A record number of parents jammed the lunchroom of the Madison Street School for the PTA meeting as Mrs. McMasters, the president, called the meeting to order and then presented the subcommittee's findings detailing the sharp increase in classroom disruptions, antisocial behavior, violence and vandalism. She reported that male students were responsible for the overwhelming majority of problems and cited statistics from the school records: Boys received 91% of all demerits issued, and within the past year, sixteen boys -- but no girls -- had been expelled. She also noted that almost every boy in school had at least one major negative mark on his record.

Everyone agreed that the boys were the problem, and they applauded when Mrs. McMasters declared an all-out war on the boys. She had been working with the subcommittee as they studied the concept of petticoat punishment and now it was her job to sell the idea to the membership. She told the audience she had seen the results of petticoat punishment firsthand and was convinced of its effectiveness. Now she was lobbying for their support to adopt petticoat rule as a disciplinary measure at their school. Almost everyone in attendance had been alerted that this radical approach to reforming boys was being considered because the subcommittee had conducted a thorough telephone campaign advising parents that this form of discipline was to be proposed and recommended as a solution.

To convince attendees of the efficaciousness of this form of treatment, she talked about several mothers who were already in the process of reforming their sons by forcing them to wear girls' clothing. She added that in several instances spankings and other punishments were needed to get these boys into their girlish clothes in the first place, but eventually the boys gave in. It was remarkable that simply putting them in frilly clothes immediately made them much more tractable. Then she introduced three mothers to demonstrate what they were doing. Each mother brought out her son and explained in detail her own methods and successes with this type of control.

Zora Eschels was the first mother to tell her story. When she brought her son, Johnny, on stage, he appeared to be a typical little boy, dressed in corduroy trousers and a flannel shirt. He seemed a little apprehensive, but at his mother's urging, he smiled at the audience. Zora told the audience that she was going to show them what she did to keep him out of trouble.

"Johnny, put your hands in your pockets, keep yourself busy."

He did it, and immediately he kept moving his hands around in his pockets as his mother spoke. With a big grin, she explained she had cut out the pockets of his trousers. It was fairly obvious the boy was intimately touching himself. The women up front noticed and began giggling and whispering to each other. As Johnny caressed himself, his trousers slid down a bit in front and some of the ladies began to laugh because they could see something pink sticking out above his trouser tops -- and they could tell that the shiny pink was actually the top of a pair of girls' panties. Johnny's shirt had been tucked into the thin black waist elastic of the satiny pink panties, and those panties were now boldly peeking out above his trousers. A contrasting bright pink bow right in the center of the waistband made it obvious they indeed were girls' panties. Little bursts of laughter interrupted his mother's speech as word of the boy's peeking panties spread throughout the audience, and several people moved closer to the stage to get a better look. Zora enjoyed watching them react to this discovery. Eventually, she made a direct reference to Johnny's pink panties, stressing the fact that they were 'his' panties and not simply borrowed from a sister.