WEEK THREE

MRS CHAPLAIN

WEDNESDAY MORNING

The whole inquiry team had been almost as shocked by the hostility from Samantha as we had been by the demonstrations by Heather and Shelley the week before. It was a somewhat dispirited bunch of us that sat down to breakfast together on Wednesday morning. Dr. Reynolds, the school’s headmaster had arranged a cooked breakfast for us in the dining hall. At his suggestion we had invited Mr. Thompson to join us for the day. Marcus Thompson was his newly-appointed deputy and the previous week he had been instrumental in eventually organising the staff revolt against the now suspended former deputy head whilst Julian Reynolds was appearing at the inquiry in London.

We knew we had to hear from Laura and Suzie in the afternoon and from rumours flying around the school according to Mr. Thompson, Laura in particular intended to "roast us", as she had apparently put it. Having read her journal of the previous week, none of us could find it in ourselves to blame her.

"But you’ll note," said Dr. Richard Cellon, our chairman, "The girls, in spite of being very angry about how things were allowed to go so badly wrong, without exception, want the Program to continue."

"Yes," I agreed, "And I don’t know about you, as you only saw the recording, but I was very moved by the girls’ speeches at assembly on Monday. It’s made me even more determined that we have to get this right. The Program has such potential, if they can be in favour of it after all they’ve been through. As one of the girls put in her journal, imagine what it could do if it wasn’t screwed up."

"All the same, I’m glad we’re hearing from the boys this morning," David Grayson, our psychologist added. "At least we know they had a good time. Sex, sex and more sex, from what we've heard so far."

Richard glanced at his watch. "We’d best have the rest of our coffee or tea in the classroom. It’s nearly time."

"Good morning, could you state your name for the record, please?"

"Jed Peters, and before anyone asks, I’m no relation to Suzie."

"Thank you…" Richard went on to introduce the rest of us.

"Before you begin I have to ask if you mind Dr. Reynolds and Mr. Thompson being present. Perhaps you’d like to explain why, Dr. Reynolds?"

He cleared his throat, "Certainly. Jed, as you know, for various reasons we’ve had quite a lot to do with the girls, but the boys have been virtually forgotten. We’d very much like to hear from you first-hand about your experiences and thoughts. But if you’d prefer to give your evidence to the inquiry without us being here, that is fine as well."

"I don’t mind. But I’ve one question, and I’m not sure whether it should be for you or Dr…" he looked at the chairman.

"Cellon."

"Sorry."

"Why don’t you ask it and whoever should answer it will do so?" suggested Richard.

"I know what we say isn’t off the record. But can we really speak freely? I mean say exactly what we think, without, as Laura would say, fear of repercussions?"

"You may speak freely. Nothing you say will be held against you in any way," replied Richard.

"I confirm that," said Dr. Reynolds. Mr. Thompson nodded quietly.

Jed took a deep breath and stood up. "Right. I suppose I really want to know what the fuck you thought you were doing introducing your fucking Program like that? Of course it had to be a Northern School first, didn’t it? Somewhere a nice long way from London, ‘cause you’d never have got away with trying it down there. But us northerners don’t really matter, do we?

"And no, don’t even plan how it should be started, just lump some poor girl in it and see what happens. And if the worst happens and she gets raped or something, have a… cosy little inquiry to make it look like you care, just to smooth things over.

"You didn’t even think, did you? We’re fucking teenage boys. You think things aren’t going to get out of control, when you sit on your fat arses and just wait and see how it goes?"

Dr. Cellon looked like he wanted to say something, but Jed continued, this time turning to Dr. Reynolds.

"And after Heather was raped, and not just an ordinary rape either, if there is such a thing, but after all that, you’re responsible and you go swanning off to London to play bureaucrats with this bunch?"

He turned back to us.

"And as for what happened last week. You can try playing the innocent about Heather, but last week, you KNEW things were going badly, and you kept him in London. Heather already told you what happened on Tuesday and Wednesday, but it’s no good blaming Ghastly fucking Gordon and her arse-wipe Graham. You’re as responsible for what happened to Sam and Laura and the other girls as they are.

"And you," he turned to Mr. Thompson. "I’m glad you stayed to hear this. You were HERE. The other staff were HERE, and you did FUCK-ALL for TWO WHOLE DAYS, and then it was sending little messages to the students, to get THEM to do YOUR work for you."

