The Wards



The Wards are the under-eighteen sub-division of the Protectorate. Like the Protectorate, they follow the same naming convention; for example, Brockton Bay's Wards would be known as "Wards East-North-East".

History
The Wards started out as a initiative to recruit the next generation of heroes.

The concept expanded in the ensuing years and improved with organizations like the Youth Guard forming to help bridge the gap between normal life and duties as a cape.

Membership and Salary
Wards are granted a trust of $50,000 a year, as well as a base minimum wage salary, the latter of which is doubled on full membership. In all other respects, Wards are similar to the Protectorate in membership types and status, but bear additional protections and measures.

Probationary Wards lose their probationary status at the age of eighteen, regardless of their history and record. Wards of any status are not permitted full access to confidential or classified records without permission. Wards are to attend school during typical hours and maintain satisfactory grades and failure to do so will see their pay docked. Wards must be allowed to receive a full night's sleep with regularity. The Wards' PRT department can remove Wards from school or woken up, but the department heads have been urged to use this in moderation.

Transfer
Transfer of a Protectorate member involves moving them to a different department. It requires only the permission of the parahuman in question, the originating department and the receiving department. Very often, departments will negotiate additional terms, including attempts to defray additional costs or higher salaries for a period. At times, parahumans are exchanged between departments, with the contracts and terms being linked to both parties.

In addition to the facts and possibilities outlined above, transfer of a Ward requires permission of department heads, all parents, the Ward, one teacher or educational voucher. If there are any, then in-house psychiatrists, outside psychiatrists, therapists, and probation oversight must agree as well. To enable involved parties to cancel an unwanted transfer, any dissenting party can contact a higher office to anonymously and immediately end the transfer process and put it on hold for six months. This is intended to prevent abuse of the Ward or any form of social, institutional, or legal backlash against the dissenter.

Termination
Termination of a Ward requires the formation of a tribunal and thorough review. All parties are heard, incidents are detailed and investigated, and all paperwork of any relevance is reviewed. Where possible, punishment or transfer to a better environment is preferred over termination.

Should a termination be deemed necessary, measures taken can include suspension, firing, arrest and execution.

Parental Involvement
While parental consent is preferred for a Ward to participate in Cape activites if a child has triggered it is not uncommon for the parents or other guardians to be involved with, if not the cause of, said trigger; such cases lead to the PRT inducting the minor should they show sufficent interest. This is a short term solution.

Active membership with all activites that that implies requires parental or guardian consent.

Trivia

 * Normally, the Wards in Brockton Bay go to Arcadia High, a local school, but only for a half day each day. The second part of the day is 'vocational' as an excuse for them leaving. Okay, so the biggest thing I struggled with, this chapter, was this one piece of information that I was trying to fit into the flow of dialogue. I just couldn’t seem to get Piggot or one of the Wards to bring it up without it feeling awkward or breaking up the flow of dialogue, and as exposition it felt forced. How it works with the Wards is that most have the benefit of a ‘co-op’ program. Only a half day of classes, while they (supposedly) work for a given business or branch of government during the other half of the day, getting real life experience. At a given team member’s discretion, mom and dad may be in the know or not, as far as what they’re really doing.  All that said, remember, this is government. Making things more difficult than they have to be and covering one’s own ass is going to be a recurring theme. Individual tutoring for kids that could be running/flying off on patrol every few minutes is not only hard, but it’s an easy target for any politician that wants to come across as being out for welfare of the kids. So if a ‘concerned’ poliitican(sic) or member of the media points to these kids and asks why they aren’t in school, the people running the program (like Piggot) can say they are, without perjury or prevarication. Giving them the structure of at least a half day at school just makes things a lot easier to manage and defend.  So yeah. Why did almost the entire team show up, against Tattletale’s expectations? Most of the Wards weren’t even in school at the time.  For New Wave, it’s more about that whole accountability bit. They’re celebrities, and that comes with all the constant attention and criticism to everything they do. Having your kids home schooled is going to make your group seem very insular when New Wave wants to sell the opposite impression. It’s also quite likely that the various New Wave kids just want to go to school. Victoria likes the attention, and Amy is probably quite happy to have a legitimate excuse to get away from everything. I won’t get into the other kids of New Wave just yet, but they probably have their reasons too.  From a writing perspective, though, you want your characters to be relatable, and something virtually everyone relates being a teenager with (for better or worse) is high school. - Comment by WildBow on Interlude 3