My experience at this high school was absolutely horrible, and I genuinely would never want to…read morerelive it. High school is supposed to be a place where students can learn, grow, and feel safe, but for me, it became an environment I could not wait to get away from.
One of the biggest problems I experienced was the way I was treated because of my mood disorders and struggles with regulating my emotions. Instead of feeling supported or understood, there were times when I felt judged, singled out, and treated like I was simply a problem that needed to be dealt with. Having mental health struggles does not make a student a bad person, and struggling emotionally should never be an excuse for adults to treat a student with less patience, dignity, or respect.
I also witnessed and experienced issues involving racism that made the environment even more uncomfortable. Racism has absolutely no place in a school, and students should not have to walk into a building where they are supposed to feel safe and worry about being treated differently because of their race or background.
Another serious problem was underage drug use on school property. Seeing students using or having access to drugs at school made me question how safe and properly supervised the environment actually was. A school should not feel like a place where this kind of behavior is normalized or overlooked.
What made everything worse was feeling like serious issues could happen around you while the people who were supposed to protect and support students did not always make you feel heard. I left feeling like students who were struggling needed compassion and actual support, not judgment, embarrassment, or punishment without understanding what was happening underneath the surface.
Graduating from this school did not leave me with the happy, nostalgic memories people always talk about when they describe high school. It left me relieved that I was finally done. My experience affected the way I viewed school, authority, and the adults who were supposed to make students feel protected.
I sincerely hope things improve for the students who are still there, especially students dealing with mental health conditions, discrimination, bullying, or unsafe behavior around them. No student should have to dread going to school because the environment that is supposed to educate and protect them instead makes them feel judged, uncomfortable, or unsafe.