Karen Walker reflects on her middle school diary from 2011. In the diary, she documents being bullied by a girl named Skye and her friends over five days. They tease Karen about her red hair and read her diary entries aloud. Karen tells her favorite teacher Ms. Davis about the bullying. Ms. Davis gives an assembly about privacy and bullying, embarrassing Skye. Skye and her friends apologize to Karen, and the bullying is resolved. Karen is glad she learned from the experience.

1. My Middle School Diary
By: Anna Lentchner
Monday, Nov. 3rd, 2020
My name is Karen Walker and this used to be my diary. I am
now 20 years old and I go to Stanford University. In this diary it
tells the story of my middle school life from the beginning to end. It
isn’t a happy tale…
Nine years earlier…
Monday, Sept. 4th, 2011
Ahhhhhh! Today is my first day of (gulp) middle school!!! I
don’t know what to do or what to wear. I’m contemplating whether
I’m going to wear my jeans and my favorite T-shirt with the - oops!
Mum just shouted for me to hurry up! Just so you know I’m wearing
my jeans and T-shirt.
Bye for now! (I’ll tell you everything that happens after school!)
Monday, Sept. 4th, 2011
Oh. My. God. You will not believe what happened today. That
was the worst day ever. It turned out that my best friend Ashleigh
Gilberson moved to England! She was my best friend and now I
have like, no one to talk to! Even worse than that, snotty pants
Skye Young and her followers (Brittney Clark, Miranda Hill, Katy
Anderson and Amy Jackson) were being annoying all day. They kept
following me and pulling at my hair saying: “Ginger!” What’s so bad
about red hair anyways?
They also kept bugging me about you! They were like:
“Whatchya writing in your diary gin-ger?” I was going to write
something today at lunch but they kept pulling you out of my hands

2. and reading out previous diary entries from when I was little. They
were practically wetting their pants they were laughing so hard. It
was so embarrassing. Eventually lunch ended and I started
breathing again (I was so embarrassed that I held my breath until
they stopped bullying me.)
I hope I get sick or something so I don’t have to face those
idiots again (I mean real idiots). I have to go to bed so bye for now.
Tuesday, Sept. 5th, 2011
Uh, my mum is sooo mean! She won’t let me stay home! I
couldn’t think of an excuse but I’m sick (which I’m obviously not) so
she’s making me go. Please, please don’t let me have to face those
girls again! Why do I have to go to school anyways? Mum’s calling
me again to come downstairs so I guess I’ll talk to you later.
Tuesday, Sept. 5th, 2011
Hi! I’m in the girl’s bathroom right now. I’ve avoided Skye
and her group all day so they couldn’t read my diary.
Anyway, it’s lunch right now so I have a lot of time to talk.
After lunch is math class and our teacher is really strict so I know
Skye won’t bother me. After math…I think it’s writing. Oh no! In
writing we are supposed to make a diary on school life and then we
turn it in at the end of class. I sooo hope that Skye doesn’t make
fun of me because I would die of embarrassment! There goes the
bell so lunch is over…bye!
School Life
Tuesday, Sept. 5th, 2011
My school life is pretty good. I get mostly A’s in my report
card and I don’t find that many subjects challenging. My favorite
subject is Art and my least favorite is Math. On a scale from 1-10 I
like school in around a 7 ½.
Okay that wasn’t such a good diary entry but I couldn’t think
of anything else to say. I was right about the Skye thing though,
she didn’t bother me in math class. In writing however I wasn’t so
lucky. They sat next to me and burst out laughing every 5 seconds.
Ms. Davis told them to quite down and asked what was so funny.

3. They laughed again and said that it was just something Brittney
wrote. Ms. Davis didn’t seem convinced but let it slide.
Ms. Davis is the youngest and nicest teacher in our school and
she is known for not really caring if a student forgets their
homework and things like that. For some reason she seemed a bit
angry with Skye and her group laughing. I’d never seen her get
angry. She even came up to me and asked if everything was okay. I
guess teachers suddenly knew about bullying that happened around
the school.
I said I was fine and thank you for asking. As you well know
that is a complete lie, but what was I supposed to say? If I told the
truth, that Skye was violating my privacy and reading my diary,
Skye and her group would kill me- or worse. Okay that’s enough for
today, talk to you tomorrow!
Wednesday, Sept. 6th, 2011
Guess what? I got sick! Yeah, I got a cold from washing my
hair and leaving the window open. It gave me a chill! I GET TO
STAY HOME!!! Okay, maybe it’s not such big news but at least I
don’t have to face Skye.
Maybe I should get sick more often.
Wednesday, Sept. 6th, 2011
Here I am at school. Yah, apparently I was well enough to go
to school. I seriously hate my mom right now. Wait…oh no, oh no-
Skye-
Thursday, Sept. 7th, 2011
Well, Skye read my diary (again) and just like before, she
burst out laughing with her friends. But then when she came to the
part that was talking about Ms. Davis she got really mad. This is
what she said, quote:
“If you tell anyone you’re just asking for trouble,” Skye glared
down at me with her arms crossed. She kept the diary and then
today I found it at the lost & found. It had a piece of paper stuck to
it saying READ THIS in red marker. I hoped no one had. It was in
the bottom of the lost & found box, underneath a pair of sneakers
that had to be at least from 6 years ago. A pair of underwear was
beside the diary followed by a water bottle.
Anyways I am definitely not bringing you to school anymore
that’s for sure! Oh! Ms. Davis is coming…bye!

