<p>I got suspended in 9th grade. Here is what I put in the part of the app that asks you to explain the circumstances. How bad do you think the suspension will hurt me?</p>
<p>I got suspended for 1 day in 9th grade for a combination of 2 incidents. First I'd gotten a reprimand for calling another student gay. I didn't mean it as an attack against his sexual orientation. Back in middle school "gay" had been more of a general insult meaning stupid or dumb, but the administrators told me it amounted to sexual harassment and I haven't repeated the mistake since. A couple weeks later I got in trouble for copying a rap song I read on an online forum to show to a classmate who had told me to write one as a joke. I thought it was humorous but it contained vulgar lyrics, and when a teacher saw it she reported me to my VP. The VP said that since I hadn't learned by lesson from the first incident, I would be getting suspended for a day. I would say that the first incident was the more serious one and that I got suspended for printing the rap because it was my second offense in a short period of time, but it probably wouldn't have got me suspended by itself. Admittedly I was rather stupid and immature back then, but I would say that I've grown up in the years since and have managed to stay out of trouble since then.</p>
<p>Get rid of "stupid and" and you're set. if I were an admissions officer I wouldn't penalize you for that at all, not even the slightest bit whatsoever. but hey, that's just me.</p>
<p>My suspension story was a bit boring, really. Yours sounds like an injustice, so you get to be cool for yours. Mine was a playground fight with a friend that was (massive cliche warning) a big understanding that we walked out of friends again. Except, of course, we walked out suspended too.</p>
<p>The events are no big deal, but your explanation should be much shorter -- the more real estate it takes up, the more you encourage the reader to dwell on what it says about you. Here is what I would do:</p>
<p>"In ninth grade, I was suspended for one day for a combination of two immature actions: the first was using an inappropriate word to insult a classmate, and the second was printing out lyrics that were inappropriate to bring to school. I regret these childish indiscretions and have since become more mature in my school conduct."</p>
<p>The precise details are best to omit, since the semantics of the word 'gay' and the type of lyrics you printed out probably don't INCREASE your chances as the reader is contemplating those things. (I'm not saying it hurts terribly, just -- where's the use in getting into all that? How does it help?)</p>
<p>I feel like it sounds like you're making excuses when you talk about how the word "gay" was used in middle school... if I were you I'd just omit the details and say something like "calling another student an inappropriate name"... people get a bit touchy about the word "gay" sometimes. Even adcoms.</p>