Due Diligence (Sean)

[Yvette Morgenstern]

Yvette liked to think that in her three and a half years as the Headmistress of the Hammel Institute, she had built up some goodwill with the staff. However, she wasn't naive. Some was the operative word in that statement.

She just didn't have the same kind of connection with the faculty that Claude Harris had enjoyed. She hadn't been promoted from within; she'd been appointed by her fellow members of the Board in 2011. The same year that the Head of Recruiting and his son had been kidnapped. And a good portion of the staff had taken on a meta-human terrorist group. And the infamous "prank" had been pulled during a sex-ed lecture that had resulted in quite a lot of pain for everyone involved.

The Headmistress knew that there was some lingering resentment among some staff about her role in bringing the (admittedly ridiculously named) Operation Patriot program to the area. Though she still believed that the aim of the program was good, its results hadn't been, and the whole thing had been defunded.

All of this was why she had scheduled all these meetings for today. Soon, she would be going before the Board of Trustees to defend their budget for the upcoming school year. There was room in the budget to add a new full-time position to the staff, and several weeks before she had made the mistake of asking the faculty for recommendations. There were many great ideas presented to her including: a shop/automotive instructor (not every student was the right fit for college, and setting them up a better trades program would help them start out), a dedicated health/sex-ed teacher (Dr. Neville wouldn't have to keep doing his annual lecture), and another foreign language teacher. However, once she had started involving the staff in this decision, she was then limited in her ability to make her decision on what to recommend. She felt she had to speak to the staff first, perform due diligence.

Really, Yvette was down to two choices already. One was hiring simply an economics and statistics teacher. That was a reasonable choice, as the math department was one of the few that almost every Hammel student had at least once class in. The other was a bit more of a risk, and was likely to get her into trouble with the staff. If the Board redefined the role of "librarian" to require said librarian to actually hold a Masters of Library Science--like every other librarian role in the US--they could hire someone who was actually qualified for that position. Eli Morrison's salary reflected his lack of higher education, but it was enough to hire someone part-time as a caseworker for the legal department. They could help the not-insignificant number of students who came to the school in the midst of legal troubles. (The lawyers did the best they could, but they had been the ones to ask for the addition of someone with a social work background.)

So that's where she was as her secretary buzzed on the intercom to let her know Dr. Neville had arrived. She'd purposefully scheduled all the meetings for one day so she could get them over with, and she'd scheduled him for the end of the day because she knew after talking to him she'd want to just go home.

Still, Yvette pinned her usual, diplomatic smile on as the psychiatrist entered her office. "Good afternoon, Sean. How are you doing today?"

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Despite Josh’s tenderness from the night before, Sean’s day had been just as stressful as the previous one. He’d woken before his alarm due to the early arrival of the sanitation crew, and he hadn’t fallen back asleep. Instead, he’d put that energy into making a big breakfast to pay back his partner for supper the night before, as well as to fortify himself, lest he have to skip lunch again.

He hit the ground running at Hammel. The moment he finished his coffee, he had his first session of the day: Jesse Adams. He spent the next hour prodding at the boy to get him to open up about his experiences with M.S.A.D., over Jesse’s objections. As always, the blond had displayed a stubborn tenacity coupled with his general entitlement and desire not to be there. It set a poor tone for the rest of the day.

Following that a session with Candence, who didn’t want to be there and, all of these months later, still did everything she could to evade open and honest dialogue.

Harmony had been sent to him for sassing one of her teachers, and that had been fifteen minutes of his life he would never see again.

Half an hour with a student from Indiana who had never come out to his parents and now feared returning home due to the passage of the discrimination bill.

A session with Maxwell regarding his temper, his poor academic performance, and his reputation among the faculty.

All of which culminated in his last session for the day: yet another session with Oriel Vanguard about his mind-bogglingly unhealthy relationship with Phoenix Tang, which now involved them being engaged while Oriel was on restriction.

The psychiatrist kept Excedrin in his office for that reason.

Instead of a full staff meeting at the end of the day, instead the Headmistress had scheduled a one-on-one about the budget suggestions. In itself, being last did not rate as peculiar to him. Claude had typically scheduled their one-on-one meetings for the end of the day as well, and the telepath had always appreciated the time with his friend, even in the stressful professional context.

However, he and Yvette Morgenstern had never reached that same level of friendship. They were cordial and professional, but she wasn’t Claude, and Sean had never been a member of the Board of Trustees.

After popping two Excedrin and brewing a cup of coffee, the psychiatrist knocked on her office door and entered upon being granted permission. “Hello, Yvette. It’s been a day.” He took the chair across from hers and set his coffee mug down atop a coaster so as not to stain her desk. “And how are you?”

