Chapter 20

As the group gathered in the reception hall, a number of people appeared, entering the room from its main entrance. Kevin and Denise looked at them curiously, but Amelia grabbed Kevin’s arm.

“It’s the prime minister!” she whispered to him in shock. “The education secretary too!”

Wixom entered the room following Grayson, ushering in several other distinguished-looking individuals.

Grayson, with Wixom at her elbow, walked up to Amelia and took her hands.

“Wonderful to see you again, Amelia, dear; Jeremy too,” she smiled at Amelia and shook Jeremy’s hand.

Amelia gulped and nodded jerkily. “Likewise, ma’am.”

Wixom smiled at her, then looked at Denise and Kevin. “Mrs Prime Minister, you’ve met Miss Hadad, but let me introduce Miss Denise Roberts and Mr Kevin Coris. Miss Roberts, Mr Coris, it’s my pleasure to introduce you to the Right Honorable Eleanor Grayson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.”

Grayson offered her hand and they both took it politely.

She smiled at them. “I’ve wanted to meet the two of you for months, ever since I learned about your role in disrupting the orderly workings of my government,” she said, trying to keep a straight face but not succeeding. “I told Amelia I wanted to meet you in neutral territory, but I suppose the U.S. embassy will have to do. After what you did to Education, I dare not let you get close to any of our other departments. Speaking of which, let me introduce my ministers who are with me today.

“Missus Amelia Hadad and Denise Roberts and Mr Kevin Coris, I present you the Rt Hon Roderick Cassidy, MP, Secretary of State for Education, the Rt Hon Dr Gregory Williamson, MP, Secretary of State for Health, and the Rt Hon Patricia Bolling, MP, Secretary of State for the Home Department. My lady and gentlemen, I believe you’ve all previously met the Porters’ son, Jeremy Porter...”

They all nodded acknowledgment and then shook hands all around.

“ ... and it may not be a surprise to you that our young Mr Porter is deeply involved in our education issue along with the ambassador’s other guests. Mr Cassidy saw him at Norwich Academy, the pilot school, so he undoubtedly mentioned that to you,” she finished.

Wixom smiled. “Yes indeed. Prime Minister, what you have at Norwich is a truly multi-national education initiative. Did you know just how many different country’s education systems we have represented in these four young people?”

She looked at Wixom. “Okay, no. Please tell me.”

“Our sole unilateral expert is Miss Roberts, but she was educated in two different U.S. states. That can count as different countries in some people’s eyes. Then I present to you Miss Hadad, who attended schools in London, Birmingham, and Jakarta, Indonesia. Next and adding some other countries, we have Mr Porter, whose first schooling was here in London, followed by Japan, Singapore, and South Korea. And our truly multinational expert is Mr Coris. He attended schools in Indonesia, South Korea, Japan—help me, Kevin—China?”

“Hong Kong, actually. And Thailand,” Kevin answered, grinning. “And three U.S. states too.”

Wixom nodded. “Another item you might not know, Prime Minister, is that Miss Roberts and Mr Coris actually have been awarded master’s degrees based on their work on the Avery-Denison Program and Miss Roberts is on track for a second master’s from her university here in London. And that work on this degree is being done in her spare time.

“Also, these two young people have been honored in the U.S. for distinguished service; Kevin is the youngest ever to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom while Denise was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal.” He laughed. “So, my friends, you can see that your education rebellion is being handled by some highly competent experts, if that thought is comforting.”

Everyone laughed.

“Come, let’s have dinner,” Wixom invited the group, and they walked to the dining room.

At dinner, Kevin and Denise were seated next to the prime minister and had an engaging conversation about their experiences while living in London. Both Kevin and Denise loved the city. The PM asked if they had had a chance to explore the countryside; they told her that they hadn’t but did plan to do it after their classes were over.

After dinner, Wixom led the group to a conference room. When he walked in, Kevin noticed that one entire wall of the room was covered by a sheer curtain. After everyone found seats, Wixom leaned back, looked around at everyone, and smiled.

“Now, my British friends, I understand that you have some information you thought our two secret agents who we’ve infiltrated into your educational system would appreciate learning. But before you take the stage, there’s one more guest who’s asked to be invited who I’d like to welcome now.”

He nodded and Chambers pushed a button on a console on the wall near her seat. The curtain on the wall drew aside, revealing a large screen which took up most of the upper wall. The screen came to life and revealed President Gerston, who was seated in a room similar to the room that they were in.

