Complaint Review: Preston High School - Kingwood West Virginia

PETER: Did you even read any of this? "But they DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES change the entire educational structure to suit the needs of ONE student." Where did you pull this from hun? I never once mentioned that I wanted anyone to change anything at the school... EVER. I was approved for homebound for a legitimate reason. After I'm approved BY THEM, it is THEIR JOB to send me a teacher. That's the way it works, dear. You get approved, they send you the teacher and the materials. How is that in any way altering the school system? There are dozens of people at my high school doing this. For what would you know, the same exact reason? So how is my reason less legitimate? They did it for another girl who was raped in our school. They didn't remove her rapist, so they removed her and put her on homebound. It's the same case with me, except they failed to ever send me a teacher. So how is this a "sense of entitlement"? They said they would do something, so they should've. To expect people to do what they say, is not entitlement. It's perfectly reasonable, actually. I trusted them to do something, and they failed miserably. "They are in no way responsible for customizing a special learning environment for people with "mood disorders" who have also been raped and who also have numerous other "issues" wrong with them." Again, no customization. It's something that they deal with almost every day. And for the trillionth time, I didn't want to leave school because I was raped. I wanted to leave the school because THE RAPIST STILL ATTENDED THAT SCHOOL. HE'S NOT JUST ANOTHER KID WHO DID SOMETHING BAD. HE'S A KID WHO RAPED ME AND LEFT BRUISES ALL OVER ME, AND HAS BEEN TURNED IN BY ALMOST A DOZEN DIFFERENT GIRLS FOR HIM SEXUALLY HARASSING THEM. So again, how do you get AT ALL that they would be "customizing" an environment for "one person." Actually... They wouldn't have him removed from the school, so I had myself removed. If you call that a sense of entitlement, then so be it. Because in all reality, I WAS entitled to have my rapist removed from my school. I DIDN'T do anything wrong, HE DID. So HE should've been the one to have to leave, NOT ME. EVERY SINGLE GIRL IN THAT SCHOOL WAS ENTITLED TO HAVE HIM REMOVED. NOT JUST ME. This wasn't just about me. I never even turned him in, the other girls did. So how is removing a rapist from a school "customizing" an environment for one person. NO, he deserved to be removed for the protection of EVERY SINGLE GIRL in that school. This isn't just some guy who said something nasty to one of us. He did something VIOLENT and DISGUSTING to every single one of us, and we ARE ALL ENTITLED to be in a safe environment. Because that IS what the school PROMISES. "May I suggest to this girl with many issues that she either seek treatment for her numerous problems so that she can return to a mainstream school environment as a responsible, capable person, or seek a private institution that is more suitable for troubled people like herself." Again, no private institutions in my area. Hence why I was going on homebound. It was private, away from him... and the school board, a doctor, my parents, and the teachers as well agreed that this was the best decision for me, is to go on homebound. So how, at all, is this my fault? This wasn't just a decision I made. Everyone agreed that this was the best decision for me, even the people who were supposed to send me a teacher. They didn't because of slacking on their end, not mine. This isn't about customization... This is about them NOT following through with what they had ALREADY AGREED to do. Do you think me not being in school makes me less capable, or responsible? As opposed to the guy who raped me, who is in school. He's responsible as hell, and very capable. Even though he blows up cats and rapes girl. Great guy he is. But I'm the one who should be forced to a. go to school with him, or b. suck it up and find a private institute, because it just totally sucks for me that they didn't follow through with a CONTRACT. I guess I can't get too mad at you Peter, you're the only one who at least tried to be constructive about your criticism. Robert: I wasn't crediting liberals for freedom of speech... I was generalizing on what's occuring in this thread. You can't honestly say that the rest of you really gave me a chance to explain myself before you utterly went nuts on me? I was under the impression too that Sara was a liberal, and she was, at the time, the only one who really spoke in my favor except for the one lady who said mental illness was as legitimate as physical illness. I was directly crediting her, not the liberal party. Believe me, I get it. lol SARA: "Good luck to you Shannon, I hope that you are able to get your diploma and go to culinary school.. Have you checked into night school, I checked out your school website and it offered... if that would even be an option... Something to look into.. I know high school is hard, the kids can be cruel and mean and can make it a very hostile enviornment for learning.. Anyways.. I will step off my soap box and go cook dinner :)" Once again, thank you Sara. I have to say it was nice to hear your conservative. I was starting to lose faith in the people I, in the past, invested the majority of my faith (in terms of humanity) in. I'm choosing to get my GED, because even if I can't get an exemption of rules, the latest I can take my GED is June. I start college in August... If I were to go back and try and get my diploma, I wouldn't be able to do it in time. I can't afford to take online courses for my diploma, so I've decided the GED is the best move for me. A GED is equivalent to a high school diploma, but neither matters if I have a degree. And the culinary school said they would accept me with just my GED anyways, because they felt I was talented and passionate. I'm so happy to be a part of their school. I'd love to be able to say I have my diploma, but right now the best thing for me is getting as far as college and taking it from there, which just wouldn't be possible without a GED right now. I know all those statistics they show about GED students and Diploma students, and the difference in their earned incomes. The problem with statistics, is that it doesn't take into account the fact that many GED students got their GED in jails, mental institutes, or were already in the work force when they got their GEDs... So were often times were trying to work without the GED in the first place. It also doesn't take into account the fact that many GED students don't go to college. Usually they get their GED to make up where they're lacking in the work force... Once they do good enough to support themselves, they usually neglect going any further with it. The only reason those statistics could be considered legitimate, is the fact that most GED students don't further their eduaction. I am furthering my education, and a degree is much more impressive to an employer then which diploma or equivalent I have. God bless you Peter, Robert, Sara.

