The Interview (2)
by
Angharad.
I spoke to the principal about our upcoming event and to be prepared. He was busy so told me to organise it and provided I stuck to college policies, which included diversity and variety, to just get on with it. He'd see the student involved in a couple of weeks. I told him what I'd done and that we were on fieldwork all next week and Fiona was one of the field workers. He told me to do what I could and any dissenters could be warned that they agreed to the policy about Difference and Diversity before we accepted them, if they still have a problem tell them to come to me, but they could face expulsion if they really feel so bad about it. We can soon make 'em feel worse.

I liked his sense of humour and he was a true liberal although many students and staff weren't, still, it takes all sorts even the difficult variety who are very conservative and probably frightened of anything beyond their immediate experience, plus the god squad who feel superior to all others and are often conservative and small-minded but not so they can't believe in their god telling them to persecute and punish difference. Some still cause problems with evolution lessons. Such is life. There is also one other group who are just nasty and enjoy spoiling things for other people, especially the vulnerable, and from experience I don't think there are many more vulnerable than transgender people transitioning and especially in the early stages.

I went home and sorted my programmes for the week quite quickly and printed them off. We continue to have the odd one who wants to swap group because their best friend is in another, or they like the teacher leading a group or whatever. So I was prepared for some disruption but can usually handle it. I had an easy Sunday, bought edibles for my lunches and planned what they would be each day, mainly tuna salad because one tin does two days, and I bought a multipack of three cans. See - fixed.

I went to bed wondering about Fiona Roberts, I put her in my group for the week so hopefully I could prevent any serious damage. I had warned her to see how other girls dress and act during the week, although it was going to be busy. Having thought this through, I went off to sleep and slept soundly.

The next morning I was up at six am and made my lunch packed my camping stove, a kettle with some tea bags and milk in a flask, could cope with anything, if my tea levels are adequate - I hope.

Our students fill in a form that tells us all sorts of things, including wellie size, they are expected to bring their own but for some of the exercises they need waders, so we have a selection of those with us. Being a 'freshwater life' nut, I have my own as well as my own hand net and pond dipping net. The college has supplied a couple of field stereomicroscopes and I have one as well, which is mine. I also have my own containers, should we find anything really interesting and then I'll take it home. I have one of my downstairs rooms kitted out like a laboratory with all types of equipment including better microscopes than the college has and several types of glassware and chemicals, like stains for microscopy. Although some of those can be improvised. Blue ink for fountain pens can be used for a methylene blue and red correcting ink can provide eosin stains for microscope specimens. You have to add it carefully, usually drawing under a coverslip with a filter paper, but kitchen roll paper towels work just as well. A coverslip is the very thin glass cover you put over a microscope slide to keep the specimen in place and to stop you getting the objective lens dirty from the specimen - many have been soaked in various preparations beforehand. staining reagents and other equipment can be bought from professional suppliers but are more expensive and usually in quantities that will last years if they don't dry out first.

I had the car packed by eight and was at college by half past. My car is quite roomy and it was packed tight with spare clothes for me and a few sets of waterproofs, though only I get the Gortex, most of the time I wear a Barbour jacket. We also have a minibus stacked with kit and first aid requirements and so far injuries and assorted mishaps have all been minor and didn't cause angry parents to want to sue us.

We collected in the gym and the various teams or groups were read out and the teacher or Diane leading them stood so people could find them easily. Fiona came to my group and as far as I could see no one was causing her problems. She looked like an ordinary student - female variety, wearing jeans, and sweatshirt underneath a shower- proof anorak thing. A few of the girls were talking to her, laughing and joking and no-one had said anything when I called them to their groups and named her Fiona Roberts. No one had called her by that name officially before and she grinned broadly at me after I called her.

So far so good. One or two boys were looking at her with curiosity written all over them and one seemed to look at her with contempt, the sort you tend to use for wiping dog's mess off a shoe. I asked if everyone had brought everything we had suggested on the handout we'd given two weeks before, things like lunch and wellies or suitable footwear for paddling in water. We had one or two queries about that but were off on a bus to the first of our sites. In a further fifteen, we all disembarking or parking our cars at the industrial park and were wandering down to the stream. I had checked the depth the week before.

I addressed the class, "Right, this stream is only half a metre deep and is fairly slow flowing, but you can drown in that depth of water quite easily and goodness knows what chemical waste may be in it. We are going to sample it in four places, just below the outflow and before the reeds, then after the reed bed, after it joins the larger stream and one of you will have to walk up to sample before it comes into the industrial area. Who fancies a walk?"

I reminded them how to take a sample and how to label the specimen. We only needed about a hundred mls and had special bottles for them and waterproof bags to collect them. Fiona and another girl went to do the long walk one.

By lunchtime, we were at site number two and we had lunch before we did our sampling, they had been wearing plastic gloves before so hands were wiped in special wipes with isopropanol before eating. Lunch was half an hour and we started taking samples at the second place. We recorded things like pH and temperature, we would look at the oxygen level of the water back in the lab, it's more complicated and expensive; we'd also look at nitrate and phosphate levels and each student had to write their impressions of each site, the environment, vegetation that sort of things and also they should have noted the substrate of each stream at the site they were sampling, which was essential when we were collecting invertebrates with hand nets, kick sampling the substrate or stream beds to see what we could find. Certain invertebrates tended to indicate how polluted the water or substrate was.