“Good afternoon, Mr President,” Wixom announced to the smiling man. “We’re delighted to have you join us. You of course recognize Prime Minister Grayson, and her associates are...” he introduced the others. “And of course you remember Miss Roberts and Mr Coris. And these two delightful young adults are Miss Amelia Hadad and Mr Jeremy Porter, Warren and Barbara’s older son.”

“Yes, thanks, Charlie; Madam Prime Minister, so nice to see you again and under such pleasant circumstances. And Denise and Kevin, I’m really delighted we could meet again now even if it is only electronically—I’d like to rectify that when you return to the States; I hope that you’ll pay me a visit. And Amelia and Jeremy; I’ve heard such wonderful things about you both; I know the Porters are so very proud of you, Jeremy; and Amelia, I’ve relayed my appreciation for your work in London to your dad Elliot through my Indonesian ambassador. Congrats on your dad’s forthcoming wedding too, my dear.”

Amelia was blushing scarlet.

“Well, Charlie, you told me that for once we Yanks did something right,” Gerston chuckled.

“Yes, Mr Gerston,” Wixom nodded, “that’s my impression from the prime minister. Ma’am,” he nodded to Grayson, “the floor’s all yours. This isn’t exactly a neutral territory, but you’re not risking the loss of any of your agencies while we keep our agents in here and away from Whitehall.”

The others in the room chuckled while Gerston laughed. “Good one, Charlie,” he said approvingly.

“Thanks, Mr Ambassador,” Grayson said, nodding. “Normally I would assume my battleaxe persona and accuse you of meddling terribly with our government by sending unregistered agents into our schools and fomenting rebellion,” she chuckled ruefully. “But I find myself in the uncomfortable position of having to thank you for the attention these fine young people gave to our school situation and to the wake-up call their appearance presaged.

“I’ve already received a number of reports from my cabinet officials,” she continued. “I’m familiar with the information you’ll be given now, but I wanted to share it with you as our thanks for opening our eyes about the Naked in School Program’s problems. Mr Cassidy’s department has been working overtime, analyzing the data Miss Roberts so thoughtfully provided to our Program Committee, so let me have him tell us what they’ve learned.”

“Thanks, Prime Minister,” Cassidy responded. “Pleased you could join us, Mr President. The PM directed us to investigate the facts that Miss Roberts presented to the Program Committee; this is a summary of what we learned. When the recommendation for introducing the Naked in School Program in the U.K. was first proposed, the DfE never considered its academic effects. That’s because the Program was believed to function in the school curriculum similar to physical education classes; after all, both physical education and the Program involve activities involving the pupils’ bodies rather than book learning. I’m embarrassed to admit that we’ve routinely tended to ignore education studies conducted in the U.S. since the U.S. system differs from ours significantly. We plan to rectify that oversight.

“Thanks to the information Miss Roberts provided from the American study, we used similar study methods to review the data from our own schools, except that we didn’t have access to detailed class-by-class scores the Americans did. Instead, we chose the schools in the U.K. where the Program was run for at least two years and evaluated the overall average GCSE scores before the Program, comparing those scores to the results of exams taken while the Program was in effect and indeed, we noticed slightly greater than a 9 percent decline, by subject, in average overall performance of our pupils. This was comparable to the decline reported in the Avery study Miss Roberts cited. We believe that this similarity in results likely also validates our approach. Just as Miss Roberts told the Program Committee, the unavoidable conclusion of our result demonstrates that the Program has been an educational detriment to our pupils’ academic performance. Are there questions?”

“Do you know why the academic grades were so affected?” Gerston asked. “I’m embarrassed to say I never asked our own education officials that question; I was glad to be done with the Program here after its scandal was exposed.”

“No, Mr President, we didn’t look into the reasons, but in hindsight I suspect that some could be theorized,” Cassidy replied.

Both Kevin and Jeremy raised their hands. Wixom smiled and looked at Gerston. “Mr President, who would you choose to speak first?”

Gerston laughed. “Thanks for giving me the hard choice, Charlie. Let’s see; both of you experienced the Program in your own countries first-hand. I suppose we should hear from Mr Coris first, since he’s close friends with the original study’s authors and may have some insights from them. Then Mr Porter. Do you have any ideas, Kevin?”

“Not directly from the study itself, sir,” he answered, “but from the data collected just before the study was designed. Denise, you reported that the results were just about the same for schools where the Program was really terrorizing the students and where it wasn’t so bad, right?”

