Protected intervention and retaliation review.
Scenario-based bias and de-escalation training.
Quarterly public reporting on complaint volume, substantiation, resolution times, and repeat-pattern investigations.
A limited pilot of body-worn incident recording devices for designated airport security response teams, not flight attendants generally, where privacy and labor rules permitted.
Improved preservation of cabin incident records after serious complaints.
No hidden microphones.
No automated "bias score" assigned to individual employees.
Naomi rejected both ideas despite pressure from technology vendors.
"A system that protects dignity by building surveillance nobody understands is not automatically progress," she said.
The reform cost money.
A lot of it.
New investigators. Training time. Software changes. Independent audits. Paid employee participation. Ombuds staffing.
Some board members complained privately that the public expected perfection at any cost.
Naomi corrected them.
"The public is not asking for perfection. They're asking us not to lose twenty-seven warnings in fifteen years."
Customer trust dipped sharply in the month after the incident, then began recovering.
Skyward's stock fell in the first week, stabilized, then returned near its previous range. Naomi refused to use that recovery as proof the reforms were working.
"Share price measures what investors believe," she told Richard. "I want to know whether an eight-year-old can ask for his mother without being treated like a threat."
Richard began using that question in executive meetings.
Some people found it uncomfortable.
Good.
Naomi wanted it uncomfortable.
The criminal trial began almost four months after the flight.
By then, the frenzy had cooled enough for the courthouse to feel like a legal proceeding rather than a stage.
There were still cameras outside.
There were still protesters.
But inside, the judge barred filming and reminded everyone that the question was not whether Rebecca was a bad person. The question was whether prosecutors had proved the charged conduct beyond a reasonable doubt.
Naomi appreciated the instruction.
Elijah did not attend.
His recorded forensic interview and the videos were sufficient for most of the case, and prosecutors agreed that putting him on the stand was unnecessary unless the defense created a factual dispute requiring his testimony.
Naomi sat behind the prosecutor only on days she was needed.
She was a witness, not the director of the case.
The first passenger witness was the man from row thirteen.
His name was Daniel Price.
He testified that Elijah had been polite and stationary when he first saw the interaction.
The defense asked why Daniel did not intervene more forcefully if he believed the child was being mistreated.
Daniel swallowed.
"Because she told me not to interfere with crew operations, and I was afraid I'd be removed from the flight."
"So you weren't certain she was doing anything wrong."
"I was certain enough to feel ashamed afterward."
The answer landed quietly.
The South Asian passenger testified next.
He described Rebecca's earlier comment about his water request and the way her tone changed when she entered business class.
The defense objected that the earlier interaction was prejudicial and unrelated.
The judge limited how much could be used.
That, too, mattered.
A fair trial was not a documentary about the defendant's entire personality.
Marcus testified about what he saw when he entered the aisle.