Picture this: A small town. Farms all around. It is typical to be late to school because you are stuck behind a tractor. Everybody knows everything about everyone… or so they think.

I was out in the backyard when a call came through from the middle school. My brother was to be suspended from school, and my mom and I had to attend the conduct meeting. Upon arriving at the school, I knew something was wrong, my brother was too calm. Not to mention, there were three other school officials in this meeting other than the principal. Long story short, my brother had gotten caught being intimate with a girl at school. The evidence that the school had was camera footage that we were not allowed to see. That immediately raised a red flag in my mind. In addition, the story my brother told was that this was a mutual agreement, and yet, the girl involved did not receive any punishment whatsoever. Weird, right?

So my brother did his sentence, a few days out of school suspension, in addition to punishments at home. He went back to school for a few weeks, and low and behold we received another phone call home, the day before graduation. This time my brother was accused of touching a girl inappropriately in the hallway and was not allowed to walk for graduation or return back to school. My mom and I arrived at the school and immediately realized that this was a false accusation, as my brother was ridiculously upset and angry, and the administrator said that the only evidence they had was the testimony of a teacher who hated my brother. The administrator did not even ask my brother to share his side of the story. On the way home, we noticed that my brother’s arms were cut. He said that this only happened because he was trying to get the attention of the administrators who locked him in a room by himself with no explanation for over two hours. We took my brother to the hospital for a psychological evaluation. The next day, we had our own special graduation ceremony for my brother in our backyard, since he was not allowed to participate in his.

A few weeks later, everything seemed to have settled down, and my brother agreed to go to counseling. However, my parents got a call from the prosecutor’s office, saying that the parents of the first girl decided to press charges against my brother. My family found out that there was no actual camera footage incriminating my brother. My brother shared that the girl had been making sexual advances towards him for the entire school year. In addition, my brother was never interviewed by the school police officer. When the prosecutor found all of this out, the prosecutor went to the parents who decided to drop the charges.

As relieved as we were that my brother did not have to go through the stress of a court appearance, I cannot help but be extremely disappointed in the school system. They blatantly lied about the evidence against my brother and did not allow him to walk for graduation on a false accusation. They pushed him over the edge to self-harm. The lie that they told almost got my brother falsely dragged to court. This whole process took up almost three months of our lives. The sleepless nights, the attorney bills, and the psychological turmoil were all over false accusations.

This story brought me to tears, as I know this boy very well. He is very smart, won several awards at school, and is a successful athlete. I feared for his life, for fear of the self-harm and what would happen in his life if something came of the accusation in court. Harassment and bullying is bad enough when it comes from peers, but from a school administration, that is just unacceptable. Schools are supposed to be a safe place, and I pray that someday this school gets straightened out to be that way.