[Yvette Morgenstern]

Yvette sighed a sympathetic sigh and nodded at Sean's response. She had a lot of respect for the work he did. It often had him handling situations of all sizes, and she knew that his influence kept a lot of students out of the trouble that would otherwise land them in her office.

The troublemakers that did end up in her office were absolutely familiar to him as well, but no one could actually work miracles.

"I'm doing well enough. Things will certainly be better once we get the budget set in stone, but it's always something, isn't it?" Her smile at that was genuine, though she was tired. Despite everything, she did enjoy her job. And once the budget was set, it would be time to plan for graduation and then the school-wide retreat. That was the part of the year she enjoyed the most.

Yvette had not met with all the staff members that day, only those who had made suggestions that had received a lot of support and department heads. Sean technically didn't fit either, but he had a lot of influence on the school. Also, if she had decided to go the health teacher route, he'd have been let off the hook for doing the Talk every year.

"Which is why I asked you to join me today. If I remember correctly, you supported the idea of hiring a full-time health teacher. If we decide to go that route, would you be interested in assisting writing the sex-ed portion of the curriculum? Your unique experience with your seminars could be very helpful." After all, other high schools didn't have to accommodate for students who could put others to sleep with a touch.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

By contrast, Sean didn’t enjoy the retreat at all, because he disliked camping. As with so many of his duties, he did them out of expectation as well as to lend a helping hand to those with other obligations.

Twenty-four years ago, Sean had sat in this same office, although it had belonged to a different Headmistress at the time, to discuss the recent retirement of the staff member who had covered sexual education as an additional duty. Twenty-four years ago, Eliza Harding had foisted the task on him with the implication that it would only be for that one year, until they could hire new personnel and pass the duty onto her.

Twenty-four years later, the psychiatrist still taught the seminar and assumed that he would do so until he retired. He preferred teaching it to the students receiving abstinence-only education or some other sex-negative hogwash. He was realistic and wanted the students to be safe and understand consent; nothing would prevent them from exploring their sexuality, and so all he could do, and all that he strove to do, was to equip them with the best knowledge to navigate that exploration in healthy and appropriate ways.

However, if someone else who shared his philosophy could take over the task, he wouldn’t object. The notion of never having to deal with someone hurl a set of Ben Wa balls at him appealed to him in a way that only someone who had experienced another person hurling a set of Ben Wa balls at them while giving a talk could understand.

“Don’t lose those,” he had said. While making no effort to retrieve them for the student in question.

Meeting her eyes steadily across her desk, he replied, “If you decide to go that route, I’ll personally bind a 150 page manual of my materials to use as a written text for whoever inherits that job.”

[Yvette Morgenstern]

Yvette couldn't help but laugh slightly at his reply. "Thank you. I'm sure that would be much appreciated."

Though she didn't know if she would hire someone quite like Sean--there was probably no one else quite like him to hire--the Headmistress would not hire someone to teach an abstinence-only course or anything ridiculous like that. If her past three and a half years had taught her anything, it was that teenagers would do what they wanted to. Anyone she hired would have to be prepared to give them the best tools to make good decisions.

That was, if she was going to hire a health teacher. Maybe next year.

Still, she was going to do him the courtesy of discussing it. "You have more experience with teenage metas than almost anyone else. Is there anything else our students would need in the health curriculum that they wouldn't get in a typical well-rounded one?"

[Dr. Sean Neville]

As a private school, they had been excused from certain fundamental basics that public schools had to provide. This included the standard health class lessons that included the dangers of sex, alcohol, tobacco, and prescription and illegal drugs. Sean gave general warnings and the faculty enforced bans on contraband, which included illegal substances. However, all of that occurred outside of the context of a standard curriculum. He wasn’t entirely sure what they taught these days; lessons had changed so much since he’d been a teenager.

“I think that the students would benefit from lessons about positive body images and from a dedicated lesson plan regarding sexual orientation and gender identity.” Sean saw more than enough students with questions about the basics outside of his annual seminar that he thought that they would benefit from that. “And a solid core curriculum with information about healthy relationships and consent culture is paramount.”

The telepath tried to emphasize that during his seminar, but that only went so far, as it was only a single afternoon. His ongoing sessions with Oriel and Phoenix served to underscore the necessity of those fundamentals. The recent news from Gryphon about what had happened to Kodiak after graduation also highlighted the same weak area.

“Ideally, I think they’d benefit from some lessons about long-term health risks and a bit of neuroscience, at least in terms of adolescent brain development.” However, before he could further elaborate on that, he frowned, having overheard something that she surely hadn’t intended for him to hear.

