Correctional Counseling

NOTE TO READERS OF MY PRIOR COLLEGE BEHAVIOR ADVISOR (CBA) stories. This, and part 2 of this story, are rewriting and re-editing of Chapters 1 to 3 of CBA. You should skip this part 1 of the story if reading something similar will bother you.

Note to new readers. This story builds very slowly. Much of the "good stuff" is in part 2. If you don't like slow ... don't read.

Mostly, I've re-written my story to see if I could improve it to my own satisfaction.

1. Top of Her Class

Merriweather Cradle holds a master's degree in making young women cry and graduated first in her class. The diploma hangs in her office beside two soothing Turner watercolors, its formal title (Applied Behavioral and Correctional Counseling, MA) sanitizing the demands of the coursework. She is twenty-three and has never been happier in a job.

Her turtleneck is rated snot-repellent, her carpet is stain-resistant, and the College trusts her to do to eighteen-year-olds precisely what was once done to her. She does not consider this cruelty but a calling. At least an excellent first leap toward the psychology license she has wanted since she was fifteen. She believes with her whole heart that every girl who walks in frightened will walk out stronger.

Precisely, that is, as far as the College is concerned. The rules have been revised since Merri's own turn under them, but the method behind the rules is older than any of them. She has lived inside that method since she was eighteen, and she trusts it the way other people trust their doctors.

Margaret Thatcher College has used corporal punishment since its founding a century ago to teach and regulate its all-female student body -- a high-achieving cohort of young women from non-permissive homes. Merri received consequences under the old Student Code when she was a Thatcher student.

Now the state has re-envisioned its Judicial Code, and the Trustees have realigned the College's disciplinary practices to match -- a revamped Student Behavior Code, new means of applying the 'natural disciplinary consequences' that must follow student misbehavior. Their goal is what it has always been for every College endeavor: to prepare their charges to be exemplary women and citizens.

Merri believes this. Most mornings she believes it without effort. On the others, she says her mantra twice.

2. Lilac and Order

Merri brushes wet snow from her hunter-tan-and-green parka and jaunty knit cap, icy flakes clinging to the fabric. She removes her cap. Shining mahogany hair flows in smooth lines to her shoulders, around a long Nordic face. Merri stomps her duck boots on the mat and hangs up her parka and cap. She keeps her boots on because her first disciplinary visit is less than fifteen minutes away.

Although Merri wore skirts or dresses as an undergraduate, today she has on what she thinks of as her disciplinarian's office wear. Pants are permissible for faculty and staff who have physical job requirements. Hers is a very physical profession. Today she's in light gray, wide-leg pants with a coordinating rose turtleneck top under a short-sleeve cardigan, each with a touch of wool for seasonal warmth. Wide legs, loose-fitting, today. Especially.

The scent of wet wool follows her in. The radiator ticks under the window, and snowmelt from her boots darkens the mat in two neat ovals.

As she does each morning, she glances around her office in a wing of the Student Center. Simple, but not austere. Vibrant yellow and jade hostas, their foliage glossy in the morning light, sit beside a window overlooking a serene stretch of soccer fields and an active parcourse where students work out. Merri's green thumb allows them to thrive even in a November window.

Merri actually looks at her furniture each time she enters. At her deep purple couch, two armless chairs, both cherry-wood with matching cushions, and a smallish desk. Sees what a young woman coming for discussion, counseling, and, frequently, corporal punishment, will see. 'Seeing' sets her in the right mindset. To be all she can be, the best CBA Advocate she can be.

Today is a consequences and behavior day. Tomorrow, academic mentoring. With 'reset' consequences for goals unmet. Happily, for Merri's temperament, she has rewards to offer for goals met.

The girls, "her girls" as she now thinks of them, deserve their punishments. Merri's only quibble is that too often the Student Behavior Board ignores what she considers relevant background factors. Factors that do not relate to guilt. Factors appropriate to punishment. When Merri goes down this wormhole, she reminds herself she is not the young women's public defender, whose job in the outside world is mostly arguing about mitigating dispositions, not guilt or innocence.

There is, of course, no position of public defender for students appearing before the Student Behavior Board. The College expects its young women to speak up for themselves. An aspirational goal that rarely matches reality when scared, angsty, misbehaving, and youthful women appear before the Board.

No, her role is executioner, jailer, chastiser, parole officer, headmistress, advisor, sorority sister, or, and this is Merri's preferred euphemism, loving but disappointed mother. The job posting had said 'other duties as assigned.' It was not kidding.

