xp_logs | Crystal and Scott

After Scott and Crystal discuss working with Noriko, Crystal raises her concerns about the school.

Perhaps it shouldn't be so hard to say what she had wanted to say for quite a while now, but it was. There were certain topics that were not easy to bring up or discuss, no matter how necessary you felt they were, or how much experience and training you had in matters of politeness and diplomacy.

Where did one start when one needed to discuss such sensitive matters?

"I have noticed," Crystal began, "that the way in which many people appear to be conducting themselves on the journals does not seem to be in an appropriate manner for students, staff members, guests at the mansion, and the other people who share the school's journal system. At times, it would be quite difficult to tell a student from an adult from the way they speak to others in full view of everyone who has access to the journals if you did not already know who they were. I know that I cannot be the only one who has noticed what has been happening."

Scott realized that he probably should have expected this. It wasn't as if he'd missed Crystal's attempts to intervene from time to time in journal arguments. "Well," he said equably, "there is a reason that the younger students don't have journals. Although I must point out that we rarely see threats of violence or open profanity on the journals any longer - standards of behavior have evolved considerably from when the system was first created."

Crystal nodded. "They might be rare when compared to the way things used to be, but to me, they actually appear to have intensified. Perhaps my memories from when I attended school here are incorrect, but I do not remember so many people speaking the way they do now. In general, it appears to be accepted behavior, and therefore most people will not give any thought to the idea that what they are saying is inappropriate. In addition, the school gains new students, and speaking from personal experience, someone can begin a stay with a quite negative impression of the school from one or two intense journal discussions involving staff members speaking to students in ways they should preferably never speak to someone, let alone a student."

"And what would be your recent examples?" Scott asked mildly. It was only fair to hear her out before he raised the issue of differing standards of what was or was not appropriate, which was where he suspected the problem was.

"Laurie. Angelo. Monet." The answer was simple and, she hoped, self-explanatory. There were more examples and names, too, but those were the ones that stuck out the most in her mind.

"Apart perhaps from Angelo, who has been through some significant trauma this past week and possibly deserves some additional tolerance - I'm having a hard time seeing why you feel so strongly about this," Scott said. "Especially since neither Laurie nor Monet are staff members."

"This is part of the point," Crystal told Scott. "Yes, I can understand that Angelo has been having a particularly horrible month. However, no one made him read or respond to Laurie or anyone else on the journals. It took me quite a while to get over Lorna's comments to me during my first weekend at the school. Again, comments such as the ones that have been made to students over the past few weeks can have quite a negative impact on students, especially new ones. Students can become defensive of each other, and instead of appearing to be a community where people respect each other, people end up forming sides. As you have stated, neither Laurie nor Monet are staff members. Laurie is a student. She may feel that she is an adult, especially considering the fact that you have allowed her to become an X-Man trainee while still a student, but she is a student at this school and she should not speak to teachers in the way she has spoken to Angelo. Although I would prefer that she not speak to anyone this way, but I would not presume to tell her how she should speak to her own friends, especially in private. Monet, on the other hand, is neither a student nor a staff member at Xavier's. She is a guest. I would hope that guests and people from Snow Valley respect the fact that this is a school, even if the younger students do not have access to the journals, but again, this is a school, is it not?"

Scott was quiet for a long moment, absorbing the rather extensive... not a tirade, because she wasn't shouting, but it had been a long time since he'd been lectured quite like this. Take it one point at a time, he told himself, and took another moment to formulate his thoughts. "I understand your concerns," he finally said, simply, "but I have to say that I have not noticed the school community at war lately. Yes, sometimes in arguments, people have taken sides - that's natural, Crystal, and it's not gotten to the point where anyone's been seriously damaged by it. I think you underestimate the resilience and good sense of staff, students, and guests. I also think that perhaps you're applying your own standards to people who don't share your cultural background."

"Does a difference in cultural background also affect the idea of allowing students to go on dangerous missions?" Crystal asked softly. She was treading on dangerous grounds here and she knew it; she didn't want the statement to come off harsh or accusatory, and she wasn't quite sure that she'd have a better way to bring up this topic later on.

Scott gave her a slightly quizzical look. "We have never knowingly sent students into highly dangerous situations," he said. "Yes, X-Men trainees have occasionally wound up in more dangerous situations than I'd like to see them, but we're not throwing them into combat. Furthermore, not that I'd ever be in support of this, but we could. You can enlist in the American military at the age of seventeen. I always thought we were doing well to make X-Men hold off until they were eighteen."