"I pray the guy your accusing of this sues the hell out of you for slander! " First of all, the guy I'm accusing doesn't know I've said anything, so how would he? Second of all, I've not once mentioned the guy's name, so he can't accuse me of something I haven't directly mentioned was him, or that would be incriminating himself. Third of all, you call tell the almost a dozen girls that have turned him in for sexual harassment or rape that he should sue them too for slander. Until you know my reasons for not turning him in, and everything that I would've faced by doing it (like what you're doing now) you can never know if my decision was the right one or not. And lastly, you "pray" this? God does not do bad things to people, he does good things. I do not believe that God will answer such a negative prayer. God would not let someone who hurt one of his children turn around and sue them for something like this. God will give this guy his punishment, I don't need to. He certainly won't have his way with me again, either. Second of all, the way I am now, I hope I will be in fifty years. Because then at least I won't be a malignant old fool going around and accusing 18 year old girls of lying because they dropped out of school to get away from a rapist. Actually, I didn't drop out of school. I WAS placed on homebound, and they forced me to quit because they told me that they wouldn't and couldn't do anything to help me at that point, which was not something I voluntarily chose. And if you can honestly say that I should have to go to school with a rapist, then you're a sicko. I'm not to lecture you? Yet you continue to be the least benign person I've ever met, and you have no idea of the circumstances that I've dealt with to be where I am, nor what I'm doing now about them. You simply assume that I am what you think I am. The thing is, you started off with an opinion, and refuse to change that opinion because it would contradict your original position. I've offered no proof that I'm a liar, and also no proof that I'm telling the truth, other then my word. But what proof do I have that your fifty and married with a good life and job? I take it on faith because you've never given me any evidence otherwise. It's called decency, Gerry. I never said a mean thing to you EVER to make you act like this towards me, and to accuse me of being a liar. You started off with a negative outlook on me, not knowing a single thing about me, even though I never did a thing wrong to you. Then you said something that was wrong, and I corrected you, so you accuse me of lying about being raped. Then, you turn around and say that you hope my rapist sues me. Rather or not I'm like you when I'm older, I do care. I'd like to be as far from you as possible, because you assume things about others without knowing anything about them. And when things happen to them and someone else is responsible, you turn around and tell them that you hope they sue them. You could've just said "I hope he rapes you again." That would've been just as insensitive, but would've really hit home if you wanted it to. Come to think of it, I just noticed something about what you said. You don't think I made this whole thing up to get sympathy like others have claimed... In fact, you acknowledge this person as being a real person, even though I've never mentioned him by name. That means you know he exists. So you're just doing this to be virulent because I said something that you disagreed with... Not because you don't believe that he exists or that he did it, but because you'd rather have a rapist on your side if it means not having to admit that you might be wrong about me. " I'm 50 years old ,married and with a good life and Job. You however are a 18 year old head case, High school dropout with 0 life experience! So keep quiet, take your drugs, Get on disability and you'll be all set!" I'm not a head case just because I've had issues in the past. I am a dropout, but does that make you better than me because I chose a different path? Of course it does, because that's your mentality. Because you're older then me, and you didn't drop out, you must be better then me. But if you'd have been through the same things as me, can you honestly say you would've chosen different? Of course not, because you have no idea what I've been through. Again, you assume that because I'm 18 and dropped out that I've had no life experience, and that I'm taking drugs of any sort. Again, I'm 18 now. I stopped taking any medication I was on, and I feel better then ever. When I was 8 my dad had brain surgery to remove an arterial malformation and was in the hospital for a month and a half. A few months before my mom had surgery to have her ovaries removed because she had cancer... While she was in the hospital I stayed with my grandmother. (same case as when my dad had surgery) During that time my parents felt that I might be depressed, and had them put me on Paxil. I wasn't depressed, at all. I was stressed, but not depressed. I dealt with it very well because I didn't understand the situation. The medicine, on the otherhand, made me feel worse then I did before. Why? because I didn't need it in the first place. My parents assumed that because I wasn't feeling good, that the problem was worse then they thought. At 8, you really can't tell your parents much if you know what I mean. But basically up until I was almost 17, I'd always been on a variety of different medications that I never once needed. I choose not to take drugs because drugs have side effects. Nothing in the world compares to just dealing with the problem on your own time. I do acknowledge the fact that there's a strong possibility that I'm not bipolar OR ADHD... I acknowledge this because the medication doesn't help. I never felt I was sick in the first place... but I know what it's like to see someone who did something like that every day... If your wife said someone did something like that to her, would you call her a liar like you've done me? I haven't done anything to you for you to act like this towards me. What if one of your kids said something like that to you? Would you tell them that you hope the guy who did it to them sues them? What is it about me that you hate so much that you feel the need to say things like that to me? You said something originally that was disturbingly mean when I'd never said anything to you before. When I defended my position, you again said something mean to me. You just kept it going, no matter what I said... So what is it that I've done to you that makes you think that I'm a liar, a loser, and a bad person? And that you're better then me? "Get on disability and you'll be all set!" I don't need disability, because I too have a job. Wow, you didn't know that? Maybe because you never asked. You assume that you're fifty and have a job and you're married... So I'm 18, don't have a job, I'm not married... So I must be a complete loser, who is going to be on disability for the rest of my life. No, I have a job. I have a life. I also don't go around accusing girls of lying about being raped even though I have no proof otherwise... I don't pretend to know why everyone makes the choices they do. So at least I have that much on you. I have a job, and a very good life. I love my life, and you telling me to shut up, take my drugs, and get on disability doesn't change the fact that I don't take drugs, nor will I ever apply for disability unless I am truly disabled. Rape is not a disability, but it is a legitimate reason not to be in the same establishment as your rapist. If you disagree, then your the one with problems, not me. I don't know what I ever said or did to you to make you dislike me so much, or to be so mean to me for absolutely no reason... But I'm going to let it go at this... You'll never understand why I made the decisions I've made. Nothing that I did affects you, nor was it an immoral decision to do anything that I chose to do. I am different then you, but that does NOT make you better then me. You being 50 doesn't mean that you're any smarter, or that you've had any more life experience then me. It just means your fifty. That's it. Experience comes through experience, not through age. You have no idea how I've lived my life up until today, so you have no idea the experiences I've seen or been through. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I sneeze alot. I run my business from the computer. I sell stuff on ebay too. I love pearls very, very much. My best friend does the West Virginia teen pageant every year. I like threads and blogs. You know how when people say they don't feel any different from 17 to 18? I feel very different being 18. All my life people have judged me or assumed that I wasn't capable because of my age. Now it's like a ball of fire in my fist... I can do what I want, and make my own decisions. Now no one can judge me because of the decisions that were not within my power. I hate talking on the phone because it makes my ear hurt. Unfortunately, alot of my business is done over the phone... I have a toll free number that I pay for with money that I got for pain and suffering. I got the pain and suffering money because I was in an accident the morning of February 21st, which is my sister's birthday. I was on my way back from South Carolina where my brothers and sister live, and me and my mom had decided to leave at like 2 in the morning so we didn't hit Charlotte traffic. We were in a black S10. I prayed as we were getting onto the interstate... because as the old saying goes, God is my co-pilot. An hour later a few minutes before 3 am... I dozed off and woke up to hear my mother scream that the truck behind us wasn't moving. We were going almost 70, so for him to come up on us he was going about 75-80. I woke up and the light in the mirrors blinded me, and then an 18 wheeler plowed into the back of our truck. My mom is a brilliant woman, and between her and God they got us out of a bad situation. The truck didn't stop... He continued to shove us down the interstate until he tried to go around, and then he just kept going. The truck went spinning and we almost went into the other lanes on the other side of the interstate. We stopped in the median... I fell out of the truck... and I praised the Lord to be alive, because no prayer goes unheard. My brother drives a wrecker, so he came and got us. I went home and my sister woke up when we came in. She said it was her best birthday ever, because we were still alive. Me and my mom were just fine. We went to the hospital to get checked out, but we were fine. They never found the guy driving the 18 wheeler... But State Farm settled with us, and gave us enough money to buy an even nicer vehicle then we'd be driving. God does bless those who love him most. State Farm is a great insurance company, I believe. They did a quick, clean, and pleasant job. I have two neices, and two nephews. I'm good with kids... but I'm not so good with infants... I'll have to get used to them more. I have two brothers, and a sister... Lots of steps. My dad lives in Virginia... I live with my mom. I'm the youngest of her kids. I have a dog and two lizards. I love my dog, and I couldn't have asked for a sweeter and funner pet. I'm prone to car accidents... I've been in quite a few. I'm still afraid of interstates because of the last one. The first one I was in was an el Camino (not sure how it's spelled) that flipped five times. Again, I was perfectly fine.. but still get edgey when riding in vehicles. God has done nothing but bless me. I used to do drugs and drink fairly heavily. I dated a guy who badly broke my heart and left me for someone else. I started drinking and doing drugs after we broke up... Two years later is when the doctor put me on medication for being bipolar... He suspected that after such a long time, I should be over it... and I wasn't... so that's why he told me to seek a psychologist. This exact time last year, I broke up with the guy that I was dating. He also did drugs and drank heavily. I broke up with him, got off the drugs, and started educating myself against what it is that I'd been doing for so long. I started attending church regularly, unlike what I did before. I'm clean for a year now, and I have God on my side too much to ever deny his existence. I now take classes online with FEMA so as to educate myself in the medical field. I want to go to culinary school, but the medical aspect of my life has been to real to deny that I need further education in that field. My father had the brain surgery, my mom has had cancer twice and is diabetic, and heart problems saturate my mother's side of the family... While neurological disorders and brain anurisms do the same for my father's side. After his surgery he couldn't read or walk... He forgot who his family was... My mom showed him vacation pictures, and he thought she'd made it all up. He thought she was a nurse at the hospital... Didn't realize it was his wife. It hurt that he didn't remember me... but we all dealt with it. My father had seizures alot when I was younger... So I know to put something between their teeth so that they don' t bite their tongue... We used to put a bell around my dads finger so that when he'd start seizing we could hear him and help him. I know that you have to be prepared to change sheets, because epileptics urinate themselves frequently and bite their tongues and turn blue. I then moved in with my stepdad, who has the same problem. My step dad saved my life once. I wasn't breathing so he gave me mouth to mouth. I had surgery last year. I stopped breathing during surgery. Turns out I have one of those sleeping problems where I stop breathing for a few seconds while I'm asleep... It's not real dangerous. I had my gallbladder taken out. I guess I'd had gallbladder problems for years and ignored it... So when they took it out it was enlarged and infected. Instead of letting me out the next morning they made me stay two weeks. I didn't hurt real bad, but I couldn't move. I had a JP drain in my side to drain the infection... It was gross and I loved to freak my friends out. When I got out of surgery my blood pressure was 200 over something... so they kept giving me stuff to make me relax. It turns out I have perfect blood pressure, but under stress it shoots up to 200 over whatever. After this last accident, the same thing happened. I got out of the hospital... and a few days later my step dad was outside mowing the grass. We live on top of a mountain, so our back yard is steep. It's a big yard, and because it IS so steep you can't really use a push mower unless you have alot of time to spare... So he uses a riding lawn mower. He's an electrician, so he bypassed the thing that turns the mower off when you stand up, because when you go around a hill, if you don't stand up it'll flip over on it's side and crush you... but if you do stand up and it turns off, you have to go through the whole procedure again... and that takes alot of time since there's alot of hill behind is. Our driveway is above that hill beside our house, and is set off by railroad ties. He could feel the lawnmower trying to flip over, and standing up wasn't helping, so he decided to jump off and try to get onto one of the railroad ties before it crushed him. There were loose rocks on the top of it... so when he jumped he slipped backwards and landed on the lawn mower blades. We heard a loud clank in here... and got up to see what it was... The front door was open because it was a beautiful day. I saw my stepdad standing there with blood all over the place... My mom had brought me out to the living room because I was bored getting bedrest... I wasn't supposed to move because I still had 30 staples in me, and a JP drain. I jumped up and tried to help him.. We had dozens of white cloths that my mom had cleaned up for the church. We brought him in here, sat him down on the couch, and I got up to call 911, while my mom evaluated his injuries. My stepdad is a heart patient, and takes blood thinners. They sent a helicopter to the field down the road... and an ambulance came and got him and took him up there. The doctors weren't sure if he'd be able to keep his hand. My dad is an electrician and plays guitar in a band... It would've ruined his life. An amazing team of proffessionals and God kept my dad's hand... and kept him from losing his eye... Meantime, he had an infection from is heart problems that they weren't aware of before... They had him on as many and as much antibiotics as they could, and he was still running a fever and gradually getting more infected. After a month, they let him out... He's still got his hand, but he can't use it. They readmitted me to the hospital because I had reinjured myself. I couldn't keep anything on my stomache, so they starved me for a week with only liquids being put into my veins... They were afraid they might have to take me into surgery, thats why they didn't give me anything orally. Not even medication or water. That wasn't so bad... Your mouth doesn't get dry when your being pumped with liquids. I kinda like hospitals... You get alot of alone time... and they get cartoon network. One of my brother's sells cars... The other drives a wrecker/tow truck. My sister is a year older then me and she babysitts. My oldest brother is getting married on the 22nd of this month. My other brother got married when he was 19. I'm happy to see them happy. I'm Catholic but my parents are Protestant... My real dad's wife is a nurse, and he redoes old furniture. He has a furniture set from the 40s that is absolutely the most beautiful peices I've ever seen. They were crappy when he got them, but he redid the wood and had them reupholstered. His wife collects teapots. I have alot of camping stuff, but I've never been camping. I sometimes sell my artwork for money. I have a blog. I'm trying to start up a nonprofit organization called pearls for girls. My intention is to auction pearls to help women in Africa get life changing, and often life saving surgeries or medical attention. If this works out, I hope to afford donating money to bring the Jews back to Israel... I'd love to sponsor a child from the Christian Children's Foundation... My ultimate goal is St. Judes... because they don't turn down sick kids just because they can't afford to pay... When I have kids, if one gets sick, I'd like to know there's someone who would help them even if I can't afford to help them... St. Judes is that hospital and set of people. A worthy cause for anything, especially anyone with kids. I sell legal packages. It's fun to do... and nice for people to have. Even if you aren't someone who gets in alot of trouble, if you sign up for one month and one month alone, during that time you can have your will made up for that first month's fee of around 26 dollars... The membership fee covers your spouse and any children your responsible for. I have the membership myself... Plus it comes with identity theft protection. I quite like this job. I'm using it to try to pay my tuition. My tuition is 40,000 dollars for 15 months. It's up to an associate's degree for that amount of money. But it covers my cutlery, my uniforms, my boots, my books, and my graduation fees. The school is Le Cordon Bleu in Atlanta, GA. They have an amazingly large network of schools... Some in France, England, Japan, Australia, Mexico, and quite a few in the states... and more that I can't even think of. They have a study abroad program, so maybe I'll get to travel. Oh, and they help me get job placement for life. Even at their other schools... So if I decide to go to Japan, I could get a job there. Speaking of Japan, I took Japanese for 7 years. German for one year... French for 3 years. Spanish for a half a year. I liked German the best. I can knit. I like to sew. I'm thinking about making a quilt soon. I love to cross-stitch. I like making candles... and I love burning incense. My dog looks exactly like a border collie, but he's a mutt... with no border collie in his genes at all. His parents were both purebreds. When we got him, he had fleas real bad because he was kept ouside... so when he was little we gave him a bath every night with flea shampoo... and then wrapped him in a toil, lit a candle, and picked his fleas... He still tries to lay in our lap like that now even though he's much too big. He does it anyways. He's so loving. I live in South Carolina for 13 years. I moved here when I was 13. I love foreign languages and cultures... but nothing beats a good ol' republic. I'm a constitutionalist. I'm pro-life. I think monkeys are gross. I love clean comedians. I love Skynyrd, and the Allman Brothers... Oh, and the Eagles... But nothing beats the oldies. I like old people, too. I used to volunteer at elderly homes. I'd play bingo with them, and bring them teddy bears from home. I like reading, and writing... and volunteering. Maybe with my FEMA credits and certifications, the next time we have a disaster like Katrina I can volunteer to help down there. I'm pretty OCD, so I'm very organized. I hate noise... I listen to the TV on mute unless it's really interesting. I can't find my stereo... I have a China cabinet. I love flowers. Tiger lillies and roses are my favorite. My favorite color is green, and then pink. I hate snow, but I hate it being hot out... My ideal temperature is 60. I used to win the spelling bee every year in school. I made my first 4.0 in ninth grade... but the year before I made my first F in 8th grade. I made alot of F's then. I failed the 8th grade, and got kicked out of school the second time around for drugs. I'm clean now though, and doing better then ever. I don't have a boyfriend, but I have an aquaintance I love so much. He just got out of four years in the Navy. He was overseas in Japan, China, Australia, Singapore, and Malaysia, etc. He's in college now and works as a security guard. He loves me. He sent me flowers, chocolate, and a bear yesterday for my birthday. My stepdad and mom got me a huge Happy Birthday bear with balloons. The rest of my family sent me money and cards. I can make a mean omelet. My friends call me the "Walking Webster's." Because I know the definitions of almost every word they've ever asked me. I got accused of reading the dictionary for fun. Unfortunately, at the time, I really did read the dictionary for fun. I love James Patterson books. I read alot. Dan Brown is creative, but he's a moron who is supposed to be an art historian. Yet he calls "The Last Supper" a fresco. If it were a fresco, it would still be amazingly vibrant today. It wasn't until it got a 20 year attempt to repair it by artists who had to make assumptions on what it might've looked like. It's a tempera. Not a fresco. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now Gerry. I know that you're thinking that was a complete waste of space. That's just a little bit about my life. A small portion of what is me. At least now you know SOMETHING about me. If you want to come to the same conclusion that I'm a demented welfare loser, thats your prerogative. I'm just tired of assumptions being made by people who know nothing at all about me. Again, I don't want your sympathy. I just don't want the reoccuring malignance from people I haven't done a single thing to. I love my life, and I am going to be successful. Why? because I have determination. My choice to finally quit school was just that, a choice. Not an immoral thing I did. It affected no one but me. And I'm doing the EXACT same thing that I was going to do if I'd finished high school. Except I get to start much earlier. I was going to apply to LCB in Altanta anyways... but if they'll let me in now, I don't see how it would make me any more successful to stay another year in a place with a rapist... If I can go ahead and go to college early. Actually, the worse decision would be for me to wait, go back to school, and hope like hell that they don't unreasonably up the standards... Plus it would just delay me an extra year. I'm going now, while they have my seat reserved. How about that? I just get to do every motion that everyone else goes through, but a year early. I think I'm doing pretty good. Now, since I never did anything to you, hopefully this will just be the end of this. Oh, and Aafes, thank you so much for your understanding. Not everyone will always agree with my decision. But it's of absolutely not importance that they do understand. I keep defending my position because I do want others to realize that just because I made a decision that would be normally considered wrong, that doesn't make it the wrong decision. Sometimes there are things outside of our knowledge or control that we have to acknowledge as being such. I don't judge others unreasonably, and they shouldn't do it to me when I haven't done a thing to them. God bless you Aafes, and Gerry. I pray for your understanding, not your sympathy. If you hate the way my life is going so much, you should pray for me. Not pray against me... and I myself pray for your understanding in this. Hope all is well. God bless.

