In the first or second month of my eighth grade, I found an x-acto knife on the ground outside the school in the morning. It was normal for kids to arrive earlier than school hours began and hang out in front, usually forming friend groups. I just held it up my sleeve as I made my way to my friend group. I also wore long, baggy sleeves so this wasn’t even really something I had to go out of my way to do.

When I got to my friends, being a dumb kid, I showed them all as a “hey look what I found” kind of deal. After they all saw it, I put it into my backpack. School was starting.

First period of school, an adult comes into the class and asks me to come with them. They take me to my locker where they open it and search it and find the x-acto knife. They asked me what I was doing with it, and I was honest, I said I found it that morning. They bring me to the office and bring my parents in, they had to leave work to do so.

They sit us all down and tell us that another student accused me of threatening them with the knife, as in, threatening to use it to do physical harm. I most certainly did not, but they weren’t really interested in any excuses and said I have two options: join this boot-camp-esque disciplinary program which involved a ton of bullshit like forced attire, forced haircut, forced schedule, and more; or I could be expelled for the entire school year.