FULL STORY: I’m in the class of 2019 (sophomore in a private high school) and I’ve been really stressed out lately. Over the summer, we are told to read a book and do an assignment. End of story. A group of friends and I collaborated on the assignment and shortly after the school year began, we we’re called into the principals office. Long story short, they accused us of plagiarism (because it was assumed we would know that it would be an individual assignment) and not only did we get a 0 on the project, but 2 detentions and 2 violations (3 violations=1 detention) as well. This got me pretty fired up, as I have always been a good, academically honest student. Our parents got involved and backed us up but the school refused to budge or even hear us out. Things have setteled since then. Lately things haven’t been going well in my house. My brother has been placed in an alternative school for 6 weeks or until he can prove himself worthy to go back to the public school he attends. Overall, he can’t be dropped off before 7:15am and my school begins at 8:00am. There’s no fast way to get from his alternative school to my private school due to morning traffic. This morning I arrived at 8:01am and quickly got to class after that but recieve an email later in the day telling me that 3 tardies mean detention. My third detention of the quarter.
SHORTER VERSION: My private high school accused me of plagiarism (2 detentions) and I got an additional detention for being 1-2 minutes late three times (if you see above, you will find that this is completely out of my control).
MY ISSUE: Due to my good grades and intense focus on school, my parents allow me to go to whatever school I want, even if it has a tuition rate of $7500 a year. I don’t want to have 4-5 hours of homework every night, do my very best to get good grades, and still get in trouble for unimportant things. I understand “plagiarism” is no laughing matter, but it was a false accusation and I worked very hard on the project. I don’t want to switch to public school because I have terrible anxiety and I wouldn’t know as many people and I feel like online learning is far too secluded than what I’m hoping for.
Do I stick out the many detentions at my private school, push through my anxiety and go to a public school, or retreat back to online learning?