Academic Struggles, Social Conflicts, and Institutional Challenges

School is often seen as a place for learning and growth, but for many, it’s also filled with challenges, drama, and difficult experiences. These school stories highlight the struggles students face, from academic pressure and social conflicts to teacher issues and administrative failures.

Some of the most dramatic school stories involve students struggling to keep up with overwhelming workloads, dealing with unfair grading, or navigating conflicts with teachers or classmates. Whether it’s a student being overlooked or a disciplinary issue blown out of proportion, these situations can turn a simple day at school into an emotional rollercoaster.

Other stories focus on the systemic issues within schools, including outdated policies, lack of resources, or bullying that goes unaddressed. These experiences can leave students and parents feeling frustrated and powerless, turning what should be a place of learning into a source of stress and anxiety.

If you're interested in the drama and challenges of school life, these stories of academic struggles, social conflicts, and institutional failures offer a candid look at the realities of the education system.

Does she hate me?
School Stories

My best friend recently just changed out of nowhere and now I think she hates me. I asked her if she was fine when we were walking to class and she just snapped at me. And once I asked her to be in a group with us for a project with some other friends and she said yes so I was surprised that she wasn’t going with her other good friend and she was like “do you not want me in your group?” Am I js overthinking or does she not wanna be friends anymore?

the eye contact
School Stories

so I'm in uni and there's this one guy who's annoying. and when I say annoying he is extremely annoying. very confident in himself, socialises quite well with everyone ( in a way where they all joke about him not doing work and he claims he does work - he does the work, mostly, he knows what's happening and is just lazy I believe-- a lot of the people go to him to ask him if their answers are right --he gets the answers from previous year students)

I, as a shy person, hardly speak to him or even look at him. I'm there, quitely getting my work and struggling on my own. I wonder if he even knows my name. another reason why I don't speak to him is that I've been in groups with him before and it wasn't very pleasant - ego, and all stuff I can't find the words for right now

point is- he was presenting with his group the other day, and I was observing how he was making faces at this girl in his group who kinda messed up the introduction of the presentation. I was like she's nervous, it's not that deep, why is he getting so annoyed. I ended up making eye contact with him and I looked away cuz now why not ( the type to think all girls like him and if you constantly make eye contact it means the same)

when I was presenting, a girl next to me volunteered to answer the lecturers question and he was looking in our direction with weird curiousity and smile/smirk idk on his. then I realised oh maybe it's cuz they volunteered to answer and save the group or he thinks they nerdy idk. later, the same girl next to me told me that when we both presented our parts, he listened and constantly nodded in agreement to our points , and for the others , he had his earphones on and was glued to his phone. I was like okay well it doesn't have to mean anything

few days later, when the same girl and I were walking to the lecture room, he was sitting on the side and I saw him literally following us (with eyes) as we walked. the girl and I are like whatt even.

a day later, we had to work together again amongst others, and other groups were discussing and working together, but mine was just quiet. so I was like looking around to see ..guys are we gonna work together or what. and I looked at him . eye contact. and the actual point here is . his eyes says something, shows some sense of emotion but what's working on me is that I cant figure out what the eyes are showing.it feels like there's so much being spoken in those seconds. like hes thinking so much and what is actually going through his head? what is he thinking? is he looking at me with disgust? superiority? it doesn't look like it. it looks something soft. or mocking sometimes? in the sense that he is well confident in himself, life sorted, socialises. firstly, I'm shy and he hardly even heard my voice or saw me, so what I'm questioning is that why are his eyes like that 😭. and why am I overthinking all this. and I'm not into all this liking and having a crush and all so please don't jump to these thoughts😭 it's just really irritating not knowing what's he thinking and also irritating to want to know what he's thinking.

really sorry for such a long story, don't know how to summarise. I need a solution. I can't keep feeling shy with people first of all. and why must I feel weak and break the eye contact and feel weird about what he's saying with his eyes.

I don't know.

another letter to myself
School Stories

(what? these letters to myself actually really help. You should try it.)

Hey me,

I see you in homeroom, blasting Letdown through your earbuds. I'm doing the same thing. Marching Band yesterday was crazy, wasn't it? Last year's Spring Trainings weren't that fun! I don't remember playing Sharks and Minnows and Red Light Green Light last year, do you?

Anyway. I know seeing Skyler again hurt. I still don't know why he stopped talking to you. He's a bit of an asshole, you know? But at least you have Kiara, and your cousin, and sometimes Kris. Maybe, eventually, even Greysi or Lillian. And Lauren seems to like you decently. You don't need Skyler, do you?

