Statement of Purpose

[x-juggernaut.livejournal.com]

Alison posted something about the kids assuming they were promised a rose garden coming here, and she said it better than I could. But it comes down to one point - some of these kids are getting way too uppity for their britches.

This is supposed to be a school, right? Schools have teachers, administration, authority figures. But how are these kids supposed to respect that authority when the people they're supposed to look up to keep dropping the ball?

Rasputin kept a dangerous secret that endangered some of the kids. He had his reasons, and I'll back him up on them, but the point remains. The Yoshida kid - who's dealing with his part in all that? Kid seems sorry enough, and I don't think he's even capable of lying about it. But still, who's on this?

And teachers just bailing on these kids and taking off? Hell, Summers has been out of this mansion more than he's in, and ain't he supposed to be the big "team leader" type? You got two teachers who damn near killed each other in the gym in front of students, another one who took off to get her head together and left a bunch of dying plants up in the attic - hell, you've got kids who're barely out of these classes themselves turning around and teaching them.

Chuck - if you're going to keep saying that this is a school, teach these kids something useful. Get them in LINE, dammit. I ain't saying it should be boot camp here, lord knows you'd have a double busload of washouts on day one, but look at how these kids think they're running the show.

Whatsisname, the little Mexican gangbanger? Wants to teach kids how to handle a gun? Didn't he want to teach self-defense before he lost it and went crazy punching another student? Yeah, hand him a loaded weapon. Way to approve of THAT lesson plan, Summers. Real good judgement call, Slim.

Kids deciding that "next time" they'll take matters into their own hands? Who puts up with crap like that? Yeah, a lot of them defend themselves by saying they got nowhere else to go. Lemme tell you something, when you've got nowhere else to go and no one else to turn to - that's NOT the time you start criticizing how things are done. Not unless you feel ready to get booted out on your own and feel like you're capable of handling yourself.

I ain't a teacher, and I sure as hell ain't an authority figure. I do two things - I fix stuff and I break stuff. So unless you got a group of kids that either want to go do some landscaping or fix the old horse shed, don't think I'm volunteering for shit. But like Chuck told you guys - this is my home. And if you're going to play at running a school in it, at least have the decency to make it work.

Comments

[x-dazzler.livejournal.com]

Point 1

I've spoken to Shiro. I don't know that having him talk to Dr Samsom is going to help there, but it might on some levels. I'll see if the notion is not entirely unacceptable to him or an alternative can be found.

Point 2

And thank you for bringing up what was going to be my next post. And yes, only to staff. :p

Students teaching other students to handle a gun? Pardon my language, but what the fuck is going on with this? We're allowing this why again? For what purposes exactly? I object to this, in so many ways it's not funny. It's so wrong it scares the living daylights out of me.

WE ARE A SCHOOL. Not a freakin' militia. Not an army base. A school.

You want to have a shooting class of any kind, hire a professional to do it. And don't go on about being able to keep the weapons under lock, puh-lease. Mutant High here, remember? They want to get in something they'll find a way to do it. Kidnapping isn't even a moral issue for some, need I remind you all? So long as they think they're right, they won't care about the facts and just do what they want.

Never mind how this will go across to outsiders of the place. I'm sure they'll love hearing that the kids are learning how to shoot, oh yeah. :p

Point 3

Bring them in line? Yeah, right. Some get drunk on the grounds and admit it (never mind that they were hardly discreet about it in the first place) and they're actually outraged at being punished for it. Heaven forbid we actually react in a normal way to that sort of behavior.

Point 4

Someone. Someone kindly have words with darling Remy, before he has the entire school thinking we're getting nuked tomorrow, please? Sometime in the near future? That'd be nice. Appreciated too. And no. I'm not fit to do it.

I have to go, but I'll be back to this soon. Let's talk, hrm people?

[x-juggernaut.livejournal.com]

On Point 2 - there will be no shooting training in this school for the kids. Hell, I'm against the Doc teaching Rogue how to fire a gun. But the girl's GOT the army training stuck in her head, if she doesn't come to terms with it, it'll eat her alive. I mean, she can punch through a friggin' wall - she doesn't need to cart around a rifle.

I don't give a damn WHAT Summers said about protecting the kids. It ain't authorized, and if I see it or hear about it going on, I'm putting an end to it. And probably whatever "teacher" thinks it's a good idea.

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[x-rogue.livejournal.com]

My choice to use a ranged weapon is based largely in the desire to limit the liability I am in some situations and to give me an option for defending myself or my teammates or my students that doesn't involve me getting my hands on someone. A gun sure as hell wouldn't have helped get Yana out of that mess quite so well, but I really don't like doing things like that. I'd be happy to take up a crossbow or something instead, but they don't transport quite so well. I've had permission to train using a handgun for quite some time now, from the Professor himself. There's no evil inherent in conventional weaponry like that and more than there's evil in any of us for having the capacity to kill.

