so yeah i have a major rant.
my school has kicked me off student council. they accused me of cheating on a quiz and i had nothing to do with it. i dont want to go into specifics because everytime i talk about it, i get really upset. yeah im really bitter, and i hate the school so much right now. perhaps there is a reason behind all this, but its hard for me to accept this consequence, for something i didnt do.
instead of me typing out everything that happened, im gonna just paste the letter i wrote to the principal of the school, except that im not going to be giving it to her. its basically explaining everything that happened. essentially, ive talked to my student council moderator and she believes me, and thats the greatest news.. but other than that, yeah i dont know what im gonna be doing with my time this year and next year without student council.
here goes.
(its really long!)

Dear Sister Joan,
I have come to you with this issue because, since you are the principal of our school, perhaps you will understand my predicament. This is a personal letter and testimony to you, because I am not sure whom else I can approach about this matter. Let me start from the beginning: In Spanish class, period 5, when Mrs. Nelson asked us to turn in our listening quizzes, I collected them because I sit in the front seat of our row. While holding the papers in my left hand, I turn to my left to collect Jessica’s paper because she hadn’t turned hers in yet. At this point, Mrs. Nelson says that Jessica and I were cheating, like Jessica was copying answers down, and I was saying something to Jessica. I cannot remember for the world of me what I said to Jessica, but if I had told her any answers, I would remember something as important as that, but because I do not remember what I said, then I am sure I did not give her any answers. Mrs. Nelson then said to us that she needed to speak to us after class when she saw that happen. We went up to Mrs. Nelson and Jessica began speaking first, she said something along the lines of how it has been a tough week from her and she has had tests in all her classes and she was very stressed out. I was in shock at the fact that Mrs. Nelson thought I was cheating and so I said Mrs. Nelson, I don’t know what happened but it wont happen again. Mrs. Nelson then said that Jessica could go, but I had to stay. She then told me that I was her homeroom rep and that it’s a concern for me because I hold an office. In my mind, I am thinking why in the world I would put my office at stake over a small listening quiz. The bell was about to ring for the next class so I quickly hurry to my math class. Once there I realized that Mrs. Nelson honestly thought I was cheating, but I was only collecting papers and coincidentally the papers were in my left hand and perhaps in Jessica’s view. This worried me throughout the rest of the day and through lunch. My 1st hour class is chemistry and I go to chemistry after lunch. In chemistry Ms. Reil asks me if I am okay, and I reply no not really. And she asks me if I have allergies (my face was red because I had been crying) and I reply no again. We carry on with class, and Mrs. Moore comes into the class and asks for me to come with her, I walk towards her and then she says I need to bring my things with me. I go and pack up my backpack and start walking with her. She tells me that I have been sent to the Dean’s office. I get scared when I hear that I am being sent there, because I am not one to get into trouble. I say to Mrs. Moore that I think I know what it is about and ask her if Jessica has been sent for as well. I do not recall Mrs. Moore’s response, but we walked through the computer lab and towards the Dean’s office. The dean sees me and calls me by my name and signals for me to head into the Martori conference room. I do as she says and sit down at a chair indicated by her. Mrs. Nelson comes and sits down and so does the dean. I am not sure if the assistant dean, Ms. Whitlow is present or not yet, because I was not aware if she was or not. I think she came in at a later point. The dean explains to me that she is going to tell me something that she tells everyone she deals with. She says there are 2 ways to approach things, the first way is the honorable way, when the person admits to what she has done, accepts the consequences and moves on. The second way is the dishonorable way, when the person does not admit what she has done, plays mind and word games and it is distasteful for the person listening to hear this way. I acknowledge what she says because I agree with her. She next asks me what I had said to Jessica when I turned around with the papers in my hand. This is the part that caught me by surprise because I could not remember what I had said to her. I frowned and started thinking of what in the world I could have said to her. I tell the dean that I cannot remember and she asks me again what I said to Jessica. Personally, I can understand why the dean would think I was not telling the truth, because anyone else who had done it would have said they didn’t know either. I say again that I do not know what I said because if it had been something specific like an answer to a question, then I would have remembered saying something like that. The dean (and I think the assistant dean is in the room by now) say they do not understand what I am saying, and I had no idea how else to tell them what I meant that I give up on that approach. Things get a little blurry because I have started crying. I think the dean keeps asking me if what I said to Jessica, I say I don’t remember, and soon she gets up and goes into her office, and I think Mrs. Moore sits with me in the room. The chronology of events might be a little mixed up because I don’t remember exactly which part happened when. The dean comes back and asks me if I had shown Jessica the papers, I say no. I did not show her the papers. The dean responds with something about playing word games. I did not show her the papers, but if she had seen what was written on the papers when I was holding them in my hand to collect, then I had not shown her the papers, she had just seen what was written on them. I would also like to say that it was not my paper that was on top of the stack, because I had placed mine at the bottom. So if Jessica had seen any papers whatsoever, the paper she saw did not belong to me. The dean asks me if I had shown her the papers again and I say no. She goes out of the room and comes back later and asks again if I had said anything to Jessica or shown her the papers (or a