The X-Project

I think the next time we have one of our darling children assault another, we should give them to Cain for the next calendar year and let him do what he wants. Cain, would you like that? Indentured minion? Because they keep doing it, and a good example that death would be preferable to the punishment for being so fucking stupid would be really helpful.

My head hurts. And I want to string Manuel and Kyle up by their toenails. Should have expelled the one and grounded the second forever. How fucking, fucking stupid... and now the Jones boy thinks he's our victim. Fucking wonderful. Really. It's like Manuel all over again.

Someone declare me unfit to be the headmaster for the next twenty-four hours so I don't do anything stupid, all right?

I'll be in the hangar talking to my plane.

Since I understand that Mr. Jones is now fully stable and could potentially be moved, if we decided to do so, I think it's time we decided one way or the other how far our responsibility to him extends.

I'll be upfront about this - I think he should stay. I've spoken to him, and if he leaves here without getting his head straightened out... not to be blunt, but he probably won't live very long, even setting aside what the police or his former friends might do to him. I'm not at all comfortable about the idea of writing off a kid, however despicable most of us find his beliefs, and that's precisely what we'd be doing. He's had no chance to learn any better, and I think this is probably the best and possibly the only opportunity anyone will have to try and change that.

If we take a step back and look at the situation, the fact is that we've taken in people with far more questionable pasts. That's not an issue. What we haven't done is taken in someone whose misdeeds have had a direct and negative impact on our students before he ever came under our care. Our kids are the forgiving kind - really impressively so, actually - but in other cases they've known and cared about the person before whatever happened happened. Thomas isn't going to have that working on his behalf. If he stays, we're going to have to be very alert to the reactions of the students who were involved with him before he came here, and be ready to talk to them ourselves and/or steer them to Charles.

The other question is whether or not he wants to stay, once he's healed. That'll take a while, from what I understand. But he is seventeen years old, and surprisingly arrogant still, for someone who's been through what he's been through - I'm not sure how much of that is defensive, mind you. He may want to take his chances, and the school's not a prison. Still, the other matter I haven't touched on yet is his powers. If he's got some sort of matter transmutation ability that's just now manifested, we need to do what we can to keep him here until it's properly under control. Public safety is a major consideration as well.

So, thoughts? This is going to take extra work and effort from all of us, and we may very well have to weather some serious - and perfectly justifiable - unhappiness from a number of our current students. But to me it comes down to the fact that Thomas's misfortune in being born into a family of bigots doesn't change us, or more precisely what we're here to do. It may very well blow up in our faces, I don't know, but I think we need to try.

If there are dissenting opinions, though, or issues I haven't taken into consideration, I want to hear them.

I'm thinking some supervision would be a good thing. Agreement? Disagreement? Volunteers?