Founded before the 7 Day War, the Leeman Institute was orignally a privately owned school dedicated to locating and training new mutants and other post-humans. The founder, Katherine Leeman, was born with the ability to locate mutants...unfortunately, she was also born into a very religious family with anti-mutant leanings. She ran away from home as a teenager, claiming to have had a vision from God one night. Katherine Leeman was convinced of God's calling to search for mutants and establish a new religion, whose holy texts she had quickly written down after her first encounter (and revised over the course of several years and a handful of other visions). The religion, called Enlightened Evolution, taught that mutants are the Lord's choosen people who are called to live peaceful and charitable lives alongside lesser man. For ten years, Leeman managed to gather quite a following among post-humans before her death at the hands of Omni and his followers.
While she may have been half-mad, her efforts managed to create one of the first peaceful, organized mutant communities. In her spirit, the school was erected by the state with the intent to continue in the tradition of educating post-humans on how to safely weild their powers...of course, it also serves as a recruitment center for the state to scout out powerful young metahumans who might prove capable of serving the government when they come of age.
The Leeman Institute traditionally employs female headmasters. As such it is headed by Miss Paula Rhodes, a radical teacher and philosopher who ascribes to a centrist view that falls somewhere between Leeman and Omni's teachings. As such, she prefers to go by the moniker "Magnum" and encourages her students to embrace their metahuman heritage by exploring their abilities and adopting a name that best describes them best. Many times, "Magnum" has taught curriculum that the school's governmental overseers disapprove of. There has been widespread public disent and protest against the mere existence of the school, let alone fears of a radical teacher who may be turning the next generation of mutants against mainstream humanity. As such, the government has a number of overseers as well as covert agents inside the school posing as students and faculty to keep an ear to the ground and ensure that the school is not the epicenter of another mutant revolution.