Students easily notice Merri's muddy green and blue eyes, called by her eye doctor 'heterochromia' because of their different colors. If a sketch artist were to capture Merri's face, he would see faint smile lines etched into her skin, adding a layer of warmth and character. It is Merri's firm resolve that any student she spanks will find, when all is done, warmth in those eyes.

Merri gently sets her school-issue sage-green-and-rose messenger bag, along with a lightweight tablet, on her desk. Two candid photos of her tabby cat and a picture of her in a hot-air balloon over New Mexico, taken during her last vacation, are the only decorations on one wall.

Not bad. Plenty of wall space for corner time. One cabinet houses her official implements for delinquent behavior 'consequences'. The Student Behavior Board prefers the euphemism 'consequences' over 'punishment'. She tends not to sugar-coat what she does using mealy words.

Two drawers in one cabinet contain punishment garments in assorted sizes for all body types. Both cabinets are painted a glossy light lilac, to blend with the even lighter semi-gloss lilac-colored walls and a pleasing, if institutional, gray carpet.

She checks the day's schedule standing, one hip against the desk. The chair can wait.

3. Mirror, Mirror

Next to her heavy dark-lilac wooden door is a full-length, two-way mirror. Merri can look out into the corridor, but passersby cannot see in at her and the person she is 'teaching'.

She admits to herself that she relishes placing a naked girl up against the mirror for corner time. A girl who imagines she is on full public display. The cold mirror glass creates shivers and hardens a girl's nipples.

Merri's vivid imagination paints a picture of her own nude body, exposed (so miscreants believe) to prying eyes of corridor passersby. Of course, it is fully within her official mandate to require a girl to reflect on her (mis)behavior by actually standing out in the corridor, without half or even all of her undergarments.

If this is required, Merri instructs the lass to hang her panties and, if previously removed, her bra, on convenient hooks tactically placed on either side of the mirror.

There is plenty of sound-dampening insulation in the walls, ceiling, and door, Merri knows from when deans punished her in a similar room (lacking the mirror then). Screams are muted, but not silenced. The soundproofing in the remodeled discipline offices is calibrated so that the many students who use this corridor in the Student Center may hear faint screams of agony or pleading. Deterrence of crime by others is one goal of any well-thought-out correctional regimen.

During in-office spankings, a palpable sense of unease often mingles with the faint scent of fear in the air. For some young women, as their punishment increases, arousal's secretions add to the bouquet.

Merri may play soothing music before a punishment, such as her favorite, the Moonlight Sonata. Her playlist includes other music to heighten a girl's fearful anticipation, introspective melodies to encourage reflection, or foreboding music to accompany authoritatively the cadence of a punishment. She'd had a class on just this topic of music to complement spankings.

Silence, flavored only by the noises a girl makes and the swish of any implements of correction, is usually most desirable, Merri believes.

4. Horse Sense

Continuing her morning ritual, Merri always takes a moment to appreciate her office's specialty furnishings. The sight of her official adjustable spanking bench catches her eye, its chocolate leather upholstery inviting but firm to the touch. Or beneath a girl's bare flesh.

Next to it stands an ersatz pommel horse. It consists of a long walnut crossbar, polished to a satin smoothness, two inches thick and U-shaped. Adjustable-height legs raise or lower it to suit a recipient's waist height and to provide a sturdy foundation. The normal use of this pommel horse for punishment is to secure a woman over it, her wrists and ankles tethered to the horse's legs.

Merri's body trembles, a shiver running down her spine as she envisions herself in two contrasting roles -- one as a stern disciplinarian, the other as a helpless recipient. The pommel horse, in her imagination transformed into a riding horse, looms before her, its presence filling the air with a mix of anticipation and unease.

Another use of the pommel horse becomes acutely clear to a convicted young woman when she is compelled to straddle the crossbar while it is gradually elevated until she balances one foot on either side of it on tippy-toes. The mere thought of a young woman, her muscles straining, as the hard wood 'U' presses against her pelvic bone and the young lady's delicate flesh and lips crushed in between, is deeply unsettling to Merri.

Vivid memories of overwhelming pain when she 'rode' a similar horse in graduate school flood her mind, causing her to clench her bottom cheeks as if feeling the ache all over again.

She considers the device cruel, and thus far has avoided its use. However, she knows the Board will inevitably mandate it this semester.

Level 1 and 2 corporal-punishment-plus sessions take place by appointment in a naughty girl's dorm room. There, part of the 'plus' is a student's fear of what her dormmates might hear or see. Merri's job is to use that fear, and the other emotions boiling up in a young woman whose behavior has been adjudged unacceptable, to make her consequences more effective.