He stood in the middle of the room for a moment, fuming and breathing heavily, his gaze fixing on each of us in turn. His final words were quiet and measured, and even more chilling than what had come before.

"The Program should be cancelled. No argument. Not even close. Before anyone else gets hurt. You’re all just fucking lucky that Laura found Sam in time, or you’d have a dead girl on your hands, instead of just a… rape victim.

"I have only one thing to say to you all. You disgust me, all of you. Now why don’t you take your fucking inquiry and your Program back to London, and take our beloved staff with you?"

With that he stalked out, the sound of the door slamming behind him appropriate punctuation.

A white-faced Richard Cellon said weakly, "I think we’ll take a break for half an hour, unless anyone objects?" Nobody did.

If the others were half as shaken as I was, we needed that half hour.

I went outside for some air. Dr. Reynolds had also come out. He started walking around the building, so, sensing he wanted to be alone, I started walking around the school in the other direction. I did this often at my own school, when I needed to reflect or calm down, but I was surprised to see Dr. Reynolds doing the same. Maybe all head teachers do it.

It was in the middle of a lesson period so it was quiet, except for the traffic going by and unintelligible words from some open classroom windows.

I’d walked about a third of the way round, when I saw Dr. Reynolds coming towards me, walking faster than I had been.

"Julian," I said, stopping him. "He wasn’t all right, you know."

"He was more right than wrong."

I couldn’t answer that, because I felt the same way, but he went on, "You know, I came to this school to make a difference, to make it somewhere that the students could learn and grow, and where parents would be proud to send them. Now I can’t even say it’s safe. Look at everything that’s happened, at Samantha, Laura, and if that isn’t bad enough look at Heather. Jed is right."

"Yes, okay. Look at Heather. You know, she came to me after school last night worried about you."

"About me? Why?"

I took out the letter she had given me and started reading it quietly to him.

As I folded up the letter again, I said, "I’d give my right arm to have my students think that highly of me."

Before he could answer we heard a noise from behind some bushes that bordered a small garden where the students could grow things.

We both walked towards it. The noise increased as we approached and was obviously someone crying. We entered the garden and saw a boy on a garden bench, his head in his hands, sobbing his heart out.

"Is that you, Jed?" I asked.

He lifted up his face, which we could see was smudged with tears "It’s all my fault," he moaned.

We said nothing.

"We were the ones who really started treating Heather badly, that first week. Then things just got out of hand and worse and worse. If we hadn’t started it, maybe none of this would have happened."

"Jed, if you want someone to blame, your targeting was more accurate in the inquiry," said Dr. Reynolds. "As you said, you were just boys predictably getting carried away. And I should have taken that into account and prevented it. The responsibility is mine, nobody else’s."

"Jed," I said. "Unless I’m totally misreading the situation, Heather needs you now. Whatever mistakes anyone made are in the past. Blaming yourself won’t help her. She needs you to be strong now."

He looked up at me, perplexed and frustrated. "She won’t even let me near her half the time."

"And there’s nothing worse than seeing someone you love in pain, when you think you can’t help?"

"No."

I remembered another girl who had been raped many years earlier. "Just be there for her. She’ll know. Believe me, she’ll know."

We left Jed still sitting alone.

"Still sure you want to sit in?" I asked Julian as we reached the classroom door.

"I’m sure I don’t, after that, but I’m sure I need to."

"Christopher Owens."

"Thank you, Christopher," said Richard. "Do you object to Dr. Reynolds and Mr. Thompson being here while you give evidence?"

"No. More the merrier," he replied. He seemed cheerful, a total contrast to Jed. I suddenly felt a chill as if someone were walking over my grave.

When the introductions were complete, Richard handed over to me to start the questions.

"As you know, we were set up primarily to investigate the circumstances surrounding Heather’s rape, but we are also trying to highlight problems with the Program, so they can be dealt with."

"Sure."

"So please give us your opinion of the Program."

Christopher’s face turned to a broad grin. "Sex. And lots of it. Hell, I was shagging within a few minutes of being picked and hardly stopped all week. When can I do it again?

"Seriously, most of the time it was great. Though to be honest, being led off by some of the hottest girls in school on Wednesday morning for what was basically an orgy might have influenced my thoughts on it. We really had fun. It would probably be my best memory of the week except for one small detail."

"And what was that?" I asked, certain that I would regret it.