Instead of giving Constructive criticism you lash out at people with hate and uncaring. You are what makes the work place an awful place, You are what make people hate their boss... Or should I say people like you. Maybe you just don't know how to constructively communicate how you feel... I don't know, but "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all"! As thumper would say ;) Life is hard, but it should not be cruel.. If my mom heard me talking to someone like that, she would "pop" me in the mouth and give me a dirty look.. I am 28 and still can't/won't talk back to my mom.. She taught me to respect others and their feelings, and like I said before, children learn from example, so you children (if you were blessed with any) are learning to be mean and nasty to people they don't know... You may say well, I am just writing this, they can't see/hear.. blah blah blah... But this attitude does spill over into your daily life. You sound like some of those men that call me on the phone complaining because they can't get their software to work and the hold time for technical support is too long, and they are outside of their 60day return period and they b**ch and moan and WHINE and yell at us customer service people that are just doing a job earning a living just as you are. I am not a hippy (although if I didn't have to wear a bra or shoes I wouldn't), I am not a liberal I am quite conservative.. I support president Bush and the war in Iraq, I support our troops and pray for them daily. I go to church almost every Sunday, my daughter is being baptized in two weeks.. Southern Baptist baby :)!! I take both my children 8 and 2 into a restaurant with out a problem.. I believe in a firm hand when raising children... Even when I was a nanny for an autistic boy, he was treated just as the other children were (mostly) Some consideration is taken when the stumble, but he needed guidance just as the other children did. Look what has happened in some areas where children are left to find out what a hard cruel world it is... There is no one there to defend them, no one there to stand up for them and show them how to correctly fight their battle.. Instead they are taught to fight their battles violently and with a bad attitude.. Of course, like my dad says, there is an a*****e on every corner.. But we need to teach these kids how to deal with the a*s hole, instead of trying to yell at him/her or kicking their a**.. The moral of my store is.. Soften up a little, show some compassion. Do unto others! Good luck to you Shannon, I hope that you are able to get your diploma and go to culinary school.. Have you checked into night school, I checked out your school website and it offered... if that would even be an option... Something to look into.. I know high school is hard, the kids can be cruel and mean and can make it a very hostile enviornment for learning.. Anyways.. I will step off my soap box and go cook dinner :)

Why is it that certain types of people feel a sense of ENTITLEMENT everywhere they go in life? Public schools are designed to educate the general public population. They are in no way responsible for customizing a special learning environment for people with "mood disorders" who have also been raped and who also have numerous other "issues" wrong with them. Most public schools will make exceptions to a certain extent (i.e., home-schooling) to keep troubled youngsters out of the school environment so as to make the environment more conducive to learning. But they DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES change the entire educational structure to suit the needs of ONE student. May I suggest to this girl with many issues that she either seek treatment for her numerous problems so that she can return to a mainstream school environment as a responsible, capable person, or seek a private institution that is more suitable for troubled people like herself.

Why is it that certain types of people feel a sense of ENTITLEMENT everywhere they go in life? Public schools are designed to educate the general public population. They are in no way responsible for customizing a special learning environment for people with "mood disorders" who have also been raped and who also have numerous other "issues" wrong with them. Most public schools will make exceptions to a certain extent (i.e., home-schooling) to keep troubled youngsters out of the school environment so as to make the environment more conducive to learning. But they DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES change the entire educational structure to suit the needs of ONE student. May I suggest to this girl with many issues that she either seek treatment for her numerous problems so that she can return to a mainstream school environment as a responsible, capable person, or seek a private institution that is more suitable for troubled people like herself.

Why is it that certain types of people feel a sense of ENTITLEMENT everywhere they go in life? Public schools are designed to educate the general public population. They are in no way responsible for customizing a special learning environment for people with "mood disorders" who have also been raped and who also have numerous other "issues" wrong with them. Most public schools will make exceptions to a certain extent (i.e., home-schooling) to keep troubled youngsters out of the school environment so as to make the environment more conducive to learning. But they DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES change the entire educational structure to suit the needs of ONE student. May I suggest to this girl with many issues that she either seek treatment for her numerous problems so that she can return to a mainstream school environment as a responsible, capable person, or seek a private institution that is more suitable for troubled people like herself.

Why is it that certain types of people feel a sense of ENTITLEMENT everywhere they go in life? Public schools are designed to educate the general public population. They are in no way responsible for customizing a special learning environment for people with "mood disorders" who have also been raped and who also have numerous other "issues" wrong with them. Most public schools will make exceptions to a certain extent (i.e., home-schooling) to keep troubled youngsters out of the school environment so as to make the environment more conducive to learning. But they DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES change the entire educational structure to suit the needs of ONE student. May I suggest to this girl with many issues that she either seek treatment for her numerous problems so that she can return to a mainstream school environment as a responsible, capable person, or seek a private institution that is more suitable for troubled people like herself.

Good luck in the future. I noticed you credit Liberals with your ability to speak your mind. Again, you should thank the other side of the aisle. It's the Dems who wnat to eliminate our military, or at least whittle it down to nothing. Libertarians and Republicans want a strong military. Without them, none of this would be happening. We'd all be reading Pravda.

I had to respond to your rebuttal of my comments! They made me come to a conclusion! You said you didn't report the so called rape, for many reasons? Ok then you're a whack job! I pray the guy your accusing of this sues the hell out of you for slander! Basically what we see in you now, will be the same in 50 years! Also who are you to lecture me about what I do and that I should go back to school? I'm 50 years old ,married and with a good life and Job. You however are a 18 year old head case, High school dropout with 0 life experience! So keep quiet, take your drugs, Get on disability and you'll be all set!

Shannon, First, I want to say how sorry I am for all the negativity you have suffered in this thread. This is an unfortunate byproduct of the internet, immature adults who get their "jollies" stirring up the emotions of someone who has a legitimate problem. Ignore them, and take what they say with a grain of salt. I could not help but notice that the majority of them could not offer solutions only scolding criticism to you. They are not worth the time spent reading and certainly not worth your time to reply to. I am also sorry that you are yet another example of the rapidly failing public school system in our country today. Millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars are spent annually with the intent to make our public schools places of learning, yet, the byproduct is too often cases such as yours. We are plagued by apathetic administrators who find it far too easy to place the blame on an individual student, rather than on their own ineptitude. Yet they continue to sin in their offices, many comforted by the fact they are protected by a strong union and/or have tenure. Public schools have become a farce and an slap in the face of everything we have tried to instill in our nation. Mental illness is very real and very prevalent in our country. Despite the naysayers who would have you believe that a "kick in the pants" would solve your problem, that is not the case. The National Institute of Mental Health reports that 20.9 million Americans or 9.5% of the population have a mood disorder. Perhaps the "kick in the pants" poster would have you believe that his violent solution can solve this. It cannot. There is hope, however, your condition can certainly be improved, controlled and you can successfully live a full and happy life. I encourage you never to settle for less than the best you can achieve. For example, don't settle for a GED, you can get a high school diploma by attending adult school and even online through self study. Many community colleges also offer high school completion programs. You CAN do this, and it will be a proud day in your life. So don't settle for less. Go to culinary school, get your education and become a chef or simply pursue any interest you have in life. If you enjoy cooking, there is no better career for you - but make sure whatever career path you choose is something you enjoy. It is important that your work life be happy and fulfilling. As for all the emotionally and physicaly traumatic events of your young life...I am so sorry these things happened to you. It is a hard lesson we learn as adults that we must be less trusting and much more cognizant of the dangers we face. You are yet young, and you have a lot of happy fulfilling years ahead of you. Life is fortunately not filled with serious traumas such as those you have experienced.