God. I am tired of this argument and I am tired of trying to smooth things out between people. I quit. When the kids who have had it rough implode into their own independant little militia that trusts no one, especially people who throw idealistic, unrealistic, ethical snakeoil in their faces when they're trying to protect their own lives, or so they think, I'll be busy somewhere else, possibly embroidering a straight-jacket for myself.

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[x-juggernaut.livejournal.com]

When the kids who have had it rough implode into their own independant little militia that trusts no one, especially people who throw idealistic, unrealistic, ethical snakeoil in their faces when they're trying to protect their own lives, or so they think, I'll be busy somewhere else, possibly embroidering a straight-jacket for myself.


And there ain't a ONE of them that's "had it rough" enough to justify teaching the other kids how to kill. You want to try and sell me that the Professor's told you it's a kill-or-be-killed world out there? Quit blowing smoke up my ass, girl.

You want to protect these kids? Isn't that what you X-Men are supposed to be doing? But no, you're busy pretending to teach school when you've got guys like Magneto out there giving people reason to be afraid of you.

You want to be proactive - do it. But don't think you've got the right to train kids to be soldiers.

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[x-rogue.livejournal.com]

Did I say teaching them to kill? No. I said teach them how to handle a gun. There's a million miles of difference and if the teaching buys the time to teach the conscience and the ethics with it, then it's worth it. I never said we were training them to be soldiers. There's ten year olds all over this damn country who can clean, load, and fire a gun. I never once suggested that they be trained as soldiers or trained to kill.

I simply said that if it makes them feel respected and secure to be allowed to learn to use a fire arm under supervision, then it's not necessarily a bad idea, especially for the older students. With power, responsibility. The opportunity to teach both at once should not be discarded in favour of some rose-tinted ideal that says that it is right and ethical that you should take children who already kill to protect themselves, lose their trust by dropping the ball, and then tell them to go sit down and do their homework because somehow you are preserving their mythical innocence by refusing to allow them the means to cope with their present reality.

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[x-juggernaut.livejournal.com]

You ever seen a gun used to do something besides kill? You know what - we're done discussing this. It ain't happening, end of story. First kid I see with a gun, he's out of here. Hell, I may even give him a choice of wall or window.

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[x-rogue.livejournal.com]

Yes, we are. Not my problem anymore.

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[x-rogue.livejournal.com]

First, there's nothing wrong with learning how to use a handgun or a rifle. There's no inherent danger in it. We teach self-defense, we teach /advanced/ self-defense as well, which verges on the not-so-defendy. Scott teaches driving lessons that are not just about not running red lights. We teach students how to control deadly, dangerous mutations. Some of us are bigger, better weapons than any gun will ever be. How many of us have killed people now, not by accident, but one way or another? We might as well face up to that fact and start getting serious and responsible about it.

I have Angelo talked around to the idea of a staff-supervised student skill-sharing exercise that focusses on more than just the guns. It's not going to be him and the kids and a box of contraband weapons out back after school hours. People came into this place and shot at the children in it. I think it's reasonable to give the older ones, at least, some sense of understanding and mastery of the things used to threaten them. Does that make any sense? At least this way it can be done with supervision and support, because I think it's going to happen anyway and we might as well at least mediate it as best we can.

If it's decided that this shouldn't fly, then that would be a /huge/ relief for me. I hate the idea too. But I think it's got to wind down slowly and carefully because slapping a lid on things now will simply alienate some of our more volatile students who are here /by the invitation/ of the Professor.

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[x-juggernaut.livejournal.com]

Then you give them a class. Not a "how to kill people" seminar. And no, it's not going to happen, because there'll be hell to pay if I catch wind of it.

Look at it this way - people already hate you guys because of what you are. Why give them another reason to think you're dangerous?

First, there's nothing wrong with learning how to use a handgun or a rifle. There's no inherent danger in it.

Bullshit. Take it from me, I've got more first-hand knowledge than any of you. You put a gun in someone's hand, they stop defending themselves and they become someone with the capacity to kill. Some of these kids already have that built in, they didn't get to choose it. Now you want to give the rest of them the opportunity to choose it?

At Phuc Tran back in '62, out on patrol we came across a bunch of kids not too much older than Miles. They'd had their homes taken from them, their lives threatened, their whole world torn apart. Not a lot different than the kids here.

Six kids, toting Chinese-made AK-47s, who thought they were defending themselves. They fired, we fired, and we killed every single one of them. Because the instant they picked up that gun and decided to use it, they became a soldier. Not someone defending themself, but someone capable of killing.

Someone wants to put more children in the crosshairs like that, sorry, but they'll do it somewhere else.