I know you really liked him. But you're over him now, aren't you? I know I am.

And you can have just as much fun at the Marhing Band car wash without him. I know, being friends with him made it more fun, but you don't need a boy like him to have fun. You'll make new friends. And like I said, you have Kiara.

I know he hurt you really bad when he started ignoring you. I get it. Things like that hurt. And now, it just adds to what your school "friends" have been doing to you. But trust me, you don't need him. And things like that never last forever. My guess is that he was friends with you while he liked you, and when he stopped liking you, he didn't see any point in being your friend anymore. Boys have weird logic like that. I swear I will never understand them.

I know things seem bad right now, because soon you're gonna have to see him two to three times every week, but you'll get over him completely. I promise. We're gonna get through this. We're stronger than you think we are. Heck, we're probably stronger than I think we are.

You got this,

You.

My school life
School Stories

Hi I am Amelia and I would like to share my story, so on the first day of starting my new school i was hated for no particular reason I got through the day by myself and I got home and had a friend request of a boy from my year in school and it said “listen hear new girl who even are you” and I said “there is no need to be rude to me i haven’t done anything wrong to you but I’m Amelia you?” And he said “none of your business” and I said “okay then ima block you” and he said “do that and I will rape you” and I have BPD so I got mad quickly so the next day in school I saw him I went up to him and I said “go on then rape me” and he said “fuck off you slut” and I didn’t even say nothing back I threw a punch and knocked him out with one punch I got excluded and became the most hated person in my school when I went home after my exclusion I had death threat messages of girls and boys from my school telling me to kill myself and slit my wrists and sick things like that and as I have BPD I am very sensitive so I listened to them yes I slit my wrists yes I attempted to kill myself, nobody noticed apart from my English teacher who is now one of my favourite teacher she pulled me out of class as she noticed all of the scars on my wrists and she said “Amelia I know we haven’t really spoken before but you know i am always here for you” and from that day we have this connection between us like someone actually understood what I was going through and yes I still struggle really badly with my mental health yes I still hurt myself but at least I know I can always go and speak to my English teacher she is the only friend I have and is my best friend, in primary school I suffered with severe bullying because of how I looked I weren’t the most good looking kid when I was younger and all of this on top as at home it was the worst I was abused by my parents and had nobody to talk to, and home was an escape from school but school was an escape from home, to this day I haven’t told anybody how much I am struggling I am holding on for dear life debating wether or not I should let go.

Drama in drama
School Stories

(All the names in this story are fake names) so basically i am in year 11 and i am 15 years old and i just had a drama exam and we were doing a scene from the play the dawn raids (if u dont know what the dawn raids are just search it up) and i was originally in a group with exchange students and this girl called Abigail but then my teacher swapped the groups because they were leaving before the drama exam so me Abigail, Elle, Sue, Kayla and me were put in a group i was happy because Elle was my best friend from primary school, Abigail i just met so I didn’t really know anything about her, Sue i just met her but she has autism so i knew i had to help her a little bit with the lines, Kayla she was an exchange student but unlike the others she was here for the whole year, anyway so Abigail was sick when the scene and roles were decided and because our scene had three characters mr said were had to repeat the same scene but sue would play the cop in both plays the week after this Elle was in Aussie and Abigail was sick still so Kayla, sue and i practised the scene and did the blocking and there was a specific move that only my group had anyway a few days away from exam day Elle, Abigail and sue were practicing then my exchange student friend Yasmine was all along since her group left so I offered her to play the cop in my scene as in me and Kayla then the group of five of us split up into two groups one group containing Abigail,Elle and sue then the other was containing me Kayla and Yasmine so the exam day comes and we perform my group does well and there were like two other groups including Elle, Abigail and Sue so this move was basically the only way that our group stood out and it separated us from the other two groups doing the same scene and then the next monday my drama teacher was like because half of the groups didn’t do that well I’m extending it so we’re just going to pretend that Friday was a dress rehearsal so my group was like okay whatever we’re going to do it again and on Monday we performed to get feedback so the next lesson which was on Tuesday we were going to put the feedback that we got from our classmate and teacher, to try to perfect it and so I was just standing outside waiting for my group members to meet me where we normally practice outside and their Elle Abigail and Sue were practising their soon and at this point my group was out and I was just watching and then I saw them use the move that separated us from the other groups and so me and my group walked away to the other ping-pong table and I’m just like did you see that like they used to move and after about half an hour I rack up the courage to tell elle about it and it takes me awhile because I’m not a confrontational person so I tell her and I’m like hey we don’t like that you the move because it’s the only thing that separates us and mix a stand like apart from the other two groups and she’s like okay I can tell Abigail but you have to be with me and I’m like fine because although I’m not confrontational and I didn’t want to do it I know that I had to compromise otherwise nothing was going to get sorted out so I so I walk behind Elle and then Elle I feel like for me under the bus and it’s like Abigail Eve has something to say to you and I stare at Elle so i sorta felt betrayed and angry anyway so I don’t look Abigail in the eye and I just look at the floor and then I know that I should’ve been louder but I talked quietly and explain our reasoning. The next day I am in math and I tell my friends about what happened as I wanted advice and I want to vent and then my friend Blake was like I have her next period for media they share the same media studies class do you want me to ask her about it and I’m like sure whatever so Blake tells Abigail about it and media and then Abigail emails me but I didn’t see that till third period in science when I had to send an email to a teacher and so I respond to her email and I say not anything against you it’s just I feel like this move separates us from the other two groups and our scene was hard to block because of like it was outside and like these two people are walking but there isn’t really anything else to do with it other than walk and sit so we were really angry and upset and disappointed that our move got stolen and basically when I talk to Abigail she was like we thought of it like when we were a group altogether collectively and I’m like no we didn’t as you were sick and Elle was in Aussie and and she said that we were gatekeeping the move but as I see we weren’t keeping it for the sake of gatekeeping it gatekept it because it was the only move that separated us so anyway after that we had like drama last period and Elle comes up to me and it’s like I want to sort this out can we please talk to Mr and I’m like I’m fine with that but you have to talk to Abigail about it so Elle goes up to Abigail and they talk for about five minutes then Elle comes back to me and it’s like Abigail said that we won’t use that anymore and I’m like sweet okay cool and so it goes another group then it’s Abigail Elle and Sue go before us and they use the move and then Mr asked if like getting one more sound and stuff and like lighting for a part of their group came up with doing siren lights and a siren sound effect for when the cop comes in and Abigail must’ve heard that and then she used that as well as the move that she said that they wouldn’t use

