Millie's Boarding School

Millie's Boarding School is a school for teenagers with disciplinary problems, and the setting of the decisive incident behind Millie Calloway’s criminal record. A party in the boys’ dormitory becomes the scene of her attempt to stop an assault—and of the killing for which she is imprisoned.

Nature and Setting

The school is described as an institution specifically for teenagers with disciplinary problems. The account gives no further details about its location, administration, or daily routines. Its boys’ dormitory, however, provides the setting for the event that later defines Millie’s record: a bedroom where she finds a friend being assaulted.

The Dormitory Incident

One night, Millie and a female friend sneak out to a party in the boys’ dormitory. Passing a bedroom, Millie hears her friend screaming for help, enters, and sees a classmate—a two-hundred-pound football player—forcing himself on her. Millie takes a paperweight from a desk and strikes him repeatedly. He dies before reaching the hospital.

Conviction and Consequences

Millie is sixteen when arrested and is in prison by seventeen. Her attorney argues that she acted to defend her friend, while photographs of the dead boy’s visibly crushed skull make the case for intended killing difficult to contest. Millie ultimately pleads guilty to a lesser manslaughter charge, with her age and the circumstances taken into account. The boy’s family agrees to the plea: they want vengeance for his death, but do not want him branded a rapist across the internet. The school’s importance to Millie’s story lies in this collision between rescue and lethal force; the incident turns a moment of intervention into the conviction that sends her to prison.