"Nope. The only place you will find "Zero Tolerance" policies are in Public Schools. They are ALL run by Liberals. Every study has shown the same thing. Teachers and administrators in Public Schools vote overwhelmingly for the Democrat." This I can't deny. Actually, it's irritatingly one of the most truthful things I've heard, ever. Fact is, even in liberal places, often times conservative rules are implemented. "Private Schools tend to be run by Conservatives, and they have no "Zero Tolerance" policies. Public Schools are a disgrace. School used to be where you went to learn how to make better decisions(the ONLY education anyone needs), but now they teach you how to pass a test at the end of the year" Yet you blame me for not wanting to attend my school because of the events occuring there? I don't doubt that as being truth. I've never been to a private school, so I wouldn't know about their policies... but at my high school, the zero tolerance rule was implemented based on the events. If a student turned over any of the materials that they had, they'd be off the hook. I used to do drugs badly back when I was 14-16, but I'm now clean for almost a year. Well one day I had a lighter on me, and I turned it in... and they basically thanked me for being honest about it. I can remember another time I was going over to a friend's house, and I had been sick so I took my medication with me in my bookbag. I completely forgot to take it out, and went to school the next morning with pills on me. Again, I turned them in, and at the end of the school day, they let me have my medicine back, and thanked me for my honesty once again. I don't disagree with "zero tolerance" in the way my school had implemented it, but I do disagree with what they did to that kid in Indiana. The fact is, even if schools are run by liberals, that doesn't make all of their policies stupid. Just most of them. lol "The kid did the right thing, and is being punished for it. THAT is Liberal doctrine, not conservative. The kid should have just kept it in his coat pocket, and nobody would have known about it. "Zero Tolerance" means Zero Thought." Again, I'd never seen it implemented ilke that... but I can't deny that the liberal party tends to have it assbackwards. You do the wrong thing, and they picket in your favor, you do the right thing, and you're supposed to be punished to the full extent. But it's also undeniable, that as conservatives, we do believe in stricter punishments, but I do agree that we don't believe in being punished for doing the right thing. Again, I must say, I believe that was a misuse of policy. "As for the sexual freedom thing. John Ashcroft was an abberation. On the other hand, it's the Liberals(ACLU) who are defending NAMBLA, trying to allow them the "right" to molest children." Again, like I said before, liberalism does defend sexual freedoms that we do not. When I was originally talking about "zero tolerance" I was talking about it in terms of sex crimes, where I believe there is NO room for tolerance. Then again, I've seen people misuse the definition of a sex crime. I was watching the other day on the news some boy in (elementary school I think) had gotten in trouble for sexually harassing a little girl by running up and poking her, running back, and then poking her again. Excuse me if I'm wrong, but back when I went to elementary school, didn't they call that tag? I mean he shouldn't have been doing it if she didn't want him to, but please. "Democrats tell a great tale about how they believe in freedom, but the truth is very ugly. Blacks have civil rights because of Republicans. Democrats did everything they could(including James KKK Byrd's infamous filibuster) to prevent the CRA 1964 from being passed. Lincoln was a Republican." Believe me, I've done my research. I too have issues with the fact that they're best known for "freedom", yet not once in history were they ever responsible for it... lol I think

"Oh, and the "zero tolerance" is a conservative platform,..." Nope. The only place you will find "Zero Tolerance" policies are in Public Schools. They are ALL run by Liberals. Every study has shown the same thing. Teachers and administrators in Public Schools vote overwhelmingly for the Democrat. Private Schools tend to be run by Conservatives, and they have no "Zero Tolerance" policies. Public Schools are a disgrace. School used to be where you went to learn how to make better decisions(the ONLY education anyone needs), but now they teach you how to pass a test at the end of the year. Just the other day, a kid in Indiana found a Swiss Army knife in his coat pocket. He turned it in to the Office. The Principal suspended him for 10 days, and is in the process of expelling him. The kid did the right thing, and is being punished for it. THAT is Liberal doctrine, not conservative. The kid should have just kept it in his coat pocket, and nobody would have known about it. "Zero Tolerance" means Zero Thought. As for the sexual freedom thing. John Ashcroft was an abberation. On the other hand, it's the Liberals(ACLU) who are defending NAMBLA, trying to allow them the "right" to molest children. Democrats tell a great tale about how they believe in freedom, but the truth is very ugly. Blacks have civil rights because of Republicans. Democrats did everything they could(including James KKK Byrd's infamous filibuster) to prevent the CRA 1964 from being passed. Lincoln was a Republican. Closer to home for you, it isn't Conservative Judges who are letting child molesters(of all ages) off with a slap on the wrist. Do a search on Judge O'Connor in Ohio. Look up Megan's Law. You'll see the states it passed are run by Reps. The ones who voted it down are run by Dems. I would think YOU would prefer one over the other. Please make the "right" choice.

Once again, thank you Sara. I'm not just thanking you because you took my side or anything, but because you accept the fact that others can't always determine the reasons for someone's circumstances without first being in their shoes. I don't firmly believe in welfare. I actually believe in having more local powers, so that the states have appropriate funds based on what's being paid into the state, not based on what's being distributed from a federal level. Not all states have the same needs for their citizens, but they are treated on a very general level. I believe if states had more decision making powers, that there wouldn't be as much of a need for people to be on welfare, but rather would maek the state more self sufficient right along with its citizens and a more privatized environment would mean less abuse of the system and more open ability to help out your fellow man to get on his feet without paying out thousands in welfare. I've also been on welfare before, but that's not a choice I made. I'm not a hundred percent why these people are assuming I'm going to be on welfare. Is not a degree more important than a high school diploma? I believe it's steps above a diploma. So if I'm going to college and getting a degree, why is it so important that I get my high school diploma? Is my punctuation as good as theirs? Spelling? I think so. Hell, Gerry didn't even know his own political party's platform. Sad. I'm very involved, and I'm a very hard worker. I didn't just "drop out of school." I was out for a legitimate reason, and they neglected to send me a teacher. I could NOT go back to school because of him, and the fact that I could not recover my grades even if I'd made all A's from then on. Not happening. So how is this my fault? I didn't even choose to be on homebound, my doctor did. SO SHUT UP. I'm doing better then most of the people who graduate high school from here. Thanks Sara, God bless everyone.

LISA: "I was raped by one of the guys that goes to my school. Hence why my doctor felt it would be against my best interest mentally and physically to go back.But then in the entry of 4/5/2006 10:31:35 AM it says " Actually, my parents don't know that I was raped and neither did my family doctor.".... and if you had paid attention, what I said was that my doctor could see that whatever was going on in school was effecting my negatively. I never said that he did know about it in the first place. Someone doesn't need to know if you're raped to see how it's effected you. Hence why he chose to put me out of school. "Then a whole list of disorders, with Tourette's thrown in because it happened to air on Oprah that day...I think this child needs parental attention and love and support, definitely..." So if a woman files a complaint that she's been raped, and ironically on Oprah that day they were talking about rape, she must be lying. You are something else to accuse people of lying just because it benefits your position to say that they are. Coincidently, yes, coincidently, Oprah aired that on the same day that I was participating in this thread. No, that doesn't mean I'm lying. In fact, I do doubt that I would've ever mentioned it had it not aired, but because I didn't realize that alot of the behaviors that I have were tourettes. Like my sensitivity to light and noise... watching the tv on mute and the fact that I can't read by overhead light, only candle light or lamp light... I honestly had no clue that any of these things had anything to do with tourettes. Once more, I didn't say that this actually had anything to do with me not being in school. Actually, people have mostly been good to me about it... but it doesn't change the fact that it is a huge embarassment. Now imagine every time that someone has ever called you a liar and let me know how it felt. You have got to be kidding to honestly sit here and accuse anyone of making something like that up. If you had any idea how it makes people feel to be demeaned like that, you would never say anything like that. It is disgusting to have someone touch you unwillingly. You go home, try to forget it, and shower.. .and shower... and shower, because you feel disgusting. I had my hair torn out... I had bruises all over me from him grabbing me and pinching me... and I bled for two days. You are SICK to think that anyone could or would make something like that up. I felt disgusting for what happened... and even more disgusted. I don't hate him, I even forgave him... but I can't change the fact that he did something to me, and it was wrong of the school board to let him remain in school after I bet a dozen reports had been files on him by different girls. You have some real issues woman. If you had any idea what it felt like to be called a liar over something like that, you never would've said it. Just imagine the worst thing that has ever happened to you, and imagine if someone said you made it all up. "Less TV, more family intervention. Just my opinions." Oh, and I only watch the news in the morning when I wake up and at night... I actually came in to make dinner and walked by the tv while my mom was asleep on the couch. I saw what they were talking about, so I sat down on the end of the coffee table for the whole fifteen minutes they were talking about it. Yeah, I waste alot of time watching Oprah. Sad part is, part of me doesn't blame you for feeling this way... because I used to look at girls all the time who accused guys of things and thought "they're just trying to get attention." Or "they're just trying to get back at him for something he said." I'm sorry for getting nasty with you even though I sympathize with your point of view... but I do feel like trash when people call me a liar over something like that... and I don't want your sympathy, I want your understanding. ROBERT: I didn't have that. I didn't have anybody who would just beat him up and scare him. And actually, homebound doesn't require that the problem be physical, only that it be a legitimate reason not to attend school. I think this was. Come to think of it, they thought bipolar was. I'm not mad because they wouldn't put me on homebound for this, I'm mad because they DID put me on homebound, and never sent me a teacher. I WAS APPROVED by the school board to be on homebound... I'm not angry at not being on homebound, I'm angry that their negligence costed me my school year. They didn't "choose not to approve me"... They just completely neglected to send me anyone. So yes, I am mad that they told me to go ahead and stay home, and then never bothered to send me a teacher. Another girl at our school that I mentioned earlier that was raped, she went on homebound too for the same reason. Our doctors chose it for different reasons, but ultimately our problem was the same. My point is, when they say that they'll do something, and don't, and it costs me, that is their fault, not mine. You say that I had no physical reason not to be in school... I'm sorry, but when someone not just rapes you, but violently does so... and repeatedly harasses you... That's better than a physical reason not to go to school. You took care of your wife's problem, I had no one to take care of mine... So I made the best choice for me... and I can't say that risking my welfare is better then just getting my GED. "The world is filled with bad people. Some in these threads think I am one of them. I take no sh*t from anyone, and stand tall even when the chips are down. The cooking school is not going to cater(pardon the pun) to your wants in this regard either. Neither will ANY employers." The world is filled with bad people, but it would be just as wrong of me to put myself in a situation in which I knew was dangerous for me. That would be just plain stupidity. Like the girls who date the same guy over and over again even though they beat them. It's stupid to reexpose yourself to someone you know is a danger to you. Your wife didn't deal with it because she had you. I had no one, and I'm short and small framed, and he's much stronger than I am. Yes, it would be stupid of me to deal with him on my own knowing that I can't do it. And actually, if someone in my school were to rape me, or at an office, and I were to formally file a complaint, they would remove him. And they have medical leave for sick people, or people who are dealing with traumatizing experiences. So yes, the real world deals with these things, and mostly better then my high school. GERRY: "This girl has a whole life ahead of her and here she is locked in her home watching Opra, and having pity for herself." Once more... I don't feel sorry for myself, but I'm NOT going to let someone tell me that what happened to me was not a good enough reason to be on homebound, or for me to not be in that school. It was a bad experience, and I WAS NOT willing to risk it happening again. Once again, though, Gerry... I was not locked up in my home watching Oprah. I came home and was going through the living room to the kitchen to make dinner, and Oprah was on. I saw what they were talking about, and yes, it did catch my eye. The kid on their was talking about how he can't look at sharp corners or it makes his head hurt... I have the same problem, and I have tourrettes... So I decided to sit down and see what else they said about it. Believe it or not, being educated on your issues helps you to deal with them better. And yes, breifly, I did feel nice to know that there were other people with the same problems as me... You assume that I was locked up in my house because I caught fifteen minutes of Oprah... But how many shows do you watch a day? I watch the news, buddy, and that's it. I almost guarantee you watch more then me... I don't even watch it all because its on four hours... Only about a half hour each time to catch the weather and to hear about some sicko who shot a two year old around here. "So don't pass judgment on us Sara! We pay the way for you and your kind!" Yet you assume that Sara herself is not self-sufficient, that she's liberal, and that you're paying for mistakes that you aren't even sure she made. "Also I question the OP rape charge. What is her rapist doing in school? Why does he get away with harassing her?" I have numerous reasons for not pressing charges. I saw how one girl in school was accused of lying and being a s**t because she had some guy convicted of rape. Another reason I didn't tell is because I knew the guy. We were friends at one point. I, on the otherhand, did turn it in anonymously, while other girls that were harassed by him did it openly. I wasn't ready to face it, and I'm still not. The best thing for me right now is just to forget it ever happened, and get as far as I can away from here. "I would think with what you liberals did in schools, like zero tolerance, a student would get expelled for having impure thoughts!" See it's amazingly funny that you should mention this. Why is it that you assume that either one of us our liberals? Actually, I'm going to assume you're a Republican, okay? I'm a constitutionalist. This means that i'm actually more reserved and conservative on policies than you. You assume that because I dropped out at the end of this, that I'm going to be on welfare. Yet you refuse to notice the fact that I've applied for college and been accepted, and that I'm getting my GED... If I'm already in college, then a high school diploma is absolutely meaningless. Actually I'm against general welfare... or the extent that it's taken. I do believe in private support systems. I believe in privatizing schools and giving the power back to the states instead of the feds. In this essence, one would have a better chance of succeeding without needing to go on Federal welfare... Meaning that we could drop the support sytem. So don't pretend that you have a clue when you obviously don't. Oh, and the "zero tolerance" is a conservative platform, not a liberal one. Liberals tend to be less restrictive on sexual freedom than conservatism, and are less likely to call for harsh punishments even if they fit the crime. Like the death penalty. Conservatives on the other hand, are more restrictive on sex crimes and any crime in general... we call for harsher punishments... less sexual freedom... and more authority in the justice system. Gerry, oh Gerry, it sounds like you got your platforms backwards. You know, I bet you finished school. Apparently it didn't do much for you. Sad. Yet you sit here and judge me because I'm not in school for something that I was justified in choosing not to do, and you don't even know what it is that your own party is supposed to believe in. Get it straight buddy. Maybe you should go back Gerry. Oh, and to whoever wrote earlier that tourrettes is a disciplinary issue... (I think Nicole, but not sure... ) The very definition of tourrettes is that it's uncontrollable... So I'd venture to say that if your cousin's disorder doesn't meet that criteria, then he probably doesn't have tourrettes. It's not genius work, really. SCOTT: "If you had, and with justice on your side, you would not have had to put up with seeing him everyday in school, because he would be in jail. " Actually Scott, is was because of the justice system that I decided not to mess with it. Like I've stated multiple times, the girl from my school, her rapist WAS convicted, put on probation, and they put him right back in school. We're minors, so they take it as playful aggression. Yes, seriously. I figured then, and I still today believe this, that the months of trial time, having to hire a lawyer, and the publicity that would come of it, and with his nutjob mother and family, that it just wasn't worth it. I wanted it to end right there, and I didn't want to spend months dealing with it, and possibly thousands of dollars that my parents didn't have to spend, so that they could turn around, put him on probation, and put him right back in the same school as me. It just wasn't worth it Scott. "And since you've chosen to keep this event from your parents, how can they provide you with emotional support." Okay Scott, here's another thing for everyone to say that I put out here just to make them feel sorry, because apparently people really feel that way. When I was... I think I was four, I'm not really sure. My babysitter's son locked me in the bathroom and tried to molest me. He didn't completely go through with everything, because his mother who was outside called him to come to her. I didn't really know what to make of it at my age, so I just kinda forgot about it. Things that you suppress brood even if you don't want them to. So one day when I was 14 I believe, I told my parents what had happened when I was younger. I'll quote what they said... "You must've dreamed it." I love my parents, but they aren't any more capable of taking care of this problem then I am... To be honest, I've questioned rather or not it really happened myself, and at some point I actually did come to the conclusion that I might've dreamed it, but I think if it happened, only he knows for sure. I also felt ashamed, because I knew the guy. I even told my parents how great he was. I was very embarassed. I believe now that my parents would be more supportive... Actually, I know they would... But I am still embarassed that I let this guy into my home, and went to his, and actually very much liked him on a friendly level. I feel disgusted for thinking the way I did about him prior to this... because if we'd never been "friends" it would've never happened. God bless you all, no matter what.