Effective in the sense that the young lady actively seeks to behave better, to make better choices. Merri must be a loving mother, albeit a chastising mother.

The furniture in Merri's office is exclusively for more serious punishments, those for Punishment/Behavioral offenses at Level 3 and up. (Except a dorm punishment session may continue where the Advocate designates.) Level 3 appointments are in the offices in the Student Behavior wing of the Student Center. This office. Her office. Her name on the door: Merriweather Cradle, BS, MA (Cor.).

5. Hands-On Learning

Corporal punishment is an incredibly attractive option for state legislators. As one state senator put it during the floor debate: "[I]t is so simple and effective. Even a fine issued to an offender requires collection and enforcement when the criminal does not pay. Prison is obscenely expensive for society. Even community penalties [such as probation, parole] or working for free require monitoring, supervision, and further enforcement if the offender does not comply." None of that with corporal punishment -- arrive at a Short Sharp Punishment Center, submit to your sentence, and voilà. Satisfaction -- and titillation -- for the taxpayers.

A year ago Merri graduated from Margaret Thatcher. Last spring she completed the College's master's program in Applied Behavioral and Correctional Counseling. The state's recent switch to using corporal and other embarrassing and/or humiliating punishments for traffic and many non-violent offenses led to a need for such programs. Of course, the state's Short Sharp Punishment Centers require staff. An average prison guard from the many jails that closed didn't have the right temperament.

Merri's master's curriculum included Behavioral Psychology 202, Young Adult Motivation 203, Spanking 401-402, Advanced Implement Chastisement 403, Enhancements and Their Uses 401-402, Disciplinary Counseling, and Constructive Listening 102 and 402. Plus, four subject-matter academic counseling classes.

Most of her courses required hands-on -- literally hands-on-bottom -- labs. Also, there was a practicum during which master's students shadowed current CBA Advocates and tried out their new skills on undergraduate women who needed correction.

Merri and all other participants experienced on their own bodies all the choices, either for their own tiniest hummingbird-sized Graduate Student Code misbehaviors, or simply as part of their learning. She knows the intimate, awful pain, irritation, and shame of punishment garments personally. Knows three ways to wash out a mouth, from yuck to yuckiest. A thought that always provokes Merri to pucker.

Merri was the honor graduate of her program, excelling in all the courses that put a premium on empathy, intuition, creativity, and diligence. Thus, her alma mater hired her immediately.

6. Warm-Up Call

Merri has two Level 1 or 2 offenders to minister to today in the miscreant students' dorm rooms. Plus, three follow-up appointments, which, if each student has met the goals she and Merri set, will be pure counseling. A quick computer check shows that only one has.

Tomorrow she has an arduous Level 5 (of 9) consequence to begin. It may require follow-up sessions.

Before calling the Level 5 woman, she says her morning mantra, one she wrote. She says it standing, shifting her weight from one duck boot to the other.

The best I can do is the best I can do. I will punish each girl for her behavior, to alter her future conduct and to deter other students from misbehaving. I will be neither too lenient nor too rigorous. I will do no lasting harm, physical or emotional. My goal: Each student will leave my hands stronger.

Her mantra, stitched expertly, hangs in her office where every "visitor" sees it.

Level 5 consequences bristle with choices for an advisor and student to make from among many punishment and enhancement options. She decides to contact that student, Leah-something, immediately to get her to actually read the Code and think about the many options.

"Hello. Miss Leah Trudeau?"

"Yes?"

"I am Merriweather Cradle. I am your assigned CBA Advocate. The Student Behavior Board found you guilty of plagiarism, which is a lying offense as defined in the Student Behavior Code. They found you responsible for possession and consumption of alcohol as an underage student.

"I have set your discipline and counseling appointment for tomorrow morning beginning at 8:30."

"Yes, Miss Cradle. I'm sorry for what I did."

"Leah, I appreciate that. My role is not to be your judge; that is the Board's function. I am your Advocate, which means I both carry out the Board's sentencing punishments and help you get through them. Which you will."

"Um, thank you, I guess. I didn't do what they said. I mean, about alcohol."

"Again, Leah, I am not your judge. I will talk to you about your appeal options, if you wish, when we meet.

"Please be at my office in the Student Center on time for your 'initial' appointment" -- Merri always adds just a smidgen of extra emphasis to 'initial' -- "which may last 3 to 4 hours, so plan your day accordingly.

"I see you have no classes until 2 tomorrow afternoon, although your work-study dining hall job starts at noon. I will send them a note excusing you from attendance."

"I, um, see. Ma'am. Thank you."

