LISTEN UP SCHOOLS

Reprinted with permission from the 12 year old student who wrote this upon becoming overwhelmed at school.  It was journaled on a school computer, which flagged some of the words in the letter.  The writer was called in to the office and questioned (appropriately) about their safety and whether this person knew specifically of other students who were in danger.  The thing is, no one addressed what this person wrote.  No one said "we get it" or "you're right."  

Dear writer.  You're right, you're awesome, and you deserve to be heard.  :)
                                                                                                                                               

To whom it may concern,

This has to stop. 

I know, you don't care about anything other than numbers. So let this number take her shape. I am 48673921. My father knows me as …………. ……………... My friends know me as …………. But all that matters to you is my number. Number, last name, first name. That's all I am. That's all I ever will be. You don't care about the fact that my arm is scarred because of you. You don't care that because of what you do I could be dead today. All I am is test scores and a number. Not my family. Not my life. Not the fact that I cry myself to sleep at night. The only reason you would care is if my scores are terrible, or perfect. You don't notice that people avoid eating because others insult their weight. You don't care if someone goes home and swallows pill, after pill, after pill, in an effort to kill themselves. 

You don't care. 

You don't change. 

You say you care when you give kids counselors at school and a peppermint or two for a test that hasn't been proven to help anyone in anything. Tell them to eat or sleep. You don't really care. You tell kids to sleep, but don't care about the fact that they can't for fear of failing. Tell them to study, but also tell them to go to bed early. 

Go ahead and write me off, just like you always want to do. Claim children have freedom, have choice, as you turn away from them pleading, begging for change. Say they don't get to decide. But I won't give up. While you shove textbooks and facts down my throat, I can force cold, hard truth into your minds. You tell me to read about food famines, and I can tell you about children with bounties of food turning themselves into skeletons. People cutting their wrists with scissors, scratching themselves raw. Going to school even though they feel sick with anxiety  because mental illness is suffocating them.

You just don't get it, do you? You don't get that children deserve to have a say in their education, not their parents, not the President, them. The kids to slit their wrists because of you. Lots of this is your fault. Accept it. Do something before another child gets hurt because of you. Get angry at kids who need to have something to do when they draw in class. Then ask why they hate themselves. Why they disobey you and wind up drawing a noose, wishing you could take it from the paper and leave the world because you're nothing but a worthless failure. The grades can call kids a failure, or unsatisfactory. Then you question why kids can't bear to stay on the planet. Then kids wind up turning so much as an A- into the message: "You stupid, stupid kid, why do you think you can do anything right, what made you think you were anything but a failure." 

Answer honestly: How does it feel to have blood on your hands?

How does it feel to know that because of your ignorance, kids have scars?

How does it feel to hear that because you refuse to take action, your precious little numbers cry themselves to sleep at night?

How does it feel for a kid to tell you this?

Judging by the fact that there hasn't been a change the children have selected so much as once, you don't care.

As long as you get your straight A numbers, you don't care.

As long as you get some perfect people, you don't mind a few deaths on your hands. 

Show that you care. Change things. Or people will die. It isn't a kid whining because of homework. This is a kid stating that if you don't do anything, people will continue to harm themselves. To cry themselves to sleep. To attempt suicide. It's time to do something. People claim slavery is over, racism is mostly at an end. But it won't be until you give children the right to decide their fates. The chance to choose their rights. I'm not saying kids need the chance to vote for the President, but for the chance to pick their rights. Otherwise you may as well tell children that they don't matter.

I know you won't listen. But I won't surrender. Open your eyes. I don't care if you send me off to a mental hospital because of things I do and feel. I'm just sick of seeing the hurt you cause without even batting an eye.

Sincerely, 

48673921