Dear me

I Remember when you were 11 excited and nervous to go to college A on your first day. Excited to make new friends, meet new people and teachers, yet nervous as you wondered about how hard it would be as it is a big step up from year 6 but u kept telling yourself don’t worry you will be fine or so u thought.

You were 12 now in year 8 thinking it would stay the same…well boy were you wrong,

everything Changed the friend group broke apart, lonely lunch’s sitting by myself, rumours spiralling, friends distancing themselves,people staring as you pass them through the hallways and fake friends asking what’s your sexuality trying to find out if the rumors were true and then there was you feeling hurt,betrayed and crap about myself. you wondered if things would change? Or if it would effect you more than it already had.

now you were 13 in year 9 dreading to walk through those gates again knowing that you were the most hated student in your year, the rumors still spiralling except now i liked my best friend the thought of me liking her in that way is weird and unsettling,

Classmates always asking are you if you And your best friend secretly dating you would always respond with no even if i was dating her I wouldn’t tell u as its none of your business. You was really badly affected by this that a lot of the time you faked sick as you really dreaded and hated coming to school and even if you did come to school u could feel the eyes constantly staring at you making you squirm in your seat as if u really really had to pee it was really uncomfortable and you feel numb and depressed inside but on the outside you had a happy and smiley forcade. Every night you wished and dreamt that things would get better.

Year ten rolls around and you get good news you’re in a class with my second cousin and you think finally i get someone to sit with during class but it turns out you sit by yourself again and you feel alone and isolated again for the third year in a row. You take French drama and business studies as your extra subjects, in French you sit alone nobody talks to you unless they have to, when you have to get in to buddies or groups you always find yourself alone the only one without a partner or a group and you think to yourself they hate me am i a bad person? Do i not deserve acknowledgment? Your French teacher always sees you alone and makes me join another group beside you or join Evie (fake name) who has some syndrome and is hard to understand when she speaks as her words slur together and she is as quiet as a mouse, and it was just horrible i had no friends in that class nobody to talk too and nobody to acknowledge me. Drama was ok you liked your teacher there were some popular people in your class but they avoided you and you avoided them. But when you came to assessments you were always the last one to get chosen its like dodgeball in those high school movies where you are the last on that hasn’t been chosen and balls get pelted at you I remember when u had nobody for your Shakespeare performance and the only people available were my internationale friends i joined up with one of them but she was leaving back to japan a week befor the assessment so at the last minute me and the other exchange student had to learn a script off by heart but we also had to do blocking for it a day before the assessment but you were used to it at that point. A few months later you and your mum had a fight about something stupid and you felt crap about yourself again and this time you followed your instincts and did something bad when your mum saw she freaked out and u bursted out crying you cried so much it was like your tears flooded the room as you tell your mum about your school life At A. what feels like the worst part of your life then turns to the best part of your life as u go from rock bottom too the highest of highes as your mum said that you can move schools to B. again like at your first day at A you are nervous and excited.

now 15 and in year 11 you are very luckily and grateful as you find your place there and make new friends, you even met a old very good friend from primary school there and you cry in her arms as you haven’t seen your best friend in 3 years and you made really good friends there and you are much happier at B than A although you still struggle mentally you are a lot better.

