In Trouble for Being Harrassed at School

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One of the worst experiences of my life was not being believed at age 14 when I was being sexually harassed. Not only was I not believed by school officials (it happened at school) but a police officer was brought in and I was threatened with being arrested because they thought I was lying. It all started when a boy who was in the special education program met me at an after school club. He made it pretty known that he liked me, he kept quoting lines from Disney songs to me. I was a nice person in general and always tried to be nice to the kids with special needs so I did speak to him and wasn't mean. The next time the club met he put dirt in my hair when I had to tell him he was a nice friend but we were just going to be friends and nothing else. I ended up having to tell him straight out that I didn't like him many times. He started following me around during the school day though and trying to talk to me. We also had the same lunch time so he'd try to come hang out with my group of friends even though we would repeatedly run him off. I asked the school counselor to speak to him. She'd seen his behavior even since she ran the after school club we both belonged to. I'm not sure whether or not she really did, but she claimed both she and his special education teacher spoke with him about the harassment. If they did, it didn't do much good. Finally one day, he walked up to me and started talking, then he suddenly was reaching out and feeling all over my chest! I slapped his hands away and ran back to where the rest of my friends were hanging out. It had now escalated to sexual harassment! Luckily, my next class after lunch was science which was taught by my favorite teacher. I didn't tell her exactly what had happened but I told her enough that she knew to send me to talk to an assistant principal right away. I tried waiting for the one female assistant principal to be available but after waiting for almost an hour I decided to just talk to the next one who was free. It ended up being the newest one, who'd been a teacher at the school until that year. I told him the history and what happened that day. He basically told me we'd have to deal with it tomorrow and sent me on my way. Imagine my surprise when I got to the car at dismissal and found my mom wasn't there. Turns out she'd been waiting for me at the main doors, terrified, because that assistant principal had called her and told her I'd had a problem with another student. She was worried I would be attacked in the hallway or jumped as I left school. The next day was a disaster. All my friends were called to the office before me to basically testify in front of the one assistant principal, two counselors, and a police officer. The one who'd been harassing me also spoke to the school staff and the officer. I found out later that my friends all backed up my story of how he'd acted towards me, the only problem was that no one saw him touch me the day before. Despite that, it was very clear no one in the room believed what had happened to me when they brought me in. Over the next four hours I was questioned so aggressively and repeatedly that I broke down into tears and could barely speak. I wasn't allowed to eat my lunch and I wasn't allowed to go to to the restroom, even when I suggested that both the female counselors could escort me! The assistant principal kept telling me I needed to tell them the real story about the so called harassment, implying that what I'd already told them two dozen times wasn't what really happened. Each time I'd start over again saying what happened, he would interrupt to say it again. Then the police officer chimed in, talking about he wanted to make sure I knew that if I made false statements to a police officer, I would be arrested and taken to jail. After four hours I was starving and I was about to wet myself from not being allowed to use the restroom. I finally asked them if I said I made it all up, would they let me leave? Everyone perked up at that point! I was asked if I was saying then that I'd made it all up? I said that if that was what they wanted me to say so I could leave, I'd say that. They continue to ask if I made it all up and I said quite a few times that if that is what they wanted me to say, then yes - I made it all up. After they heard that a few times, it was enough for them to accept it as my admitting to making it all up and I was finally allowed to leave. I got to use the restroom and eat my lunch. I was also punished by three of my teachers for missing classes, since they didn't believe I'd been in the office because the assistant principal didn't inform them ahead of time. My real shock came when I got home though. It turns out the assistant principal once again called my mom and it had been quite a conversation. My mom wasn't mad at me, but what she'd been told was awful. Of course, she was first told that I completely admitted I made it all up. I filled her in on what I'd really said and why. She was horrified that I'd been questioned at all without her present, let alone for four hours and denied use of the restroom and food. The assistant principal also told her that I had a great deal of social skills problems and had basically caused it all to happen. He also hinted that I should be ashamed of myself and punished at home for accusing a special needs student of harassment. That didn't happen. The only punishment I received was spending the last few weeks of junior high scared in the hallways because I knew male students were allowed to harass me and touch me without consequences. A few weeks after the end of the school year, I ended up having a complete breakdown and having to be put on a psychiatric unit because of suicidal thoughts. I'd been mentally fragile all throughout junior high school, the incident with this boy just pushed me over the edge finally. That was the beginning of therapists and medications. I also developed a severe phobia of school and ended up attending a special alternative school for high school.