Reaching for his mug, he spoke what was more of a statement than a question. “You’ve already made up your mind, haven’t you?”

[Yvette Morgenstern]

Yvette nodded again, making a few notes in the notepad. It was more or less what she had expected, but again, Sean's input was valuable. She wanted all the students to be able to succeed, and they already had enough to deal with from being meta.

The Headmistress pursed her lips slightly when Sean commented on making up her mind. With her winged flight, she had no ability to shield her thoughts mentally. Though she tried her best to focus on whomever she was speaking to at the time, this wasn't the first time a telepath had picked up on her stray thoughts. "Not entirely yet, but it is down to two options."

Neither of which she wanted to think about at the moment, but that was clearly not going to stop her mind from betraying her. At least she had also shelved the idea of hiring a police officer to make regular visits to the school, in addition to the private security. (She had found that suggestion to be particularly distasteful.) "But this will not be the last time I will be adding positions to the staff. A health teacher would benefit the school."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

At least she had shelved the idea of hiring a police officer to make regular visits to the school. While Sean accepted the security officers as a necessary function of managing Hammel and making it a safe place for all of the students, rather than only for the popular, powerful students with money, connections, or indifference that sculpted their attitudes, he had never supported the idea of armed police officers in schools. Even before the data showed that it led to an increase in bad behavior and ruined lives, as well as a steep increase in potential violence.

He didn’t even like that police officers were armed as a matter of course, outside of school grounds.

The telepath brought his coffee mug to his lips, biding his time as he turned over what he wanted to say in his mind. He never would have had such an issue with Claude, who would have told him up front that he had no intention of hiring a health teacher at this time. Claude wouldn’t lead him on, owing to friendship as much as personality.

Choosing not to support the suggestion wasn’t the problem; he understood budgetary concerns. He made excuses for the small amount of focus his department received from budgetary concerns. Leading him on and wasting his time, however, frustrated him.

It had been a bad day. And he gleaned that she’d made up her mind before scheduling this meeting with him in the first place.

He could be home making supper right now. He could be home in the hot tub right now.

After the long moment of silence, and several sips of coffee, he’d composed what he wanted to say, and so he replied, “With all proper deference, do you want my opinion about either of the two contenders? Or are those only for the people immediately affected?”

[Yvette Morgenstern]

Chalk it up to personality differences, but Yvette didn't see this this meeting as a waste of time. It was a courtesy, yes, but not a waste. (She came from a business background and was all too used to courtesy meetings in order to maintain her company's relationships.)

"Certainly." It wouldn't take a telepath to realize that Sean obviously knew what the options were, but she repeated them aloud anyway, as if it was a typical conversation. "An addition to the math department in the form of a teacher of economics and statistics. Or some restructuring of staff to hire both a qualified librarian and a part-time social worker to assist our legal department."

She didn't know if Sean had any kind of relationship with Eli Morrison, but even if they were friends, it was impossible to deny that the younger man lacked the qualifications for his position, and always had. (He wasn't the only staff member she thought unqualified, but she had inherited more staff than she had hired herself.)

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean considered Eli Morrison a friend, even if they weren’t the type of friends who spent time together outside of work, the way that Eli did with Midori Hawkins and that Sean did with almost everyone else. More than that, despite Eli’s lack of technical qualifications, he was, bar none, the most intelligent individual that the telepath had ever met, as well as the person best suited to the job of librarian given his memory and knowledge base. Additionally, Sean considered Eli inspirational to the students, someone who had managed to use his power in a way that benefitted his professional interests and found a way to make his career fit into his lifestyle without being intimidating.

Many of the students liked Eli. He had even managed to befriend Vincent Verax and interact with him on a peer-to-peer level, which was no small feat.

“We should have hired an economics and statistics teacher ages ago; they offer AP credit for those classes.” Since Hammel lacked a proper guidance counselor, those tasks had fallen to the psychiatrist over the years, and, as a result, he had acquired all manner of knowledge when it came to college admissions and freshman year course requirements throughout the country.

“Besides, we have a qualified librarian. We don’t have a certified one.”

[Yvette Morgenstern]

Well, that was not surprising whatsoever. Yvette knew that she would get pushback from the staff if she went ahead with option B. Likely from the students too. All she said on that matter was, "The Board is considering redefining the position so it requires a degree."

