. .
All The Way
I used to love school. I’m sure everyone used to enjoy going and seeing all of your friends each year. Unless you are one like me, who has experienced harassment to no end. Then school begins to seem a little pointless, and absenteeism begins to become a problem.
I remember my first day of kindergarten. Seeing all the new people, and the work that had to be done. I didn’t think I would like school, it was something new and different for me, and therefore scary. Going to a place where you’re not with your family, whom you feel safe with. But I learned to enjoy my time there, playing on the playground and awaiting lunch time, where we would pull out our lunch boxes and munch on our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Playground and lunch were always the best parts of school, a time to be with your friends, and have fun. When you’re in kindergarten most don’t know of harassment, or how it feels for someone to pick on you, and tease you.
When I entered the fourth grade, it got a little rough. People would comment on your dress, weight, or height, tormenting me to no end. One day I complained to my teacher of a boy that kept pushing me, and wouldn’t stop. She did nothing. She asked who it was that was pushing me and she looked at him and walked into the classroom. Didn’t say a thing. I was shocked to see that there was nothing I could do, that the teacher wasn’t going to put a stop to it. What was I to do? I was 11, I was getting closer to my teen years. Little did I know this would get worse through the years.
In 6th grade, I restricted myself from the male gender, knowing that they were the one’s to treat me so cruelly. The only male friends I had were those that were going through the same thing I had been going through, though that wasn’t much. People would say I was fat mostly, but they would also say I was gay. That shocked me to think that someone would think that. They concluded I was gay because I had mostly girl friends, and played little sports but gymnastics. But it is how I have grown up, I didn’t have my father around to play sports with me or wrestle with me as most male children did. I didn’t have that. My brother wasn’t around, and all I had was my mom, sister and grandmother to look up to. If I had a male role model maybe I would act more like that, but, unfortunately, I didn’t.
When i complained about these things, nothing serious was done, the teacher would tell them to stop, but no serious actions would take place, and they never actually stopped. As I entered junior high school, things became more serious, and I was forced to stick up for myself. The tormenting continued and got worse.
When someone said these things, I knew I had to take care of them, and take them to a dean. When I did, still, nothing was done about it. All they said was "You need to bring me a list of names of the people who are doing this, and I will confront them." I told them who was doing it, and all they gave them was a warning.
I am now a sophomore in high school. Everyday I suffer from these memories. As they don’t continue much anymore, I still have the memories. They are there forever. I won’t ever be able to forget them, going through this is really traumatic. Now, I don’t like school at all. I will do anything to get out of it. As long as I don’t have to be here. Paranoia has taken over and now when my friends whisper something around me I immediately suspect they’re talking about me, and that they’re not my friend. I’m considering home school, but there are major consequences that come along with the freedom of home schooling: one, we don’t earn a diploma as normal students do after they complete their senior year, we earn a GED, which won’t do much in the way of going to college, which is something I really want to do. Two, we won’t get our driver’s license until the age of 18. Sure, you can have your permit as long as you want, but that would mean probably not driving around too much since your parents have to be with you. And three, probably the worst, is missing the opportunity to be there, on graduation night, receiving your diploma, and having your family there, proud of you.
In that case, I hope I can finish school, keep my head up and hope for the best. And whatever negativity comes in my way, to stop my dream of going to college and having enough money to live on, to shatter my dreams, they’ll have to try harder, because I’m not willing to let anyone tear me down. I’m going all the way.
This essay is to show that the school board does nothing about harassment, and that your child may be subject to this very thing, and keeping quiet about it, as I did. Please don’t let this happen, no one deserves it, and hopefully one day people will learn how they can ruin people, and parents will teach their children not to be that way, because it can ruin someone, whether they believe it or not.