I gather up my professional gear, give Zia a last hug, and depart for my next behavior correction appointment. Not forgetting to take the Student Behavior Board's official sign from Zia's dorm room door:
Official Discipline in Progress
Do Not Enter
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Merri's second disciplinary appointment of the day will begin in less than 15 minutes. Snow accumulates this chilly morning. Six inches deep as she strides across the commons. She zips her hunter tan and green parka tight and pulls a matching knit cap close about her ears. Icy flakes clinging to the fabric. Duck boots keep her feet warm.
Merriweather Cradle is an official Consequences, Behavior, and Academic Advisor at Margaret Thatcher College. She earned her Master's degree summa cum laude in Applied Corrections at the College last year. Her position is universally known on campus as "college disciplinarian."
Merri loves the mountains and tall woods that surround the college and the Blue Popcorn Springs area in the northern Rockies more than she ever loved the equally cold area of the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts she once called home. Hot springs richly endow the local country like, well, spilled popcorn.
After a brief stop at her office to refill her official disciplinarian's kit bag with water, tissues, and a special bra, Merri arrives at the young woman's dorm.
Faye Bogan's room is on the second floor. Merri knows Marharyta, the floor's Resident Advisor, ("RA,") because Merri has administered discipline to five of Marharyta's charges this semester. As is the Behavior Advisors' protocol, each time she requested Marharyta's follow-up in the form of a bedtime spanking. Merri sat in with Rita, as Marharyta is known, the first few times the newbie delivered quick, motivating bedtime spankings for any of the many reasons bedtime spankings are routinely administered at MTC. Rita showed a prowess that spoke well of her mother's tutelage. A heritage of maternal spankings is a history (a 'herstory'?) many female disciplinarians share.
After bedtime spankings, Rita dispenses comforting cuddles and forgiveness, creating a nurturing environment. This is aftercare Merri deems essential for a corporal punishment to transform into an effective behavior changing tool.
Rita turned on the dorm's public notice system earlier. It tells non-students, such as parents, they are not allowed on the dorm's bedroom room floors and wings during an official punishment. Students, dorm residents or not, have
no
such restriction. Indeed, the College hopes they will listen and learn. Sometimes they get to watch and learn.
Merri reaches Faye Bogan's room, her heart and her professional mind filled with determined anticipation. She knocks on the door, the sound echoing along the quiet hallway. Faye opens the door; her eyes widen as she sees Merri standing there, the living symbol of official authority and discipline. A woman who has 'visited' her before. In Faye's eyes, Merri was graceful and unexpectedly kind, unhurried yet stern.
Faye remembers her promise to Miss Cradle at the last visit to behave with self-discipline. Miss Cradle's presence signals Faye's failure to keep her promise to this woman.
Without a word, Merri hangs the Official Discipline in Progress placard on Faye's door and enters. Her presence projects to fill the small space. Faye's eyes dart around nervously, her hands trembling, as if seeking the non-existent back way out. Merri takes a step closer, into Faye's space. The room seems chillier, as if the snow outside has seeped into Faye's bones.
Merri's boots crunch against the floor, a sound that echos in the tense silence. Her gaze sharpens on Faye. She knows that this disciplinary session is crucial, a turning point for Faye's behavior. A punishment for a repeat offender must be sterner in all regards than an initial correction. Such is one of the many lessons learned in her Master's program.
Merri's default professional persona is kind while purposeful. She offers a hand and her heart to help a misbehaving student. "We'll get through this together." While her helping hand will be present for Miss Bogan, Merri vows to herself, the dominant theme she must project is a stern headmistress. Or a deeply upset mother.
"This will hurt terribly, Miss Bogan. I'm sorry it has come to this. Remorse and discomfort will be your lot today. Yet, I know you, young lady. You will survive it and. And this time we will find your core of self-discipline and turn on the grow lights."
