Freshmen Year

High school. If you’re not a cheerleader or star of the football team you probably dread or dreaded high school. Hell even if you are a cheerleader or a football star you still are probably miserable at least some of the time just like the rest of us. You want to know the weird thing? I used to love high school. I hated junior high when everyone started forming into cliques because I didn’t fit into any clique. Freshman year I started at a private Christian school. We had a principal who for the sake of privacy we will call Mr. Clinton. You will see why me picking this name is both ironic and funny later on. My mother used to tell me that High school was an experience that I needed to go through. No matter how harsh or easy it is I think she’s right. High school is something we need to get through and hopefully college is something we get to enjoy.
Anyway freshman year was fun. I have always believed in God and during my junior high years I went through a sort of crisis of faith, but I truly believe that God brought me back from my depression. So freshman year was everything you would expect. I had eight classes and one teacher in particular that I loved and still do love like family. I had reconnected with God and all was good. Of course I’m not a fan of the screaming southern Baptist (sorry if you are one. It’s just how I feel). In chapel which is every Wednesday we had some good preachers and we had some not so good preachers (you’re going to hell if you listen to that rap music). I got along fine. Made good friends and for the most part school came easily for me (except math). The only secret I was hiding and maybe still am is that my family doesn’t really go to church. This was in part due to the fact that my mother used to work every weekend at the hospital and she is really the one that leads us to doing anything. I never really had a problem with this. Wednesdays when I was younger my parents would take us to AWANA’s at a Baptist church until my brother and I outgrew them. I was baptized in a Methodist church when I was a baby and we go to a Methodist church on holidays. I have always considered myself a Methodist. I was the only Methodist at my school. The only other people who were not southern Baptist were a girl in my grade who was Presbyterian and two Seventh days Adventist who were in their junior and senior year respectively.
A few times I guess I wanted to go to church, but it never seemed to happen. I was happy though. I had chapel once a week and Bible class every day and I read the Bible quite a bit on my own so I felt I got my spiritual needs met and my relationship with God was strong( it still is I just fight with Him more). Everything was going along well until spring break. On the last few days of spring break I received word that Mr. Clinton, our principal, had been caught (on video tape that was secretly put into his office on the orders of some higher ups as I understand it) having an affair with his secretary who was also married I might add. I later found out that the tape in question is in the possession of an ex-students father who used to work or still does work for the school. This wasn’t the first time they had ordered a video camera in someone’s office without their consent or knowledge. Before I came there a friend told me that they suspected an employee of looking at porn at work. They caught him and he was disgraced and left. I would be interested to know if this videotaping practice is legal or not so If anyone could enlighten me I would be grateful.
I was disgusted with Mr. Clinton. Not only did his wife work at the school, but so did his adult son and daughter. When I came back to school that Monday everyone had questions. The high school students were called to a meeting where the pastor of the church in no uncertain terms told us not to ask any questions because he believed it led to gossip. He also made it clear that Mr. Clinton was asked to not return and that the school was looking for a replacement. That position for the principal of the school would remain unfilled until the end of my sophomore year.
As you can imagine rumors were spreading. When you don’t give kids the facts, rumors are even more outlandish. I had my first unpleasant experience with the administration in that meeting. I felt that we were old enough to understand and that it should be discussed. We should voice our opinion. After all I had been led to believe that we were a family and family’s talk about their problems right? My prayers were answered in sixth period Bible that day by that teacher I told you that I respected so much. We will call him Mr. Solomon. He voiced what I had been thinking. He told us that he didn’t think it right that the pastor was asking us not to speak so we all discussed what we felt. We had to be secretive you see. There was no telling what the administration would do if we were found out. I felt better after that class. Like I was being treated like some semblance of an adult, capable of thinking and feeling on my own. There was only one two more incidents that require being told. I had a homeroom teacher who was the higher math teacher as well (I was in algebra 1 so I did not have him for math, which I’m told is a blessing although at the time I didn’t think so) we will call him Mr. Mad. This name I’m afraid is barley exaggerated. At this point home room was right before lunch. Mr. Mad was a tall frail older gentleman with big glasses. He had a high almost effeminate voice with a county accent. He was…eccentric to say the least. He was odd, but the slackers in his classes loved him.
Apparently you could not make below an 85 on any of Mr. Math’s test. This wasn’t because he was such an amazing teacher, but rather because he would correct a problem and not mark it wrong. The students who actually wanted to learn something were becoming frequently frustrated. Anyway one day someone told either a local news channel or radio station (I can’t remember this detail) that Mr. Mad was an amazing teacher so he won teacher of the day. Now I bet you’re wondering what exactly made him mad?
Mr. Mad claimed that he had a wife who was in a wheelchair and who was almost legally blind. We all felt bad and prayed for her right before lunch almost every day. One day he told us that he was taking a few days off of work to take his wife to surgery where she would have her feet removed I think it was. While he was gone we made him a poster and a few girls made one of those giant cards in art class which we all signed. When he came back he kept promising that he would bring her in, but he never did. He would also tell these stories about how things happened when they didn’t. For instance I remember him talking about a kidnapping in the county over that very day. No such story had happened. In fact there had been no kidnappings for the last several months. One day towards the last week of school Mr. Mad declared that he would not be returning. The school gave no explanation. To be honest I was upset because he would have been my math teacher and I struggled with math. I was looking forward to making good grades in his class.
Before I reveal why he was fired let me tell you about the second Spanish teacher we had at our school. We will call her Ms. Underage. You see she liked younger guys. She liked younger guys with girlfriends. If you know anything about teenage girls you know that they are extremely territorial. They told who ever would listen about the flirting. Her contract was not renewed. Now was Ms. Underage acting inappropriately with these boys? I don’t honestly know. I wasn’t in her class and therefore did not see what all went on. I heard recently that she is teaching at a public school and girls there are jealous of her for flirting with their guys as well.
Back now to what was really going on with Mr. Mad. I had a friend who had to go to summer school for math and he overheard the real story. It was later confirmed by several teachers who would willingly talk to me about it later in sophomore year. Apparently Mr. Mad was in fact mentally unstable. Among other many lies, the wife that he claimed was dependent on him had left him about ten years ago and was living in Florida. It was creepy. This guy had access to all our files and personal information for a year and our school hadn’t bothered to check with past employers or anything? This wasn’t the first time they would drop the ball on who they hired. They ended up having problems with another Spanish teacher in my junior year which I will discuss in more detail on another post.
I ended my freshman year with a 3.6 GPA in spite of math and I was happy in spite of the drama. I felt like I belonged somewhere and that I was accepted. I had no idea that sophomore year would be the start of that all changing. His name…we will call him Mr. Potato.

Intro

So I think it's only fair that you know why I'm doing this blog. I'm on the road to discovering who I am. I am rehashing the past in order to be able to get to the future. I do talk in detail about my experience in a christian private schoo. It isn't to persecute anyone's faith. I myself am a person of faith. I am disclosing what has happened at my time in a private christian school not to discourage anyone from going to one because at one point I truly loved it there, but rather I am sharing this to show you that private schools have problems just like public school and because of the christian element that was attached to my private school experience we had diffrent problems to worry about.