MFECA Meeting 2 on Magical Arts Room and Sports

Peyton O'Malley

August 28, 2020 4:31 PM

MFECA Meeting 2 by Peyton O'Malley

CW-Talks about child abuse, emotional abuse in particular

The room was decorated plainly, ready for a meeting on a fairly serious topic even though Peyton had made the requisite baked goods. She was fairly confident though that people weren't just coming for that though. The Crotalus had had a really good turn out at the meeting before midterm and she was so happy that so many people cared enough about this topic to choose her charity. Peyton was also really glad that people wanted to work with her and not just the ones like Jasmine and Stanley whom she would have expected.

Not that she was self important enough to think it was herself-or her brownies- that was the draw-the seventh year really wanted to believe that people just really hated child abuse-but Peyton was happy it wasn't something that had put people off. Like, they either cared about the cause and didn't care who ran in it or that she wasn't personally offensive and off-putting to people and that prevented them from supporting something so important.

The drawbacks of picking this for a charity was that it rather enlightened Peyton to how much child abuse there was and how many different ways children could be abused. It was horrifying . Her brother had said things over the years about various cases, but the full scope of it all really hadn't hit her before. Peyton had known what happened to Ryan-sort of-but just reading some of the accounts and statistics had been shocking.

And she really didn't know exactly how to "eradicate" child abuse. She didn't have really any idea what the organization she was supporting was doing besides advocating for harsher sentences for child abusers and education about the topic. Some of the money raised was also going to better fund social services because social workers like Ryan were tremendously overextended as well as better services to help fight poverty which was often considered a cause even though it wasn't just poor people who abused their children. Her brother's emotionally abusive biological mother was a Brockert for Merlin's sake!

Of course, there were people on the other side of that who wanted to say it was strict pureblood homes abusing people who didn't conform but that wasn't the case either! Child abuse happened to all sorts of people because there wasn't just one group of people who was bad!

The thing was, while Peyton thought these ways that the MFECA had come up with to help were good ideas, how were people going to prove things like emotional abuse and punish the perpatrators? And emotional abuse was such a broad topic. There were a lot of ways children were emotionally abused and people didn't always agree on the definition. A case like Ryan's where the abuser repeatedly played mind games and berated their victim was fairly obvious or like with Ryan's cousin Amity, who definitely thought she was abused and was pretty vocal about it, because her mother had forced her and her sister into a million different activities and expected perfection at all of them. Peyton pretty much agreed with this assessment, Amity's younger sister Chaslyn didn't really, but Amity said her sister was brainwashed.

On the other hand, what about things like parental favortism? Ryan definitely thought it was abuse but then his biological mother favoring Carrie had played a part in his own victimization. What if like, most of the children were being fed and cared for and not being berated but one child was treated better and got special treats and was clearly better liked by a parent? Or like, what if a parent put other things ahead of their children to the point of depriving their children of more than the basics?

Any of those things were so hard to prove, even with someone with a similar case to Ryan's because there were no bruises, no physical injury. However, they left just as big a mark on a person. Her brother and his cousins were proof of that. Ryan was doing a lot of good, but he had developed some very strong attitudes about child abuse and could be overzealous in getting people's kids taken away. Plus, his self esteem wasn't the best. Meanwhile, Amity despised her mother and could barely stand being in the same room as her.

Also, just the scope of child abuse, was so....huge that Peyton worried that no matter how much anyone tried, it was never going to go away without some measures that would basically deprive people of their rights. How could raising money with some silly activity really do anything when there were some people out there who were just so terrible and you couldn't just stop terrible people from existing?

Once people arrived at the meeting, Peyton began to speak. "Welcome back to Magical Folk For the Eradication of Child Abuse. I know we came up with some ideas last time and I would like to continue that discussion. We really need to choose something before the fair. I know we discussed face painting but I am unsure how feasible that idea is because I am not sure anyone knows how to do it. Another idea we discussed is a small hedge maze which might be possibly. However, I'd like to see if anyone else has any other ideas in case anyone has come up with anything else since last time."

11 Peyton O'Malley MFECA Meeting 2 1403 1 5

Jasper Brockert

August 30, 2020 7:06 PM

Here by Jasper Brockert

CW-Child abuse.

Jasper was really glad his first year at Sonora was almost over. Not that it had been a bad year or he was super excited about his summer break. In fact, he wasn't as summer meant that Topaz had better access to him since at school they were in different houses. Also, during the summer, Uncle Eustace would be on his case at family gatherings too. While Jasper could and would assert himself and thus avoid Quidditch related activities, that often came with a hefty dose of berating. He'd honestly rather have to attend classes and do schoolwork than deal with his sister more and his uncle at all. (Actually, Jasper would rather not deal with Topaz at all either, but at least being at school cut down on that some.)

