Private Message to Professor Sinistra

[alt_dean]

 Professor,

I am very thankful for the chance to serve the YPL, and I will try my hardest to not let you down. With that said, I hope you don't find the rest of this note rude, or me stepping out of my place. I know the decisions are final, and I know I don't know and can't know why they were made. I just have something to say on behalf of a friend. 

Seamus, I feel, has had a lot of negative attention due to the events of last summer especially when the event earlier this year was added on. Anyone who truely knows Seamus knows he wasn't trying to hurt Weasley. I didn't know about that prank, but I know Seamus would seek more to slightly embarrass in that way that we boys do, than to seriously injure. In the case of last summer, Seamus didn't act alone. And I wish people would recognize that. I own up to the incident as much as he does. POWs and using tactics to get them to reveal information was my idea, partly inspired by who I wrote to. I just can't sit back while my friend repeatedly takes criticism over a mistake we both made.

For Merlin's sake, I just hope you as well as all the others can see the good in Seamus. And not have your judgements clouded by the past actions of boys being idiots.

Respectfully,
Dean Thomas

Comments

[alt_sinistra]

Mr Thomas -

Your loyalty to your friend is wonderful, and I do understand why you feel you had to write. (I also know you know there are people who would see it as rude or inappropriate, but that I am not one of them.) Now, clearly, I'm not going to discuss other students with you (though I've told Mr Finnigan he is welcome to come see me if he wishes). But if it would help, I am glad to share a little more of what went into the process.

First, everything I said in the announcement was true: we had a wealth of wonderful applications, and it was an extraordinarily difficult process to make our final decisions. So much so that we spent all day Saturday, and much of Sunday working through the possible options.

Second, I was not making these decisions alone. Auror Wright and Mrs Provim both brought their own skills and insights to the process. We decided early on that we'd much prefer unanimous decisions, so we spent a long time, this week, talking about what mattered most to us in the selection for these positions. While I see all of you regularly, they've also had extensive opportunity to review your records and observe at various YPL events.

One thing that came up in that conversation, over and over again, was that selecting students to be a counsellor is a different thing than selecting them for the CCF, or even selecting them for a specific leadership role related to a particular project or activity. Particularly in as large and sometimes fractured a class as our current first years have been, we decided that we needed to give preference to certain qualities. These included demonstrated ability to respond well in a crisis, the ability to respond proportionately when provoked, a consideration for safety, and awareness of how someone works with others (both their friends, and those they do not get on well with.)

Third, we were also looking not just at individuals, but at a group. There are some basic questions of balance: we want roughly the same number of male and female students, for example, since the counsellors supervise housing. We wanted representation from all four houses. But we also wanted to build a group where some people might be gifted at encouraging cross-house interactions, while others might bring practical skills, or an ability to influence or direct the energies of younger students.

And so we made this set of choices, after a great deal of debate. We continue to look at ways to find ways for the students not selected for this opportunity to gain leadership and other skills, and to demonstrate their character and potential. (In fact, I'll be in New London discussing some of that this afternoon.)

I do look forward to your participation as a counsellor, and I'm very excited by the group we did select, even while I know the decision has been disappointing to several.