False Accusations

Have you ever had to take the blame for something that wasn’t your fault?

Growing up, I’ve had times, especically at home and school, when I didn’t know what people were talking about when they scolded me.  There were even times when I didn’t even know I was being punished. Unfortunately, being easily confused and persuaded negatively, I often end up getting blamed for things that were not my fault, especially since my parents kept stressing the importance of responsibility and not blaming others for my mistakes.

In school, I’ve had times when I didn’t know I accidentally insulted or hit someone. When reported, the teachers’ or staff members’ words would convince me that I intentionally did, resulting in punishment and suffering. Sometimes, the staff would tell my parents when they came to pick me up, and I would be further punished at home.  I have also often been punished for "attacking someone" in self-defense. For example, bullies would physically attack, and when I protected myself, they would report me and lie, so that the staff would think I attacked them for no reason, and confused and persuaded by the situation, I would face punishment. This even happened in verbal attacks.

As children, at school or home, whenever we asked questions for clarification, or had trouble eating or learning something, we have faced impatient people who start yelling and saying things like, "You’re not paying attention" or "you’re not trying or working hard." At times, they assumed that we were fooling around when we were actually studying and reading as ordered. 

One thing I hate about groupwork in school is unpleasant people. Many times, I was falsely accused for "doing nothing," "not contributing," and "being irresponsible" when my contributions were not as evident, or I did not understand or know what to do. Instead of explaining and clarifying things up for me so I could contribute, they just continuously accused me of "not doing anything." Often times, I offerred to do some parts, but they would refuse, then blame me for their having to do all the work. Unfortunately, I couldn’t defend myself. Teachers and professors have also falsely accused me of plagiarism or having my parents do my homework, and that either resulted in worse grades or having to redo the work.

My 7th grade social studies teacher falsely accused me a number of times. She seemed to like red hair, and often talked about it.  One day, I happen to say, "I’ve heard a lot about redheads," which was a fact. I meant that in the class we’ve talked more about red hair than before. Unfortunately, she scolded, "If you’ve heard enough about redheads, then get out of my class!" Certainly, there was no way I could get out of classes, so my mind blanked and I couldn’t defend myself. I also wasn’t aware that she had probably heard a lot as enough. Later, she twisted it further, and told other people that I complained, "I hate redhead!" It eventually reached my parents who scolded me. As usual, I was mixed up and convinced that they were right though I was facing false accusations.

Later that semester, she was looking for the paper towels to clean her overhead projector in the middle of lecture. During the interruption, students started conversations with one another. When she finally found her paper towels, I laughed and said, "They’re right in front of your face!" and she replied, "That’s not a nice thing to say." That afternoon she described the situation to my mom, and twisted my words to "They’re right in front of your face, stupid!" resulting in my sufferings from false accusations again with the help of my being easily befuddled and persuaded. The teacher later described the same distorted situation to other people.Eventually, I somewhat recalled that while I said, "They’re right in front of your face!" I heard the word, stupid, in some students’ conversation, and it happen to come right after my words, and being occupied, she didn’t notice more than one person had been talking.

In September of 11th grade, I was running around on campus when I ran into a stranger. I thought she was a new teacher. When she introduced herself, I didn’t quite catch her job title, but I knew she asked me to go talk to her in the office some time. She concluded, "I like students to come talk to me." Not sure what it was all about and unaware of a possible scheme, I continued with what I was doing. A few weeks later, I was looking for someone in the office when I stumbled into the wrong room. Bad at faces, it took me awhile to ask, "Did you once ask me to come talk to you?" She said she was, and though I was busy, I didn’t want to walk out right away and be rude, so I answered the questions she began asking me right away. I then figured out that she was the new school psychologist. Thinking I was supposed to go see her, I finally told her that I would see her some day when I had time. I finally did near the end of the first semester, and she asked picky questions, and gave signs that she wanted to tell my parents things about me. I never went to her office again. When she, my teachers, and some staff members held a meeting at the end of the year, she was really condescending, deceitful, and racist. Worst of all, she lied to my parents that I gone to her several times to talk about my problems, which resulted in their scolding me for something I didn’t really do, and quite a few other things. They really made me suffer, especially since again, I was easily baffled and convinced by the situation and their words.

I continued to face false accusations in college, especially in the dorms. My freshman year, there was a clique in my hall. As the year passed, their behaviors worsened and they played more pranks. They told the RA that I was spying and eavesdropping on them when I wasn’t.  Slowly as the summer and following years passed, I found out that the RA was biased and part of the clique, and that when I was being careful to prevent getting harmed, they lied that I was spying and eavesdropping. They also said that I was always everywhere, doing nothing, because they kept running into me, when it was actually the opposite. Unfortunately, by the time I had discovered the false accusations it was too late.