"Please, review required and potential consequences, the punishments and enhancements, for a Level 5 violation in the Student Behavior Code. The Board should have sent you a copy of the relevant sections."

"I've... I've read them, Ma'am. I'm so scared."

"Good. Then you read them properly. Leah, I understand that you feel scared. That is natural. I will help you through the scary stuff.

"Please study the choices and options about discipline that either you or I must make. Carefully. I will explain each one to you and answer your questions in full. If we need to continue your session to another day, or several, the Board and my professional ethics permit and require me to do so.

"Leah, I want to make this as easy as possible, consistent with my responsibilities to the College, to your fellow students, and most importantly, to you."

"Um, okay."

"Wear loose-fitting clothing and no makeup. You don't need to dress to impress me. When will you be at my office?"

"At 8:30, Ma'am."

7. Do Not Enter

Before she knocks, Merri posts the College's official sign on the outside of Zia Espinosa's door. In large red letters on yellow:

Official Discipline in Progress. Do Not Enter

Below is the College's crest and a line with the signatures of the Dean of Students and the Chair of the Student Behavior Board. Merri's official signature, her degrees, and title are at the bottom, right before the tag line: Please Cooperate.

Behind the other doors of Demeter House: a hair dryer, someone's alarm going off and off, a laugh cut short when the tape on the sign squeaks against the wood.

She always feels a subtle tightening in her chest at this moment, the quiet shift from preparation to enactment. Once the sign is up, the process becomes real, for the student and for her.

At the beginning of every school year, some roommates or dormmates try to interfere with ongoing punishments, only to find themselves under the hand of a disciplinarian a few days later. Word gets out.

"Come in."

"You must be Zia. What a beautiful name. I'm Merriweather Cradle, your CBA Advocate. I hope when this necessary unpleasantness is complete, we can become friends. A big sister you may come to for advice about anything. Or just to talk.

"I am recording this session for the Board's files and for your protection."

Without seeming to, Merri examines her charge in her dorm habitat. Zia is a small, sinewy girl. A demarcation line separates natural black hair from waves of deep red. Merri knows women, and enough about red-hair phases, to know red may mean nothing -- or everything. Passion or independence, or a cry for help? Merri makes a note to herself to explore the 'cry for help' aspect.

Checking Zia's schedule that morning, Merri sees she is taking biology, geology, physics, and two required first-year courses. Probably a pre-med course load. She and her roommate are on the swim team. Nothing there indicates a potential for excessive drinking. But substance use is one behavior the world around Margaret Thatcher now punishes fiercely and quickly under the new laws. The College has long frowned on drinking and has always punished its young women accordingly.

"Hey, Zia, I see you're taking Rocks. Professor Wobus is a swell teacher and pleasing to look at."

Zia's eyes widen slightly in tandem with a slight blush. 'Bingo,' Merri thinks. Something we share.

Several purple candles around the room, extinguished now, emit a lilac smell.

Zia's breasts, hinted at previously through her bra and a green, long-sleeve button-up cotton shirt, are high and hedge-rose size. B-cups. Merri recalls a day studying breast and buttock shapes in her master's program. "The shape, size, position, symmetry, spacing, firmness, and sag of individual women's breasts vary considerably." Her professor quoted Wikipedia for something every girl knows.

Merri may have to find a tiny punishment bra. Punishment garments are a recent addition to Level 2 consequences. They are expected to be tight; one size too small.

"Your student ID, please."

"Yes, Ma'am."

Taking the warm plastic from Zia, Merri verifies the ID on her tablet as she continues to evaluate her newest charge. She has a lifetime of comparing her own body to those of other girls and young women. As does each woman she punishes in turn.

An 'A'-shaped butt, Merri thinks. Nice overhang. Under Zia's skirt, she notes proportionate thighs for a wiry woman of 5 feet. Easy to tenderize to fiery pain, anyway. And to find punishment panties to fit. The official school colors of those disciplinary panties, sage-green-and-rose, will be a swell look on Zia, if enormously itchy and uncomfortable.

Merri, at 5'10", is thin volleyball-setter size, and was in fact a team member during college. She towers over Zia and most of the young ladies she 'teaches'.

Zia's skin is a beautiful blend of Hebrew, Arabic, and Mediterranean, all tossed in a mixture of tones reflective of centuries of commerce, marriages, and slave trading along the Mediterranean Sea.

"Zia, it is okay to be nervous. Natural and normal. Fearful, curious, ashamed, remorseful, maybe angry and resentful? You are human, a young woman. I'm a young woman, too, just five years older than your 18. It is 18, right?" Zia nods.

