Teddy Ferrara

  GABE: What?

  NICKY: Literally, like, ten or fifteen minutes ago—he sent me the screenshot—

  GABE: Does it say who it was?

  NICKY: Ted something—

  GABE: Ted?

  NICKY (Looks on phone): Let me—

  GABE: Ted Ferrara?

  NICKY: Yeah.

  4.1

  PRESIDENT: Well. We’re not all here. But should we get started?

  PROVOST: Has anyone heard from Gabe?

  (Pause.)

  PRESIDENT: I mean I’m tempted to—usually I’d say let’s just start—but in light of—I mean, is anyone—I don’t know if anyone here really knows him at all—but is anyone concerned? . . .

  JAY: I’ve—been in touch with him.

  PRESIDENT: Did you expect him to be here today?

  JAY: I did . . .

  PRESIDENT: Twenty minutes late—does that concern you?

  JAY: I can’t imagine anything—he’s been a little depressed but—

  ELLEN: Well can we call him?

  PROVOST: The office has been trying to contact him—

  JAY: I texted him right before the meeting . . .

  PRESIDENT: Okay. Well look—it’s probably nothing—I just wanted to be—we can start—

  ELLEN: But wait—I think this is a perfect example of not talking about something we should be able to talk about. You just said he’s been depressed . . .

  JAY: We were—supposed to go to the vigil together last night, but at the last minute he just said he didn’t feel like going, he didn’t feel like being public . . .

  ELLEN: You know, we overlook these signs of depression and then—things like Teddy Ferrara—

  PRESIDENT: Well what do you want us to do, Ellen?

  ELLEN: At the least, not be afraid to talk about it. All these fears about privacy, overstepping—why can’t we talk about someone’s pain? Why can’t we care about each other?

  PRESIDENT: We are talking about it.

  ELLEN: No, you wanted to start the meeting and change the subject—

  JAQ: I think we do avoid talking about difficult things.

  ELLEN: I mean, not going to the vigil—are there any other signs that he’s depressed, Jay?

  JAY: Well I just . . . I know his boyfriend—broke up with him and . . . he had filed to run for Student Assembly President but wasn’t sure if—he had to decide Friday whether to withdraw . . . he just seemed like—

  ELLEN: So—it sounds like he was separating himself from student life because of—

  JAY: He wasn’t really in touch over the weekend except to say he wasn’t going to the vigil—

  ELLEN: These are a lot of signs. This is someone we as a community should be concerned about—

  (Gabe enters.)

  GABE: Sorry I’m late—

  PRESIDENT: Hi Gabe. So we’re all here. Have a seat.

  So. Obviously the—I can’t believe it isn’t even a week ago that we met. There was a sense of immediacy then—now the immediacy has an immediacy. I’d like to—

  ELLEN: Can we talk about the rumors about this roommate issue Teddy had?

  PROVOST: It’s both a criminal investigation as well as something the Office of Student Conduct is—

  ELLEN: I know you can’t “say” anything—but come on. This is an off-the-record—

  PRESIDENT: You know I love opening my big mouth. But we really can’t—

  PROVOST: Unfortunately we can’t—

  ELLEN: Because you’re scared of lawsuits.

  PROVOST: The protocol is—

  ELLEN: You’ve invited us to speak frankly—

  PRESIDENT: There are some things we just can’t comment on. Come on, you know that—

  ELLEN: Well let’s talk about what you can say. Not about the—but to address publicly what is now undeniable, which is that the climate for queer students at this university is deadly.

  (Pause.)

  PRESIDENT: I have some ideas. But tell me what you’d like me to say.

  ELLEN: You’re not going to say what I want you to say.

  PRESIDENT: But I’d like to know what you—and frankly, Ellen, you don’t know that.

  JAQ: I know what I’d like you to say.

  PRESIDENT: Great, what is that?

