Racism is very common in public schools in the US, and this young man of color thinks it could have something do with his getting suspended for a crime he didn’t commit.
Not only that, he also almost lost his college scholarship because their vice principal wouldn’t believe his story.
But before graduation, he executed a pro-level revenge on their vice principal that had him skating toward college with a smile.
Read the story below for the full details.
No School Principal post for you!
It was in high school, and I was in the 10th grade in the USA.
So, I was about 16, and recently made friends with a guy named Mario from a class project we were given.
For context, I grew up in the inner city during the 1990’s, so if you were in D.C., New York, or any East Coast city, you should be familiar with this.
This young man went to a public school.
Since this was a public school, teachers and admins don’t really care about us, other than making sure we are not stabbing and shooting each other.
Since me and Mario came from low-income and welfare background, we really didn’t have nice things.
I did my share of shame, but I never stole from anybody.
Mario asked him to grab his jacket for him, and he did.
One day, we have a big school assembly for a speaker who survived a motorcycle accident.
It was fun to get out of class for two periods.
So at the end of the assembly, I was leaving, and Mario called out to me and asked to to grab his jacket as he left it on the chair.
Without thinking, I grabbed it and gave it to him.
The Vice Principal talked to him about a stolen jacket.
Cue a couple of weeks later, I had to go to the counselor to get a some records for my P-SAT.
The vice principal (VP) at that time was there as her office was next to my counselor, and she stopped me and asked about a stolen jacket.
I was scared of my mind because I did not steal anybody’s jacket, and she told me I was facing expulsion for stealing another student’s jacket.
He was sent to the detention room as he realized what had happened.
At this time, I was on track for some academic scholarship, and was scared out of my mind about this.
She brought me to the room where they kept troubled kids, and I was pointed out by another student as taking a jacket a while back.
Then, it dawned on it.
He and Mario explained everything to the VP.
Mario had me pass the jacket to him.
I tried to explain the situation that my friend said it was his, and so I grab it and gave it to him.
I didn’t know it was another student’s.
I gave Mario’s name to sort out the situation, and he came clean and told the VP I didn’t know.
But she didn’t believe him and asked him to bring his mom the next day.
However, this VP didn’t like me because of the fact that this dark skin was working towards winning this academic scholarship.
Usually, a white student won.
So what did she do?
She told me to bring my mom in the next day (my mom did not speak English, btw), and a punishment was to be handed.
He got suspended for a week!
Not only did I get a beating when I got home, but now I needed to bring my mom to school who did not even understand the situation.
Without any way to defend myself, the VP without mercy suspended me for a week, and put it on my record.
I cried as I was so upset.
This witch basically tried to screw up my life, and wanted me to fall into the life of gangs and crime people of my kind that were susceptible, too.
Fast forward to senior year, he won the scholarship.
Long story short, I took the week off and came back ready to fight back towards winning the scholarship.
Senior year, I win the scholarship anyway, and got a 4-year ride for college, and put the experience behind me.
Or so I thought.
Before graduation, he was chosen as a committee member in selecting candidates for the Principal’s post.
Two weeks before graduation, I was asked to sit on a selection committee for the vacated principal post.
I was selected because of my studies and also personal background.
There was a CV packet of a name.
The VP was one of the candidates.
It was the name of the VP a couple of years back who gave me no leniency.
I read her cover letter, and she wrote about caring about students and the choices she make in admin roles have a profound affect on children.
Oh, and she wrote she knew the school very well and the students there.
Game on, jerk!
So he asked a familiar question.
When she came in, she did not recognize who I was.
So I played it cool, and let her speak and when it was time for us to ask questions, guess what I asked?
I asked her, “If a student got into something (my situation), would you punish the student to the max?”
And if she ever faced something like this before.
To which the VP denied about her past experience about it.
The VP said, she would fully investigate and if the student who was unaware was a good student, there would be no need to be that extreme.
Also, she noted that luckily, she never had to face a situation like that.
I then asked her does she recognize me?
She genuinely didn’t, so I told the group what happened to me with her, and gave them copies of report she signed.
He voted NO, and she didn’t get the position.
Her face dropped, and I don’t recall what else happened, but the questioning continued until she was dismissed.
In our deliberation, they were vouching for her, but I was adamant in my no vote, and we end up giving the post to the acting principal.
Dont know what happened to her since.
Now, he’s very successful in his chosen career!
As for Mario, the last I heard about him was that he went back to Puerto Rico.
And I went to college, grad school, now ABD and interning as a civil employee.
Whoa! That was very satisfying.
Let’s find out how other users reacted to this story.
This user shares very profound insights.
Great job, says this one.
People are congratulating him.
Here’s another positive comment from this user.
Finally, here’s another valid observation.
As they say, success is truly the best revenge.
You go, kid!
If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.