I hate school. It stresses me the heck out and I get social anxiety so when I have a presentation or something I either fake sick or just start crying. me and my friend both struggle with some mental health problems and it does NOT help in school at all. EVER. anyways school is really hard and its 6 freaking hours which is so so so so so so so long to just sit there and learnnnnnn

I was receuited on my school bus my lowerclass people saying they needed eyes in my class especially on one student and i was like sure fine... Fiture me is kind of regretting it. But this society is completly founded and powered by people in a lower class than me. But they aint joking, had me sign a whole official document(i read it) and now i hate to follow the commanding people and the mysterious authority person. Its a simple group tho, we just gather information on people for fun, which is tasked by the commanding people(founders) and sometime get revenge if deemed worthy and funny thing, managed to get one of the founders to admit he used chat gpt for punctuation and complex words😔✋

2024, it was at the time when school was ending. I put on my school uniform: Socks, t-shirt, skirt and a bright red cardigan before brushing my hair in the mirror. I hated how I looked, it was hideous, but at least the school year was about to end! I walk into my classroom there wasn't much to do since all of our lessons are basically over I would go over to my two friends, I wasn't so fond of the other. Actually I hated her, she bullied me for 4 years and expects me to be her friend? The other is the one I absolutely adore they're just so perfect! I sit down with them but I can feel the one I hate (nickname: CM) hand go down to touch my thigh, it was a light touch but I thought nothing of it. But soon the thigh touching would get more and more aggressive, frequent and more up my thigh. I thought I was free from that uncomfortableness when the school holidays hit but once we got back into school things escalated more and at break CM said to me "Let me touch your b00bs 5 times and I'll give you my blade" CM knew about my self harm and used it to bribe me, I said no at first but soon enough she persuaded me to do it and then. It became a daily thing, she would touch my breasts and even pinch my nipple's, at first I said "No! Stop" to her but she wouldn't listen and it got to the point where I had to forcefully try to get her off me. Then it turned into putting her hands in my v@gina and I told her to stop, I almost felt my insides getting ripped apart, I almost cried. CM would do this on daily basis but then soon I lost hope, I started to not retailate or saying "no" I sat there and let it happen. I just dissociated...

Fast forward now CM isn't allowed to interact with me but yet I can still feel her hands on me, I have constant nightmares about it and I can't look at my school uniform without crying.

I want to report it to the police but my friend says not to because we are underage and they won't take us seriously, also if we wait until we're over 18 then we can get her a proper sentence. My only problem is that I'm not going to be making it to 18, definitely not. I don't know what to do anymore, I feel hopeless. What should I do?

Well I wouldn't say anything ACTUAL stalker but I have this classmate and I'll say another story(s??) about them... Anyways I had talked to a therapist about this classmate we'll call them "CM" (for classmate) and CM was just a genuinely horrible person to me AND my best friend (SUB bc if an inside joke) , I'll go into more depth about that in another story back to it the therapist emailed my school to tell them about what was happening. After a week (it was school holidays then) I went back to school and in th afternoon then schools SafeGuarding Officer (nickname: SG) and SG pulled me into his office to have a chat to me, I told him some stuff and back to class I go and then CM gets called after me and now me and SUB are talking worried for our LIVES then SG pulls over to get SUB and I'm left alone with CM and she starts saying "I feel so bad for me and [SUB]" bc she thinks I'm mad at both of them not us mad at her.

After that we stopped talking but then she started talking to me again and I felt hopeless to stop it, this has happened to MANY times before... Weeks go by and I hear nothing about it.