"I did not say that you purposely sent them into danger, but both Kyle and Laurie are X-Men trainees, and they went on a mission in which Kyle received extensive injuries. Yes, he healed, but..." Crystal paused for a moment and sighed softly. "They are students. It seems to me that giving them access to certain knowledge that the rest of their peers do not know is not necessarily a good thing. More than one student has vocalized being unhappy at not being told what is going on at a certain point, and then you allow two students to know and burden them with being unable to tell their friends what is happening? They are told information that is not even shared with staff members who have not joined your team!" She shook her head. "I can understand training them, and allowing them a deeper insight into what it actually means to be an X-Man, but actually sending them with the adults, away from the school, somewhere where there is obviously something wrong? Perhaps you are not throwing them into combat, but into combat they have gone nonetheless."

"The students who are trainees have made the decision to take that burden upon themselves," Scott pointed out. "They've had to get parental permission, which involves disclosing to those parents the dangers involved - and we have never had a parent say no, Crystal. That's perhaps something worth considering. As for sharing information..." Scott paused, but carefully did not grimace. "It's something we've wrestled with for some time. We have shared information, and are moving towards doing that on a more regular basis. But unfortunately, sometimes absolutely nothing can be shared, and I make no apologies for that. Some situations are much larger than any student or staff member's desire to know."

"Did you inform the parents that their children, while still students, would be leaving the school with X-Men who were needed to fight?" Crystal asked. "Were they told that these missions can take place during the school week, when students should be attending classes? Of course certain situations mean that classes are cancelled entirely, but this is not always the case."

What a very odd question. "Full disclosure," Scott said, "except on matters of national security. The risks, the demands, the fact that yes, at some point their children might be injured... they're often uncomfortable conversations, but as I said, no parent has ever refused permission."

Crystal shook her head. "I find that hard to believe. Do not misunderstand, please; I do not mean to imply in any way that you are not telling the truth, but as for what you have said... I find it quite hard to understand how parents could allow their children to be put into danger this way." Some parents, she knew, did not care very much about their mutant children, but this was not always the case. It certainly wasn't true in Laurie's case; this she knew for sure. Sometimes, it was even hard to believe that parents chose to allow their children to remain at the school at all. "Many of the students look up to the X-Men. The idea seems... exciting and perhaps glamorous to them. I am sure that proper training allows them to see the reality of the situation."

Did she stop to listen to herself, sometimes? A trace of a frown crossed Scott's face for the first time in the conversation. "Can I point something out, Crystal? You don't know the reality of the situation. You give the impression that your image of the X-Men is... some sort of intrusive hobby, getting in the way of what the school should be doing. I don't think anyone's ever told you that you need to choose between your responsibilities to your country and your role as a teacher, have they?"

"Whatever the reality of the situation is regarding the X-Men, it is not the same thing as choosing between my duty as the princess of Attilan and my desire to be a teacher," Crystal said. "First of all, I was born into the royal family; it is not something I chose. Secondly, my royal duties never affect students in my care in an adverse manner. I do not disrupt their studies with a constant need for substitute teachers and I do not return to school broken, battered, or bruised."

She had rather missed his point. He wasn't going to pursue it, however, not if she honestly believed there was a difference in the level of perceived responsibility. Culturally conditioned blind spots were not something he chose to tackle. "We all make choices, Crystal," Scott said, instead. "X-Men, staff, students, parents. I happen to think we do a rather good job of delivering an education. Your mileage may vary, and that's fair. But this institution has evolved the way it has for a range of reasons, and it will undoubtedly continue to evolve. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean it's ever going to fit your rather restrictive ideas of what it should be."

"I do not believe that these ideas are so restrictive," Crystal said. "I am simply concerned for the welfare of the students, just as I am sure you are. It is just that sometimes it seems as though the job of being an X-Man comes before the job of being a teacher. Teaching is very important to me... it is why I came here. More people stay at the mansion in order to be part of the team, not to be a teacher, even if they act in both capacities."

Scott took a moment before he answered. She had at least been diplomatic. "I think you're exaggerating just a little, Crystal. We have plenty of non-resident teachers. Of those who are both teachers and X-Men... I don't think they'd really appreciate you jumping to conclusions about where their priorities are. I lead the X-Men - I'm also a trained teacher. Some of the things I've done as a teacher here, like the engineering course, have taken a lot of time and effort and consultation with fellow educators to put into practice. And there are a number of X-Men who are far more qualified as teachers than I am."

Crystal nodded, not particularly agreeing with what Scott had said. "I do not doubt that you are interested in educating the students, and I know that you take your classes seriously," she told him, meaning what she said.

Scott blinked. Then counted to five. It was a strategy Jack Leary had once suggested, at the moments he felt like he was about to lose his temper. "Perhaps it's best," he finally said, very levelly, "if we apply a certain level of trust to one another's basic motivations, and leave it at that." Because he didn't really think he wanted to hear close to ten years of his adult life described as being 'interested' in education ever again.

"Was there anything else?" he asked in the same perfectly even voice, meeting her eyes steadily. "If not, I have a number of midterm marks to review."

Crystal shook her head. "No, that is all." She stood up from the chair. "Thank you for taking the time to speak with me."