On my other blog (fangplace.blogspot.com), I discussed whether a boy should be expelled from school because of acne ... no, not that, heck, if acne was a reason to keep kids out of schools, they'd be empty.
What I meant to say, was if he got caught at school with a penknife.
Anyway, this touched on something from my upcoming book, Fang Face, where school authorities discuss banning a teenage girl from school just because of a little blood problem.
No, not anemia.
Her problem is that she likes blood. To drink. This isn't all of an uncommon feeling among her kind, seeing as she's in the process of being turned into a vampire.
But she isn't yet fully a vampire, and frankly, the law requires she attend school.
This was a fun thing to research. I called an administrator at the local high school, and asked her how a school might respond to something like this, and her answers surprised me.
I want to throw it out to y'all. How do you think a school should respond if it were asked to let a vampire attend classes with the other kids? And how might you respond if your child were in the same school?
The floor's open...
Norm
www.fangface.homestead.com
www.fangplace.blogspot.com
Mirror Monday *59
2 hours ago
9 comments:
Should be interesting to see the answers. Being "tolerant" and all today, I bet that, er, she'd fall under "extenuating circumstances"... health issues? Gender - uh, what would you call it? Species freedom?
Oooh, great question, Norm! Wish I had some witty answer, but I got nuttin'!
(can't wait to see the responses, though)
http://www.cynthiasattic.blogspot.com
Well, my current work has a teenage "vampire". (She is actually a daywalker, but she still has the bloodlust of a vampire. Anyway, I digress...) I have her attending school, along with her werewolf foster sister.
One would think that IF vampires were real/known, there would be laws in place by the time it became a problem. For me, as a parent (and former teacher), it would depend on how the bloodlust plays out. Is it insatiable? Is the student in question likely to attack a female during her period? (Yes, eww, but I'm trying to look at this logistically) Is it something they can control to a degree: as in someone cuts gets cut and they need to leave the room? Is their need for blood akin to a humans need for food (you know, eat regularly and you are unlikely to resort to cannibalism)? Or are they just going to randomly jump on people and feed?
I think there are too many questions to answer before a "how should school deal with vampires" can even be broached. But that is just me :D
I keep coming back to the modern dilemma of tainted blood - I seem to be more concerned with the issue of HIV than the vampire! Ever the pragmatic one, I guess. Do you deal with the HIV issue in your book, Norm?
Dani
http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com
Actually, my characters discuss 'tainted blood'. They end up stealing it from a hospital (the vampire's mother is a nurse).
They also get into the 'taste' issue. Like whether type A tastes better than B, etc. Stoker didn't spend much time on this important issue.
Then again, mine's a humor book.
I'd say to have a look at Daniel Walters' GENERATION DEAD. It's zombies, not vamps, but the whole crux of the book is what happens when the supernatural are "mainstreamed."
I dunno - I think the supernatural has been mainstreamed since humans started telling stories and we've managed to survive it, and maybe even survived because of those stories.
Dani
I wonder if the school cafeteria would be required to accommodate the special dietary needs of such a student? Or would the student simply brown bag, or plastic bag as the case might be, it? (Obviously an all-campus buffet option would not be optimal.)
Would the student be able to survive on the undercooked meat products served by most cafeterias, or is human blood the only blood for her?
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