"These feelings are all real. I felt those roiling emotions, the fear of the unknown, when I stood right where you are now five years ago to be punished. If I, if this College, do this right, it will clear away the guilt you feel now about your misconduct. You will emerge a stronger woman. I promise you.

"Sit, please."

Zia sits on her desk chair; Merri lowers herself onto the front edge of Zia's roommate's chair.

"If you will permit me, I would like to be your partner during your penance. I'll help you as much as you will let me. I will not lie to you. There will be pain, sometimes harsh. Which You Will Survive. That is the College's way of punishing you for what you have done.

"There will be meaningful humiliation. Embarrassment, too. This mix, combined with pain and anguish, will help you change your behavior, your bad habits, in the future. And leave your guilt behind. That is both my belief and my goal today. Do you understand?"

"I, I think so, Merri."

"Zia, take five deep breaths. Push out your tension. I'll breathe in and out too."

They exhale and then inhale in tandem. Merri's breaths are deliberately noisier on the exhale than Zia's.

Merri requests and receives Zia's mother's contact information, including her email address. She informs Zia that parents receive a summary of any disciplinary action taken by the CBA.

"A personal question I must ask. Are you having your period?"

"No, Ma'am."

"Good. One less thing to trouble us today. Did you read the Code as I suggested?"

"Yes, Merri."

8. Beer Necessities

"The Board requires you read the Code sections into the record. Please read this:

-----

STUDENT BEHAVIOR CODE... Chapter VII - Offenses... Section 12 - Alcohol Misconduct Offenses - Consequences Level

T1 - Possession of Alcohol - Level 1 or 2

T2 - Consumption of Alcohol - Level 1

T4 - Conspicuous Inebriation - Level 1 or 2

-----

"Did you read the Notice of Adjudication the Student Behavior Board sent you?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

_____

Notice of Adjudication

TO: Zia Espinosa, First Year, Demeter House. Date: November 3, 20XX

The Student Behavior Board, acting on the misbehavior referral of Mistress Atkins, Dorm Mother of Demeter House, unanimously finds you:

Guilty of Code violations T1 and T2, Possession and Consumption of Alcohol in your dormitory. Both Level 1. Guilty of Code violation T4, Conspicuous Inebriation. Level 2.

Consequences for each Level 1 and 2 offense are to be served consecutively, unless otherwise determined within the discretion of the CBA Advocate.

Consequences for conviction of two Level 1 offenses at once are to be enhanced as required by the Code and as permitted within the discretion of the Advocate.

Consequences for conviction of a Level 2 offense are to be served as required by the Code, with any consequences that are not similar to those for Level 1 served consecutively.

A parental summary will be sent.

-----

"Now, for my records, do you admit you possessed and consumed alcohol in your dorm room? Do you admit conspicuous inebriation?"

"Yes. Ah, but some of it wasn't mine."

"The Board doesn't grade on ownership. And the consumption of alcohol? Conspicuous Inebriation? Guilty?"

"I guess so."

"Why do you simply 'guess' yes, Zia? And 'some of it wasn't mine'? You can tell me what happened if that would help."

"Well, Ma'am. We were celebrating the end of the week. My roommate and I bought a six-pack each of Sierra Nevada beer. Part of the beer in our room was hers. I'd just opened one when a junior advisor found me in my room. It turned out to be a summons from my academic advisor. I spilled all my beer over my tee and shorts. She whiffed me and thought I'd been drinking. I guess she came in prepared not to believe me about anything."

"So, you had a beer in your hands and were going to drink it, but didn't have time to? Technically, you didn't actually consume your first beer? The same with the inebriation?"

"That's right."

One beer, most of it on a T-shirt. Merri has spanked girls for less and slept fine. She notices that she is noticing, and files it where she files everything the Board has already decided.

"Well, you could appeal on that technicality if you wish. The Board might agree with your characterization. However, just so you know, there is a Level 1 misbehavior called 'open container'.

"Consider this. When a young woman has multiple violations, the usual practice is for her to be held accountable for each one separately, regardless of the similarities in the physical, embarrassing, humiliating, or deterrence consequences they carry. That does not mean the repercussions for both merge into one. Each one may, and often is, punished separately.

"Suppose a student faces punishment for three Level 1 offenses at one time. Each mandates a hand spanking for a minimum of five minutes. An Advocate may apply all three to the girl's bottom and thighs in one long 15-minute consecutive correction. An ordeal, in reality. Or the Advocate might break up the hand spanking into chunks, interspersed with other consequences she is due. Such as corner time. Follow me so far?"

