By Reginae Hightower, 15, Oakland
One day when I was at school, I got into a fight with a girl at school. During the fight, the other girl pushed down one of the security guards by accident, and he was knocked out by the force.
We were immediately separated and I was put into the assistant principal’s office. Within 20 minutes, two school police officers walked in with gloves on. I felt it was pretty excessive for there to be two officers, when there were already other staff in the room.
One officer asked me what happened and the other was focused on getting the papers to take me in before even hearing any details. Some of the school staff tried to stall the police officer because they didn’t want me to be taken away.
I ended up being suspended for four days for fighting in self-defense. Being suspended made me feel like I didn’t belong at school, and it didn’t allow me to get my education.
The officers made me feel like a heathen that couldn’t control herself around others. I feel that next time it happens, we shouldn’t be judged by the area we are in or someone else’s version or idea of the situation. Officers should think about our history, life situation, and mood that day. They should take all of that into account. Those things seem reasonable to consider if you’re going to take a student out of school. If police officers are going to be in our school, they should ask questions and be more caring.
When all of this happened, I didn’t know my suspension rights. I was unaware that I even had suspension rights. I feel that I was cheated as a student going to school and not knowing all my rights. Suspending a student who doesn’t know her rights without any explanation seems wrong and doesn’t teach anything. It’s not the education I want.
