Writer's Workshop: Screw You Mrs. Villines!

It's that time again...

Mama's Losin It has the following prompts for today's writing assignment:

1.) Describe a moment when you realized you and your spouse were SO different.

2.) What is your role in the household?

3.) Write about how you felt when you discovered you were lied to.(creativewritingprompts.com)

4.) Describe a hard time you gave a teacher...what would you say to them today?

5.) What is an unpleasant experience you had eating? Write a poem, paragraph, or something else about the experience.(writingfix.com)

I'm going with #4!

I was a senior in high school in the middle of nowhere, crotch of the US aka Oklahoma, on a dirt road in a rural area. Seriously, my graduating class was a whopping 12 kids. TWELVE! Our building was grade K thru 12. Amazingly small. As a kid my mom and I moved around a lot, and this is where we planted our feet for my final year and half of high school. What a treat!

My first three classes during the day were with Mrs. Villines. I had typing, accounting and something else... I really can't even remember. Then lunch and my last three classes. I was her top student, her pocket Ace! I was the one who seemed to grasp whatever she was teaching and helped out the other farmer-tards with their accounting, or lack thereof.

Well, Mrs. Villines knew a little bit of me... enough to know she didn't approve of my choice of boyfriend. He was black. I didn't think it was a big deal. Racism wasn't something I was raised to embrace... but in smalltown middle America, it wasn't as accepted. I was the black sheep. The smart girl with "problems". LOL

What I knew of Mrs. Villines was this. She was from another small town, married with a couple of (perfect) teen boys, and very active in church and community affairs.

I knew my boundaries with her. We couldn't talk shop in class, which is something she liked to do on a regular basis. I guess she was trying to keep the kids "current eventy" being we were stuck in Mayberry. She liked to discuss world news, politics, and... celebrity gossip. My opinions weren't smalltown and she didn't like it. My earlier years were spent in California, a melting pot of all races, ethnicities, religions... and she didn't like it.

Well... one day will never be forgotten in that class. This was when Magic Johnson was all up in the news revealing his positive HIV status. She hated him. She made it clear why. He was black. He was a cheater. He was HIV positive. She wanted the student's opinion on this man, especially mine. She asked. I declined to answer. "Cmon Denise, surely you have an opinion on this man, this matter." I declined. She pushed and pushed until finally I responded.

"I don't think we should judge him. He's human. Yeah, he did some dirty things, but you can't say that Cookie was completely in the dark either. She knew he was cheating. She had to know. And she stayed. Now all of a sudden he's a horrible man because he's got HIV? I don't feel that way."

I guess I lit a fire under her Prodestant skirt because Mrs. Holier Than Thou came over to my desk and started ranting at me, finger pointing and the whole nine. She brought up the color of his skin, I'm sure just to piss me off, and went as far as to say it's the black people who are bringing this disease to America.

I lost my cool.

I ranted back and told her that white, church going folks had HIV too, possibly even folks at her church, and that was a horrible way to look at things and I hope her God forgives her. I told her to look up the statistics on HIV/AIDS and learn how it is actually spread. I asked her if she would feel the same about one of her precious son's if they had HIV. And I finished off with the fact that the only reason this is getting so much press is because this man is famous, not because of the color of his skin... "just not lest ye be judged Mrs. Villines."

Then she lost it.

She grabbed me by my arm, jerked me out of my chair and lead me out of the classroom. This was first hour mind you. I had 2 more hours of this demon spawn, hated filled woman still left to go. I sat in the hallway for a few minutes and decided what I was going to do. I went to the principal's office and called my mama. Now, I'm the kid who never got in trouble (well, I never got caught) and I NEVER called my mama from school. She wasn't the parent/teacher conference type and she never had to make her presence known at my schools. I told her the lady put hands on me, told me I was being disruptive and kicked me out of class.

My mama showed up within 20 minutes.

Mrs. Villines met with my mama only to tell her that she thinks I have "psychological issues" and I "needed counseling". What the hell! I needed counseling? For what? Because I had an opinion and it didn't match hers? Because I was undeniably her BEST student, but I didn't follow her religious, biggot, racist Neo-Nazi outlook on life? Are you kidding me???

Needless to say, I was not in any of her classes for the remainder of the year. I was acquitted of my horrendous crime, allowed to return to class, but I refused to go back in there. My classes were changed by the principal and I would only shake my head at her when I saw her in the hallway. She tried to apologize afterward... but not a real apology. It was more like one of those "if only you would have been a good kid" kind of things.

And to her I say....

This message is being brought to you by the letters F and U.
SCREW YOU MRS. VILLINES! Screw you and all of your being you effing racist biotch!
I've managed to become a productive, happy, people-loving woman despite the ignorant views you tried to plant in my head! I love my life! I love my biracial child. I love my Native American man and his three beautiful kids, who are also part Mexican. I love our melting pot. I love our diversity. And I especially love that I didn't let you hold me back! May your God have mercy on your hate filled soul.