"Yes, I think I do," Zia Espinosa whispers.

"Please speak up, Zia. The Board mandates recording an entire discipline session or sessions."

"Okay. I understand, Ma'am."

Merri's intuition snags on an odd fact. "Why did you receive a summons from your academic advisor, if I may ask?"

"It's embarrassing, Ma'am. I've always done well in school. But I flunked my physics weekly test and got a D in geology. I didn't... I don't... know what happened, what I did wrong."

"Ah. Maybe we can talk about that when this is over. I took pre-med physics and loved geology. My favorite part of this profession is helping girls with their academics."

"Uh, okay, I guess. Thank you."

"Here's the thing. An Advocate must administer one five-minute spanking for punishment at any Level. She may combine multiple punishments concurrently, for only 5 minutes total. Or the Advocate may do just what I mentioned. Spank without stopping for 15 minutes straight.

"Just so you know, my policy is to merge multiple hand spankings into a longer chastisement, with appropriate reduction. A five-minute minimum, of course, for any offense. Typically, I add three minutes for the second 5-minute roasting and a final minute or two of what I call basting for a third offense. Nine to ten minutes for my hypothetical.

"Take five deep breaths again. Did you understand about concurrent or consecutive punishments when a young woman has multiple offenses?"

"Thank you. You really explained it."

"I'm NOT saying what tanning you'll get today. A lot depends on your continued cooperation and honesty. I may decide to give you the maximum sentence for both Level 1 offenses. And THEN for the level 2 offense."

"I guess my fate is sealed, Merri? I'm sorry. Ma'am."

"Not entirely. Even if you appeal, and the Student Behavior Board voids your consumption offense, you will still get 5 minutes today for possession of alcohol. If they deny your appeal, you will receive at least another minimum 5-minute hand spanking on another day for alcohol consumption or open container. Plus, other punishment consequences and enhancements required today must or may be repeated at the next session.

"Ah, let me stop here. I wouldn't do this job, a job that I think is really important, if I didn't believe the College's corporal punishments transform young women's lives for the better. They changed my life."

"Truly? Were you having problems adjusting to the social scene? Did you really get poor grades? Ma'am?"

"Yes to both. At first. Really, really. Zia, kindly look at me and give me a straightforward answer. Do you wish to appeal any of your convictions?"

"No. I don't think I want to appeal." Zia whispers.

"I'm sorry. Whether you want to appeal needs a yes-or-no answer. The Student Behavior Board requires a simple response. Do you wish to appeal either or both of your convictions? Please answer 'yes or no, Ma'am'."

The young woman, showing moisture in her eyes, replies softly: "No, Ma'am. I don't want to appeal."

"Louder. As I cautioned you, Miss Espinosa, I am recording your discipline session today. No appeal for one or all convictions."

"I'm sorry. I do not want to appeal any conviction, Ma'am."

"I think that is a wise choice. If you are ready, let's turn to today. Level 1 consequences do not have too many choices. Shall we begin with what the Board mandates for your discipline?"

"Okay."

9. Exposure

"Every consequence today requires you to remove your clothing below the waist. Let's do that and then we will discuss the other punishment requirements and options. Please remove your skirt and panties. You may turn your back if you wish. Place your clothing on your desk." With a gentle tug, Merri pulls the cream curtains closed, muffling the sounds of the outside world and shrouding the room in dim privacy. Even though there is no building behind them.

Zia moves towards the dorm room's entrance, keeping Merri and the windows to her back.

Looking at her feet, Zia asks, "My socks and shoes, too?"

"Keep on your socks. Remove your sneakers."

Multi-color crew socks! Inspired by the colorful bluebonnet flowers that spring brings to the College. Merri sees colors in the soft socks: lime green, turquoise, purple, royal blue, and fuchsia. "Those are cute socks. I have a couple of pairs myself."

Zia bends to unlace her shoes, then places them beneath her bed. Turning back away from Merri, Zia reaches behind her and unzips and drops her knee-length dark blue flare skirt. Four large, tortoise-shell front buttons, and another equally large one on each pocket, together with a wide waistband, mark this as a modest, budget-conscious skirt, Merri notes. With a moment of hesitation and a sigh, Zia thumbs her chartreuse, loose-triangle cotton panties down over slight hips until gravity carries them to pool around her crew socks.

"It is okay, Zia. Just put your clothes with your shoes." It is a painful moment, Merri knows first-hand, a telling moment. When a student must show her intimate parts to a stranger, even a woman. A person who is going to spank you. A woman who may judge your body, with all its flaws.

