by Taylor Ferguson
Out of all the stories I have to tell, this one is my favorite. I am not going to go too deep into the sexual trauma part of the story because that is not the main focus of the story. One day, a girl was in class, like any other day, getting pestered by teen boys. The type of boys that have nothing better to do than talk about a girl’s body, but not to compliment her. They talked about her boobs and made fun of how big they are, how they must be fake and whispered other obscene things in her ear about her boobs. Until the day she just had enough and told them as much. She told them to leave her alone in a very quiet classroom, which scared everybody including the teachers.
The teacher called her over and asked what was wrong. At first, she said nothing because she was scared. She looked at the boys and looked back at the teacher and tilted her head. The teacher asked again what is wrong and reminded the girl that she was in a supposed safe space but talking to a safe person. So, the girl told her teacher everything and in that moment the teacher wanted to see the world burn.
The girl saw a hopeful glow turn off in the teacher’s eyes, and it turned into a rage fueled fire. All the girl could do was think that something bad was about to happen. As the bell rang for students to go to their next class, the teacher told the girl to go to her next class and she yelled for the boys to stay seated. The other teacher in the room was told to keep everyone out of the room except for the boys. You could hear yelling down the hallway, emails were sent, and a ton of phone calls were made.
When lunch time came around the girl’s friends asked what happened because that teacher was burning everybody to the ground in the following class periods. The girl could do nothing but tell the truth. She told her friends everything that happened, and she apologized because she did not mean to disrupt others' learning. Throughout the day, the girl was either being stared at or avoided by other teachers and peers. She still did not realize that what happened to her was a big deal.
The next day the girl got pulled out of study hall and back to the teacher’s classroom. The teacher told her that everything would be fine now. That the boys would no longer speak, look, or touch her for the rest of the school year. The teacher assured the girl that she was done burning the world down and that no harm would come to her for speaking out.
Teacher if you ever see this, I want to say thank you for helping me and giving me the courage to speak my truth. Thank you for making me feel safe and seen.