“The Weight We Carry”: A Teenager Addresses a Violent and Unsupportive Ninth-Grade School Year

• In Event: Bordering Difference and Reimagining Inclusive Futures: Global Struggles Toward Intersectional Justice

Abstract

Objectives
The objective of this paper is to unpack what we experienced as a worst-case scenario for a student with disabilities: a school year marked by violence, lies, and trauma. Through a peace-building lens, we explore how others might navigate such situations and the systemic conditions that produce them. The paper examines the sociocultural, political, and institutional mechanisms that perpetuate harm and how students experience these dynamics through their intersectional identities. Centering my teen voice provides the perspective of a student living this reality, while my parents highlight the tensions between professed school–family partnerships and systemic resistance to authentic collaboration.

Theoretical Framework
This paper draws on multiple frameworks, focusing on how families respond when they find themselves in a school environment they can only describe as “evil.” Drawing from M. Scott Peck’s People of the Lie: The Hope for Human Evil (1983), we explore how institutional harm manifests when adults attack others rather than face their own failures. Trauma-informed teaching offers guidance for healing the emotional damage caused by such environments, while Restorative Justice provides pathways to re-engage with schools that have failed students and families. Together, these frameworks expose the emotional and ethical dimensions of institutional violence and possibilities for repair.

Methods
We employ autoethnography to analyze our lived experience, blending self-narration with cultural critique. Scholarly personal narrative informs our approach by emphasizing the connection between personal stories and social insight, while transformative narratives (Kenyon & Randall, 1997) guide us to write with emotional honesty as a means of fostering self-awareness and change.

Data Sources
Our analysis draws on an extensive archive of the school year, including email communications, text messages, letters, and primary documents. We also incorporate insights from nationally recognized education and special education scholars who offered guidance and commentary during the events. Central to the study are the lived experiences of the three co-authors: a youth scholar and her two fathers, whose perspectives as a disability studies scholar and a veteran community activist enrich the analysis.

Results
The paper presents primary documents that reveal the gaslighting and violence perpetrated against a ninth-grade student. We define typologies of institutional violence that, when taken together, offer a framework for understanding how a school can embody systemic harm and “evilness.”

Scholarly Significance
This work contributes a rare perspective by centering the voice of a youth scholar in disability rights and inclusion. It highlights the emotional, cultural, and political dimensions of school–family relationships and the systemic barriers to authentic partnership. By combining lived experience with critical analysis, the paper advances Disability Studies in Education and peace-building approaches, offering practical and theoretical insights into negotiating worst-case educational scenarios while envisioning pathways for healing and justice.

Authors

• Helena Donato-Sapp, Vistamar School

• Erwin Dionisio Donato, Independent Scholar

• Jeff Sapp, California State University - Dominguez Hills