Nor was it that Jasper was looking forward to not being the youngest in school. It was simply that as a second year, he would not have to take flying lessons any more! Oh, he was capable of doing what he had to do in order to pass but he just...had too many bad memories associated with flying and Quidditch to want anything to do with it. The Teppenpaw had even avoided so much as attending any related event held here at school, he didn't even care what sort of refreshments were being served. Nothing about it was fun or enjoyable to him. Every single flying lesson started out basically with Jasper fighting to get his broom up, because he really didn't want to fly to start with and the broom knew it. And that was embarrassing, because then people thought he wasn't good at something so basic and while being good at flying was not important , he was terrified that people would disagree, think more the way his uncle did and make fun of him for not being able to bring his broom up immediately. The internal voice of his uncle mocking him was bad enough. Eventually it would come up and then Jasper would have to get on and fly, which he hated because all the while he still was hearing his uncle's bullying in his head.

It sucked and the first year would be glad to be done with it. Of course, he was still going to have to put up with the real thing and not just bad memories when he got home but at least once school started next year, Jasper would only have to deal with that during the summer.

The other thing the end of the year meant was the charity fair. He had signed on to help his sister with hers, of course. Allergy and asthma education and making things more accessable to people who had these problems was very important. He wanted to make sure precautions were taken in the future to prevent Miles and others like him having severe allergic reactions, that there was food served that they could eat and alternative assignments in subjects like Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures if a lesson involved something they were allergic to.

Same thing with preventing asthma attacks, though as far as Jasper knew, Sonora already had taken precautions in the past. Owen's asthma hadn't been quite terrible enough for him to get out of flying-unfortunately or not, the first year was glad that his cousin wasn't sicker but Jasper personally would have polished toilet bowls using a toothbrush to get out of flying lessons and he'd never gotten the impression his cousin had enjoyed them much either- but when Owen had done the Challenges, they had made it accessible for him by having non physical options in the more physically based event. Still, the two conditions went hand in hand even though Owen didn't seem to have allergies-his asthma was mostly aggravated by exercise, it was just that it was deemed basic flying lessons weren't demanding enough for him to get out of it. Had they had to run or something, he wouldn't have had to do that-and Miles didn't have asthma. Yet.

The other charity he had signed up for was the anti-child abuse one. Because child abuse was terrible and eliminating it was very very important. Honestly, Jasper was horrified by just all the ways people could harm children. He had never really given the topic thought before. Unfortunately, now he had-and there was one thing that he kept coming back to.

Emotional abuse. Which included, among other things, name-calling, ridicule, excessive criticism and inappropriate and excessive demands.

Things Uncle Eustace had done to him and to his cousin Christopher. But did they count? His uncle wasn't his parent-and Mother was probably another whole can of worms, not to mention Topaz-or guardian. So could it be considered abuse just by virtue of who was doing it? Surely if his uncle was touching him in an inappropriate manner-something else Jasper really wished he didn't know happened to people-that would be considered abuse regardless but when it was emotional? Did the perpetrator have to be a parent then?

He took a seat as Peyton began the meeting and tried to focus on what was going on rather than these thoughts

11 Jasper Brockert Here 1496 0 5

Valentine Duell

September 11, 2020 8:46 PM

Present! by Valentine Duell

If she was perfectly honest with herself, Valentine wasn't sure how much she actually liked the meeting she was going to. It was a good thing, a great cause, but... it was terrible to think about. How could people be mean to children like that? Mama and Papa were great and wonderful and loving people and the thought that not everyone had that was heartbreaking. True, they had left Aunt Giselle in Greece when she was thirteen and never returned... but they didn't do it on purpose, they had been magicked.

The smell of baked things hit her nose again as she entered the room. There was a plus side to coming to the meetings, however she first greeted Peyton with a bright smile and a wave. Then she selected something that looked super yummy and found a seat at the table next to Jasper. Peyton started the meeting and she breathed a sigh of relief that they weren't going to go over all of the terrible things people did to children again. They needed ideas. Valentine didn't have any ideas.

Face painting wasn't bad, but Peyton had a good point. The maze... maybe? What else could they do? It was a fair, what fair type things also speak to being nice to kids? Something people would want to give them money for as well? Some kind of game? Nothing was coming to mind, she was letting Peyton down. "I guess we can't arrange some sort of petting zoo?" She blurted out questioningly, not really sure where that had come from. "Relate taking care of animals to taking care of people?"

2 Valentine Duell Present! 1490 0 5

Sophia Priory

September 12, 2020 8:28 PM

What about.... by Sophia Priory

CW-Alcoholism and child and domestic abuse alluded to.

While part of the reason Sophia had chosen to support Peyton's charity was that she was Connor's girlfriend, and Connor wasn't at Sonora anymore to provide the seventh year with moral support himself, the main reason she had chosen to support this particular charity was because child abuse was one of the most vile disgusting horrible things in the world and needed to be stopped. Period.

