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5/24/90
Dear Harry
I did it! I graduated from High School today and hopefully I'll never have to see any of those bullies again. I was class Valedictorian. I wanted to turn it down, nobody would want to hear me speak and plenty of students were angry about me getting it, but the school refused to let me. I think they wanted to use the publicity of having a twelve year old valedictorian to promote their school's academic achievement which is stupid because my intelligence wasn't anything to do with the school and I'd never recommend this school to anyone let alone a child prodigy like me. In fact, its highly possible I would have done better in another school, perhaps even one of the other public schools in Vegas would've been better than here, though their academic reputations are about the same.
I don't think that the principal, the guidance counsellor or most of the staff were very pleased with my speech but since they forced me into giving it and considering the speech I wanted to give, they should be grateful that I restrained myself. Particularly since Mom was having a bad day and couldn't come, which was the original reason I even wrote a more politically correct version. He should have listened when I told him to ask someone else. I sent a copy of both speeches to you. I very nearly gave the one I didn't use to the reporter when she asked me about some of the comments in the one she heard. The only reason I didn't is that students and parents read the newspaper and I still have to live here over the summer. The principal came up to me afterward and tried to complain to me about not showing the school in it's best possible light. I told him I had been as politely dishonest as I could stomach and that if he wanted to improve the school's reputation he needed to work on the attitude of the staff and to make the school a safe place for all students not just the football team and popular kids, instead of depending on the students to lie about how badly the school treated them. I shoved the draft of the speech that I didn't use at him and told him that he ought to be grateful I can lie as well as I did, then walked away before he could say anything else. I'd like to see his face when he reads the original speech I wanted to give.
I have the summer to get things organized to go to Caltech. I've been communicating with the professor who will be my mentor and academically everything is set and I'll be living in the dorms like a normal student. The problem is finding a way to get someone to look after Mom without the authorities knowing that she isn't capable of looking after herself or me. I have a few ideas on who to ask for help but it's going to take some effort to persuade them to do it. I hope I can get it sorted because I don't think I could leave her if I don't, no matter how much I want to go to Caltech.
I know we seem a long way apart in our education at the moment, and that may only increase as I keep completing more than one year of coursework per calendar year but I am only two years older than you and I think that I'll need your letters more than ever when I get to Caltech. Writing to you is pretty much the only time I get to spend being a kid, admitting to having childish thoughts and fears without worrying about whether people will think that I'm competent to be on my own at college or capable of looking after my mother. I get to be totally honest without worrying that you might use the things I tell you against me. It does help more that you could know.
Your friend
Spencer
The Valedictorian Speech I wanted to give
Ladies and gentlemen, honoured guests, teachers, graduates and parents, good afternoon. I'm Spencer Reid and as I stand here to share with you the achievements of our time at Las Vegas High School. I have to be honest and tell you the biggest achievement for all of us was surviving the school year. Some like me are grateful that we survived the bullying, others don't know it but they should be grateful that I'm a stronger person than they realised because they wouldn't all have survived my retaliation if I hadn't been able to turn the other cheek and remind myself that I'm leaving to something better.
I have an eidetic memory so I can tell you exactly how many times I was injured by another student in this school. I remember every one of the 54 times I was shoved into a locker and the 336.74 hours that I spent locked in one. I can tell you that I received 38 black eyes 67 split lips, and my bones were broken on five separate occasions. But I can't tell you how many times a teacher looked away, purposely choosing not to see the bullying or the injuries on one of us. It happened too often to keep track of.
I stand here today Valedictorian, top of the class and the teachers, guidance counsellors and Principal want to take pride in my achievements. They shouldn't! They cannot justifiably do so! Only two of them were responsible for any of them. My success at Las Vegas High School and any other achievements I've attained over the last two years in were spite of this school and its staff, not because of them.
Two other numbers you should consider. One hundred. There are an average of just over one hundred shooting related incidents in schools across America every year, many of them perpetrated by students who finally cracked after being repeatedly and severely bullied without support from the people responsible for stopping it from happening, students like me. And Six! Six times I seriously thought about retaliating with violence and I'm certain that I'm not the only student this year who considered it. I don't have access to a gun, but the library contained all the information I would need to build a bomb, a Molotov cocktail or how to make and release poisonous gas into the air conditioning. The loaning records show that these books are checked out several times a year, on four occasions this year alone and not all by seniors, the ingredients are also easily available. This year Las Vegas High School was lucky and we all made it to graduation, but if the culture of bullying is allowed to continue then there is no guarantee that Las Vegas High School will continue to avoid a tragedy, and if disaster does strike it will be the fault of every teacher who chose to look away and refuse to see their student's suffering.
So students celebrate your survival of the last four years, parents be thankful for the survival of your children. Teachers and counsellors please consider what you need to do to make sure that there is a day like this for all of next year's senior class and the years following them.
The Valedictorian Speech I gave
Ladies and gentlemen, honoured guests, teachers graduates and parents, hello. I'm Spencer Reid and as I stand here to share with you the achievements of our time at Las Vegas High School. I have to be honest and tell you the biggest achievement for all of us was surviving the four years spent here, two in my case. The school has done an exemplary job of preparing us for the real world, and yet we all approach this next stage of our lives with enthusiasm and optimism that we are going forth to achieve our dreams and can make our mark on the world. Las Vegas High School has taught the value of team work, sporting success, self study, independent learning, independent problem solving, self resilience, and the use of position and personality to get ahead. Almost half of our class will be going on to further study in our chosen fields and many have jobs and careers beginning in the next few weeks. I wish them all well with their endeavours. Many of you have made lifelong friendships during our time at Las Vegas High School and I know those friendships will help support you in moving forward into your adult lives.
Congratulations seniors we have done it. We've survived. We've graduated into the real world and stand here today ready to take on the world. Congratulations to your parents too, they have survived our childhood and adolescence and along with our teachers, guidance counsellors and friends, have formed us into the adults we now become, and now turn us loose on the world to make our own way.
Harry was shocked as he read the twospeeches. He had never heard or read any other valedictory speeches but he could see why the principle wouldn't have been happy with the speech Spencer gave, he made the school sound like an ordeal to be survived but Harry could understand that. That's exactly what it was to kids like them. School was horrible and humiliating, it was only that being at his relatives was even worse that made Harry look forward to the end of the holidays. But Spencer made it seem like schools could and should be different and that it was his school's fault that it was like that and that he believed his new school Caltech would be different. It gave Harry some hope. In a couple of years' time he knew that he'd be going to Stonewall High and Dudley would go to a fancier school. Hopefully Dudley's friends would go to the other school too and maybe Harry would be able to make some friends among the students that came from the other primary schools in town. Maybe things would be different, in the meantime though at least he had one true friend in Spencer.
A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed followed or favourited this story for your support.