Staunton High School

This is a long overdue relating and reckoning for me to speak about my unfair treatment at this HS when I attended from 1998 to 2002. The background and context is key to understand; I have a very large and abusive family who lived in Philadelphia before moving to Staunton in August 1998. The reason my parents gave was to be closer to my sister Jenn who attended MBC through their Pegasus program (teens can skip HS and go straight to college). I was just entering my first year of HS and had to leave behind a lot in Philly such as orchestra and my friends. The very first day of school at R. E. Lee for me I took the bus, but I had to wait 10 minutes to find a seat as the ones fully available were hogged by a large group of AA kids who told me I can't sit with them BC I was white. The bus driver either didn''t hear or didn''t care. I internalized that and blamed myself for their (learned) prejudice and ignorance. Later that day in the lunchroom I was friendly and tried to sit with other kids but nobody was friendly back, rather the opposite. It hurt, but I tried to just push through. The problem was my family was still so abusive, both physically and verbally/mentally. My parents would scream and fight with each other nonstop, my mom would accuse me of things I didn''t do, while neglecting anything that happened to me or my needs as a growing teen. I would be called ugly by my siblings daily. My mom refused to let me learn to drive and get my license as she told me I would crash if I did. I was hit by a car at 15 crossing a winding road in Staunton and she started screaming at me in front of the paramedics that how dare I do this to her as it will cost her money. The continued toll (along with what was happening in the world) culminated in me being so self conscious I skipped an AP Govt class the fall of 2001 by I was afraid if I made a speech in front of everyone they would call me ugly just like my family did. I was so ashamed of the reason (and nobody questioned my family life at all) that I couldnt bring myself to face classmates who were in another class with me so I skipped that class as well. It just kind of snowballed until the HS notified my parents and sent me to an alternative HS to finish the rest of my senior year. The thing is, I wasn't really wanting to skip any class I was severely abused and had no support or validation for it either. My parents made sure we knew not to tell anyone or otherwise we'd be punished more. My older siblings were in college and weren't abused so they denied it or didn''t even care. There was an instance where I didn''t know where to go anymore and didn''t feel safe at home. So I sat on a bench outside the school after it ended. An older, African American male who worked in some capacity at the school approached me and yelled at me for sitting on the bench. Completely glossing over the reason why I did wasn''t nefarious as he attacked me with. It was bc I was so abused I didn''t want to go home. This guy never treated the black students this callous way either. I can never forget it and I know it was the beginning of being directly shamed, blamed and misjudged for what was happening to me and it made me invalidate it myself. I''m writing this to say that I hope they do not treat abused kids this way still and if someone is seemingly acting out, they do ask them about their home life. I wish an adult would have then instead of holding me accountable.