As an aside:ADHD is a scam. Put a kid with ADHD in front of a TV and put in a video game, that same kid will sit there glued to it for the entire day. You'll have to drag him away and unplug everything to keep him from playing. They have full ability to concentrate...IF they want to. I am laughing at that part of your post... I will get to the other part is a min! My children, Thank the Lord, do not have ADHD, but I have a few friends that their kids do... And it is different from child to child, what ever gets their attention... and it is all about how the child is raised, if they are raised with the televisioin or game console as a part time baby sitter, instead of getting the mental stimulation they NEED then yes, because the aren't bored... it is when the ADHD child is not being stimulated (which is constant) is when they get in trouble.. But if they have something constructive to do for as long as their attention span will allow.. School is hard for someone that can't sit still or has a hard time sitting still. And no, maybe some of these illneses were not around back during WW2 but as people we evolve and change and our minds evolve and change... and because of idle time kids and adults get into drugs and other bad things and then involve their kids with either doing it while they are pregnant or doing it infront of the children and that warps their brain... It makes them insecure when they don't have a support system. Ok.. Now to the first of your post.... Not everyone has the luxury of the stud exboyfriend that will kick a$$ if she is messed with... obviously this boy is picking on vulnerable girls that he knows won't or can't do anything or say anything... And I think that is awesome of you to stand up for your now wife like that! I bet this girl wished she had someone in her corner fighting for her.. But she doesn't.. and when she does get the guts to say something, look what happened...

Give up? who said anything about giving up? This school is failing to protect their students, and are allowing them to be molested and harrassed on school grounds... I would not let my children attend a school that treated their students like that. And as far as paying the way for me and my kind? Oh please, thats why I HAVE to work to pay the bills, I can't stay home and raise my children because today everything takes two incomes, it can't be just the husband goes to work and the wife stays home to raise the family. Thats the problem.. Children are being raised in daycares... I don't let my children give up, I give them constructive ways to deal with their issues.. The world would not be so harsh if GROWN UPS were not still having temper tantrums cause they did not get what they want. I do over the phone customer service, for a software company, I deal with small to medium sized businesses. I have grown men calling in and WHINNING because they do not get their way! That is why the world is so harsh and competative... I am not saying that being competative is a bad thing.. its not. I teach my children to do the best they can, and to try to excel at all they do. My 2nd grader is in an imersion school where she learns Frensh part of the day, and by 5th grade they have to speak French fluently. She also has to do math, english, grammer, and all other "normal" things they learn in school. I push her to do better, and not not give up. And this girl is by your interpretation locked at home watching Oprah... If she had had the confidence in her school officials to go talk to them about what was going on, or the confidence in her mother to talk to her then she would not be in this possition. I would not be so proud of paying the way to the way society is today, Life is hard and cruel and it is a dog eat dog world, and it sucks. My job is ending the day after tomorrow because they are sending out technical support to India, and there is no reason to keep our site open.. So if paying the way for a Greedy money hungry society is something to be proud of, well Mister, stand tall with your shoulders back... And as far as the generational welfare torch... The one time I had to be on food stamps, when I went into the welfare office, I was the Minority! There was nothing but spanish speaking people with 2-10 children that did speak english. With the way our world is today, you HAVE to recieve some kind of assistance to get by. I pay over $400/mo in daycare, plus rent, plus everything else that you have to have to make it today. My husband and I both made pretty good money, but it was never enough for EVERYTHING. So back down and stop insulting people.

Give up? who said anything about giving up? This school is failing to protect their students, and are allowing them to be molested and harrassed on school grounds... I would not let my children attend a school that treated their students like that. And as far as paying the way for me and my kind? Oh please, thats why I HAVE to work to pay the bills, I can't stay home and raise my children because today everything takes two incomes, it can't be just the husband goes to work and the wife stays home to raise the family. Thats the problem.. Children are being raised in daycares... I don't let my children give up, I give them constructive ways to deal with their issues.. The world would not be so harsh if GROWN UPS were not still having temper tantrums cause they did not get what they want. I do over the phone customer service, for a software company, I deal with small to medium sized businesses. I have grown men calling in and WHINNING because they do not get their way! That is why the world is so harsh and competative... I am not saying that being competative is a bad thing.. its not. I teach my children to do the best they can, and to try to excel at all they do. My 2nd grader is in an imersion school where she learns Frensh part of the day, and by 5th grade they have to speak French fluently. She also has to do math, english, grammer, and all other "normal" things they learn in school. I push her to do better, and not not give up. And this girl is by your interpretation locked at home watching Oprah... If she had had the confidence in her school officials to go talk to them about what was going on, or the confidence in her mother to talk to her then she would not be in this possition. I would not be so proud of paying the way to the way society is today, Life is hard and cruel and it is a dog eat dog world, and it sucks. My job is ending the day after tomorrow because they are sending out technical support to India, and there is no reason to keep our site open.. So if paying the way for a Greedy money hungry society is something to be proud of, well Mister, stand tall with your shoulders back... And as far as the generational welfare torch... The one time I had to be on food stamps, when I went into the welfare office, I was the Minority! There was nothing but spanish speaking people with 2-10 children that did speak english. With the way our world is today, you HAVE to recieve some kind of assistance to get by. I pay over $400/mo in daycare, plus rent, plus everything else that you have to have to make it today. My husband and I both made pretty good money, but it was never enough for EVERYTHING. So back down and stop insulting people.

