Disciplinary Action/Disciplinary Office/First Quarter/Church/New Extreme/Private

"Uhh... yeah, do you think you could arrange a meeting? I'm not exactly comfortable talking about that sorta think out here." You respond to your boss' question.

"Certainly!" He says as he stands up and slides past his daughter. Being at the end of the pew, you simply stand up and step into the aisle in order to allow him to pass. "Barbara, do you think you can gather up the children while I make the arrangements for Mr. Gardner?" He turns and adds to his wife.

"Of course dear," she responds in a sincere-sounding dutiful tone as she stands as well. "Common Liliana" She then addresses her daughter in a somewhat harsher impatient tone that suggests a little distance in their relationship. You are forced to wonder, you are pretty sure she has to know about her daughter's punishment, could it be that she is sore at her own daughter that she is having sex with her husband? Even if Liliana has no choice in the matter at all, it's as though she views her own daughter as 'the other woman.'" She refuses to look her daughter in the face as she takes her by the hand and drags her from the room as you get one last forlorn glance from Liliana before she is pulled down the aisle.

"Alright, come on," the headmaster says, giving you a clout on the shoulder. "Let's go talk with Isidro, err... Deacon Lambey. He happens to be a friend of mine, he has actually been wanting to talk to you."

"Oh really?" You respond as you start to walk along with your boss as he sets the pace.

"Oh yeah, me and Deacon Lambey go way back, we knew one another as kids growing up in this town. Anyway, he has been a fairly strong proponent of the program from the beginning, when I told him about you he seemed quite pleased. The lord has truly touched that man, I had my doubts about you at first Gardner, but he knew you were the perfect person for this job the first time he heard about you."

By the time Mr. Grandville gets done talking, you have already hit the front of the church and he breaks off from you to step ahead to the Deacon. "Deacon Lambey!" He greets the man warmly. "I brought along Mr. Gardner, he says that he wants to meet with you."

"Oh?" The Deacon responds, "Well it's good to see you, Mr. Gardner, I have been looking forward to meeting you, and I am very glad you could make it to the sermon. I am certain it must have been a little strange to sit in a pew listening to someone lavishing praise for your good works, but it certainly is commendable what you are doing with the children of this town."

You shift a bit uncomfortably at this and Mr. Grandville seems to pick up on this as he clears his throat. "Isidro," he addresses the Deacon more personally, "perhaps we could take this back to your chambers? Mr. Gardner told me he would prefer it that way."

"Ah, of course! Come on back! Will you be joining us Leo?" He responds in a voice that is both smooth and inviting, very much in that "priestly manner" that all clergy seem to have, that default professional friendliness that is just a little unsettling but impossible to really fault. No, it is a little deeper than that, there actually is something you sense that is a little bit off about this man. You cannot sense you are in any personal danger, however. In fact, his apparent strong approval of you seems to be quite genuine. As such, as unsettled as you are, you still feel it is quite alright to proceed as planned and head to the back with him.

"I take from your sermon you might be wanting to talk about something in regards to the program." Mr. Grandville responded, causing your heart to lurch a bit at the revelation. "Sure, I don't see why not."

With this, the three of you proceed through a door behind the altar and are lead to an office-like room. The "holy man" keeps up his congenial attitude as he doesn't just gesture you to your seats but casually pulls them out for each of you and makes sure you are both seated before he even approaches his own chair. "Now then, before I begin talking about the program, did you have some business you wanted to bring up with me Mr. Gardner?"

"Ah, no," you respond. "It's just that, well, I heard that you had a strong hand in getting the program off the ground, so I thought it would be a good idea to come in and get to know you a little."

"Ah, that is a rather prudent course of action." The Deacon responds with an approving nod. "Yes, I approve greatly of the program, Leo's secretary Ms. Varano seems to have come up with a very good program. Our children need to receive proper discipline and be made to fully acknowledge their sin before the lord and to see the full consequences of their actions at work in their lives."

"Not everyone in town seems to be qute as comfortable with the methods though." You mention.

"Indeed, it is in a parent's nature to want to protect their children from even the consequences of their own mistakes, but growth cannot happen if our children are protected all the time. I believe the advent of means by which to prevent the consequences of a man and woman lying with one another are a particular abomination that has tainted the world outside of this town. Despite what we try in keeping those items out of our town, last week's incident would suggest that it has not brought our young people fully out of the fantasy of being able to engage in debaucherous behavior without consequences. I think what you did in response to that incident was very well decided, women who engage in such behaviors are meant to receive God's punishment by winding up with child which is to bring them the responsibility of having to raise it."

"Isidro," Mr. Grandville cuts in, "you said that you wanted to discuss something about the program?"

"Ah, yes indeed. I was just getting to that." He responds. "As I stated in my sermon, the kinds of debaucherous behavior those children engaged in are the consequence of us having not enforced the biblical rules on far lesser activities. I believe that if children place themselves in a situation where they could have laid with someone of the opposite gender, it ought to be assumed that they have and it should be treated accordingly. On that subject, actually, I have been looking over the guidelines and it seems that there is no punishment listed for the children lying with each other. I suppose it could fall under the part about them touching each other under their clothing, but that certainly covers a whole range of behaviors that, while they certainly deserve a severe punishment, they are not as bad as actually lying with one another. That particular act sounds like something that should meet the new extreme punishment category."

"Wait, wait, hold on." You say, piecing the information he had just given you together. "So, you are saying that if a couple of kids are in a situation where they could have had sex, we should treat it like they did have sex, and the punishment for them having sex is that I should impregnate the girl? So, that would mean, if a boy and a girl leave the sight of the adults for about 10 minutes, that's grounds for a forced impregnation punishment."

"Of course," the deacon responds as though this ought to seem perfectly natural. "by the old ways, male and female children are not supposed to be fraternizing with one another to begin with. Doing so away from adult supervision is a sure road to a girl becoming pregnant before her wedding night. I said that children should not be shielded from the consequences of their actions, that is the consequence of going off alone with a boy as surely as it is the consequence of what those children in the storeroom were doing. It should be met with the same harsh action that you met out on the group from last week."

Wow, that's crazy. It's one thing with the stuff the four from last week were doing, that's definitely something extreme that you could see justifying with the punishment they got, but kids leave the supervision of adults with each other all the time, you could conceivably have every girl in town on your changing table by the end of the week under that standard.

"Well, that makes sense to me," Mr. Grandville agrees, somewhat to your shock. Then again, this is the same town that legalized the rape of children as punishment for bad behavior, so it shouldn't be too much more shocking than that, but still...

"Really?" You can't help but ask increduously.

"Isidro is right," he says, "if we let little things slide then it will lead to them thinking they can get away with anything, this will lead to big things. I'll have a talk with Ms. Varano tomorrow morning and have it writen up as official policy."

WIP