Merri removes her cap, allowing her shining mahogany hair to flow smoothly down to her shoulders, framing her long Nordic face. In one swift motion, she removes her parka and places her kit bag on Faye's messy desk. Faye's eyes widen more in response to these displays of authority, displays of ownership of the space.
"Unless I am much mistaken, you are the same Faye Bogan I counseled in this very room not a month ago. Your student ID please, for the official audio." Merri sets her tablet to record. Upon inquiry, she is told that Faye is not on her period.
"This counseling experience must differ from our last session, young lady. While I will help you get through it, and you will not be permanently physically harmed, there must be much more soul searching on your part." Checking Faye's full college record on her office computer that morning, Merri remembers Faye is a young woman drifting, future course uncertain.
Faye is repeating misbehaviors, exposing behavioral patterns. Excess (any drinking is excess in MTC terms) drinking, slacking off, disrespect and disobedience. All but the slacking off and some expressions of disrespect are acts the world around Margaret Thatcher now punishes fiercely and quickly under the nation's new laws.
Faye's most acute misbehavior today involves a physical altercation with another student. Specifically, an incident in the showers when both girls resorted to hair-pulling. Merri strongly suspects Faye's alcohol consumption is a leading indicator of escalating misbehavior.
Merri detests alcoholic misbehaviors, although she totally gets that alcoholism is a disease. A close family member is in AA. Several more need to be there. A drunk driver killed her youngest sister. She, herself, is in Al-Anon.
Vulgarity, idleness, and disrespect are the misbehaviors that parents have long sent their daughters to Margaret Thatcher to have rooted out. Since its founding in 1911, the College punishes its young women with lines, detentions, and in- and after-class corporal punishments. What College catalog terms, "thoughtful, proven corporal punishment consistently applied by credentialed professionals."
Faye's room is awash in pinks and pale greens, stuffies, and celebrity posters. Dirty clothes, an unmade bed, a slew of trash, a whiff of pizza, what might be spilled beer, and a dank scent, likely from Faye's dirty clothes, permeate the room. The contrast with the smell of lilac candles in Zia's room earlier this morning is stark. Faye's room was not a pigsty the last time Merri visited her, she remembers.
"Did you read the Notice of Adjudication the Student Behavior Board sent you, Miss Bogan?"
"Ah, um, yes. Yes." Faye replies, while shrugging and toying with her unbrushed hair. Merri's gaze is unmet by Faye's lowered eyes. A liar's evasions.
Faye has a square shaped butt, Merri recalls. She owns a nice overhang that often accompanies this type of bottom on slim women she learned in her graduate program's Women's Anatomy class. Below Faye's orange gym shorts Merri sees proportionate thighs for a mildly curvy 5'2" woman. Thighs that will be easy to tenderize to fiery pain with her disciplinarian's strap. Thighs which call for deep blows to impart long lasting bruises and a lasting reminder. Merri formulates her campaign's tactics.
Faye's B cup breasts gently poke through her canary yellow tee shirt. No bra. They should be easy to fit in one of the College's correctional bras, which come in the official school colors of sage green and rose. Those colors are not the most flattering choice for Faye's pale olive skin.
"Did you read the Student Code's mandated Punishments, Consequences, and Enhancements sanctions for your violations, Miss Bogan?"
"Sure. Well, I mean, they must be the same as the last time they caught me with beer." Faye gives another shrug.
"So far, Faye, you have lied to me twice. The convictions are not the same. For two reasons. One conviction is a second offense. Another is a new offense. Worse, you lied. First to your RA and then to the Board, and now twice to me. So, the range of punishments and enhancements is, politely said, 'more'."
"'More?' Ma'am? Um, what..."
"Stop right there Miss Faye Bogan. You had a chance to mentally prepare yourself, but you chose to ignore it. Just as you are not adequately preparing your homework. Worse, failing to develop self-discipline. Look at the mess in your room."
-----
Let's Be Candid
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"Unless you contest your convictions, we begin immediately. Do you wish to appeal?"
"No."
"No, what?