Hailey

My name is Hailey Finnerty. Recently, I received my HiSet, marking the end of my high school education. But once, I attended High School, I was going to classes and hanging out with my friends like any other teenager. That all ended in 2019 when I was forced to withdraw from school. Today I’d like to discuss the necessity for guidance counselors to receive robust training on mental health conditions beyond just anxiety and depression, including PTSD. 4% of students across America suffer from PTSD, and I happened to be one of them.

In the beginning, my adoptive father was abusive. The repercussions of the abuse led me to develop post-traumatic stress disorder, better known as PTSD.

With the support of a friend, I found the strength to turn my father into the authorities at the end of middle school. After a short recovery, I was excited about high school. I wanted to start over and escape the past that 8th grade now represented, though I wasn’t prepared for what came next.

Not only did my mind turn against me, but so did several classmates. My teachers, on the other hand, did not. Mr. Johnson, a teacher I admired, told me I could be more than my past but my symptoms became magnified with time, leading me to disbelieve what he said. Dissociations, flashbacks, and panic attacks ruled my everyday life.

On top of that, I was relentlessly bullied. I was called names such as weird, fat, and of course, crazy. Feeling alone and hurt, I turned to my mother who depended on the school for help. At first, the administration did their best to help come up with systems to remove me from classes due to frequent dissociations that resembled seizures. But their plans were simply not enough. When all else failed, my mother was told by the administration that I could be faking my psychological symptoms.

They didn’t know what PTSD looked like, and because of that, they failed to support me in the way I needed. In combination with the bullying, my learning was negatively affected and not adequately supported. My grades dropped to failure, and I was drowning in schoolwork. The administration assisted me with extra work by providing a 504 plan to modify my workload. That was the one aspect that the administration succeeded with. Though my grades were too far gone, I did my best to fix them. There came a point, however, where I could no longer handle the bullying.

In 2019, I dropped out of high school, and I didn’t obtain my HiSet until this year. I still hold no ill will towards West Springfield High School, only gratitude for the help they gave me, along with friendships that were some of the best parts of my life. I hope by speaking today, I can help others who have been traumatized by various factors and still want to attend school,  as well as convince those in power that action is essential.

Thank you for your continued support of the Safe and Supportive Schools Line Item.

With more training of school staff, future students will benefit from your assistance and have a better experience than I did.

Mr. Johnson told me I could be more than my past. Today, I am proud to say I believe him.