The System That Kills the Chloes of the World | Blackwell Wasn’t Fiction
I guess I’m finally talking about this.
School systems in the US were never really about educating the mind. They were about molding behavior. Obedience. Compliance. That’s the part no one wants to say out loud, but we all felt it. The 8–9 hour days, the homework that felt like overtime. It’s not a coincidence that the rhythm mirrors a 9‑to‑5. You’re trained into the structure before you ever step into adulthood. And the education itself? Watered‑down, sanitized, and very much curated. You only really learn anything true if you go looking for it on your own time, and most people don’t have that luxury once they start working.
But when you look at games such as Life is Strange and see how the system treats its students, particularly Chloe, that's an accurate mirror. How Principal Wells went about dealing with his school is not too far off from the education bureaucracy in the school system. And it goes all the way to the University campus on how corrupt it can be based on who's attending, and its reputation.
But back to what I'm discussing...
What always stands out to me is how much of school was about policing what you wore. How you acted. How well you took orders. Whether you asked the “right” questions — or didn’t. The Catholic school made that even clearer—uniforms, silence, and obedience. Individuality is treated like a threat. And the irony is that once you leave school, you’re still in a uniform. Suits, aprons, dress codes, and color schemes. Grooming standards. Body standards. It’s all the same machine, just dressed differently.
And it starts so young. Parents enforcing gender roles, color rules, and “appropriate” behavior. Then school picks up where they left off. By middle school, the shaming process is already in full swing. Everyone is insecure; everyone wants to be accepted, and the system teaches us to judge each other. To ostracize difference. To treat anyone who stands out as a threat to the collective. I lived that. I lived it hard.
Girls who wanted power bullied me, and they got other girls to follow them because no one wanted to be left behind. And yes, I know it’s a biased take, but some people really do enjoy harming others. Some people can’t mirror empathy. Psychopathy is a spectrum, and some kids lean into cruelty like it’s a sport. But the part that still gets me is how the school protected them. How the adults protected them. And how the system protected its own image over my safety.
Those same girls dislocated my shoulder. They pushed me down the stairs. They verbally tore me apart. And the teachers took their side; the one moment I tried to defend myself, the school took their side. They were ready to expel me. Thirteen years old, and they were prepared to let me take the fall for what those girls were doing to me. It took a family friend on the school board stepping in, and two teachers finally breaking down and admitting the truth, for the whole thing to unravel. One teacher even cried in front of my parents. And suddenly, the school was scrambling to avoid legal consequences. They let me “graduate” from middle school with failing grades just to make the problem disappear.
That was luck. Pure luck. Without that intervention, I would’ve been expelled, and those parents would’ve pressed charges against me. Instead, I ended up staying with my grandparents, dealing with trauma and mental health issues, trying to feel safe again. High school wasn’t much better. Different building, same pattern. My mother had to make another decision, and that’s how I ended up in a private Catholic high school until I turned eighteen and could take my GED.
And even there, the absurdity continued. The principal accused me of stealing his disc portfolio — something he literally placed on my desk and forgot about. He was ready to suspend me over his own memory lapse. Two classmates had to intervene. One even called her mother to come in. It was surreal. Like something was always out to get me, or maybe the system just didn’t know what to do with someone who didn’t fit the mold.
Schools here run on punishment. Just like the prison system. Just like in the workplace. It’s all connected — the conditioning, the hierarchy, and the compliance. People think religion is the main villain, but the truth is darker. It’s the institutions we think are harmless. The ones we grow up inside. The ones that shape how we treat each other.
So when I think about Chloe Price, I see it clearly. She never stood a chance in a place like Blackwell Academy. Kids like her — kids like me — are always punished for not falling in line. And in the end, Chloe gets shot. She dies. And that’s the consequence of a system that values its image over its people. I’ve met mothers who had to fight tooth and nail for their children because the school system didn’t care. It never cared.
Let that sink in.
But this is not about calling out education and learning as a whole... I'm just showcasing how corrupt the system is and that it wasn't at its core about educating and nourishing the curiosities of the mind. And school life is important, because it's how we learn to socialize and learn cooperation with others. However, if that environment is not safe, and if you're not getting an accurate education from people who actually care about the well-being of young minds, it's the educational system that's a lost cause and not the kids. And it's also a failure on the teachers as well, because they are upholding that toxic pillar. If an educator complains about a student, it means they aren't a good teacher. A teacher who takes accountability is someone who truly cares about their students, and they probably don't even care about what they are teaching in the first place. I understand for some, it's about the paycheck. But that is harmful as well.
Let that sink in.