A month goes by and we're talking again untill SG does the same thing as last time, THEN he gets all the three of us. We start discussing things and then SG said that CM can't talk to me nor SUB in and out of school, we was having THE TIME OF OUR LIVES untill SUB got a comment on their yt saying "hi my name is Ava... if you even care" so then SUB started talking to them and "Ava" started venting to them and soon enough reaveled that they were apart of a discord server and is a moderator, the person who created it was .... CM!! SUB felt really unsafe due to this and deleted EVERY video they made, and changed everything. A few days ago on my ticktok account I saw that there was a comment which had a VERY fake looking username and a pfp that fitted CM's humour, I knew immediately it was CM's alternative account but the comment said "hello I think there is somebody talking about you [insert username]" so I searched up the username and it was EXACTLY like SUB's yt account, impersonating them!! But a vid made a few hours ago wasn't copied and instead was gossiping about me by calling me fat even though both of them know I have Bulimia. I knew it was CM trying to frame

heyyy guysss
School Stories

who needs a bestie?? I miss someone

So I was at school today, and there is this one guy named Sebastien— the school bully who bullies girls, tugs their hairs and you know the rest. He forced Maverick to give him the orange juice Maverick was drinking himself, and he got really mad, and didn’t want to give the juice to Sebastien. So what he did was, he went to the washroom, poured the juice out and replaced it with tap water, then he added some crushed Doritos inside and dipped a yellow highlighter in the tap water. And ON THE NEXT DAY SEBASTIEN DRANK THE SOLUTION like bro’s crazy

Maverick prepared crushed crayons to put in someone’s drink as well— someone who he didn’t like as a backup plan. No one had the urge to snitch, and things are getting scarier😭

Failed to study
School Stories

It's currently 7:35 and today i have not 1 but 2 important tests. And i've spent the last 2 days frying my brain trying to study, and kinda failed miserably. For one i'm kinda ok-ish? For the other i'm honestly doomed.

So i'm gonna have to study some more in the hours before because Yesterday i couldn't go on, my brain literally mush. Worse yet? Tomorrow i have 2 more tests that i have to study for this afternoon. This period has been really hard for me cause i'm badly burnt out and really tired and my grades now are kinda bad. I feel like an idiot cause i never had this many problems in school but also i just want to get passing grades and just end this period or this year entirely. I'm so so tired.

Hope you have a nice day stranger ❤️

my life going down
School Stories

ever since 2025 school year started ive just been at the lowest point of my entire life, with the accumulations of series of events. i dont have anywhere that i belong unlike my peer with different commitments, positions and etc. it doesnt help that i have no talent whatsoever, i dont excel in any aspect of life as well. i just feel like a good for nothing person thats just simply alive, i do have the best and most amazing people around me but I just can't help but feel extremely lonely at times. i used to have a commited club but after a series of betrayal and backstabbing ive basically just got ridiculed out of the club for just trying to do my best to work with the others. Just the past week I got accused of being a bully whilst ive always just minded my own business and never cared about the way others are because i know im not one to even comment on them. I've always tried to avoid trouble, tried to avoid conflict, tried to just be the nicest version of myself to others but why does this stuff keep happening to me? why do i constantly get painted as a villain when I really just want to find my own peace? I really just want to find myself again and feel happy without any lingering concerns or conflicts for once, at this point i really just want to get out of highschool and start over with my life again, even better without being in the same school as the people that hated me for idk what reason. i hope i can hang on as its just 6 months away? from grad i really cannot wait but ill miss my friends fr :(

I never wanted to go to the class trip, and frankly no one ever forced me, but my mom just signed me up and said she will NOT find out about how she can cancel it. My mom has a tendency of being very emotional and hysterical at times, and she really made a mess about that whole thing. And if you know the stress of contacting a teacher, let alone one that is anxious about not having enough people on the trip... Yeah, I folded.

I didn't expect such betrayal from mom, but I went on the trip nonetheless, I had no choice. And, it was pretty much what I expected.

I can't say I'm actively bullied in this school in particular, but the way I've been acting throughout middle school has sealed my reputation as a really easy-to-hurt clumsy softie that constantly needs to be taken care of. Though that narrative really died down recently, and it would've stayed decaying had it not been for this trip and a reunion with an ex-classmate that left a year ago and therefore still had that perception of me. My one friend and the one I'm just okay with constantly hang with that one guy and I really feel left out.

This niche little thing matters to me so much I can't not cry. Every day also feels excruciatingly long, the trip lasts a week, and it's only my second day! I can't leave early, cause I'm in a different fucking city, so I'm just kinda trapped bubbling up my emotions here texting it all away in this one forum!

I also have to mention this is all during a WEEK-LONG SCHOOL BREAK. Like, I'm not even skipping school by attending this, just ruining a bunch of free time I've REALLY been needing! I have a song to write, videos to make, and a lot more I've felt like doing for a LONG while without having the opportunity to do so. This could've been my chance, but alas, I suppose my life's been a bit too great, and it had to have been ruined somehow.

Thanks for reading, it matters a lot, truly