Izuku was getting restless. Aizawa had told them to use these two days off school to rest, but... he'd already done that! He'd slept in until 11 that morning and spent a few hours watching the news but now he was bored. And what made it worse was that since the heroes all knew he was a UA student now, no one was sending him any analyses to give him a chance to rest! He was going insane!

Kaminari: Yeah it really sucks when you're bored huh?

Jana: Just stop saying that word please?

He opened his computer and started browsing the hero forums. Maybe someone would mention a villain he could track down or something? He could just find the guy, then send the information to the group chat! That would be a good idea.

To his surprise, people on the forum were actually still talking about that article he'd released a few weeks ago. Izuku hadn't really thought it would make that big of an impact and he hadn't been thinking about it recently because he'd been focusing on the sports festival, but... maybe it would be good to write a follow up? Especially since after what Todoroki told him at the sports festival...

Inko: A follow up?

All Might: Uh oh.

Well, he needed something to do anyway, so why not?

Nezu: Well this should be interesting!

Are schools weaponizing their strongest students?

A little girl has a quirk that allows her to move any object with her mind and she has excellent control over it. Her teachers constantly praise her for her strength and her quirk, teaching her, whether implicitly or explicitly, that she is better than her peers. She, of course, grows to believe these adults because why wouldn't she? Teachers are meant to teach us, and adults are meant to be trusted.

Iida: Yeah they are... but...

The scene is a familiar one, but what happens when those adults, the ones our children are supposed to trust, take a dislike to a weaker student? Sure, they could purposely give them a lower grade, or put them in detention for no reason at all, but that would reflect badly on the teacher and harm their future chances of promotion. Wouldn't it be so much easier to let the students do the work?

So when our little girl with a strong telekinesis quirk is mean to a little boy who can change his eye color, the teacher looks the other way. Maybe they even send the little girl a smile before they do so, letting her know that it's okay to act that way because the boy is weaker than she is. So the little girl keeps being mean, desperate for the praise and validation that the teachers give her when she's strong. She gets meaner to prove that she is the best because the teacher has taught her that anyone below the best gets hurt. She has to hurt others so that no one hurts her.

(Bakugo stiffens, feeling very called out and he doesn't like it at all)

If the bullying ever comes to light, well, that's just kids being kids. Kids are cruel, there's nothing we can do about that, now is there? And besides, those weak students just need to toughen up, life isn't easy, you know. It's not the teacher's fault, obviously not, kids are just like that. And so our strong little girl ultimately shoulders all the blame for the crimes that her teacher encouraged her to commit.

Mt. Lady: This isn't fair...

Kamui: None of it is.

Is it right that the teacher manipulated that little girl? Is it right that an adult she trusted turned her into a human weapon to avoid accusations of discrimination? Looking at the current school system in Japan, it must be, because that is the way our schools are run. There are thousands of children like that little girl who have been weaponized and manipulated into harming the same children who, if the adults preferred, could have been their friends.

Sero: Hold on it's not just Aldera?

Shinso: Wish it was.

There are thousands of cases of bullying reported in elementary schools every year, but by the time those same kids reach middle school, those cases have dropped to the hundreds and by high school they're almost non-existent. According to the schools, it's because the students are maturing and becoming less cruel, but anyone who has walked through the halls can tell you that that can't possibly be the case.

Midoriya: It's because we've learned to stop reporting it...

The truth is that by the time students get to middle school and high school, they have been taught that this is the way the world works. This cycle of abuse and victimization has been so encouraged that it is now so deeply ingrained in a child's psyche that she can't possibly understand any other way of seeing the world. The strong become bullies and the other students are forced to suffer in silence by the malicious inaction of their teachers.

Some of you reading this right now are probably questioning my claims. Surely, you say, things can't be that bad! We trust our teachers to care for our students, so the idea that they are turning their best students into cruel weapons is absurd! This article is simply trying to undermine the society that we have worked so hard to build!

Shigaraki: Well he is trying to undermine society.

Kurogiri: Or at least fix it.

If that describes you, then perhaps you'd be interested in a real life example. Musutafu is home to Aldera Middle School. It's an average school in almost every sense of the word. It's students often go on to average high schools and live average lives, just like most schools. So it shouldn't come as any surprise that their attitudes and behavior are quite average as well. In the last year, there were 87 cases of bullying reported. This, in and of itself, is not $(*&^!@. After all, kids will be kids, right?

