SophieJ Life Experiences

Daily writing prompt

Write about a time when you didn’t take action but wish you had. What would you do differently?

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Being in a Catholic school is not for the weak. Being in Catholic school and being perceived as slightly different can either become a cool thing or make life ten times worse than all the teenage hormones running through it. In seventh grade, I was new at my secondary school. I was paired with a beautiful girl in class who had a mouth that was more prominent than others. Our math teacher, a bald man with a big belly, made her the target of class jokes by calling her “Mouth.”

She clearly did not like it and was uncomfortable, and the other students felt uneasy about the jokes, too. When complaints were filed with the class supervisor, nothing constructive was done. The situation became so distressing for her that her mother had to come to the school and ask for the jokes to stop.

We were 49 preteens against one grown man and felt powerless because he was viewed as an authority figure. I often reflect on this over the years, especially since she left the school to avoid him, as he was the math teacher for three more years. I wish I had joined my voice with hers and asked him to stop. No matter how funny he thought he was being, it was at the expense of a young girl trying to find her footing in a cruel world. I wish we, as a collective, had done something to stand up for her instead of recoiling and that parents had encouraged us to speak out.