Zia turns back toward Merri, one hand clutching her clothing, which she deposits on the desk, while a palm shields her pussy. Merri thinks it is too much to ask petrified young women to fold their clothes, although one program instructor recommended making a girl fold her clothes as a method to get the spankee to refocus on the here and now. And for her to find comfort in a familiar manual act.

"That is a brave first step, Zia. Thank you. Let us get this next part over with. You are a swimmer. Think of the locker room. You have taken the next step, uncovering your pubic area, countless times. Please lower your hands to your sides."

Locker room? Merri can almost see Zia thinking it. In a locker room a swimmer at least has her shampoo bottle for a shield, and nobody takes color photos.

Zia complies.

"Thank you. You are doing well. Big hurdle leapt. Okay, so far?"

"Yes, Ma'am." Zia's face loses some redness, although her fists quiver at her sides.

"You know that discipline at any Level at Thatcher requires photos?"

"Yes, I do." Said with eyes lowered.

"Okay, we'll take your candids now, although because you committed two Level 1 offenses, there must be a moderate punishment for your breasts. If we wait for you to remove your clothes completely until we get to that point, we will pause, then snap more full-color close-ups of your chest.

"Sorry, that's a euphemism. Color photos of your breasts, before and after, serve as an official visual record of your chastisement.

"No one will see the photos. Would you like to skip to that step to get over the embarrassment, or start with half-clothed photos as you are now?"

Think of it as diving into a pool, or starting slowly by dipping a toe in, Merri thinks.

"I would like to go slow, please. Ma'am. Is that ok?"

"Certainly, Zia.

"I'm going to pin up this cute shirt with these cinch clips." Merri displays four, two-inch, neon pink snap fasteners. "They won't harm the fabric. Above your bra, in front and back. No one will see your breasts in these first photos."

The petite Zia trembles beneath this first touch of her disciplinarian's hands. "Okay, please face your door," Merri explains. "I will take full body and bottom-half photos."

Under the cinch clips her shirt is already damp at the armpits, and Merri catches the sharp, coppery smell of fear sweat, nothing like gym sweat. Every Advocate learns the difference by her second week.

"You said no one would see these photos. I thought... I thought some people will see me."

"Yes and no, Zia. At Levels 1 and 2, the Board has me take official record photos before and after a student's punishment. They go nowhere except to my computer and to a special Board server, which is not linked to the internet. As you read in the Student Behavior Code, at higher levels of consequences the photos have more uses. Uses both optional and required.

"Also, I will email you a copy of these photos if you wish. Some girls, and I am one, find that an occasional peek at their post-punishment photos prophylactically wards off inappropriate behavior. If you don't trust the security on your computer, I may be able to get you a print from the Board's server."

Merri explains that she will take back, front, and close-up photos with her tablet. First, Zia's back, from the top of her head to her socks. Next, from the pink cinch clips to below her knees. Last, from the top of Zia's fanny to just above her knees.

"Your back shots are complete. Please turn around. I know you can do this."

Zia does, first clasping both hands over her pussy. Then slowly removing her hands to hover, squeezed tightly, beside her hips. This, Merri knows, is evidence that Zia is fighting, successfully so far, privacy taboos, indoctrination, and fears. Perhaps, no, probably, body image worries too.

"Thank you. You are doing super."

Merri snaps more photos. The sweet spot for the lens is Zia's vee of curly reddish-black hair and what lies just below it, exactly as Merri guessed when she first sized Zia up. If the offense warrants it, or if the young woman is recalcitrant, an Advocate may narrate the view through the lens using "naughty" words designed to emphasize all that is being revealed. Merri is not that type of Advocate, at least not with a compliant young woman like Zia.

"You are doing great. Brave. I'm proud of you."

10. Pick Your Poison

"Come, sit down, and we'll talk about our next steps and options.

"We've talked about the required photos. There is corner time. You know what that is?"

"Yes, Ma'am. My mother spanked me when I was young. Well, younger." A rush of red paints Zia's face. "I must stand in the naughty corner afterward."

"Super. What I mean is, you know already spankings are painful. You will survive. You will never suffer any permanent harm. Ever. Permanent learning... well, that is the desired outcome.

"At Level 1, normally corner time is in the student's dorm room. Unless you fail to cooperate, in which case I will march you out to the hall and let you stand your reflective time there. Get it?"

"Yes, Miss Cradle. I won't give you any trouble."

"I'm sure you won't. You are doing so well.

