Imagine Bullying a Child.

 The administration at my school was full of cowards. 

Truly spineless, selfish, cowards. 

That being said, not everybody in my school district were like that. A handful (literally I can only think of maybe 5 teachers) were incredibly supportive and kind. I really believe that they are the golden standard of what teachers should be. What all school administrators should be. 

Sadly, most of my school was crooked, and easily influenced. 

When I was in the second grade, a boy put his hand down the back of my pants at lunch. The lunch lady saw it, I got publicly humiliated by her bird-like cawing at the top of her lungs about it, and then parents were called. Guess who got in trouble for it? Me. Did I have any idea what was happening when it happened? No, but hey, the other kid couldn't get in trouble and I was already labeled a "bad kid" so why not blame this on me. 

Flash forward years, it doesn't matter how many because it was every day of every year, this kid is still harassing anybody he wants and not getting in trouble for it.  One of my readers (and friend) wrote me after she read my last blog, saying that he tormented her to the point where she was dressing in long sleeve, heavy clothes so he couldn't make fun of her body. She was tormented to the point where she was dressing, physically uncomfortably to avoid being harassed by this kid. She told me that she too had reported it, only to be informed that making this kid face consequences, or the school upholding their "no tolerance" policy, would result in the school being sued. 

Why? Because this kid was the only ethnically diverse kid in our school, and the mom had come into the office and informed our principle, and I'm sure the rest of the office, that if her kid got in trouble, it would be racist. This boy got away with everything and anything. He even left welts on my arms, in front of a teacher, and I got yelled at. Does that sound like a "zero tolerance" policy to you? How would you feel if it was your kid being tortured by this one student, that the school WOULDN'T touch, because they were more worried for themselves than they were for taking care of their students. 

Moving along, lets talk about the administration pushing kids out of the way so that their choice of kids can excel, and the other kids can struggle and drown. There was a teacher that I had that routinely lost kids papers, and would just give kids the grade she figured they would earn. There were many rumors about this particular teacher, but it was pretty much a fact that she lost students papers frequently. Imagine being the kid who had a bad streak in her class, and then you studied really hard for a test or whatever, and she lost it. So she looked at your past grades and gave you an F, but your classmate whos paper she also lost, just so happens to be another teachers kid so she gets an A, even if she totally tanked the test, or didn't even turn it in and this teacher just assumed she lost it. hmm.

I don't feel very encouraged to try my best. Would you? It felt like the school was actively working against me. Like running on a treadmill when I thought I was running on pavement. I could try as hard as I wanted, but I really wasn't going anywhere. 

Another example of my school pushing kids out of the way so somebody else can shine, this story also came from a reader. We will refer to her as Mary.

Our state has a huge sports opportunity, at the end of the basketball season, the best players in the state are selected to be on an "All Stars" team. They spend a weekend playing basketball games, in front of a bunch of college recruits. The state pics the players based on their stats from the season, as well as grades and school accolades. Well Mary won that opportunity, but her coach decided not to tell her until it was over, because the coach wanted another girl to go, we can call this girl Ann, and she didn't get it. So to avoid the coach getting in trouble by Ann's mom, he just decided to let Mary miss out on this huge scholarship opportunity so there would be "no hard feelings" 

Imagine being the parent of Mary. Your kid works so hard all year, getting great grades (Mary was also supposed to be the valedictorian, but once again, Ann's parents got involved so my school had four, or five valedictorians) working her butt off in basketball, and the coach decides for your kid that they don't get to go, because Ann's mom works for the school and Ann shouldn't have to miss out on this opportunity while your Mary get to reap the benefits of her hard work. 

I'm getting upset even just writing about it! Once again I ask, when will this be too much? When will we, as parents, as students, as co-workers, when will we make this stop?? Its truly up to us! Our kids deserve better! 

According to the US National Library of Medicine,  20% of high school students are reporting that they are depressed, and 30%-50% of depression cases go undiagnosed. The numbers climb yearly. What are we ACTUALLY doing about it?? Will we continue to let spineless cowards who bend to the will of selfish parents, be the ones in charge of our children's education? 

My last blog post got a reaction I was not expecting, at all. Even today I was receiving feedback, and its a week later! I really quick just wanted to say thank you! Some of you came forward with your own experiences, even from the same school I go to. I encourage all of you to not let your story go unheard. There is a serious problem in schools. We the people have to be the ones to address it. We employ the teachers, we get a say in what they teach our students, and how they treat our kids. Schools run on tax-payers dollars, its time to stop letting the tail wag the dog.