The Summerland Institute for Unique and Gifted Youngsters
Location: Somewhere in Southern California
The Summerland Institute for Unique and Gifted Youngsters was established in 1968 by Jason Summerland. Summerland, a child psychologist, became interested in the plight of metahuman children early on in his distinguished career. When he opened the institute, his hope was to establish a community of metahuman youths who would feel safe and free to be themselves within the confines of a well run, respectable school-like environment. The focus on Summerland is in helping young metahumans learn to control their powers and to develop strong social skills for interacting in the normal world.
Summerland Institute has a reputation for being a very exclusive, but very effective private school. Most of the students there come from well to do families and the institute’s funding comes almost entirely from private sources, mostly donations from families. The goal of the Institute is to produce metahumans that can function adequately within the confines of normal society. There are, however, a few students whose abilities make it impossible for them to pass as normal. These select few have become permanent fixtures at Summerland and consider the Institute their home and its staff as their families. Most of those who work at Summerland feel the same way about them.
The Institute itself is set up like a school campus. It is located somewhere in a secluded, hilled area in Southern California. There are numerous buildings that constitute the campus, some for living and others which serve exclusively as classrooms and the like. The “students” have freedom to roam anywhere on the campus and the older children are given leeway to leave the campus and explore surrounding towns. The campus is protected on all sides by a tall wall and is guarded by trained men and women, many of whom were once “students” themselves. The school is religiously guarded from prying eyes, as privacy is of the highest importance at Summerland.
Many of the Summerland students live on the campus full time, visiting only with their families and even then on rare occasions. The staff of Summerland is all well paid and well trained and most of them have developed personal relationships with the students. The privacy rules are strictly enforced and anyone even suspected of considering leaking out any of Summerland’s secrets is immediately terminated. The director, now Leslie Summerland, daughter of the founder, utilizes some metahumans with mind reading and manipulating powers to insure that Summerland’s secrets stay just that, secret.
To the outside world, Summerland is a fine institution for highly talented and intelligent children with an excellent reputation. The staff, director, and the students and their families strive to make sure that nothing else is ever even hinted at in connection with Summerland.
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