This pisses me off so much! Did the parents of these kids who stole your book get upset because they stole your book?
It’s attitudes like the parents/administrators that CAUSE incidents at Columbine. If you are told that you are crazy and demented long enough, you will eventually believe it.
Don’t give up the fight. I don’t normally side with the ACLU but this is a case where they can help. This is absolute crap. Keep us posted on what happens.
They will probably raid Goose’s computer and find out he visits The Straight Dope. Then he’ll really be in trouble.
I can tell you’re new to this, so here’s a few words of wisdom from someone who’s been through it all several times over:
There is no such thing as “justice” in grade school or high school.
The overwhelming majority of school officials are goddam worthless morons who couldn’t make a correct decision with a freaking nuclear missile at their heads.
Principals are the same, except they’re under political pressure which requires them to make boneheaded decisions.
I can guarantee that the students who stole your notebook will NEVER, EVER get punished for ANYTHING, so you may as well drop that fantasy right now. The reason for this is because of the stupid “bad NFL official” rule which states that only the second offense (no matter how trivial) gets punished.
Some students can get away with murder, while others get nailed on the most ridiculous offenses, and if you ask for an explanation you will get nothing heaping trainloads of BS. (I think you can tell which group I was in, right?)
Teachers are overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated, and as a result basically don’t give a righteous crap about anything, so don’t bother asking them for help.
Avoid counselors at all costs. They’re basically bums picked off the street by schools because they’re cheaper than someone who KNOWS THE FIRST GODDAM THING ABOUT COUNSELING.
No, this was not an isolated incident.
No, it is not going to get better.
What to do? Well, basically you gotta do what it takes to be popular with both your fellow students and the wastes of flesh at the top. Don’t do anything even remotely “subversive” and participated in the right activities, espouse the right beliefs, and make the right friends. From the looks of it it might be too late to make much of an impact, but do it anyway.
You think I’m exaggerating, right? Please don’t say you think I’m exaggerating. I’m telling you, the only way to avoid going completely insane and becoming a human spitoon until you’re 18 is to be popular and do what everyone wants you to. Everything else is a damned lie and will give you nothing but suffering. I know what I’m talking about…I’ve been through nine years of it.
Good luck. I have nothing but sympathy for any right-minded person who has to go through the endless nightmare that is the American educational system.
I’m going to take a different angle with this discussion.
How old are you? The reason I ask is because you don’t actually have to go to high school if you are 16. (depending upon your state)
I had a couple of friends in high school who were in similar situations, and when the school officials started giving the lots of grief, they just walked out. They both went to the local college and signed up for classes. They now have good jobs and college degrees without ever finishing high school.
High School for me was killing time before college trying to avoid being beaten, teased, sexually harrassed, and tormented by the other students. And trying to avoid being belittled, flunked, or committed by the teachers.
Good luck Goose. If it is possible to take the GED, I say go for it. Even if you spend every waking hour studying for it, I think you should do it and get the hell out of Dodge.
Try to get a scholarship to a private school that appreciates art and writing. There probably isn’t one in your home town, but there’s one or several in your state. Talk to the counselor about getting sent there. See if you can enlist his or her help. Even if it can’t be done, it will lend structure to your interaction with the counselor that has nothing to do with straightening out what is the most valuable thing in the world–a quirky imagination. Also, it will put the counselor at your service rather than subjecting you to the counselor’s random machinations. Counselors are all ex-teachers who took an MA in counseling to earn more money (an MA in counseling means sitting around in summer school watching tapes of leo buscalia and “encounter groups” where you are “honest” and “genuine” for several hours at a time–in other words total bullshit), so don’t expect that he or she will have any magic to lay on you.
Second, see if you can find an artist who will work with you. Your school may have an art teacher. He or she won’t know the first thing about art, but might know someone who does. Ask your parents, relatives. Go to art stores and ask about lessons. If you can show that you’re engaged in some kind of formal instruction, it will be harder for people to justify hassling you for sketching.
One other thing: If you possibly can, transfer to a different school. There really are a handful of good schools out there; you just have to find them. Probably the best thing that ever happened to me was getting kicked out my freshman year of high school, and the next best was getting kicked out in sixth grade. Their loss. In both cases, I was a constant scapegoat of the administration, and in both cases, I ended up at much better schools (where I was actually treated like a human being!) afterwards. You might want to particularly consider religious or other private schools: They charge tuition, but I’m hard-pressed to think of a better way to spend money. Where I grew up (Cleveland), the worst of the private high schools was still better than the best of the public schools. You have options.
I remember reading in the paper a while ago (so maybe a few of the details are wrong) about how some kids in Ontario were caught in a phone conversation near new years planning to kill some cops.
The police (not sure how they got the conversation) came over to both their houses and searched them, as well as the houses of their friends that they mentioned and stuff. They found no guns or anything like that anywhere.
They were under suspicion and stuff was going on their permanent records and everything else like that.