And Sean was right, AP credits were offered for those classes. She'd consulted with the head of the math department to see if other math teachers could be spared to teach the classes, but apparently none felt they would be able to take that class on at the AP level in addition to their current workload. It's not like she hadn't known this would be the more popular of her options. "AP credits was something I was taking into consideration. Thank you for you input, Sean."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean was not entirely surprised to hear that, and he had disagreed with several Board decisions (including encouraging Claude to resign because of a situation that they hadn’t fully understood, and, which, admittedly, he had not cleared with them before involving himself and other staff members) in the past. They represented the type of insulated bureaucracy that he thought could be replaced with structured representative democracy among the Hammel staff members without a loss of efficiency.

But he was considered a radical for some of his opinions.

“Again, with all due deference, the Board would be better served with allocating more resources to provide a backup generator so we don’t have a repeat of last May instead of finding a way to fire one of our most competent staff members.”

Sean had great respect for librarians, but they weren’t doctors or attorneys. There existed no law prohibited practicing the career without a Master’s Degree, and there existed no ethical concerns about not having an individual go through the standard training the way that a doctor or attorney might pose a risk to patients or clients without the standard training or the appropriate chain of accountability. Eli was a fine librarian, and he saw no reason to zero in on his salary as the barrier to providing growth or appropriate change to Hammel.

By contrast, due to the lack of a proper backup generator, they had lost four days of classes and had taken out the entire town's power grid.

[Yvette Morgenstern]

Of course, no one wanted a repeat of last May. It had been an unfortunate--and expensive--incident, and there had been money put aside in the new budget in case something like that happened again, but there was only so much money. Purchasing a new generator was on her list though.

This, of course, was why Dr. Neville had been scheduled for the end of the day.

"Thank you. I appreciate your candor." In the form of it being included on the list of things Hammel had to have, but couldn't quite manage at the moment. But his input had given more weight to the decision of hiring an economics teacher. Maybe next year she'd be able to get that social worker as well as a health teacher. Maybe.

Yvette returned to her usual, businesslike smile. "I think we've covered everything I needed to know, Sean. I hope I didn't take up too much of your time.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean had never worked in business, and his experiences in the private sector differed greatly from those who worked for companies. He had gone from Hammel to college to medical school to internship and residency without so much as a gap semester. Upon completing his residency period, he had opened his own private practice where he had been his own boss and the sole employee. He had scheduled his appointments, done his own billing, negotiated his own office rent, and compiled his own budget. Then he had applied for the position at Hammel where he had worked for the past twenty-four and a half years, soon to be twenty-five after graduation and when the students returned from summer break.

With Claude’s retirement, he had lost his only friend in the chain of command. With Claude’s retirement and with Wayne Dietrich’s retirement, the psychiatrist was very close to being the person at Hammel with the longest continuous employment history with the school.

In that time, he had grown accustomed to the bizarre happenings. He had grown accustomed to not keeping personal items in his office lest a student break them. He had grown accustomed to bureaucracy. He had grown accustomed to long, hectic hours and a break schedule that didn’t synch with any other school in Vermont or in the country. He had grown accustomed to student disrespect and making a game of trying to get under his skin. He had grown accustomed to students trying to take advantage of him with their powers only to learn quickly that this didn’t work. He had grown accustomed to dance disasters. He had grown accustomed to calming angry parents and working with their sister schools on protocols. He had grown accustomed to the way that his powers functioned in this environment, for better or for worse. He had grown accustomed to working at an institution that kidnapped children according to U.S. jurisdictional order and treaty agreements to protect them from themselves and from people who might take advantage of them. He defended that practice, in fact; had defended it for decades.

In all that time, Sean had never grown accustomed to getting the brush off.

In the grand scheme of things, it was minor, but it had always been one of his sticking points. His personal life could (and had) gone down in a fiery crash of family that never wanted to speak to him again, or in missed opportunities for children, or in intimate relationship after intimate relationship that fell to pieces due to the inability to live with a telepath and of friends who disappeared from his life with little warning or a social group comprised of people his age who behaved as though they had never reached full emotional maturity. But professionally, he required respect.

The students certainly didn’t provide that, and so the psychiatrist required it from his peers and from the administration. The brush off gave lie to that impression.

He had a headache now, which burst through the protective bubble that the earlier Excedrin had provided. “Since I’m sure you want to go home, I’ll do the same.”

He reached for his mug and then rose to his feet, keeping his expression and his tone calm despite how humiliating he found the experience. “Unless it’s a situation of danger, if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not be on call tonight.”

[Yvette Morgenstern]

"Thank you, again." Yes, Yvette did want to go home. Since her husband's retirement he'd taken up cooking as a hobby, and was sure to have something nice made for when she arrived. She still had some thinking to do about her options, but at least she had a more concrete idea of the reaction if she went with option B.

"I understand. Everyone needs some downtime. We'll only call you in if the building is on fire." That was meant to be a joke, though she was not on joking terms with Sean.

Clearly.