"It was great, until later, only then we found out that while we boys were having the time of our lives, all the girls were being sexually assaulted because the staff who were supposed to keep them safe didn’t do anything. As if letting that bitch beat up on Laura the day before wasn’t bad enough."

Mr. Thompson winced noticeably.

"Actually, in a way it’s nobody’s fault that things went wrong. Let’s face it. We had some of the prettiest girls in school walking around naked and having to perform favours for everyone. And with about a thousand normal teenage boys around, who could have guessed that some might go a bit OTT? (see cultural notes ) It isn’t really obvious, is it?

"I suppose it should be, at least to people who haven’t forgotten what it’s like to be a teenager. But not to the high and mighty civil servants in London. As far as all of you were concerned, everyone would play nice.

"Let me explain something. My friends and I have never been in trouble. We’ve never been bullies. We’d never even think of hurting a girl. We’re not like that. But day two of the Program and what happens? We see a naked girl in school. And you know what? We’ve got official permission to fondle her! Talk about a teenage boy’s wet dream come true.

"Of course, with tits and pussy and the best bum in school to play with, all legal, we kinda forgot she actually had feelings. A few minutes later, when we saw her crying her eyes out, we came to our senses. And I’m sure Dr. Reynolds will tell you, we’re not far off model students. So if we get carried away, not thinking, what a surprise! Some others do too!

"Only some of them don’t stop. Some get a kick out of seeing the girls cry. But that’s okay. They’re in the Program, aren’t they? A great social experiment. What’s the word I’m looking for? Col, something. Oh yes, collateral damage.

"The only problem is that when you go back to London, some of them will still be picking up the pieces."

He stopped to sip some water. Clearly he wanted that to sink in.

"Am I against the Program? In principle, no. But it doesn’t matter what safeguards you write in after this inquiry, nothing will change unless you find a way to make people remember there’s a person inside the body they’re playing with. And sometimes the person inside takes a lot longer to heal than the body.

"You lay down what is ‘reasonable’. But unless you take into account the participant’s own feelings, your definition of reasonable doesn’t have anything to do with reasonable. So change it to ‘Permitted Requests’. Because it sure as hell ain’t reasonable.

Another sip of water. He knew what he was doing.

"I read the pamphlet before I came in here. You want to know what it’s about?"

He pulled out a very crumpled pamphlet from his pocket, smoothed it out and began to read.

"This is what it says here. ‘The Program has been carefully designed to help you become more comfortable with your body and your sexuality, to treat others in natural balance as both individual people and sexual beings, to learn to harness your natural energies, and to behave in a more mature and morally conscious manner. By becoming more comfortable with your body and sexuality, it is hoped that your sexual tensions will be in general diminished but more focused when appropriate. This is your opportunity for rapid personal growth.’

"Can someone here explain to me how allowing fifty boys to surround a girl and shove their fingers into her is supposed to make her become more comfortable with her body? Because I’m just a teenage boy. I haven’t your years of experience, so I can’t understand that one."

He finished with a sigh of relief. I felt like we’d been quietly and carefully dissected. If anything, Christopher’s reasoned evidence had been more piercing than Jed’s emotional outburst.

Nobody else had any questions, so after a pause, Richard said, "Thank you. If you’ve nothing else to say, you may go."

"Hi, I’m Lenny Tawn," said the next boy, without even giving Richard time for introductions. "You want to know what I think of the Program?"

"Yes, please," Richard replied.

"I think it’s great, or could be. But let’s face it, it was a disaster."

He looked directly at me. "I noticed you in the assembly on Monday, looking really pleased as the girls all said what they did. You were pleased, weren’t you?"

"Yes," I admitted.

"What you were forgetting is that the reasons they said all those things were actually nothing to do with the Program.

"Okay, Shelley had fun and it showed. But Suzie and Laura – they were so positive because they fell in love. Nothing really to do with the Program, except that it brought them together.

"Another obvious example, Sam. Blew everyone away with what she said. Including me, I might add.

"But what changed Sam? Anything in the Program? New rules to help? No. What helped Sam were the others in the Program. Shelley and her daft petting party. Suzie helping her survive the first morning groping. And Laura and her Mum, who took her in and showed her more love than she’s ever known.