  JAQ: People are expecting you to say how sad this, what a tragedy, we all have to come together—

  PRESIDENT: Honestly, I don’t want to say that stuff, any more than you want me to—

  JAQ: Well—I think you should challenge your audience. Say, “The hate that killed Teddy Ferrara is in your heart. Every one of you. Maybe there’s not that much of it, maybe you’ve worked hard to eliminate discrimination in yourself, but it’s still there a little bit. And that’s the part of yourself you need to be thinking about right now. Not the ninety-nine percent that wants queer students to live. The one percent that wants them to die.”

  (Pause.)

  PRESIDENT: You really think most people at this university want queer students to die?

  JAQ: A part of them—yes. Yes I do.

  PRESIDENT: Jay—what would you like to hear me say?

  JAY: I think anytime there’s an expectation that an authority is going to speak in clichés or platitudes—there’s a real opportunity to say something original and shake things up—

  JAQ: Exactly—

  JAY: To the extent that there is a culture of homophobia here . . . It is important to address that.

  PRESIDENT: Gabe?

  GABE: I don’t think you should say anything until we have all the facts.

  (Pause.)

  ELLEN: A gay student who was being bullied by his roommate and dorm mates is dead.

  GABE: Right—but lots of gay students are bullied and don’t kill themselves.

  ELLEN: What’s your point?

  GABE: There might be other reasons he killed himself as well. Nobody knows—

  ELLEN: There might be a thousand reasons. But bullying is obviously a primary—

  PRESIDENT: All right—that’s Gabe’s point of view—

  ELLEN: Do you find that a compelling point of view?

  PRESIDENT: Ellen—I’m committed to addressing this problem. I was before Teddy Ferrara died—

  ELLEN: So we’re airing out all these points of view—what are you going to say?

  PRESIDENT: Well look—we need to strategize the best way to go about laying the groundwork for—

  ELLEN: This is such bullshit. If the institution sends the signal that this is not really a pressing—

  JAQ: It has to be a priority—

  PRESIDENT: It is! But if bullying is as big a problem as you’re saying—we can’t wave a magic wand—

  ELLEN: So what’s the point of this meeting? To pacify us? To buy time?

  PROVOST: In addition to speeding up implementing Social Justice Committee recommendations—there is an opportunity to speak forthrightly—if we can find the best way to do that—

  ELLEN: I think you should immediately announce an effort to address social justice that will require participation from all faculty, students and administrators—details to follow.

  JAQ: One thing you could do right away is fund a safe space for anyone, if they’re being bullied, for them to go to and talk to someone who has institutional authority—

  ELLEN: That seems uncontroversial to me—I don’t think you need to “lay the groundwork”—

  PRESIDENT: We—listen. We’re going to do things. But truly changing the culture is not an overnight—

  ELLEN: No one said it’s overnight! But that doesn’t mean it needs to take ten years—

  PRESIDENT: I agree—all I was—look, I think you’ve both made important suggestions. Gabe?

  GABE: I think the most important message the university can send right now is that it doesn’t accept students committing suicide in its buildings.

  PRESIDENT: What do you mean?

  GABE: Put up barriers on the upper balconies of the library so people can’t jump off them.

  JAQ
: But—if you want to kill yourself you’ll just do it some other way—

  GABE: But it sends a message: two students have done this and we don’t accept it.

  JAQ: That doesn’t make any sense.

  GABE: You don’t know that he would have killed himself some other way—maybe not.

  JAQ: But that doesn’t have anything to do with the underlying problem of discrimination.

  GABE: No, it has to do with trying to prevent more suicides by saying, “You may not do this.”

  JAQ: But if you don’t address why students are—

  GABE: We don’t know why.

  (Pause.)

  PRESIDENT: This is a little off topic, but did you—the Police Chief just told me that—men have sex in the library bathrooms—and on that floor, the ninth floor, where Teddy jumped from.

  GABE: That’s true. It’s a well-known cruising spot.

  PRESIDENT: This strikes me as something that we should stop—it sends a strange message, doesn’t it, to gay students—that gay people need to do this distasteful thing in secret, illicitly—

  ELLEN: There are very complex reasons that men have anonymous sex. There’s a long history—

  PRESIDENT: Sure—twenty, thirty years ago, I get it. But now? In this day and age?