Give up? who said anything about giving up? This school is failing to protect their students, and are allowing them to be molested and harrassed on school grounds... I would not let my children attend a school that treated their students like that. And as far as paying the way for me and my kind? Oh please, thats why I HAVE to work to pay the bills, I can't stay home and raise my children because today everything takes two incomes, it can't be just the husband goes to work and the wife stays home to raise the family. Thats the problem.. Children are being raised in daycares... I don't let my children give up, I give them constructive ways to deal with their issues.. The world would not be so harsh if GROWN UPS were not still having temper tantrums cause they did not get what they want. I do over the phone customer service, for a software company, I deal with small to medium sized businesses. I have grown men calling in and WHINNING because they do not get their way! That is why the world is so harsh and competative... I am not saying that being competative is a bad thing.. its not. I teach my children to do the best they can, and to try to excel at all they do. My 2nd grader is in an imersion school where she learns Frensh part of the day, and by 5th grade they have to speak French fluently. She also has to do math, english, grammer, and all other "normal" things they learn in school. I push her to do better, and not not give up. And this girl is by your interpretation locked at home watching Oprah... If she had had the confidence in her school officials to go talk to them about what was going on, or the confidence in her mother to talk to her then she would not be in this possition. I would not be so proud of paying the way to the way society is today, Life is hard and cruel and it is a dog eat dog world, and it sucks. My job is ending the day after tomorrow because they are sending out technical support to India, and there is no reason to keep our site open.. So if paying the way for a Greedy money hungry society is something to be proud of, well Mister, stand tall with your shoulders back... And as far as the generational welfare torch... The one time I had to be on food stamps, when I went into the welfare office, I was the Minority! There was nothing but spanish speaking people with 2-10 children that did speak english. With the way our world is today, you HAVE to recieve some kind of assistance to get by. I pay over $400/mo in daycare, plus rent, plus everything else that you have to have to make it today. My husband and I both made pretty good money, but it was never enough for EVERYTHING. So back down and stop insulting people.

Give up? who said anything about giving up? This school is failing to protect their students, and are allowing them to be molested and harrassed on school grounds... I would not let my children attend a school that treated their students like that. And as far as paying the way for me and my kind? Oh please, thats why I HAVE to work to pay the bills, I can't stay home and raise my children because today everything takes two incomes, it can't be just the husband goes to work and the wife stays home to raise the family. Thats the problem.. Children are being raised in daycares... I don't let my children give up, I give them constructive ways to deal with their issues.. The world would not be so harsh if GROWN UPS were not still having temper tantrums cause they did not get what they want. I do over the phone customer service, for a software company, I deal with small to medium sized businesses. I have grown men calling in and WHINNING because they do not get their way! That is why the world is so harsh and competative... I am not saying that being competative is a bad thing.. its not. I teach my children to do the best they can, and to try to excel at all they do. My 2nd grader is in an imersion school where she learns Frensh part of the day, and by 5th grade they have to speak French fluently. She also has to do math, english, grammer, and all other "normal" things they learn in school. I push her to do better, and not not give up. And this girl is by your interpretation locked at home watching Oprah... If she had had the confidence in her school officials to go talk to them about what was going on, or the confidence in her mother to talk to her then she would not be in this possition. I would not be so proud of paying the way to the way society is today, Life is hard and cruel and it is a dog eat dog world, and it sucks. My job is ending the day after tomorrow because they are sending out technical support to India, and there is no reason to keep our site open.. So if paying the way for a Greedy money hungry society is something to be proud of, well Mister, stand tall with your shoulders back... And as far as the generational welfare torch... The one time I had to be on food stamps, when I went into the welfare office, I was the Minority! There was nothing but spanish speaking people with 2-10 children that did speak english. With the way our world is today, you HAVE to recieve some kind of assistance to get by. I pay over $400/mo in daycare, plus rent, plus everything else that you have to have to make it today. My husband and I both made pretty good money, but it was never enough for EVERYTHING. So back down and stop insulting people.

Something isn't adding up in this story and that's frustrating because I want to be sympathetic but it's hard when the 'facts' don't mesh. For example in the entry: of 4/4/2006 11:12:59 AM it says:" I was raped by one of the guys that goes to my school. Hence why my doctor felt it would be against my best interest mentally and physically to go back." But then in the entry of 4/5/2006 10:31:35 AM it says " Actually, my parents don't know that I was raped and neither did my family doctor." Then a whole list of disorders, with Tourette's thrown in because it happened to air on Oprah that day...I think this child needs parental attention and love and support, definitely...I think if someone needs attention this badly they should get it. Less TV, more family intervention. Just my opinions.

We weren't even dating at the time it happened. We had broken up. She knew I would take care of the problem though, so she told me. After I got done with that coward at his own house, his father stepped in and finished the job. She never told her parents...the same parents who allowed her to be molested as a 2 year old. She knew I would be there for her, as nobody else had been. She went to school with the guy, and had classes together. He knew to behave himself, or he'd be dealing with me again. He did not want that. Every boyfriend she had(3-4) between breaking up and getting back together knew I was always a phone call away, and she knew I would take care of the situation if it arose. If you were raped, I cannot tell you if you should report it or not. That is your call, nobody else's. My wife did not report it. She did not want the attention, and since they were both minors, nothing would have come of it anyway. Having me take care of the guy seemed a better solution. My point is this, you are mad at the school system for not providing you with someone to teach you at home. There is no PHYSICAL reason you could not go to school. Just because the boy was in your classes, is also not a reason to quit going. The world is filled with bad people. Some in these threads think I am one of them. I take no sh*t from anyone, and stand tall even when the chips are down. The cooking school is not going to cater(pardon the pun) to your wants in this regard either. Neither will ANY employers. As an aside:ADHD is a scam. Put a kid with ADHD in front of a TV and put in a video game, that same kid will sit there glued to it for the entire day. You'll have to drag him away and unplug everything to keep him from playing. They have full ability to concentrate...IF they want to.

Sara, the reason that we are telling this girl what we are is because that's how the world is! Not as you see it Sara. That's the trouble with people like you Sara. You tell these kids its ok to give up. The real world is not sensitive. it's a competitive place. This girl has a whole life ahead of her and here she is locked in her home watching Opra,and having pity for herself. She will wind up like you Sara. You eluded to the fact that our parents passed our mental issues down? And that's why the world is a mess? Well Sara, speaking for my parents, they went through WW2 and that generation certainly didn't screw the world up. What were sick of is people passing the generational welfare torch down! So don't pass judgment on us Sara! We pay the way for you and your kind! Also I question the OP rape charge. What is her rapist doing in school? Why does he get away with harassing her? I would think with what you liberals did in schools, like zero tolerance, a student would get expelled for having impure thoughts! Were police called? What about her parents? Did she press charges? So this rapist basically got a free pass? It doesn't add up.

Why did you not press charges? And how can your doctor completely understand your needs if you did not tell him about the rape? I am in no way saying the rape was your fault, but why have you not taken control of this situation and reported it to the police. If you had, and with justice on your side, you would not have had to put up with seeing him everyday in school, because he would be in jail. And since you've chosen to keep this event from your parents, how can they provide you with emotional support.

Why did you not press charges? And how can your doctor completely understand your needs if you did not tell him about the rape? I am in no way saying the rape was your fault, but why have you not taken control of this situation and reported it to the police. If you had, and with justice on your side, you would not have had to put up with seeing him everyday in school, because he would be in jail. And since you've chosen to keep this event from your parents, how can they provide you with emotional support.

Thanks Sara... I was having a really crappy day so far. It was difficult for me to deal with what happened, but emotionally I got over it. I don't want to be around the person who did it, but I did get over it. I can NEVER get over the fact that they continued to let him attend our school, and that he didn't just do it to me, but other girls... and no matter how many complaints were filed against him, he's still there. I don't feel I'm entitled to anything, but I am all of the other girls in that school are entitled to have him removed for the well-being of everyone... Yes, I might've sued the school if I had a chance, because we asked numerous times to have him removed, and it was negligence on their part for not doing it... and negligence again when I chose to leave that school, and my doctor decided what was best for me. I was 15 when it happened. I can't change that it happened, but if I could I would. ANYBODY who thinks that I should have to tolerate what he did to me and tolerate him being in the same environment as me, probably has more issues to deal with then just this one. And to the guy who's wife was raped... Would you expect your wife to spend everyday with the guy who did it to her? If you do, then need to seek counseling yourself, and she needs to seek a divorce lawyer... because NOBODY deserves to have to live with that, because we didn't do anything wrong. You know Sara, it's nice to see someone who takes people in general serious. When I was in group therapy... it disturbed me to see just how many girls were in there that hadn't reported sex crimes against them. One of the girls had been raped by two guys that I know very, very well. Another girl started cutting herself after she was violently and sexually harassed by a guy on her school bus. I watched another girl in there cry because everyone thought she was a s**t, because they were under the impression that she'd done something willingly that was forced on her... By someone I know, and another time by the person who did it to me. My best friend at the time... she had to kick her best friend in the stomache to get away from a guy who was trying to rape her when she was like 12... It was her best friends brother. Another girl in there was molested on several occasions when she was younger... There were more, but this is just what I can think of now... See, the thing that all of these girls had in common, was not a one of us had reported what happened to us. But reporting it didn't make it any less real... Almost EVERYONE in that group had experienced some type of sexual harassment.. .and to downplay how many people have to live with this honestly disturbs me... Because these girls were living and dealing with things that their own parents didn't even know about.. .just a group of girls that confided in one another... We actually got the idea to speak out about it, and right reports about it for others to read and realize what goes on... but we never did, because most of us were too afraid to let anyone know... For those of you who know someone who was raped and did just fine, chances are, they reported it... Sadly, most of the girls I know didn't have the support system they needed to feel comfortable talking about it. It never came out until therapy, where they felt they had enough support, because we all were friends and could relate. I'm ashamed to see that people could think less of anyone because they dealt with something in a way that people think they wouldn't deal with it. Before this happened, I never believed it could. I always thought that if it happened, I'd go to the police immediately and tell... But then I started seeing the way girls who reported the crime were treated. A girl at my school... She was raped by a guy that went to our school also... She did report it. He was convicted... he got put on probation, and even got assigned classes with her... She also went on homebound. People called her a liar, said that she slept with him on purpose and then turned around and claimed it was rape, and said she was a s**t, so she must've done it willingly... That was horrible, and I didn't want to deal with it too, sorry. But it kills me to see her like this, because I used to not believe her... Then I started to see how it was affecting her, and realized that the issues she was dealing with is not the kind of issues that someone would voluntarily deal with. Thanks Sara, any kid would be glad to have you as a parent... At least they'd feel comfortable telling you things like that. I actually didn't say anything because of the guy's mother, not because of my own mother. Nothing will convince me that they aren't both sociopathic, and could give a care less about the well being of others. She lets her kids blow up cats and torture animals... Yeah, I was a little afraid to say anything. Thanks and God bless people with compassion for others. =)

I can't believe some of the responses that are coming from people here. Maybe the reason that our society is so messed up is people had to "suck it up" and just passed on the disorder to the next generation. I do believe that we over medicate our children at times and instead of dealing with the issued throw pills at it. I do think that some of the rebuttals are awfully harsh and uncalled for. I am a mother of two and am trying to see both sides of this. But I just can't see the side of suck it up and get on with it. I sympathize with this young woman, I do believe she can't let these horrible circumstances rule her life, BUT!! She should not have to endure seeing the man that raped her on a daily basis constantly being harassed and belittled by this boy. We don't stand for it in the work place, why should these girls have to stand for it in school? If this had happened to an adult in a professional environment people would be screaming to sue the company for not following through with firing the harasser. Instead we are telling this girl, sucks to be you, deal with it. I know so and so and they did it. I call Bull crap on all of you! Shame on all of you for you insensitive nature! That is the problem these days, instead of rallying around our children and protecting them from the evils of this world we throw them to the sharks. Yes, children learn from example and need to learn to fight there own battles and learn to deal with life, but even at 14,15,16 they are CHILDREN and need their parents, they still need guidance and reassurance. And when one of our children has a disorder, whether it be a tick from a mental disorder, or a personality disorder, or a disorder that makes them have uncontrollable energy, we need to teach them how to deal with it and how to deal with people that don't understand and take advantage of their short comings. And as far as the statistics of rape. hehe. hehe. You infuriated me to downplay the unreported rapes. How dare you make light of the fact that some woman, children and even men are too afraid to say anything and say well how do we know that statistic is correct if they are unreported. Oh come on!! Grow up! I believe if you watch the news or any news related show, most of those statistics come from rape victims speaking out years later. This is ridiculous that this is even being debated.