There were also times when unpleasant people were passing rumors about innocent people. Not knowing the reasons behind my action, I told the victims, and they accused me for believing them, which they managed to convince me with. I eventually got to know myself better, and realized that I was asking the victims to be aware of the rumors so they could take actions to protect themselves.

I wrote for our school paper my first two years in college. Classes were busier my sophomore y

ear, and the school paper staff modified some of the rules. I made the same mistake a few times because I was just clueless. One day, things were so busy that I informed them that I couldn’t write that week. They scolded me and accused me of being irresponsible and falsely accused me again that I was not listening to their instructions. The following week, they meanly asked, "Are you positively sure!" Because of school being hectic and the continuous false accusations, I decided to quit.

A head resident in the dorms was rude, impatient, deceitful, unreasonable, and evil. He got after me a few times for "taking copious notes" on people for things I put on paper to help me remember everyone better. Once we were telling a long joke that I thought would make a good cartoon. To plan it and also be able to read adn laugh, I wrote it on paper with altered names. The head resident falsely accused me for writing stories about people and "taking copious notes." I soon knew that he had been plotting it so that the appointments would be set when time was short, so he could attack and give me no time to defend myself. At the same time, I realized that the resident staff had files on everything said and done by each resident, and was upset by their hypocrisy. I burst into tears and refused to return to the dorms the rest of that day.

My ex-landlady/ roommate was an expert at blaming others. That was one reason I moved out. She falsely accused me for not doing chores and cleaning, even if the mess was hers. Some days, she lied that I didn’t close the garage door when I left that morning. When neighbors complained about noisy and vibrating footsteps, she blamed it all on me when I often heard and felt her heavy footsteps.  Whenever there was noise, she would immediately blame me without first checking out the source. She complained that I had much trash when she was the one who did. In the winter, we both had heaters running in our rooms. Unfortunately, at some point, they would knock out all the lights. She accused me of having too many things on the circut and using too much power when it was actually combined use of two residents. Even worse, she was often jealous, which is blaming our own mistakes and misfortunes on others.

At The One Ring. Com (TORC), I faced many false accusations of spamming and "purposely seeking out trouble." When I made a short reply to a post, especially one that hadn’t been replied to for a long time, some mods blamed me for spamming and bringing up spam, then locked the thread. When there were threads on the same topic, the mods accused members for not searching when they actually did, but still couldn’t find the first thread. After misunderstandings with some cliquey members, the mods began creating unfair and unclear rules, and replied with rude comments without answering my questions. I just couldn’t figure out what they wanted, and they falsely accused me of pretending to be clueless and trying to cause trouble, eventually banning me.

I later joined other online communities, especially at EZBoard. At one community, The Lost Realm of Arnor (Arnor), an admin who couldn’t tell apart fact and fiction blamed others of it. In one RP, he made a harsh, rude, and mean reply to my character with his character. Following the story and characters, I wrote about my character’s reactions to it, and he said I was "pity-partying." When I described my character’s anger towards the situation, he and others falsely accused me of attacking them. He must have put a negative influence on other members for quite a few seemed to agree and follow him in being unable to tell apart fiction and nonfiction. I eventually discovered that the admin was trying to attack me in real life through RP. No matter how much I explained the situation, people refused to believe me. One of the mods was rude, hypocritic, and accusing, too. She often made posts that indirectly attacked me, and when I apologized, she would say, "Don’t apologize" and lie that she was posting the message for everyone and that I interpreted it wrong. Once I edited a post, which moved the thread to the top, and she accused me of repeating the same thing, and removed my post. Whenever I expressed my opinions, I usually was blamed for trying to dominate and not having an open mind. Fed up with false accusations and other issues, I left.

Once, someone left a comment in one of my online journal entries, falsely accusing me of lying and judging him. He wrote, writing is lying. an always failed attempt at perfect expression, followed by comments about how I was judging him when I wasn’t specifically talking about anyone, especially since I don’t know him or most people at OD. I felt upset, but knew there wasn’t much to do, except leave a note in his diary, suggesting that if he had a problem with my entries, then he shouldn’t read them.

One thing I can’t stand is lies or false accusations, and yet they continue and even worse, increase. In court cases, many people are falsely accused. Police officers lie about many drivers biolating traffic laws so they could write tickets. At work places, bosses and colleagues blame one another for problems. This happens among students in school, too. Many authority figures like making false accusations, a form of power abuse. People make false accusations because they like to blame others, or refuse to admit and take responsibility for their own mistakes, which is what they should do. False accusations only make things worse.