  ELLEN: If criminalizing gay activity is what you’re taking away from—

  PRESIDENT: First of all, it’s already illegal—you can’t have sex in a public—

  ELLEN: Consensual sex in public restrooms did not cause Teddy Ferrara to—

  PRESIDENT: What if one reason he killed himself is, he thought—that’s my future. That’s being gay.

  GABE: I think that’s a really good point.

  ELLEN: That, to me, is absurd.

  PRESIDENT: I was shocked to hear about it. I mean it’s disgusting—

  ELLEN: I cannot believe this is what we’re talking about—

  PRESIDENT: It’s not what I’m—look, today is a busy—we need to wrap things up—

  ELLEN: This weekend is Homecoming. This is the one time the entire university comes together as a community. If you can use this opportunity to speak to everyone—

  JAQ: I think it should be during the game. At halftime, there should be a ceremony—

  PRESIDENT: Maybe at the Beach Crew show, too! Joking—that was a joke—

  ELLEN: I know you appreciate forthrightness, which is why I’ve been forthright.

  PRESIDENT: I do. We are going to respond to this aggressively. You have my word.

  ELLEN: Well, we’ll see. But thank you.

  PRESIDENT: All right. Thank you, guys, for coming.

  JAQ: Any news on running for Senate?

  PRESIDENT: You’ll be the first to know, Jaq.

  PROVOST: Thank you, everyone.

  PRESIDENT: Gabe, hang back a second, there’s something I wanted to ask you . . .

  (All exit save Gabe and President.)

  GABE: Sorry I was late—this reporter got my number and I couldn’t get off the phone—

  PRESIDENT: Ahh, yes. Reporters.

  GABE: You probably have a lot of experience—

  PRESIDENT: That I do. If you can master the skill of speaking to them while you’re young—maybe you can actually be President one day instead of just a university President!

  GABE: Ha—it must not be easy having to watch what you say.

  PRESIDENT: It’s the price you pay for being someone people will listen to. So listen—we were chatting earlier, and Jay mentioned you’d been thinking about withdrawing from running for Student Assembly President.

  GABE: Oh—I did think about it. But I decided to stay in the race.

  PRESIDENT: Oh, great! We need students like you getting involved—people with a point of view.

  GABE: There’s a rumor you’re going to be at the candidates’ forum tomorrow.

  PRESIDENT: I will be! I think it’s a good way of showing that we take the Student Assembly seriously. And after what happened Thursday night—it’s good that I be visible.

  GABE: I agree. Well—I’ll see you there!

  PRESIDENT: Excellent.

  (Gabe goes. Provost returns.)

  PROVOST: Any thoughts?

  PRESIDENT: I like that kid.

  PROVOST: There’s a surprise.

  PRESIDENT: Hey, he’s saying things that are true! You can tell Ellen thinks this is her moment—we really need charges to be filed on the roommate. It’s gonna be tense till then.

  4.2

  ELLEN: He just doesn’t care—this job so obviously does not interest him—

  JAQ: It’s just amazing.

  JAY: It’s very upsetting—

  ELLEN: The only response is to organize. Otherwise nothing will change—

  (Gabe enters.)

  Excuse me, Gabe?—If you have the President’s ear I hope you’ll use that access.

  GABE: Anybody want to talk to these reporters who keep calling me? I really don’t want to—

  JAQ: Yes!

  GABE: I’ll message you their numbers.

  (Gabe starts to go off. Jay follows him as Ellen and Jaq exit.)

  JAY: Is everything okay?

  GABE: Hey—sorry I’ve been out of touch. I’ve just been thinking a lot.

  JAY: About what?

  GABE: Just—the way people make themselves out to be such victims—I’m so over it. I wrote this long email to Drew asking him for another chance—then I was like—he dumped me!

  JAY: You didn’t send it?