4. Friday, Sept. 8th, 2011
Oh no, oh no, oh no! I told her. I told Ms. Davis about Skye!
Ms. Davis didn’t seem surprised but she shook her head sadly. She
said:
“I don’t see what girls your age find so entertaining about
bringing others down,” she seemed all teachery and strict. I actually
bit my lip so hard that it bled. She laughed at me and said that she
would “handle this”. Whatever that meant. I’m sooo scared! I don’t
know what to do!
What if Skye does something like get the whole grade to
make fun of me? Even Ms. Davis couldn’t stop that. They just
wouldn’t talk to me. No one could make them talk to me. I knew it
was a children’s right to be able to pick your own friends. That’s all
I knew though.
Okay I change my mind about bringing you to school- I’m
going to tell you at lunch what will happen and what Ms. Davis
meant about “handling it”…wish me luck!
Friday, Sept. 8th, 2011
Ms. Davis should win a medal for being the best counselor
ever. And she’s not even the counselor. Here I am sitting at home.
I’m so happy! Yeah, weird right?
Anyway, Skye and her group got totally pwned by Ms. Davis.
She made an assembly on child rights saying how it was on our
next unit and it was just a little about it. No names or anything.
Here let me just play it out for you like a story:
“One of the most important child right’s is privacy.” Ms. Davis
said. She didn’t even look at me. But when I looked at Skye, she
looked really uncomfortable. The rest of her friends just looked
bored.
“Some children, actually get so sad and humiliated with this
bullying that they commit suicide” Ms. Davis went on. Skye looked
scared now. Her friend’s faces remained blank and bored. Ms. Davis
wasn’t finished.
“I know that some of this happens in our school” Ms. Davis
said slowly. “Just keep in mind that it isn’t cool”. Still Ms. Davis
continued. “I want all of you to know that this can hurt people. It
can make others sad. Treat others how you would want them to
treat you.” She quickly glanced at Skye and me. “Thank you” Ms.
Davis finished her speech with a bow.
When I looked at Skye, I could have sworn she was wetting
her pants she was so embarrassed. I would have been to. After all
everyone was staring at her. Her friend’s faces were scarlet with
embarrassment as well.

5. I clapped the hardest at Ms. Davis’s speech. At the end of the
school day Ms. Davis called Skye (her friends weren’t really her
friends anymore so they weren’t called in) and me into her room.
“What’s happening ladies?” She said in her best teacher voice.
Skye shrugged so I did too. “Common, I know that you guys are-
having some issues.” We nodded. “Yes? No? Common, speak up!”
“Yes” We said together. “I’m sorry” Skye suddenly blurted
out. Then it all came pouring out of her in sobs. “I didn’t mean it,
honestly! I was just…um jealous of you?” She said it like a question.
“All right Skye calm down, there’s no reason to get
hysterical”.
“You were so not jealous.” I mumbled. Skye glared at me. Ms.
Davis sighed. We sat in sat in silence for a while and then someone
knocked at the door.
“Come in” Ms. Davis called. The door opened and Skye’s
group came in. They were all crying with their heads down. They
admitted to bullying me and burst into tears. Their punishment was
an email to their parents. They all apologized to me.
The whole thing was just kind of mellow. Not really such a big
deal. I hope that they’ve learned from it. I have, I know what it’s
like to be bullied so I won’t do it to others. Hopefully they know not
to bully anymore. Now that everything is over I actually feel pretty
good. Everything is over, well at least for now.
Nine years later…
So that’s my story. My intense middle school life- well 5 day’s
of it anyway. But that’s how I came to be. And I learned from
everything that I did I know about child rights now! I know it’s not
okay to bully or violate people’s privacy. It makes people feel so
embarrassed.
So that’s the end of my story. I hope you enjoyed it. (Except
for the part where I got bullied, of course.) Bye!