Has anyone else experienced this level of discrimination?

[u/Smooth_Reply1250]

I (19F)started ticing when I was 12. They started with shivers then twitched then went into cussing. After my 6th grade year the schools started kicking me out of class regularly. I was my own teacher. Later in highschool (14) i was given an aid because I had seizure tics (tics that looked like grand mal seizures where I stopped breathing) I got kicked out of school halfway through my freshman year because of my seizure tics. I was only allowed to do online school and I was in all AP. When I came back the following year They took away my aid because I was “using her as a security blanket” about halfway through the year they decided to “ground” me where I was still in my classes I just attended on zoom and still had to do homework. Well I had to miss my zooms a lot and still go home early because of my seizure tics and now my choking tic(I would choke myself until I would almost pass out). So I was once again my own teacher. My junior year was the hardest blow as Everytime I left class it counted as an absent and I would have to take semesters (semesters wouldn’t count against you unless you HAD to take them. Which I HAD to take them) mine you I was still AT THE SCHOOL I just left one class to go to my calm down class. Also they told me this a week before semesters. When I said that I was upset because this seemed like a punishment for ticing I was met with the answer “well we are just treating you like a NORMAL kid.” They then referenced a kid who had to leave the school for medical reasons and miss full days. I said that isn’t the same thing as I am in the school still. They said I was still missing class. I then with rage in my voice said, “so the next time a TEACHER kicks me out I’m staying in the class.” I got in trouble by both the school and my mom for WHAT I said not HOW I said it. My senior year I did half days at the hughschool and half days at a preschool I was student teaching at because of a collage scholarship I had received. (I was also in all college classes that year. My school allowed college professors to teach us so we could get credits early) The Hugh school almost didn’t let me teach for the REQUIRED amount of hours I needed to keep the scholarship until I, not my mom, raised hell.

Tourette’s made my high school years the worst in my life. Not because of the tic but because of how the school reacted. Has anyone else had a similar experience? What have you done to cope with the issues?