  GABE: Nope. And, like, Tim talking constantly about wanting to cheat on Jenny, like he has to—

  JAY: Right—

  GABE: Why can’t people just stop being so self-pitying and so, like, weak? I can’t go out dancing one night without Drew—and I invited him to come! I mean give me a break—

  JAY: No, you behaved perfectly—

  GABE: Tim’s having a little rough patch in his relationship and needs to cheat?

  JAY: It’s a lot of—very selfish, controlling behavior . . .

  GABE: And I’m sorry, but I was nice to that kid. I spent three days feeling guilty and bad and then I realized—I don’t know what was going on in that guy’s head! No one does.

  JAY: Uh-huh—

  GABE: I reached out to him. I spoke to him at length—despite the fact that he was pretty weird!

  JAY: No, you shouldn’t feel guilty—

  GABE: This whole “blame the university” thing—it’s so freaking easy to do. Because then you can’t blame the person who actually chose to do what they did—another victim!

  JAY: But—I mean, we don’t know the whole story yet—but if that really did happen to him—

  GABE: If someone watched you with a guy on a webcam would you kill yourself?

  JAY: If I was closeted and worried it would get out—

  GABE: He was out of the closet on his Facebook profile!

  JAY: But that doesn’t mean his parents knew—what if they were really conservative—

  GABE: Even so—you’d jump off the library balcony? I don’t think you would!

  JAY: Not everyone’s the same—maybe to him it was a really big violation—

  GABE: I’m not saying what happened had nothing to do with it, just—this herd mentality—the vigils, the shrines, the status updates—I just feel like no one is having an honest discussion about it. Everyone just wants him to be a total victim.

  JAY: Well—I want to have an honest discussion about it. Do you want to get a drink later?

  GABE: Yeah—I’d really like that.

  JAY: Maybe go back to The Lair.

  GABE: Oh yeah?

  JAY: You still need to get me laid!

  GABE: Ha, that’s right. Okay—tonight then. (Going) Talk to you later, rollerblader!

  JAY: Ha. Bye.

  4.3

  DREW: Come in.

  (Nicky enters.)

  What’s up.

  NICKY: I wanted to talk about the piece on Teddy—

  DREW: I think it’s great. We should get
some more quotes from people who knew him in high school, but other than that—

  NICKY: Right—well—I was doing some more research and—the piece is supposed to be a complete picture of who Teddy was, right?

  DREW: Yeah?

  NICKY: Well, it turns out that—he was on a message board on a porn site, and on a cam site—he didn’t use his real name but there’s overwhelming evidence, including pictures, that it’s—

  DREW: Uh-huh?

  NICKY: It looks like he had a kind of—double life, pretending to be someone who’s at the least a much cooler version of himself—online.

  DREW: Does this add anything to the piece?

  NICKY: Well yeah—it shows he might have been—not as timid as we’ve all been portraying him—he was an active player in these very exhibitionistic online worlds—

  DREW: Has this been published anywhere else?

  NICKY: Not yet, but if I can find all this stuff—it’s just a matter of time.

  (Pause.)

  DREW: But I don’t see what this has to do with his suicide.

  NICKY: Well—everyone’s talking about the rumors—people think he killed himself because he was exposed by his roommate. But at the same time he was exposing himself.

  DREW: But that was his choice. It’s not the same as being spied on—

  NICKY: I agree—I just think it adds a level of complexity to him. And to the story.

  DREW: But people will just use this to say that it can’t be that he killed himself because his roommate live-streamed him. They’ll use it to justify shifting blame away from—

  NICKY: But this piece isn’t about blame. It’s just about who he actually was.

  DREW: But that’s what people will use it for. Also—it feels like another invasion of privacy.

  NICKY: How?

  DREW: You said he used a fake name. He meant this to be private. We’d be repeating—

  NICKY: You didn’t think it was an invasion of privacy when we outed Kevin Gillman.

  (Pause.)

  DREW: We didn’t talk about his sex acts. We just said that he was—

  NICKY: I don’t have to be graphic. I can stick to the facts.

  (Pause.)

  DREW: Let me think about it, maybe it can be a separate story later on. Any roommate buzz?

  NICKY: No one in the administration is talking. The investigations are ongoing—