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[x-rogue.livejournal.com]

We already have the capacity to kill. Don't be naive. Soldiers? You bring people like Angelo and Sarah to this school, and you are bringing in soldiers from a war with no sides and no commanders. And don't tell me about experience. Mine may be partly second-hand, but I've seen what happens to children who don't trust, who live in fear, who feel hunted and disempowered. I know what those children grow up to be because I have one in my head... hell, I don't have just one, I have three, but one stands out beyond the rest.

Every fucking episode where the They from out there cracks down on the Us in here brings one of these kids that much closer to turning out like him and that is precisely what I am trying to avoid. I can feel it in them, I can smell it on them, and we cannot afford to break trust with them. And if that means teaching them how to knock soda cans off of fence posts with a handgun, then by God, give them the fucking gun with one hand and gentle them with the other.

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[x-juggernaut.livejournal.com]

"Us" versus "Them", huh? So when are you scheduled to rewire Chuck's big brain machine to go protect "Us" from "Them"? Because it almost worked before, you know.

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[x-rogue.livejournal.com]

Oh, fuck off. That's not how I see it day to day, but it's sure how it feels when you're shoving little children into an escape tunnel and telling them to run and not look back and that's the lesson the remains after the smoke clears. I hang on with my goddamn teeth to not thinking of Us and Them.

And don't get me started on the big machine. If your brother wanted to, he could follow Eric's lead and get me to do the job for him and walk away with nothing more than a bit of a headache and the need for a nap. And if I thought for a second it would work, I'd offer.

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[x-juggernaut.livejournal.com]

So what separates Them from You? Genetics? Maybe religion? Skin color?

You're a smart girl, you've read your big books. And while I ain't carrying around a suitcase full of degrees, I know my history pretty well. Us versus Them ain't ever turned out too well.

I got my differences with Chuck, but one thing he's always been willing to give up everything for is this dream of equal rights. And part of that's getting it through your skull that when you start drawing those little lines of "Them" and "Us", pretty soon it turns into "Me" and "Everyone Else".

And then you put a bucket on your head and try to wipe out a few billion people.

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[x-rogue.livejournal.com]

Or someone else puts it there for you, yes. Evidently we differ on what our perceived purpose of the big machine would be. I'd rather change minds than shut them down. If I could do it all at once, I would.

However, it is all a moot point, as my car is here and I have two classes left to teach, and then I am out of here.

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[x-pete.livejournal.com]

>>>WE ARE A SCHOOL. Not a freakin' militia. Not an army base. A school.<<<

What she said.

I ain't saying I don't see a need for *self defense* lessons, but I've refused to teach the kids to kill in the past, and I ain't about to go along with one of *them* doing it now. Especially not one who learned it in a fucking streetgang.

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[x-juggernaut.livejournal.com]

My point exactly.

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[x-cyclops.livejournal.com]

Re: Point 2

There are many places in this country where students as young as Illyana are trained in handling firearms. Mainly by their parents. Safety first, of course.

No, this is not a militia. This is a school. A school that has been attacked twice by professional military men. We've failed in keeping it safe, in keeping it simply "Mutant High." While I don't have Marie-Ange's precognative ability, it's likely that it will happen again.

You're correct in that Angelo is not a professional. I'll work with him, if he's still even interested at this point, to see if he would agree to some training of his own.

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[x-juggernaut.livejournal.com]

Feel free to work with him. You just won't be doing it here. Like I said, this already got settled while you were off on your little vacation.

WHAT?

[x-dazzler.livejournal.com]

There are many places in this country where students as young as Illyana are trained in handling firearms.

... did you get hit on the head while you were gone? Repeatedly so? With a truck maybe? Or a really big building?

How in the world, no wait, the universe, does that particular argument justify us teaching children to shoot guns? And how will teaching them to shoot guns make them anything else but targets to be considered lethal and to be put down on sight, instead of say, just plain knocked out? I'm curious. Help me understand how we can help them, by making them even more dangerous. Please.

Oh, yeah, and never mind parental consent, for that matter.

[x-cyclops.livejournal.com]

I will admit, I was not in my best frame of mind when talking to Angelo.

I don't agree with guns on the grounds, except under lock and key.

I still see nothing wrong with firearms training. It can help people learn focus. It may even help Angelo learn focus. If Moira agrees that he's recovered enough. I don't think she will think he has at this point, but it gives him a goal to work toward.

Yes, firearms training can also be used to train people to kill.

But many of these students can do that on their own already. Accidentally or otherwise. Giving them the skills necessary to learn when to shoot, and when not to, is what I had in mind.

We'll just have to agree to disagree on this, Cain.

[x-juggernaut.livejournal.com]

You'll have to agree to disagree. All I have to do is disagree. This, like pretty much everything else around here, already got settled without you.

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[x-cyclops.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to see everything ran so smoothly in my absence.

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[x-juggernaut.livejournal.com]

Remarkably so. It's amazing what can get done when the responsible folks take charge.