Another story: so in sixth grade, I was pretty small. The only students who were smaller were Donny (who hadn’t grown since first or second grade) and Oscar (whose parents were both about 4 feet tall; I saw him when we were in our 40s and he’s still not 5 feet tall), and Wendy (who again hadn’t grown since third grade). I grew a little over the Summer, so when I entered seventh grade, I was no longer in the shortest group, but I still felt that I was still slightly below the median height and weight.

I grew later, up until I was around 22 years old.

Anyway, there was this girl named Stephanie who decided that Black students should not have any non-Black friends. Stephanie was huuuge! Much taller than me and I’d guess she was somewhere North of 200lb. Whenever she decided to to oppress me and my friends, I just ran (or hobbled, I spent much of that year barely walking). She was too large to pursue me.

But eventually, she started sending her thinner, faster friends to capture me and hold me until she arrived.

Imagine being a seventh grade boy and being threatened with a fight by a much taller, stronger, heavier girl. But I lucked out … she pounded another boy and got transferred to a different school … until she beat someone at that school, so they sent her back briefly.

I think her family moved away, because she was suddenly gone again, and I never heard about a triggering incident.