An Open Letter

Dear Public School,

Throughout my childhood, I was often encouraged by your teachers, but never by your system. It was a rare day that I was not late for class because I was too tired to get out of bed, despite having gone to bed early and class starting at 8. My mother fought to get me out of bed to go to school every single day. Anywhere from 2 to 4 times a week I would get out of school with a headache (diagnosed in 1st Grade as migraines). When I went to the nurse I was often accused of faking it to get out of class. Why would a child fake such inexplicable pain?

Well, public school, I was recently diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, a syndrome I was probably born with, or which developed very early in my childhood. The symptoms include mind-boggling migraines, and relentless fatigue. Instead of trying to help a sick child, you accused them of faking being sick. There's no need to explain why my parents put me in private school come 6th Grade.

So all those days where I threw up and the nurse sent me back to class because I was "just faking it," or all those days when my body hurt too much to get out of bed and the school told my mother "it's just growing pains," it was really Fibromyalgia. A syndrome which went undiagnosed until I was almost 21 and the symptoms because so bad that I was in the hospital every other week. This says nothing to your education standards, which I also do not agree with. But maybe next time you have a sick child on your hands, or one that complains that they're still tired after 14 hours of sleep, or their entire body hurts at the age of 9, maybe you should suggest that their parents look into it. Never accuse a child of faking it. It makes them not trust people, especially those of authority.

Sincerely,
A Former Student

P.S. When I left your system, I hated school. I never wanted to do anything. Private school helped me through my problems and I graduated at the top of Washington State with Academic Scholarship offers from schools across the country. Could you have done that for a sick child? Probably not.