Bullying is a serious issue that often gets swept under the rug for various reasons, especially in schools.

When a successful author from a small town was interviewed by a student from her former school, the topic of how school was for her came up. The author didn’t want to lie, so she shared some stories about how awful it was due to bullying.

Once the interview came out, the community was very upset, including one teacher who ended up losing her lifetime achievement award because of it. Now the author wonders if she should have just kept things to herself, since it was so long ago.

Personally, I think she did the right thing by talking about these things. Read through the story below and see if you think she handled it well.

AITA for being honest about how I was bullied and how the teachers at my school did nothing about it while being interviewed by a current student?

I’m an author of mild success. I’m not incredibly popular, but my books sell enough.

She was up front with the teacher about things from the beginning.

About 3 months ago, someone from my old high school reached out to see if a student could interview me.

I responded that my time at the school wasn’t the happiest, but I would give the student responses relating to my career.

This student is good at what she is doing.

We had a great chat. She started asking questions about my time at the school, but I redirected.

She caught on to what I was doing and asked “I’m sensing that you’re hesitant to talk about your time at (school). Is that true?”

She is under no obligation to avoid talking about it. In fact, it could be helpful for many people.

I said let’s focus on the story, and she was like “Actually this could be a better story.”

So, I said y’know what, sure. Whatever. I don’t owe the school anything, I’m not being paid, and even though it’s been a long time and I’ve grown from what happened, it’s still worth talking about.

Bullying can be so hurtful. And it didn’t used to be taken very seriously at all.

I mentioned a few names in specific, and how I’d tried to ask for help and was blown off by everyone. Teachers at my school very strongly favored the girls in sports teams, and would often be buddy buddy with them and their parents.

I mentioned a teacher who openly mocked the way I dressed, my lack of athleticism, etc.

People don’t like being called out for being a jerk.

I brought up the time that a group of girls followed me around the school mooing at me and when I broke down crying because they wouldn’t stop and tried to tell a teacher, the teacher called me “Moolly” for the rest of the year and when I yelled “MY NAME IS MOLLY. MOLLY” she had me suspended for a week.

She ended up publishing the whole interview. Nothing exactly went “viral” but there were posts on FB with a ton of comments and it caused some commotion in that community.

Oh, so the teachers don’t like when someone talks badly about them? Hmm, maybe they could learn something.

A few weeks later, I was contacted by a school official who chastised me for bringing up old wounds and trying to paint veteran teachers as bad people when they were going through difficult times already.

The teacher responsible for the “Moolly” incident had a local lifetime teaching award taken away from her after it all came out, so was it really worth it, and maybe did I remember things wrong?

Maybe those ex-students should try apologizing.

Finally, a handful of my old classmates (many of them stuck around town) found me and I was barraged with a ton of messages telling me that I’m ruining the reputation of the school and of several prominent community members, it was X years ago so why can’t I just get over it, etc.

Some of them obviously haven’t changed.

She didn’t set out to criticize the school, but she also wasn’t willing to lie about her experience.

It was a long time ago, yes. I don’t know how I really feel about how this all went down though.

I know times are tough for teachers right now. I didn’t set out to hurt anyone, I was just telling my truth.

AITA?

She didn’t do anything wrong. Bullying needs to be talked about; how else will it ever be fixed? The teachers and former students should take this as a learning opportunity.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who wasn’t keen on contributing more to a coworker’s gift than originally planned.

Read on to see what the people in the comments section had to say about it.

It is clear that the school and the teachers have not changed.

Why should a victim be obligated to hide the bullying?

If the truth makes you look bad, you deserve to look bad.

I agree, their actions made them look bad. Not her interview.

This person dreams of doing something like this.

What makes this even worse is that the teachers and community didn’t apologize; they lashed out. It shows that they haven’t learned anything or changed, even after all these years. Hopefully, this interview can help to drive change.

Sadly, I doubt that it actually will. The school is just trying to protect itself rather than do better. This is how bullies often act when they are called out on their behavior.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a mom who is irate after she gave a group leader money for her daughter’s lunch, only to have him pocket the cash and ask all of the kids to pay their own way.