"The average kid with "ADHD" I always believed just needed a good beating, quite honestly... but the fact is, alot of kids do act out because of things that have happened to him." Nick, if you'd taken one second to actually read what I said, I said I did used to believe that... but my mind changed when I realized that alot of these kids had other problems that made them act like they did. I never once said that I currently hold that opinion, because I don't. So don't try to make this something I did wrong because you took something completely out of context. I feel bad for anyone with any kind of disorder, because people have NO idea what they have to live with. "But I didn't let my disability make me a cripple like you are doing here, and instead of figuring out who to blame, I figured out how to cope and move foward." Okay, I resent that too. Why? because that's NOT why I decided not to go to school. I decided not to go to school because the guy who raped me and others was still going there. I had to see him every single day. He didn't just leave it alone, either. I'm not scared of men like Robert implied. I'm scared of HIM... .and if anyone would've taken a second to read what I actually wrote, they'd know that. "Grow up, we all have it tough. There is something that impedes all of us, you are NOT special. I am sick of everyone trying to be "special." Just because you have a disciplanary issue (which is EXACTLY what it IS), does not mean you need to be lazy. What do you plan to do for work? Your boss isn't going to give a hoot. In the "real" world you will have to go to a real job, they wont send the job to you, trust me!" Yeah, rape makes you feel real special. Especially when you get the honors of the guy getting the privelege of speaking to you every day, and also sexually harassing your friends. Real, real special. We all just felt wonderful. "And if tourrettes isn't a disciplanary issue please explain why I can get my cousin (he is now 14) to calm down and remain "civil" with a little discipline, and his mother (who never even raises her voice at the child) cannot? The answer is simple: when he is with me, he knows who is in control." By the way, if you'll notice, I never once said that it had anything to do with what happened at school with that guy. Or anything else, for that matter. I just said that because I had it, it was more then likely ADHD that I had, and not bipolar... By the way, it's not a matter of control. Chances are he's afraid to just be himself around you. Mental fear does overwhelm any problem. Most will stop if they're faced with an uncomfortable situation... But I don't see shaking your leg, nodding your head, having an issue with washing your hands, and etc. to be a matter of a child misbehaving... I was never bad in school. I did not get in trouble... I almost did a few times for sneezing alot... but that you definitely can't help. "Your family physician is in NO WAY qualified to diagnose you with bipolar, or ADHD, or tourrettes (I understand it was your psychiatrist that did the final two). Maybe that is why the school decided not to waste tax payers dollars and take away resources from students who tough it out and go to school instead of sitting at home all day complaining about what a hard life they have." Actually a psychiatrist diagnosed me with ADHD forever ago when a neurologist diagnosed me with tourrettes. My family doctor suggested that he felt I was bipolar, and sent me to a psychiatrist, who wasn't really sure. Oh, and I don't sit at home complaining about how "hard" I have it. Actually, my parents don't know that I was raped and neither did my family doctor. Actually, the only thing they did know about was the supposed Bipolar. Sadly only a bunch of incompassionate strangers do. Not quite the audience I wanted to fess up to. "Grow up, we all have it tough. There is something that impedes all of us, you are NOT special. I am sick of everyone trying to be "special." Just because you have a disciplanary issue (which is EXACTLY what it IS), does not mean you need to be lazy. What do you plan to do for work? Your boss isn't going to give a hoot. In the "real" world you will have to go to a real job, they wont send the job to you, trust me!" Again, you should really read first. I don't have a disciplinary issue, and I NEVER got in trouble in school. I didn't choose not to go to school because of a disciplinary issue, actually I was going to school with a guy who raped me. Hence why I didn't want to go back. So if you think that him raping me and me possibly being a little upset about it is a disciplinary issue, then you're dead wrong. Because it had nothing to do with it. AND IF ANYONE WOULD ACTUALLY READ WHAT I SAY BEFORE THEY START ACCUSING ME OF STUFF, I'M NOT QUALIFIED TO GET MY GED UNTIL JUNE, BECAUSE I HAVENT BEEN OUT SIX MONTHS AFTER DROPPING OUT, OR THREE MONTHS AFTER TURNING 18. SO I HAVE TO FORMALLY WRITE A LETTER TO THE SUPERINTENDENT TO BE ABLE TO TAKE MY TEST. I ALREADY GOT ACCEPTED INTO THE COLLEGE OF MY CHOICE, AND UPON COMPLETION OF MY GED I'LL BE GOING THERE IN AUGUST. HOW DOES THIS QUALIFY AS BEING LAZY AND NOT DOING ANYTHING WITH MY LIFE? "Instead of figuring out how to sue, figure out how to succeed - GED? Alternative school? Adult school? Night school? They all exist!" Once again, I never said I was going to sue, or that I was trying to find a way. Actually, I'm trying to get my GED instead... but I can't until I get exemption from rules to take the GED. I can't even enroll unless I get that until JUNE. And I've already been accepted into the college I wanted to go to. What would you know, I already SAID ALL THAT. You people badly need to read before you start accusing people of things. Because none of this applies, because I've already covered it. "You didn't deserve to be raped, but now you have an entitlement mentality. h*o-frickin-ray. The quicker you learn that this world doesn't owe you jacksh!t, by hook, crook or lawsuit, the better chance you have of having a decent future." Once more Nick, read. I never once said that I deserved anything out of this except for my dmned education. Yeah, I wish that I could sue... I might've even done it. But I won't, because I can't afford to, and because they can't afford to be sued. That's the huge problem over there, everyone is underpaid and underqualified, and it would only make the problem worse. The fact is they APPROVED ME to be on homebound, which means from that point on, they are OBLIGATED to send me a teacher, or it because negligence on their part. That's what they did wrong. I'm not saying I'm entitled to anything because I was raped... Except I do feel I was entitled NOT to have to be in the same school with him... I was entitled NOT to have to see him everyday... I was entitled NOT to have this happen to me... I WAS entitlted to my education. Yes, I do have some things I am entitled to. Most of all I was entitled to be able to have him removed from my school... and so was every girl in that school entitled to this. It didn't happen, so yes, I was entitled to take my education elsewhere, and it just didn't happen like that... and it's not my fault that I didn't want to spend the next two years with a rapist.

Shannon said: I agree with the opinions that you express in the case of most situations. The average kid with "ADHD" I always believed just needed a good beating, quite honestly... I have "average" ADHD, which requried counseling and medication as a kid. Thanks to "medical experts", I took the only Class-3 narcotic other than cocaine - yes, Ritalin - for 3 years. So I should technically be a junkie, an alcoholic, alone, confused, angry and hurt. Instead, I'm addicted to nothing, married, with kids, happy, healty and successful - very much so. Okay, so I deal with depression, some hyperactive stimulus and at one point, severe withdrawls... But I didn't let my disability make me a cripple like you are doing here, and instead of figuring out who to blame, I figured out how to cope and move foward. You're spending too much time defining the problem, and not formulating the solution. Instead of figuring out how to sue, figure out how to succeed - GED? Alternative school? Adult school? Night school? They all exist! However, I resent your suggestion of needing a "good beating". Eff you, Shannon. Your self-loathing pity party needed so much attention, you crossed into someone else's illness to make yours seem "more worthy" of other people's sympathy. You hypocrite. You didn't deserve to be raped, but now you have an entitlement mentality. h*o-frickin-ray. The quicker you learn that this world doesn't owe you jacksh!t, by hook, crook or lawsuit, the better chance you have of having a decent future. I see you're making good use of all that time without a teacher - watching Oprah, for instance...

If they go UNREPORTED...where does the statistic of "64%" come from? How does anyone know how many UNREPORTED rapes occur? It could be 2, it could be 2,000,000. Besides, I think that number is grossly exaggerated, but NO ONE knows do we? If we knew, they wouldn't be UNREPORTED. And, yes I know something about tourrettes (sp?). My young cousin Jeremy was diagnosed at the age of five. He manages just fine in school without his medication. He was also diagnosed with "ADHD" at the age of 7 because he "often ran around the house for hours and talked constantly and was always running around outside". I would like to stress that he was a seven year old boy at the time. A psychiatrist diagnosed him with both. Your family physician is in NO WAY qualified to diagnose you with bipolar, or ADHD, or tourrettes (I understand it was your psychiatrist that did the final two). Maybe that is why the school decided not to waste tax payers dollars and take away resources from students who tough it out and go to school instead of sitting at home all day complaining about what a hard life they have. Grow up, we all have it tough. There is something that impedes all of us, you are NOT special. I am sick of everyone trying to be "special." Just because you have a disciplanary issue (which is EXACTLY what it IS), does not mean you need to be lazy. What do you plan to do for work? Your boss isn't going to give a hoot. In the "real" world you will have to go to a real job, they wont send the job to you, trust me! And if tourrettes isn't a disciplanary issue please explain why I can get my cousin (he is now 14) to calm down and remain "civil" with a little discipline, and his mother (who never even raises her voice at the child) cannot? The answer is simple: when he is with me, he knows who is in control.