Where it gets interesting, however, is the distribution of that number. Of those 87 cases, 64 of them were reported by seventh graders. For those of you too lazy to do the math, that's 73%. Of the remaining 24 cases, 16 were reported by eight graders, which means that by their final year of middle school, students are only reporting 10 incidents of bullying for the entire year.

But, maybe you're right, maybe these students are simply getting more mature and less incidents are actually occurring. A decent school like Aldera couldn't possibly be discouraging students from reporting the abuse, could they?

Hound Dog: If only...

So let's look at how those 87 cases were handled. Of the 87 incidents, no disciplinary action was taken in 20 of them, which leaves us with 67. A verbal warning was reportedly given in 42 cases, which leaves us with 25. This is where it gets interesting. In 18 of those 25 cases, a detention or suspension was given not to the student who was reported as the perpetrator, but to the student that reported the bullying. In the incident reports, it is always noted that, "upon further investigation, we discovered that the accusations of misbehavior were false and thus the student in question was disciplined for lying and for purposely trying to cause trouble for their better-behaved peers."

Twice: That's not true at all! Yes it is!

That was the report in 18 cases. 18 out of 87. That is 20% for those of you that are keeping track. If Aldera Middle School is to be believed, 20% of their students are chronic liars who are intent on maliciously ruining the reputations of their innocent peers. Of course, there is always the possibility that these students were, in fact, telling the truth, but were silenced so that their stronger peers would retain spotless records, but obviously something like that would never happen in a good school like Aldera, right?

In the end, only 7 perpetrators actually received punishment. The strongest students' violent behavior is encouraged by the fact that they are almost entirely untouchable. Their teachers, the same ones that have turned these students against their friends and peers and weaponized them to prey on the weak, protect them and allow them to continue being abusers rather than moulding them into upstanding members of society.

Thirteen: Seriously how has no one noticed this before?

Vlad: Some people are just very good at hiding the skeletons in their closets.

So what is to be done? To be honest, I don't know, but I do know that this pattern cannot continue. The teachers responsible for guiding our children are poisoning their minds and weaponizing them against one another and the people who are suffering from this are the children.

Something needs to change.

Dabi: Yup. Something definitely does.

Inko: Wow... Izuku...

Midoriya: Huh?

Inko: I... I'm so proud of you baby.

Midoriya: Oh... thanks mom.

12857: (Deku)

Hey Nezu, I wrote another article. Would you mind looking it over?

Attachment

Nezu: I must say Midoriya did quite well in writing that essay.

Mic: Now if only he can do that in English...

62020: (Nezu)

Ah! This is brilliant Midoriya, as always. How did you get a hold of the statistics?

Spinner: Good question actually...

12857: (Deku)

Most of them are public record, if you know where to look, but the names have obviously been excluded for privacy reasons. The rest... I may have had to ask Tsukauchi.

Aizawa: Tsukauchi you're helping him learn to take over the world?

Tsukauchi: ...That's not me?

62020: (Nezu)

Good work using your connections to your advantage! You are improving in that aspect, though I do believe it would be beneficial to learn how to hack. Perhaps that can be the focus for our next lesson? For now, though, when were you planning on posting this article?

12857: (Deku)

I was thinking tomorrow morning. Most people browse the forums on their way to work, so if I were to set it up to post around 7:00, I could take advantage of the rush hour traffic.

Momo: Yeah that's smart.

62020: (Nezu)

Perfect! And you were planning on using the same anonymous accounts you used to publish your last article, correct?

12857: (Deku)

I don't know. Do you think it would be more impactful that way?

Nezu: Oh it would. The second would then be associated with the first and receive the same popularity.

62020: (Nezu)

If you use the same accounts, this article will automatically be associated with your last and will enjoy the same popularity. I would recommend building on the traction you have already established.

12857: (Deku)

Alright! I'll do that then! Thanks, Nezu!

Nezu: Of course, Midoriya.

62020: (Nezu)

Anytime, Midoriya. I look forward to the chaos you'll cause tomorrow!

62020 has left the chat

12857: (Deku)

Wait... chaos!?

Everyone: Yup.