‘If you think it’s good, go for it’

Excerpts from a taped conversation at Manhattan Bridges HS between Assistant Principal Georges Mathieu (right), 54, and a female student, 17: Assistant principal: ... You shouldn’t let a guy able to have that much control over you to get you so upset . . . You left me for that guy? Girl: I left you? What do you mean I left you? AP: You keep running away from me. Girl: Well, I need to run. AP: Why? Girl: You’re basically one of my teachers. AP: No I’m not. I’m an administrator . . . It’s your fault. It’s your fault. Honestly, I shouldn’t be thinking like that but I do. Girl: You know I don’t give you the address for my job because you can’t go. AP: Why not? Girl: What do you mean why not? You just can’t go. AP: Why not? Girl: Because you’re not supposed to. AP: Why not? I’m all over the freaking world . . . [It’s an] opportunity to meet, spend time. Girl: What do you want to meet me for? AP: If things can blossom . . . My philosophy is, if you think it’s good, go for it. Honestly. I shouldn’t be thinking like that, but I don’t want to be like a hundred years from now thinking I should have . . . Life is short, you got to enjoy it. Girl: You know if somebody finds out what’s going to happen to me. AP: Nothing. Girl: Oh, no. Everybody’s going to know. And people are going to laugh at me. What if people find out? People are not stupid. AP: People are stupid, they are. Take my word for it . . . Listen, I haven’t gotten caught for anything I’ve done in my life, and I’ve done things I shouldn’t do.