Lillian Greene
August 16, 2020 5:02 PM
Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons. by Lillian Greene
It was always slightly peculiar, finding herself in offices. Lillian had one in her home, of course, but the mere fact it was in her home prevented it from feeling like a proper office. The part of it visible from the fireplace was rather office-like, but just out of sight were the oddments and endments that didn't fit anywhere else in the house, such as the ironing board. She did not, after all, do the majority of her work in that office; the majority was done in other places, traveling to homes, hospitals, and schools.She would need, though, to enter an office away from any of her normal environments soon. It was a foolish therapist who didn't have, if not a regular therapist of her own, at least one who could be called up in a pinch. Her new case was disturbing and generally (not least due to the boy being hardly any older than Graham, and in the same House) emotionally unsettling. She had to work through that kind of thing herself to remain a good provider to her patients. In the meantime, though, she was in an office within a school, specifically that of Selina Skies.
Lillian couldn't much wish her children were other than they were, but it did occur to her that this might have been simpler had her son not been more or less directly under Selina Skies' care. She would, however, have stood almost as much of a chance of running into Graham if he had been in another House, so perhaps it was better if, once the immediate crisis was discussed, they handled the matter of whether or not Graham should know she was in the building now, rather than later. Normally, she would have left well enough alone, but she was going to be here rather a lot for a few days at least, and it might be better to prevent a scene where Graham was surprised than to wait until one happened....
First, though, there were more important issues to discuss.
"First the good news," she told Selina, initial pleasantries duly exchanged. "Assuming that his parents consent to him receiving treatment, I think your student's prognosis is reasonably good. There are no guarantees, of course, but he was open, communicative, and I don't think he lied to me. Those are good signs."
When good news was prefaced with the word 'first,' though, it meant there was also bad news. "The bad news," she continued, "well - there are two pieces of bad news. One is that somehow, Mr. De Matteo's sister succeeded in sneaking into the hospital wing before I arrived this morning. I hope I didn't overstep my place in asking one of your prairie elves to keep a - discreet - eye on the area, at least until one of us has a word with the medical staff about it." If an unauthorized person could get in, then so could unauthorized items, ones that a suicidal patient should not have access to, particularly not when as fragile as Felipe De Matteo was right now. "Also...you know Miss Jackson visited this afternoon, and that I spoke with her beforehand. She's made allegations against girls named Mara and Leonor - allegations that they've bullied Felipe, specifically. Some of Felipe's remarks seem to support the allegation against his sister, at least."
She was sorry to put yet something else in the Deputy Headmistress' lap, but investigating allegations and handling the involved parties if those allegations were substantiated fell under matters of school discipline. It was possible that counseling might come into play at some later stage, after the investigation, but for now, it was a matter for school authorities, not a visiting psychologist. Lillian studied the older witch carefully. "Zara also doesn't seem to be the person who wrote you that note," she added, before asking, in a gentler, less businesslike tone, "How are you holding up?"
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Lillian Greene
Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons.
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Lillian Greene
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Selina Skies
August 27, 2020 7:43 PM
So teach me by Selina Skies
It was very strange hearing Dr. Greene talk like… well, a doctor. Or a healer. Selina supposed the clue was in the name but somehow the world of prognosis and symptoms seemed so strange when applied to the notions of what was inside someone’s head - to lying, and to jumping off tall towers. How could you ever be confident that you knew that? Of course, Dr. Greene had decided she wanted a job where that kind of decision was her responsibility, and Selina was more than happy to hand it over. Except part of her believed it could never be possible. She would have to trust in the expert because that was all she could do but if something further happened, it would still be her fault. She chose the wrong one. They hadn’t been able to see it after all.“No, that’s fine - that sounds sensible,” she corrected herself when Dr. Greene mentioned putting a prairie elf in place. She should have done that. Done more. She hadn’t worried as much about visitors as she should have. She knew the situation was delicate and she had been unsure what to say to people - hadn’t wanted to say the wrong thing - but maybe she hadn’t thought about it as much as she should have. Clearly Dr. Greene thought so.
