by Zyanna Maynard
This poem was originally written for the Fresno stop of the #SchoolsNotPrisons concert tour.  

I have always been one of the students who was lucky enough to barely make it. Barely skimming my way through classes usually because i was one of the students who never acted out in class.
I was too afraid of getting introuble. Too afraid of what could happen.

In my sophomore year i found out what could happen. There was this guy in my biology class. The class clown, he would crack jokes. He farted on me once. I remember that. I remember he was so lively and vibrant, and i remember when he first got in trouble. He was sent out of class but I saw him again the next day like nothing happened.

He got into some trouble a few weeks later because he started yelling at some kid in class. But i saw him again the next day.
Same old jokester just kinda different.

Later on he seemed a bit more rowdy. A week later he yelled at the teacher, he told her that she wasn’t helping him. I didn’t see him the next day. He was suspended. Eventually he returned but then the outbursts were more frequent, he wasn’t the same person anymore.

He stopped coming to class after a while. He just disappeared. No one seemed to care. I saw him again a few weeks back, he was at a corner with a few other guys. I knew exactly why he was there. I knew exactly what happened.

The school saw him as a problem child and no one wanted to solve the problem. They pushed him out, they didn’t try to see what was happening with him, they didn’t try to fix the situation. He is a human being that’s the point. He deserved to be treated like he matters because he matters because he does,

Because we all matter.

Zyanna Maynard (she/her/hers)
WHO IS SHE? Loud, outspoken poet who has a knack for telling the truth to people who need to hear it.

DID YOU KNOW? She is double jointed in 8 of her finger.

FEATURED AREA: Any dope writing.

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