• @Makeitstop@lemmy.world
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    518 months ago

    When I was teenager, I was put in a program for juvenile delinquents because I was truant. The fact that it was due to a sleeping disorder didn’t matter to the school district. I was told I could volunteer to do it in the summer or they’d get a court order in the fall. It was basically group therapy and rehab with a bunch of kids who had drug problems and criminal records, plus me, a nerd.

    At one point, I disagreed with the guy running the group about something. I don’t remember exactly what it was, but wasn’t even about me, nor did it impact my compliance with the program. But they still said that I would be kicked out and not allowed back into the group until I agreed with them.

    Because my participation was voluntary, I didn’t actually have to go back, so when they wanted me to come back in to “discuss” the disagreement, I told them I would do so only if they agreed to give me a ride afterwards no matter what, instead of sticking with their petty policy of refusing to give people a ride to the bus stop if they were “in conflict” with the group. They agreed, so I went back in.

    Well, we didn’t resolve the dispute They refused to back down from their requirement of agreeing that there are 5 lights, I insisted there were 4 lights, another day wasted. And then they told me they wouldn’t give me a ride after all. When I argued, they told me that I could walk or they could call the cops for trespassing. It was a record breaking 110 degrees outside, and the walk to the bus stop was an incredibly long death march up a very steep hill. I told them they can call cops, I wasn’t walking out of there.

    A cop shows up, and as I am calmly explaining the situation, he takes one look at me, a fat nerd in a Star Trek shirt, and realizes that I’m not the out of control menace that the staff had implied I was when they called. He gave me a ride home, we talked Star Trek the whole way, and the next time I got a call about the program I told them to fuck off and hung up.