Jackson was worse than I ever imagined

When I published “Jackson” early this week, about experiencing violence in that school, I felt sure even at the time that I wasn’t the only kid who had been harmed there. I had no idea of the scope and depth of what went on in that building. I shared this article on Facebook (limited to friends only, in case you follow me there). The responses came in from classmates — dozens of them. What they described went far beyond what I experienced. A girl molested by five boys near the cafeteria and locked in a locker for two class periods. A boy punched in the head in a hallway by a stranger — he believes brass knuckles were involved. A girl stabbed in the ankles with a pin protruding from another student’s shoe. A boy who had sulfuric acid poured on his chair, burning through his jeans and underwear. Girls groped on the stairways. Boys extorted for lunch money and punched in the gut in restrooms. A girl choked by her sweatshirt hood in the hallway, tripped, groped, punched. A boy so stressed…