I kept an eye on Fiona and she seemed very friendly with one particular girl, the boys largely ignored her. In fact, the problem isn't usually the girls unless you have a squeamish one who hates getting her hands dirty, or falls into the water - it does happen, but the boys playing the fool and risking either themselves or others. It happens too, if it's stupid enough they be could instantly suspended and thrown off the course. They had been told but hormones overrule common sense in some individuals who have to learn the hard way. We had one such incident.

Some of the more loutish boys were chasing each other and play wrestling near the stream. Now common sense, tells you that such antics threaten at least a ducking if not worse. Now we were where the stream met the river and it was in the latter that two of the boys fell with quite a splash. Two or three of us were in waders as we would be sampling the river and I have never seen Colin move so fast, he had waded into the river and grabbed one of the boys, I was just behind him and grasped the other. They were coughing and spitting as we pulled them out, gone was all the bravado and high-jinks, they were just soaking wet silly little boys and starting to shiver with cold. Denise rushed up with towels but we needed them out of their clothes to dry without just soaking the towels for nothing.

No time for finesse, it was rip their clothing off and get rubbing briskly with the towels, I left it to the male staff and their friends to dry them and we managed to find sufficient clothes for them to be warmly clad again. A cuppa inside them and they were starting to feel warmer. The girls were all jeering and whistling at the soaking boys and once they were dry I read the riot act to everyone.

"You can now see why we tell you that tomfoolery is dangerous, as well as the risk of drowning, there is a risk of swallowing noxious chemicals or bacteria, there is a risk of hypothermia from wet clothing and other physical injury. You can't see what is below the water surface it could be rocks or tree debris, barbed wire or sharp bits of metal. Instead of giving you towels we could have been trying stem a bleed and calling for an ambulance or the coroner. You seem to have emerged unscathed except for a soaking, however, I will have to report this incident to the principal and he may decide that this course no longer needs you, so he may exclude you from it just before A-levels. Clever aren't you?" they both hung their heads in shame. "Had you knocked others into the river, especially one of the girls, you may have been facing an assault charge, just what you need. I suggest you phone your parents to come and get you because I don't want your stupidity to spread to other boys, it seems to infect them at times anyway."

They walked away and began phoning. I expected to get a mouthful from the parents because their sons can do no wrong, in which case why couldn't they walk on the water and stay dry. Still, what do call a boy who has matured and behaves, respecting others? A girl.

The surveys continued for the rest of the class, the two miscreants looking rather stupid and feeling sorry for themselves. Eventually, a mother arrived looking not too pleased, they had brought her out of work. Before any adverse comment on the course could be said, I went to her and she asked what happened, so I told her. I asked if she could take both miscreants home as their presence was disrupting the rest of the class. She was shocked but agreed to take them. I also told her that they would need to see the principal and showed her the warning on sheets we gave them and that it was up to the principal whether we excluded them for dangerous behaviour near an obvious hazard, that of the river and that they could have been drowned. I told her that the college held such behaviour as serious and would be dealt with seriously. She went off looking rather pensively.

The rest of the day went rather quietly as if our bit of drama had taken the wind out of any sails. we finished our sampling and collected our labelled specimens together for later lab work. The invertebrates were examined then and there and some were put back into the water, others we kept for clearer identity or other scientific enquiry. As a freshwater ecologist, I was going to be busy when we were back in the classroom or laboratory.

I'd tried to keep an eye on Fiona, she seemed okay and seemed to have one or two friends among the girls, from the way that she was interacting with some they must have known this was coming because those who didn't seemed more surprised by it. I would try to have a quiet word either tonight while we were packing up or first thing tomorrow. I hoped that it was going to be alright but we had to be prepared for the odd hiccup because they will happen, there will almost certainly be the occasional adverse reaction and with luck staff will be around to stop or prevent it.

I was thankful that today's incident hadn't involved Fiona, but there was plenty of time for the forces of ignorance and intolerance to upset things. I hoped I was wrong but I don't think such things happen in real life, but I could hope and wait and see.

Diane approached me as we were packing and remarked on the fact that Colin had earned new respect for wading in after the boys and she said that I'd acted like another man, the speed I'd reacted with. I told her that when I was at university we had a similar incident with a couple of students, but in a faster flowing river. She asked what happened and I told her that one of the students was suspended. "One, what about the other one?" I explained that suspending a deceased student was not usually a viable policy. "He drowned?" I nodded. "Oh Jenny, I'm so sorry." We hugged and both rather saddened went home from an experience we hadn't expected.

I called in at the college on the way home and met with the principal. He told me two sets of parents had been on the phone to him already and he wanted a written report of what happened but before that he asked for me to relate to him the events and circumstances of the day. I did and he asked what I wanted the outcome to be. I wasn't sure, I wanted the boys carpeted as an example, but I didn't want them expelled, the A-levels were too close, however, I didn't want them to think there were no consequences and to point out to the parents there'd be no second chance if they misbehaved again. He agreed and I had known I'd be writing a report tonight, this confirmed it, he wanted it tomorrow. I agreed to email him as soon as it was written tonight. Sometimes I think they don't pay me enough, but then in this age of uncertainty to have a regular job was something worth hanging on to as many schools and universities were shedding them like leaves in the autumn as they dealt with overspends.