Welcome to The System, Kid,

you’ll fit in just fine.

I woke up suddenly in a panic.
I could hear the sirens outside; I could see the red and blue lights flashing outside my window.

I jumped out of bed fully dressed.
I was upset with myself, I guess I fell asleep before the riot started.

Whenever the older kids planned a riot at Mount St Patrick’s Youth Centre, they’d tell us younger kids what to do.
We always went to bed fully clothed under our bed sheets on riot nights, that way we could just jump up and join the riot when it was time.

We were not supposed to fall asleep; we were expected to stay awake and wait for the signal the riot had started.I ran to my bedroom door and opened it, just enough to poke my head out and look down the hallway to see what was going on.

The screaming from the staff and the kids could still be heard over the fire alarms that had been pulled earlier as the official sign that the riot had started.
I wanted to just close my door and go back to bed, riot nights were scary, anything could happen.
But I knew if I did that the next day some of the kids would ask where I had been, and I didn’t want to go through that humiliation again.

Sometimes I was allowed to be a kid, but other times I was expected to toughen up fast!
Just as one of the kids ran by my room a hand reached out and grabbed his hair, I jumped back petrified!
The staff grabbed the kid’s hair to try and hold him, (that was their strategy, stop one kid at a time anyway you can.)

The problem with that was when we saw a kid get caught, we would all attack the staff who had the kid under their control trying to free the trapped kid.
I could see smoke down the hall coming from the multiple fires that had been started by the other kids.

The hallways were covered in water that had been thrown down to trip the staff as they ran. I turned just in time to see one of the staff slip and slide into the wall on her side.
The next thing I know I’m being held down by a few adult staff members. My throat is sore from screaming, I’m crying and starting to panic inside.

My tummy is hurting and it’s hard to breathe.
My head is rolling back and forth trying to fight the staff putting something into my mouth.
I start to go in and out of consciousness, maybe tired?
I woke up in my bed the next morning.

It was my 10th birthday.