The last little bit of the article said how the boy’s mothers’ said that the police were mistaken, and they were just playing a role-playing game, Rifts.
Can you believe this? I have friends who have played Rifts, and they say that the supposed “plot” would be totally normal for that game. Poor kids, doign nothing wrong and getting it on your permanent record!
Personally, I can’t think of a single thing I learned in high school that has been helpful to me in later life. I think a reasonably bright student could easily skip from eighth grade to freshman level in college. I liked the idea of challenging the GED. I wish I had.
Well I’m finished with the counceling for now. They told my mom that as of now I’m not a threat to myself or anyone else. They want to meet with her tomorrow. The ACLU never wrote me back, maybe they don’t check their mail. I’m only 15 until March so I can’t take the GED, but I wouldn’t want to, except for this incident I love my school. The principal total blew me off when I asked about punishment for the other kids, bastard. But my busdriver said she saw them take it and she is going to write them up so they might get suspended. Thanks for supporting me, it’s good to know there are people on my side.
PS Homecoming was last night and it was sooooo cool. I had a beautiful date (hi Amanda) AND we went to Denny’s.
I just had to respond to this one point. It’s not true that if they can do it that it’s necessarily something that they are allowed to do. As a parent with two special needs children, one of the things you learn early is that most school systems will try to take advantage of the facts that most parents don’t know what their rights are. And they take advantage of the fact that most parents will just assume that the school system knows what’s best and will only do what is legal and just. I agree with most of the others here: call the ACLU. The only time the systems back down is when they are publically called on it.
Denny’s??? Oh, the humanity! Hasn’t this young man been punished enough???
Funny, my 16 year old won’t let ME take him to Denny’s (“but mom, that’s the place that served me the apple pie a la mold” ) but he’d go there all the time w/his buds.
seriously, glad to hear that things went better. and you were allowed to go to homecoming.
I’ll try and give you the same advice I give my son (who ignores it) - try and keep a low profile around school for a while???
Columbine et. all has gotten administrators scared to death (and they wouldn’t allow the term) about school violence. Doesn’t make it right. this is just a period of time to get through - if you, in addition to that, actually enjoy your high school years (and you said in general you do), then you’re ahead of the game. good luck!
Keep trying with the ACLU, Goose. A well-written hard-copy letter might do you more good than an e-mail. Might want to submit it to the parental units for editorial approval. (I’m thirty-three and I still have my mom read all of my business correspondence before I send it off.)
Also, on a more personal note, it seems to me that instead of reading your notebook, the parents of the kids who stole it should have given them a talking to about the fact that it is wrong to steal. Apparently, they did not do this. I think maybe you should talk to your parents and see if they could get in touch with the parents of the theives, and point out to them that their precious darlings stole from their son (you), and haven’t they taught their kids right from wrong, or do they teach their kids that it’s ok to steal if you don’t like the person they’re stealing from.
labdude I don’t know about the States ways for allowing people into university/college but I don’t think that that would work today. I have had many troubles with school myself and if I could I would have gone directly to university but they will not let in people who haven’t gotten certain requirements for their courses… you can get in without a diploma but not without highschool at all.
MadHatter I suppose most people would agree with you and in theory I do… its just that how many people do you think would be going to a councillor if they ever had the thought of wanting to harm their coworkers/fellow students and whatnot? It would be a lot of people because it is human nature to wish to harm someone sometimes, not a good part unfortunately. Even I have had that urge (mainly on my little brother but on other people too) and I think I am a fairly well adjusted person.
For once, I agree with Phil D. I don’t normally have much use for the ACLU, but when I hear about situations like this I’m glad they’re around. I’d file a complaint again, and tell the school that you’ve filed a complaint. Be polite, but make sure you mention that you’ve reported the school for violating your civil rights.
FWIW, I’m confident that eventually most of these “zero-tolerance”-type policies will be declared unconstitutional. SCOTUS has already declared that schools cannot suspend a student’s civil rights. I believe that the famous quote was “Civil rights do NOT get checked at the school door.” All of these super-intrusive policies are alot like Wile E Coyote when he walks off a cliff and just keep walking on air. Eventually, they’re going to have to look down and see that there’s nothing supporting them.
Goose, I feel crappy about what’s happened to you. Not only is it an invasion of your privacy on many levels, but it’s also the type of thing that makes me lose faith that we will ever have a truly free society.
Go get yourself a good lawyer. Don’t let the powers-that-be frighten you into complying with their fucked-up value system. No one has the right to steal your private property and use it as “evidence” that you need a psychological evaluation.
Don’t cooperate with the school or the therapist. Tell the school administration that you want the following:
Written apologies from the shitheads who stole your notebook, both for stealing and for invading your privacy.
A written apology from the school district for invading your privacy and for failing to discipline the students who stole your book.
If they fail to deliver all of this, tell them you’re going to sue the ever living beejezus out of them and see how they survive on a contingency budget next year. It might also help to go to the local network TV affiliates and pitch the story to them. The press would eat this story up like nobody’s business.