question like that, I do not remember the exact question) and I say no again. Then the dean says that somebody is lying. In my thoughts I feel that the dean is trying to get me to admit to doing something I had not done and that the honorable way was to admit to it and accept the consequence. I feel that the only way to get the dean to stop asking me if I had done it or not, was to say that I did, so it could be an honorable thing to do, even though I was lying by saying that I had done it. The dean asks me if I did it, and I said yes, so she would not continue thinking that I was being dishonorable. I wanted her to see that I did not want to be a dishonorable person so I “admit” that I had done it so she would stop asking me if I did it or not. She asks me if I had cheated, and I said yes, and then she asked if I had shown the papers, and I said yes, and she told me to re iterate it. So I said “ok I cheated, she cheated, we cheated.” I felt that she had finally gotten me to say what she wanted to hear from the beginning and she asks me why I didn’t say that from the start, and instead of saying how I actually didn’t do it and I was only saying I had done it so she would stop asking, so I responded with a “ I was scared”. They also tell me that this will not go down on my college transcripts and that it will be erased from the computer once I leave Xavier next year. At this point, I think they issued me my punishment, which would be straight from the handbook. I would receive four hours of Saturday detention, a zero on the quiz, a disciplinary notice sent home and removal from my student council office. This removal from office was the biggest blow to me because it means the world to me to be on student council and help out with fostering class spirit and school spirit. This news is devastating and I remain in the conference room with Ms. Whitlow, while she tries to console me. I ask her if I should just stop going to the meetings and stop doing homeroom announcements and her responses are negative. I break down in tears because I cannot imagine not doing those things, which have become a part of me. I am allowed to leave and I go to my locker and just sit crying from the shock and agony from which not being a part of student council makes me feel. I call my father and he comes to pick me up, however when he arrives, he sees me sobbing so I tell him what had happened and he insisted on going to talk to the dean. We go back to the office building and Mrs. Kienow lets the dean know that my father wants to speak with her. We go back into the conference room and this is when my father tells the dean that he believes I would not jeopardize my office by doing something as foolish as letting someone copy answers. Just recently I have been elected to become part of the executive board student council next year, and while fully bearing this in mind, I would not have done something as serious as this to threaten my position. I know fully well that cheating constitutes disciplinary action and it is not something I would have done because my office was at stake. The dean reads what Ms. Whitlow had written down during our previous meeting, where it states that I had “admitted” to committing the offence. I explain to the dean my real intention, which was to “admit” to the offence (even though I hadn’t done it) so it would the honorable thing to do, as she had said. By this point I knew that no matter what I said, it was not going to be helpful at all, since this part of the conversation had not been recorded. Now as I sit here writing this testimony, I acknowledge that my decision making skills when placed in a pressured environment with a questioning dean at hand, were not very clear because I made the decision to say I had committed the offence when I had actually had not. In that situation, I could not distinguish if I had made the right decision to “change my mind” and say I had shown papers to the girl sitting behind me or continue sticking with my truth. I felt that if I had continued sticking to my truth that the dean would continue thinking I was being dishonorable, and that is not what I wanted her to think at all. My father does not seem to understand why I would make that decision, but at that point in time, sitting in the conference room, it seemed like the right thing to do. I admit now that it was not the wisest of choices, but I earnestly hope that someone will believe me. I will take my punishment but my only plea is for somebody to reconsider my office as a student council officer. My heart crumbles from knowing that I cannot be on student council because being on student government means the world to me and I would do anything for the school through student council and it is basically like my life because I spend a lot of time working on projects with my student council girls. I cannot imagine my life and high school days without student council because it has become a part of me and now that it is taken from me, it is absolutely the biggest pain I have ever had to bear. Under the heading of Cheating in the handbook it states all the consequences that were expressed to me except for the one that says removal from student government. I scoured through the handbook, only to find that it is stated in the handbook that any serious offence that is committed results in removal from office. To my dismay, my hope that I can remain on student council has been squashed and I am disheartened over the fact that one of my highest priorities in school (which includes getting good grades) is being taken from me, when I did not commit the offence for that resulting dismissal from office. Please, I beseech you, to reconsider this decision made, and this is all I ask, from the bottom of my heart. I thank you so much for taking time to read this, and I hope you will reconsider this issue. Thank you and God Bless.

Yours truly and sincerely,
Holly Lim

there you go, everything that happened, written from my heart. i was crying while i wrote it, yeah very emotional time for me. i didnt withhold any names. for those that do not know, dean= discipline mistress. and it all happened on thursday april 10th. yeah and i cried for about 2 days straight. i hate them for doing this to me. student council is my life and they've taken it away from me. after working on student council for about 2 years, its all gone, in one day. this year, since august ive been helping to plan prom and about one month before the actual prom night and the result of all that hard work? poof. gone.
im completely and utterly bitter.
im done.