"Now, here is the next hard part. The Board requires me to hand spank every girl who violates the Student Behavior Code at any Level. I will slap your backside hard for at least five minutes. Up to 10 minutes, because you have two Level ones. Additionally, I will apply up to another 5 minutes of spanking for your Level 2 conviction using my official leather paddle."

"I understand, Ma'am."

Merri's proud of her hand-spankings. Puny, unexercised spanking hands quickly become painful and can ache long before a well-deserved hard spanking leaves a young woman's butt sufficiently roasted. Starting during her master's program, she conditioned her left hand, her spanking hand, using how-to advice from spanking blogger Erica Scott. "Get yourself a brick, or a block of something equally resilient. Sit yourself down in front of your favorite binge-streaming show and slap that brick. Over and over, as hard as you can tolerate. Take a break, and then do it again. When your hand gets tired, stop. Then do it again tomorrow. Over time, this toughens your hand."

"Here is the second hard part. There is good science that a butt spanking alone isn't a sufficient deterrent to girls' misbehaviors at your age. You will receive three different physical punishments.

"You, Zia, must choose a second physical punishment. You must choose one of these: Eleven stripes with my Margaret Thatcher official cane" -- Merri doesn't mention that she has already decided on the lightest of the three canes she normally uses -- "twenty-eight strikes from a Board-approved regulation strap, or thirty leather paddle whacks, not to be confused with paddywhacks, Zia."

Merri pauses. "Or, Zia, you may opt for fifteen hand slaps to your vulva.

"I'm sorry to have to tell you this. Because you have a total of three Level 1 and 2 convictions, all those numbers could increase to double. Nor am I permitted to tell you in advance what my choices will be. I may tell you it depends in part on your continued cooperation."

"Ma'am, you mean, ah, that you could paddle my butt sixty times." Her hand moves towards her pussy. "Or my, uh... thirty times? Ma'am?"

"Breathe, Zia. Breathe. You'll get through this. I'll get you through it.

"'Could?' Yes, I could paddle your butt sixty times. But I rarely double up. The Board wants each young woman to know how serious her conduct was. If there are multiple charges, I can't ignore that entirely. But you have behaved well so far today. I can see you understand why we are here together today."

Zia's eyes are shut. She shakes her head, visibly quivering. "Please."

Merri chooses not to ask what, exactly, Zia's "please" is pleading for. Instead, she tells the shaking girl, "I've got you.

"There is a more important thing that you must realize. I hope you understood when you read the materials the Board sent you.

"I must punish your breasts in some fashion. There are three consequences from among which I must choose one. Nipple clamps, binding your breasts and then slapping them forcefully, or switching them.

"Did you see all those in the Code?"

"Yes, Miss Cradle."

"Would you like me to describe any of them?"

"No, Ma'am."

"Do you need a minute to think? Oh, and let me get you water. I can show you each of the spanking tools if you would like. I have them in my traveling bag."

While Merri fetches a water bottle for her wilting young charge from her bag, Zia asks a question. "Spanking my vulva?"

"Good question. If you choose that option, which is over quickly, you will spread your legs apart and pull your heels up. I snap my hand on your vulva as many times as the Board requires. From your mons to your fourchette, which is basically a GYN word for where your outer labia meet below your vagina. There," Merri points to Zia's sparse curly pubes, "to there." Zia flinches back without conscious effort.

"Oh, thank you. I guess. Does it hurt bad?"

"I wish I could give you a one-size-fits-all-women answer. My 'I am Merri' answer comes from my training for this career. Every woman has a different vulva. A mons can be a noticeable mound or just flow into her vagina. Most labia are asymmetric. Labia may be open or closed, crooked or straight. Innies and outies. Labia spankings hurt acutely but are over quickly.

"There were eighteen women in my master's program spanking class last year. Some of us found a vulva spanking less painful than a short paddling on our pantyless bottoms. Others felt it was too sexual, or too invasive, and/or way too painful. The average clitoris and labia are ripe with nerve endings compared to the rest of your body.

"I guess that's why mothers have been saying for generations, 'God made daughters' naughty bottoms for spanking'. They never mention vulvas."

Zia offers a wan wisp of a smile.

"Too much unhelpful info, Zia?"

"No, I think I get it but... but I don't know what to do."

"Which of the three is worse? Only you can decide for yourself. Anticipation, or play with a boyfriend, perhaps isn't the greatest guide."

"I get it, I think. Miss Cradle. Which punishment would you take?"

"You must choose, Zia. I've experienced all the choices. Every woman in my program had a 'favorite' if you could call it a 'favorite'. And one she fears the most. But, my young friend, you will survive any one you choose."

"I... I choose... my vulva... Ma'am."