mom told her and said this was probably them trying to get ahead of any potential lawsuit. She warned us not to agree to anything without her present and to let her do most of the talking.

We set up the meeting for the following afternoon in the administration building. The lawyer turned out to be a woman in her 40s wearing a gray suit and carrying a leather briefcase.

She introduced herself, but I honestly don’t remember her name because I was too nervous. She had us sit in a conference room and pulled out several documents.