I don't honestly believe I'm bipolar... Bipolar was the reason my doctor chose to put me on homebound. This was NOT my choice. He did see that I was clearly disturbed by the events at school, though he does not know about the rape. Neither do my parents, so I can't believe I'm honestly trying to justify this to strangers online. It really was a triple threat to me to be on the medication I was on, going to school with a rapist, and supposedly being bipolar or whatever I am. I think it was just ADHD because I have tourettes. Rape, nonetheless, was why I was bothered by going to school. I didn't need to explain it for him to understand it was interfering with my well being to be there. You know Nicole... I don't know exactly what happened to you. What happened to me was something that got extended over a long period of time. He didn't just rape me and leave it at that... Over a period of time he raped and sexually harassed over a dozen girls that I know of. He's physically abusive, and doesn't just rape you and ignore you. He pursues you. Every time you walk by him, he says something demeaning, hateful, or overtly NICE. He doesn't mind doing it, because he knew we were too scared to tell. I didn't just get raped by him, he left bruises on me plenty of times... and on plenty of other people. I met a girl at a barbecue that our parents had mutually attended bringing us along... she was 13... I got to know her better and we became friends... She finally admitted to me that he used to lock her in the closet and rape her when she was younger. My BEST FRIEND hid from me that she'd been sexually harassed by him. She started going to school in another county, but she lived right beside the county so she could afford to be driven there everyday. I live an hour away from the nearest high school besides mine, except for the one in Maryland. Which I can't go to. There is, by the way, only one high school in my county. There used to be four, but they turned them into middle and elementary schools for smaller districts and made one big high school in the county seat for everyone to go to. What's worse is that we had a group counselor that would come to school and there was a group of us girls in there, because the school placed us there. At one point, 80% of the girls in there had been violated physically in some way by this guy. One of my friend's other guy friends scared the hell out of him until he quit school... but then he came right back. We've tried to get legal action against him... but it's like nobody wants to help us. He didn't just rape us or sexually harass us... He is a danger to the well being over EVERY girl in that school. I wasn't gonna stick around for him to do it again, sorry. Then I found out that he got kicked out of school for raping and beating a girl at a football game. Yeah, I so want to be next again. Sorry, not waiting around for him to do it again. "Try being proactive instead of whining about it. Just do what you need to do." Okay, I turn 18... today actually. I just realized it was past midnight... I've already gotten accepted into LCB in Georgia, and I'm going to attend culinary school there. I'm writing a letter sometime today to request an exemption of rules to the supervisor so that I can take my GED so I can go to college in August. I don't know why everyone's acting like I just quit school and I'm going to be on welfare. No, I was a GOOD student. I did my best. I can't change what happened, but I am not a bad person, or a stupid one. I've lived on welfare or public assistance of some sort almost all of my life, because my parents didn't go to college. My parents can't even afford to contribute a few bucks into helping me pay my tuition. I have to do it on my own, because I'm not eligible for scholarships because I dropped out. It's going to be a long road and not easy, but I'll be a better person for it. If anything, my job is harder for having to overcome it like this. School would've been an easy place to stay, and a comfort zone, had he not been in the same school as me. I REFUSE to let this ruin my future... It ruined what should've been the best years of my life, but it won't ruin me. So before you assume that I haven't done anything or won't do anything with my life, put yourself in my shoes.

Whatever Shannon's problems are, the fact remains is that a doctor felt she should be homebound, and the school board agreed, but the school was negligent by not sending her a teacher, as they had agreed to do, and then trying to justify by using information that is wrong and easily proven so. They were just being imcompetent, or maybe saw an easy way out of having to deal with someone with several disorders (no offense intended) by delaying, but no matter what, it managed to cost an innocent perdon a high school diploma. It sounds like she's going to have a difficult time of it as it is. I wish she could afford to sue them, too.

You know, I am gonna try and justify it... because this is something that people just can't let go as being nothing. The doctor that put me on homebound diagnosed me with bipolar disorder. After I was accepted for homebound, I started seeing a phsychiatrist. My psychiatrist said that he believed I had a mood disorder but he didn't believe it was bipolar disorder. Well back when I was 11 or 12 I was diagnosed with tourettes syndrome. People with tourettes often experience ADHD and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder along with their tourettes. ADHD is commonly misdiagnosed and vice versa with bipolar disorder. I definitely have tourettes, so I do feel my doctor was wrong in his diagnosis, as does the psychiatrist. He did feel that the things that were going on in school were interfering wtih proper treatment of whatever disorder he thought I had. Hence why a doctor legitimately put me on homebound. Now, do you know anything about tourettes? Of course not. It's a mental disorder... and so is ADHD and OCD... I spent ten years with people forcing me to take medications that I didn't need nor did I want. At the time I was taken out of school I was being forced, (yes forced) to take a medication that constantly made me fall asleep. So every day I got to go to school so tired that I couldn't function, with the guy who raped me, and with a disorder that I get teased for constantly. None of this was how I wanted it to be. My parents and doctors and the people at school got to decide. If I had it my way I wouldn't be on medication that only made my problems worse, I wouldn't be teased for having tourettes, and I definitely wouldn't have chosen for someone to do that to me. Of all days for this to air, this peice on tourettes did today on Oprah. For me it was quite an experience... because I've never met anybody else with tourettes. I remember when my mom first noticed it she asked me if I was on drugs... Some of my teachers would ask me if I was okay... Others would tell me to stop acting up... because they thought I was doing it on purpose. So if you think for any reason that anyone would ever choose to have these issues... You are very sadly mistaken. You're right, forever ago people didn't even know about these problems. Actually, people used to be hung or burned for having tourettes because people thought they were possessed. Even seizures. You can never begin to understand the gravity of situations that are outside of your control, until you've had to live with them. Sadly, I agree with the opinions that you express in the case of most situations. The average kid with "ADHD" I always believed just needed a good beating, quite honestly... but the fact is, alot of kids do act out because of things that have happened to him. It's people like you that make them unwilling to simply express that through words... because it's taken as a joke... So they hold it in, and hope they forget about it. I didn't know this but the majority of those teeny boppers that cut their arms were victims of violent sex crimes... Everything has a reason. At least find out what they could be before you go around pretending like you know everything about people.

Sorry... my reasons for not wanting to attend the specific school had less to do with the fact that I had a mood disorder... and somewhat more to do with the fact that the guy who raped me went to my school... and yes, it wasn't helping me any. Sorry for not wanting to advertise it. This is the exact reason approximately 64% of rapes go unreported. Because then if they don't want to advertise it to the whole world, it's taken as a joke and a misunderstanding of "real world" experience. If any of you had any idea what it was like to go through something like that, you wouldn't want to spend 8 hours a day every day with the person who did it to you. I can't even believe I'm trying to justify this...

While I will agree that bipolar is a serious disorder, being raped does not cause bipolar. Its one, or the other, were you failing because you were raped or were you failing because you are bipolar. My best friend in high school was bipolar. She did just fine. People teased her relentlessly because her family was poor (upperclass school), people were quite cruel to her. I was not, she was my friend. She graduated on time with honors. She is now attending the University of California Berkeley. Does it sound like she was failing out of school because she is bipolar? No. She wad dedicated and did not give a hoot about anything but getting out of there. Try being proactive instead of whining about it. Just do what you need to do. When I was in 9th grade, I was raped by a student who was, at the time, in four of my six classes. I continued through high school with this particular student being in most of my classes. Did I like it? No. Did I like it that he was not removed from those classes or that I was not allowed out of them? No. Guess what it taught me? Sometimes, in life, you have to deal with people you truly hate for one reason or another. Life isn't fair sometimes, but we have to perservere or Gerry will be right: we will be a country of rejects. By the way, I graduated on time too, I was one of two valedictorians. I understand life is not easy for you, and I do not mean to seem rude or harsh, but if you let your past and your disorder rule your life you will never get anywhere. You will end up a high school drop out living on welfare. Are there no other high schools in your town? I find that hard to imagine, I currently live in a town of roughly 6,000 and we have two. Oh and I would just like to state for the people who will come on here just to discuss the state of public education in this country: the only way to improve government schools is to remove your children from them. Send the next generation to private schools or homeschool them. If the government has no students to F**k up, maybe, just maybe, we as a nation can rise above the disgrace of our literacy rate.

While I will agree that bipolar is a serious disorder, being raped does not cause bipolar. Its one, or the other, were you failing because you were raped or were you failing because you are bipolar. My best friend in high school was bipolar. She did just fine. People teased her relentlessly because her family was poor (upperclass school), people were quite cruel to her. I was not, she was my friend. She graduated on time with honors. She is now attending the University of California Berkeley. Does it sound like she was failing out of school because she is bipolar? No. She wad dedicated and did not give a hoot about anything but getting out of there. Try being proactive instead of whining about it. Just do what you need to do. When I was in 9th grade, I was raped by a student who was, at the time, in four of my six classes. I continued through high school with this particular student being in most of my classes. Did I like it? No. Did I like it that he was not removed from those classes or that I was not allowed out of them? No. Guess what it taught me? Sometimes, in life, you have to deal with people you truly hate for one reason or another. Life isn't fair sometimes, but we have to perservere or Gerry will be right: we will be a country of rejects. By the way, I graduated on time too, I was one of two valedictorians. I understand life is not easy for you, and I do not mean to seem rude or harsh, but if you let your past and your disorder rule your life you will never get anywhere. You will end up a high school drop out living on welfare. Are there no other high schools in your town? I find that hard to imagine, I currently live in a town of roughly 6,000 and we have two. Oh and I would just like to state for the people who will come on here just to discuss the state of public education in this country: the only way to improve government schools is to remove your children from them. Send the next generation to private schools or homeschool them. If the government has no students to F**k up, maybe, just maybe, we as a nation can rise above the disgrace of our literacy rate.

Raped, bi-polar(manic-depressive), etc. Great stuff there. NONE of that has anything to do with sitting in class and getting educated. You felt uneasy being in a class with guys? Guess what sex makes up the majority of profeesional chefs? Do you expect the cooking school to accomodate your uneasiness with men? My wife was raped when she was in high school. She graduated on time, with no problems. She had been molested as a child too. She has no problems with men at all. Your dog don't hunt, as they say. And mental illnesses are NOT the same as a physical illness. The vast majority of newfound mental illnesses are designed to sell more meds. People used to be told "suck it up" and they did. Now, everyone wants that disability check. Get real there Shannon. The cooking school is NOT going to care one iota about your problems. Neither will ANY employers in your future. Time to suck it up.

Its funny how when I was in school,all these Mental disorders werent heard of! Now Eveyone has a reason for being a failure! Todays educational system is to blame for this! The result will be a nation of rejects! Its strange how immigrants come to this country and excell. Many come from places that were pure h**l! Got a news flash for you,my homebound friend, The real world wont give a d**n about your mood swings or whatever!

Its funny how when I was in school,all these Mental disorders werent heard of! Now Eveyone has a reason for being a failure! Todays educational system is to blame for this! The result will be a nation of rejects! Its strange how immigrants come to this country and excell. Many come from places that were pure h**l! Got a news flash for you,my homebound friend, The real world wont give a d**n about your mood swings or whatever!

Just because this poster did not mention their exact diagnosis does not mean it's not valid. Mental Illness is just as real as physical illness, and many times just as physical.

Before you go around accusing people of having fake disorders, why don't you first find out what it is that they claim to be the problem with them? The reason I didn't specify is because it was very personal. Apparently everyone has to justify their actions or everyone else accuses them of faking whatever it is that's wrong. Actually I'm bipolar. But the actual school itself wasn't what was affecting my education. It was what was going on in school. In case you'd like to know, I was raped by one of the guys that goes to my school. Hence why my doctor felt it would be against my best interest mentally and physically to go back. If you don't believe that being raped by one of the guys in your class or school is a legitimate reason not to feel healthy going back to the school where he's at, then you have issues buddy.

good grief! Another make-believe illness, that I get to pay for. You plan on going to a cooking school, eh? Do you expect them to send the teacher to your house also? I have the perfect treatment for you Shannon. It's the same treatment most kids need, but never seem to get. It's called "a swift kick in the pants". It works every time it's tried. Here's another newsflash for you. The cooking school isn't going to care about your "mood disorder", and neither will ANY future employers. Of course, with your "mood disorder" to fall back on, I know I can plan on supporting you for the rest of your life.