Bullying. Two accusations of it. More things she hadn’t noticed. She was supposed to deal with that, judging by Dr. Greene’s tone. Bullying, she supposed, she did deal with. That was school discipline and all those things she was meant to be good at. But there normally wasn’t a student who had gone to such extremes as Felipe in the centre of it. How could she make sure they knew how serious it was without telling them? How could she make them change their behaviour without making them feel responsible?
“I see. Do you need to be there when I speak to them? Or are we just-” she didn’t want to say ‘avoiding the subject.’ Avoiding was a bad word. They needed to foster an environment of open communication whilst not telling anyone Felipe had tried to off himself in case they became upset or got ideas. That was what she’d got so far from the overview information. She wondered if there were charms for that. Like how you could make a bag bigger on the inside. For a school that dealt in teaching the impossible, she wondered why it sounded so daunting to achieve it, “treating it like any other bullying accusation?” she finished instead.
And then there was the question of how she was. She wasn’t sure whether to sigh and drop her professional front, mostly because she wasn’t sure whether it was up in the first place. There was a layer of disconnect, like she wasn’t even sure whether she was smiling or looking serious or playing a part. She felt so broken up on the inside that she was fairly sure it must be extending to the surface level. But then shouldn’t the same have been true of Felipe? Maybe the outside was something people really couldn’t break through without legilimency, even when it felt like everything inside was bubbling up and spilling out over the surface.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “How’s someone supposed to feel in this sort of situation?” It was normal, wasn’t it, to not feel normal? She would do whatever Dr. Greene directed her to do. She would try to fix it. She liked the part where she had said that might be possible, but the thought of the work involved scared her because she’d never done it before and it felt like she only had one chance to do it right. “Afraid of making more mistakes,” she admitted, finding that for all the tears she’d sobbed out onto Killian’s shoulder the previous evening, there were a few ready to come to her eyes now.
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Selina Skies
So teach me
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Lillian Greene
August 27, 2020 9:32 PM
I can only do part of the work for you, I'm afraid. by Lillian Greene
“I’m glad to assist in any way I can,” said Lillian when asked how the allegations should be handled. “It’s a matter of school discipline, but I can sit in if you’d prefer, or help you work out strategies for interviewing the students.” She paused slightly and then added, “It’s important to remember that an allegation isn’t proof, especially when it’s coming from a third party. Miss Jackson was extremely upset, and while you certainly know all these students better than I do, I imagine neither of us fully knows the details of all their relationships. It’s best to approach each interview with an open mind.” All of this, she assumed, was known information, but Professor Skies was not in a normal state of mind. Events like this were, fortunately, far rarer in most people’s lives than they were in Lillian’s. Dealing with the people who surrounded patients could be as challenging as dealing with patients; there were times when Lillian startled herself if she spoke in a full voice, she was so used to speaking in quiet, well-regulated tones.She nodded, understanding, when the professor tried to express her feelings and struggled. “That’s a completely understandable reaction to have,” she said. “There’s no way anyone is ‘supposed’ to feel or not feel after an event like this, but fear and guilt are common responses, even when there’s no blame to be had. As much as it’s painful to feel those emotions, it’s still sometimes easier than admitting that we don’t have as much power to influence events as we feel we should.” She adjusted her position in her chair slightly and said, “I’d strongly recommend that you have at least a couple of sessions with a therapist yourself. You went through something that’s traumatic in its own right. It’s not reasonable for anyone to expect you to move on as though nothing happened.” ‘Anyone’ being a category she very much intended to include the professor herself. They were hardly intimately acquainted, but her impression was that Skies was the kind to expect that from herself, though it was no more reasonable for her to do so than it would be from anyone else.
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Lillian Greene
I can only do part of the work for you, I'm afraid.
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Lillian Greene
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