"And some of the girls in the choir, like Tanya and Teresa, who, when they heard about what Sam’s mum was like, decided that they’d support her. And Heather and Shelley and their mum, who took her in at the weekend and made her feel so loved that she felt like she’d gone from having nobody to having two families who loved her.

"Anything there which the Program or the school can take credit for? Not that I can see. The Program took her to attempted suicide. It was individuals who bailed you out and gave you what you probably see as the Program’s greatest triumph.

"I’m not saying that the Program can’t be good. But it’s a scheme on paper. If it works it’s because of real people supporting each other. I wish I could tell you what to write down to make that happen, but I can’t."

"Thank you, Lenny," I said. "We haven’t forgotten that it’s people that make this work, or not work. What we are trying to do, with what we end up writing down, is firstly, to provide a safe and secure environment and secondly, a structure to encourage people to work together in a positive way. And a lot of that is based on what we have learned from you all."

"Look, Mrs. C. I hope it works, I really do. I know I’m considered the boy equivalent to Shelley, never thinks seriously, just out for fun, but I’d feel really gutted if I wake up one day and see on the news that some poor girl killed herself in the Program. I’d wish we’d really fucked it up so it would be stopped."

"I can assure you, we will only authorise the continued running of the Program if we are satisfied it is safe. Remember, the next pilot school is mine. And I will simply not allow the Program to run unless I am as sure as I can be, that we have learned the lessons of the last two weeks. That’s all I can promise."

He thought about that for a moment. "Okay. Thanks for listening."

"No," said Richard, "Thank you."

After Lenny left, our relief was palpable. "At least that was better than the first two," said Dorina Corton. "Who’s next?"

"The last one," said Richard, "Gerald Tilling."

After the usual introductions, Gerald sat quietly in his chair.

After a minute or two, I prompted him, "Please tell us what you are thinking."

"Sorry. I’m not used to… all this."

"That’s alright. Just remember, we’re here to learn from you."

"I don’t know if I can teach you anything. I had a pretty good week, though I wish someone had told the girls that guys can get sore too."

Richard smiled.

I said, "I think we will be suggesting some suitable classes to try to teach students some basics like that, and on how to treat one another."

"Good. But I have a question."

"Yes?"

"From what Heather told us, you didn’t realise what it was like for the girls, is that right?"

"It is."

"So why were you laying down rules without bothering to find out first what it was like? Why did you let them get treated like that or why didn’t you bother to find out how they were being treated?

"Are us in the Program that unimportant? I mean last week, you knew what happened to Sam, and you kept Dr. Reynolds down there. It took Heather showing you up to get you to come here. If you were telling everyone what they had to do, you should have been here from the start.

"Why did it take Heather’s rape all over the papers to make you sit up and take notice?"

I opened my mouth to speak, but Richard stopped me. "Gerald, all I can say is that mistakes were made. Bad mistakes. But we are here now. We cannot change what happened, but we can do our best to see that it never happens again."

"It’s hardly fair. You all make the mistakes, but Heather pays the price."

"No," Richard agreed heavily. "It isn’t fair. But we owe it to her now to do our very best to put things right. Thank you for helping us to do that."

After Gerald was out of the room, Dorina asked, "Am I the only one who’s surprised? The boys all seem to have had a great time, yet they were all pretty hostile."

"I suspect we’ve been set up," said Mr. Thompson.

"And we deserved it," said Richard. "But, please, even if they did get together to plan this morning’s performance, don’t dismiss what they’ve said. There were some very valid points in there."

I noticed Dr. Reynolds' face crease almost into a knowing smile briefly, but he said nothing.

Continues in "Continuations & Conclusions part 19", HERE

Want to read more chapters and maybe even whole new stories - before ANYONE else sees them (even before my Yahoo Group members)? (Except my hard-working proof-readers of course)
Now you can, by becoming a member of ChrissyGiles.com and helping support a worthy cause at the same time

To be notified by email when the next chapter of "Conclusions & Continuations" IS online AND get to read it before it is released to everyone else, join my Yahoo group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Stories_by_Chrisy/join

Ó Copyright 2006 Chrissy Giles

I'd really love to hear what you think. I welcome criticism and compliments alike, (okay, I guess I prefer compliments, I'm only human!)
While these stories are in progress, I'd also welcome suggestions and ideas. If I don't use an idea in this story, perhaps I will later.
Chrissy Giles
Email chrissy@chrissygiles.com

"Heather collection" - main page