Not that Sophia was all that optimistic about that happening. Okay, so she was rarely optimistic about anything but there was so much child abuse out there, so many ways one could abuse children. Which was completely revolting but how could one stop people from being awful? Hurting each other was one thing that humans were consistantly good at. Bad people such as Bridget's grandfather, especially liked hurting those who were smaller and weaker than them.Completely eradicating child abuse was about as likely as completely eradicating murder. It was not going to happen, no matter how much Sophia might want it to.

However, it would be nice if, like, Social Services could be better funded so people like Ryan O'Malley and that first year's mom weren't so overworked and underpaid. And it would be nice if perpetrators of child abuse could be locked up for longer. The good news was that in Wisconsin, mental harm, which Sophia assumed was covering emotional abuse, was punishable by up to twelve and a half years in prison and/or paying a hefty fine. Of course, emotional abuse was still hard to prove. And some people had different definitions of what qualified as such.

Besides, that was only one state out of fifty. In other places such as Colorado, some people could get as little as six months. Plus, even in Wisconsin, "recklessly causing bodily harm" to a child could only get you three and half years. And it was "up to" twelve and half years for mental harm, which means you could get less than that and the child had to be showing signs of being harmed, which meant a clever abuser could easily explain those signs away.

Not to mention that rich and powerful people were capable of getting away with just about anything. While they were not any more likely than anyone else to harm their children, they could pay people off and others were afraid of them. Not to mention the fact that the patriarchs of powerful families would do anything to hide a scandal. Bridget's father, Marshall, had been abused in so many ways by his father, Liam. Liam Ferguson had also abused Bridget's grandmother, which was a separate, but just as horrible, issue. While their relatively close family knew about it, the outside world-including more distant relatives, like Headmaster Brockert and his descendants-did not.

Not that Sophia wanted that, necessarily. It was important to protect the privacy of victims like Marshall and his mother but she did want Liam Ferguson to pay for what he'd done to them. He'd managed to get away scot-free while Marshall was an alcoholic and Aunt Rosemary was mentally ill as an affect of so much mental magic being performed on her. Therefore, neither of them was now going to be considered a credible source.

Peyton began the meeting and one of the first years suggested a petting zoo. "That's not bad." Sophia replied. "We could ask Professor Marsh to contribute animals." It was good to encourage younger students in a positive way and the suggestion could be doable. "What about some sort of game? Like you'd find at a carnival, such as the one where you pop balloons and get a prize that corresponds to the number inside the balloon."

11 Sophia Priory What about.... 1447 0 5

Jasmine Delachene

September 14, 2020 7:07 PM

All great ideas by Jasmine Delachene

Jasmine did like the maze idea she had floated previously, but it didn't seem to have captured the excitement of anyone else, and the other ideas being presented today were all good ones that she'd be glad to go along with. She nodded in approval as each one was brought up. "If you need a pony, I'm sure my mom would be glad to bring one for the day," she offered off of the first year's idea of a petting zoo. She'd been planning to suggest My Little Pony rides on a Granian charmed to look like Rainbow Dash for the LGBTQ+ booth, but wasn't sure Dorian would go for it and, if Peyton wanted ponies, her best friend got first dibs. "Maximus is still a little foal and is totally adorable and good for petting." She'd heard he recently started flying, and baby fliers were the cutest things ever. "Or an older one could give rides."

"Games would be good, too," she concurred with Sophia when Connor's sister spoke up with another idea. "I like all of these ideas. I can do face painting or hair braiding if we still wanted to offer that." Well, she could do little rainbows or hearts, and maybe a shooting star, but anything more complicated than that was going to get tricky. But usually face painters had a sample page of things you could pick from, and she could probably come up with a dozen or so simple designs that wouldn't be too hard to pull off.

1 Jasmine Delachene All great ideas 1397 0 5

Vladimir Brockert

September 19, 2020 3:47 PM

What a solid team! by Vladimir Brockert

Vlad had mostly been just listening thus far into the discussions. It wasn’t especially common for him to remain silent this long, although not entirely uncommon either. He was hardly reluctant to give an opinion or provide input, but he was also fairly considerate in group discussion and liked to let other people have their opportunity to share their thoughts first. Especially the girls. It kinda seemed like maybe girls didn’t get to speak up as much as boys did, like, socially, so Vlad was glad to step aside and let them have their moments to talk.

Eventually though it seemed like an appropriate time for him to add something to the mix, although his intention was pretty much just to agree. “I think the animal thing sounds really cool,” he said, offering a smile and a nod to Peyton. She was doing such a fantastic job with this whole shebang. “If you want to do face-painting too, though, I wouldn’t mind helping with that either.” Vlad wasn’t the most artistic, but he didn’t think it could be too hard to just brush some small hearts or unicorn-type shapes onto kids’ faces. He didn’t know Jasmine especially well - a tragedy, after six and a half years of classes together - but she was Peyton’s best friend, so he offered her a smile as well.

12 Vladimir Brockert What a solid team! 1400 0 5