“That’s right. The differences were statistically insignificant,” she answered.

“And that makes sense in a convoluted way, actually,” Kevin went on. “From personal reports of students in the Program, so many of the kids in the classes were disturbed by Program activities, like the Relief sessions—the public masturbation at the class’s beginning—or the disruption of using Program students in classes to have them perform jobs whose only purpose was to humiliate them. Those things went on at every school and disrupted learning; the kids couldn’t focus on the lessons because they were either aroused, disgusted, or scared, thinking of what would happen to them when it was their turn to be objectified.

“Second, because no one participating in the Program could concentrate on their schoolwork, they got a bye for work missed during their week. You know how difficult it is to make up a week of missed work? A third reason may be the increased use of anti-anxiety drugs by Program participants. It’s hard to learn if you’re drugged, and we saw reports that some kids had to be on the drugs long after their week was over; they experienced PTSD from the trauma. For yet another reason, we saw many cases where being put in the Program was used as punishment so those kids had more required naked time and more stress as a result. Finally, the atmosphere in the schools was one of dread, especially at each week’s beginning, when the selected students’ names were read. Kids spent their weekends worrying if they’d be called. That’s the wrong frame of mind for studying. Some teachers tried to make it easier for the Program kids, but a lot of teachers took pains to follow the hard line that the Program officials mandated. Basically, if kids are worried and scared about coming to school, it’s hard for them to learn. I suspect that all of those reasons were factors that caused the grades to drop.”

“Thanks, Mr Coris, that makes a lot of sense,” Wixom said. “Jeremy, do you have anything to add?”

“Not that much more, sir. Kevin covered most everything I saw at my school. But I’d like to add that teachers went out of the way to change their lessons if a Program kid was in the class. That happened to me; in biology we were covering a unit in ecology when I appeared in class as a Program participant. Since I was naked, the teacher decided to drop the day’s lesson and use me to demonstrate a sexual act.”

The others gasped.

“Not what you think, sorry, it was a solo act. But we had the GCSEs coming up and he wanted to waste class time over something completely unrelated to ecology. My teachers did that a lot, so a fair bit of important lesson material was glossed over or even never covered because of time wasted on Program interruptions. And from what I experienced, my classes were much more unruly when a naked kid was in them; it was a real distraction for everyone. I hope that can explain it, Mr President,” Jeremy concluded.

Gerston nodded. “Thank you, both of you; those reasons make a lot of sense. Please carry on.”

“Thank you, Mr President,” Cassidy said. “Any other questions from my part? If not, next, Home Secretary Bolling can speak to the changes in school-related crime incidents we’ve experienced and then Dr Williamson of the Health Ministry will tell us of his agency’s projection of the health and social effects of the Program.”

“Thank you, sir. Madam Prime Minister, Mr President, distinguished guests,” Bolling began. “Miss Roberts reported on a number of anti-social legal problems associated with U.S. schools, particularly assaults and sexual crimes. There were legal actions initiated against schools and teachers, too, alleging abusive treatment. The Home Office reviewed British crime statistics for the past three years and found an increase in reported rapes and assaults, including sexual assaults. It was difficult to obtain exact figures so we opted to count only the crimes clearly linked to school activities. Even with this limitation, we found that the national incidence of reported teenaged violent crime, sexual assaults, assaults, and rapes, increased 63 percent two years after the Program was started here. There were also increases in reports of adult crimes against children too and that number was horrific: there was a 118 percent increase.”

There were gasps from the group at that statement.

“These were only reports, not convictions, my friends. It could be that the heightened publicity of events surrounding the Program engendered a higher likelihood of an abuse being reported. Still, these are troubling numbers. Before we move to the Health Secretary’s report, do you have any comments or questions?”

“By ‘report,’ exactly what do you mean?” Wixom asked.

“It’s a complaint made against an alleged offender to a police agency that resulted in an investigation at some level, whether or not it advanced to filing charges,” she replied. Wixom nodded. “Anyone else? Next will be from the Health Secretary,” she concluded.

Williamson stood and glanced at the screen. “Mr President. Prime Minister and guests. Honored to share our report. Our contribution from Health was more difficult since we had to comb through medical data from reimbursement reports and make projections into the future. Of course we had no access to the kind of large dataset that the U.S. study had access to, even if it was composed of self-reported data, because for Program participants in the U.K. no such information was ever collected. However, unlike the U.S., the British health-care system is organized in a highly centralized way so we were able to go through the national medical reports and were able to identify reports showing a marked increase in delivering health services to youngsters.

