My School Suspended Someone because of a Banana.
Me and my friend Max were having a video chat when we got an idea to send a cursed image to a kid in my class named Briela. Briela was the main ‘mean girl’ of our class, and Max just so happened to follow her on snapchat. We found some random picture of a banana taped to a shower wall and figured that that would confuse her. I don’t know why we thought that would be funny at the time, but Max sent it and said, “take this as a warning,” then “jk” after. To us this was hilarious. (Briela replied with the laughing emoji).
Hilarious enough that we decided to talk about it the next day in school. It was kind of an inside joke to us until at recess when our teacher heard us talking about it. I’m guessing she misheard us or something because she’s actually a really nice teacher and wouldn’t have told on us if she had heard the full story.
As we were talking about what happened, the teacher walked up to us and said, “You know she could have thought that was a threat, right?”
Max tried to explain the full story and how it was a joke, but the teacher was stubborn.
The next day during science, the guidance counselor walks in and says, “Can I have Claudia please?” (Claudia was Max’s name before she changed it). Max got up from her chair and gave me the most horrified look as she walked out the door. She was gone for 2 hours. I still don’t know why they didn’t call me to the office with her.
When she came back, all she said was, “Call me after school.” She packed up her stuff and left the building.
When I got home, I rushed to my room to get my phone. I called her and she picked up. This is what she told me.
Max was escorted down to the principal’s office and sat with Briela in front of the principal’s desk. The whole crew was there. The guidance counselor, the vice principal, and the principal himself were in the tiny cramped room.
“Briela, may I have your phone for a second?” The guidance counselor reaches her hand out to take the phone.
“Umm...ok?” Briela seemed very uncomfortable by the situation.
The guidance counselor opened Snapchat and gave the others a concerned nod.
“Do you recognize this, Claudia?”
Max nodded. Briela remembered the picture and it all clicked on her brain as to why she was there.
“It was a joke. I don’t want Claudia to get in trouble for this or anything.”
I swear, this was the only nice thing that Briela has done to Max in her life.
“It’s OK honey, you can go now.” Briela was escorted out of the room by the guidance counselor.
The principal held up the phone and asked, “How do you think Briela felt when you sent her this image,” completely disregarding the laughing emoji she sent.
“She probably thought it was funny.” Max replied. The vice principal gasped at the principal and he nodded at her in response.
The principal and vice principal gave Max this big long talk about how not to cyberbully and to not threat people. They called her dad and she then went home. She got suspended for almost a week and then had in school suspension for half a week after.
The weirdest part is, a boy in my grade actually threatened someone with a butterknife (it was a butterknife, but he was still seriously angry and wanted to hurt him), was told on by 4 different students, and never got in any trouble.