I’m 19 and started smoking at 15. I know it’s a bad habit, and I know people’s view on it, but whatever. I was depressed and felt numb and didn’t care what I was doing. One of my teachers at the time (who was known for being super strict and mean) found out and called my mom personally instead of going through the school and doing all of that stuff.
My mom was livid but instead of trying to understand why I started or having a discussion about mental health, I was taken to her boyfriend’s house and locked in my bedroom for 3 months straight. I missed 3 months of school and she told the school that I was in a ‘rehab centre’.
Luckily I had an en-suite bathroom, and she brought me my meals but it did literally nothing but show me mom was unhinged. I’m 19 and I still smoke, more than I did at 15. I am trying to quit though, so yay for me.
Anyway, I ended up going back to my old school for something and I saw my old teacher (the one who grassed me up). She asked what I was doing nowadays and all that small talk and then she asked if I still smoked.
I’m not going to lie, seeing her smug face just made me so angry. I know my mom is to blame for my ‘punishment’ but she grassed me up.
She ignored the school’s protocols. She deliberately did a workaround so she didn’t have to do the safeguarding paperwork. So I said ‘no I still smoke’. She looked upset and said ‘after all that time in the centre, you’d think you’d have better habits.’
I just laughed and said ‘You have no effing idea what happened, huh? I never went to rehab. I was taken to my mother’s bf home to be locked in a room for 3 months. All because you refused to report it the proper way for safeguarding. F you.’ She ended up ‘chasing’ me up the road and asked if what I said was true.
I said yes. She began genuinely crying and apologizing. I said ‘I’m sorry but I can never forgive you. I don’t believe you had my best interests at heart otherwise you would have done it the right way and gone through the school.’
The whole thing was very emotionally draining and I told my boyfriend (who can be a little slow when it comes to others’ emotions and social cues). He said I should have ‘given her peace of mind’ by accepting her apologies even if I didn’t mean it. He said it was ‘spiteful’ and ‘douchey’ of me to harp on about how bad person she is.
I got an email from her apologizing again but I have responded.