“The study Miss Roberts mentioned covered a number of medical related diagnoses which could be searched for in the national health-care reports, such as trauma or infection involving the genitals or psychological interventions including the prescribing of psycho-active medications. Without going into specifics, in the teenaged population, medical treatments had increased some 50 to 55 percent in the two years after the Program began here. We also noted an increase in our teen suicide rate and the increases appear to be linked to schools where the Program was operating.

“In the past two years, the additional cost to our economy for the increased medical services was over £50 million and the Program wasn’t operating in all schools yet; it was just getting started in about two-thirds of the country’s schools. The Program was fully in effect in only about a third of the schools for the first year and a little over half in the second year. If we were to project costs for the next few years with all eligible schools participating, we projected the annual costs to exceed £150 to 200 million per year, and that represents just medical costs. So for Great Britain too, our projections appear to agree with the U.S. information that Miss Roberts presented from the study she cited. Any questions? Yes, Miss Roberts?”

“Thanks for mentioning the study I cited, sir,” Denise said. “I’m wondering if you saw any continued negative psychological effects on children forced to participate; I’m thinking of my own reaction when I was selected despite a very specific medical exemption. Forcing my participation resulted in my hospitalization and required some further treatment afterward. I saw reports of other children who were hospitalized too, but U.S. health-care reporting isn’t as efficient as it seems to be here.”

“I don’t have the details about that, Miss Roberts. But I do recall that there was an increase in hospital admissions for psychological reasons to treat cases that spanned a wide range of problems including suicide ideation; neurotic reactions such as dissociation, displacement, or repression; or even pathological defensive mechanisms like psychotic denial or delusional projection. And yes to your question; many of these patients are still receiving treatment. Their reactions, based on the clinical reports, appear to be similar to sexual assault survivors, even though a vast majority were apparently not actually assaulted.”

Amelia broke in, “Sir. I must disagree; they were most certainly assaulted! The very act of forcing someone to remove their clothes, even if some law makes that legal to do, is still an assault. Can’t you see that?”

“Erm, sorry, Miss ... uh ... Hadad, you’re absolutely correct,” Williamson hurriedly answered. “These cases are so unusual so it’s difficult to place them in the normal clinical categories. The violence here was more psychological than physical, and the usual kinds of sexual assaults clinicians treat is physical. Is that a better response?”

Amelia nodded. “Yes, that’s better. Thank you.”

The prime minister stood and looked around at the group. “I think that our presentation wraps up what we learned from our review of the dreadful financial and social results from our adoption of this misguided educational idea. And I have the support of my cabinet and the entire British Parliament in extending to you, Miss Roberts and Mr Coris, the thanks of our nation in averting further damage to our country’s youth, not to mention the damage to our economy and social structures. Not only did you show us where we were wrong in adopting the Naked in School Program, after which you could have shrugged off any further involvement with our schools and gone your own way, but instead you went on and offered to replace that discredited educational program with one which is promising to have unique benefits, and spent your own time and effort to design and launch that initiative. You did all of this with no regard for any personal compensation or recognition in a country not even your own. My government would like to express our appreciation to you all, the four of you, and will be inviting you to a reception at Buckingham Palace in mid-June.”

The four looked at each other in amazement, then Kevin found his voice.

“Thank you, Prime Minister, we’re very honored that you think so highly of what we did—you do realize that at first, we were simply protecting our ward, Amelia? We had no designs on your educational system. Our involvement only grew out of our concern that if Amelia were made to participate in the Program, it would have caused her injury, physical and psychological.”

Grayson smiled. “Yes, Mr Coris, we know. Your activities did fall into two areas; however, only the first was defensive, I suppose, showing the Program Committee how the Program was wrong and about its costs to society. That prompted us to do our self-evaluation. But your subsequent work to replace the Program with your Avery program, which has great potential, was your second outstanding contribution. President Gerston has told me of your modesty, young man. All four of you are highly deserving of our expression of appreciation.”

Gerston was standing up now, and he spoke. “Folks, Prime Minister Grayson and all of you, I’ve got to sign off now, but I want to thank you all for having me attend this most informative session. Denise, Amelia, Jeremy, and Kevin, it’s been a pleasure seeing you all and hearing about your work. Keep it up, and I’m sure we’ll hear good things from you in the future. Please come visit me when you’re back in the States. Have a good evening, all!”