Swimming in School
 

My P.E. class will be starting the swimming unit soon and I have no idea what I'm going to do because I have scars on my arms and then cuts/scars on my legs. The legs are noticable. I went for 2 weeks without SIing but yesterday and the day before I couldn't take and broke down. So now I have fresh cuts once again. I'm quite terrified of my teacher seeing them or someone seeing them and telling the teacher, b/c he has to report it, and I cant have my parents find out. And also, now everyone will know and then the whole school will know b/c rumors spread so quickly. I don't know. Has anyone else gone threw this? How did you hide them, or were you caught?

And if I say I have my period, or if I forgot my bathing suit, or go to the nurse, I'm still going to have to make up the classes, by coming after school and swimming.

I am just wondering if you have to do swimming as with us. You had a choice either swim or in the gym is there not another option apart from swimmng?
laurenxx

you have to make them up? that is just evil!

with the legs, are you allowed to wear board shorts or gym shorts or whatever over your bathers and just say you're body conscious or something? a lot of girls did that when I had my swimming unit at school.

good luck hun, swimming is never fun :/
xox

no, there is no other option sadly.

I probably could wear the short things but a lot of my cuts and scars on the bottom half of my leg, so the shorts wouldn't cover them. ugh

how long is the unit? you could fake sick (bad i know..) if absolutely necessary. but if i were you and i knew i was going to get caught, i would go ahead and tell your teacher or nurse or counselor or anyone you can trust at the school. it seems terrifying, but i got caught with my SI and i wish i had the chance to tell someone instead.

just something to consider.

good luck! <3

I don't know whether it is the same for you but we could get off of swimming if we were on our period. You could use that excuse to give yourself a bit more time to work it out.

Ok i went through this is school, we had a term of swimming and u couldnt pick anything else every term was different.. i was terrified not only cos my scars but because i am rather overweight and i have always had a lack of coffidence so i simply went to my mum and said i cant do this swimming, i used the whole i am not goin to be seen in a swimsuit excuse.. and thankfully it got me off..

can u try seein if u can get out of it for other reasons? being to shy ? an ankle injury? u can limp ? lol

sorry u have to go through this .. i know how terrifyin it is xxxxxxxxxx

You could say you have a cold or something. I don't think it's a good idea to swim with new cuts regardless of anyone elses reaction.
xx

Your school nurse/councellor should keep sh confidential (at least in my school they do) so you could explain to them? Maybe they can help?

Water phobia? Tell your teacher you nearly drowned when you were little and can't go near water.

Usually if you go to someone directly and tell them about your si they will keep it private because it shows that you want to get help. So the best advice I can give you is tell your teacher if you feel cofortable doing it. If not is there a teacher in your school that you can trust? Ps I will most Likely have to go through this at least twice this year and the guidance councllor at the school already knows about my si. And I feel somewhat okay with telling one of them
both of the gym teachers are pretty cool.

That's a good one

But only if you really feel you can't tell them the real reason. Everything comes out in the end x

I've not been allowed to swim when I've had fresh cuts before, it was treated as a fresh wound and was therefore excused.

I would say any of the above would be useful, but why not tell a school nurse, a councillor, someone you trust and get them to write a note.
X

Do any teachers at all at your school know about your SI? If so, maybe the best thing to do would be to approach them and ask if they can have a quiet word with the PE teacher?

I dont know if this is a possibility but for me one of my closest friends, who happens to be a ballerina to a professional standard, knew exactly what was going on so told the teacher that she was going to teach me ballet for the term and I actually really really enjoyed it. And it carried on in PE for the rest of the year meaning I also got to miss hockey in the bitter cold, netball in the torrential rain and athletics in the midsummer heat. Genius. And I learnt some ballet.

No adult knows. Not teachers, guidance counsler, parents, etc. I would say water phobia but I swimmed in middle school so people would know, and the teachers could probably look it up.

Im 14 years old by the way, and I thought if you weren't older than 16 then the teachers have to report and call home. I Need a note from the doctor and only the doctor to stay out of class for medical reasons, or that was what was said in the begining of the year.

I just dont know what would happen if I told someone. Im afraid they would call home.

I'm on my school's swim team, and have even gone to meets with fresh cuts on my legs. The coaches are kindof intense and once I started bleeding in the middle of a race (not SI related), and they told me to just put a towel over it before my next event.

In my experience, people really can't see cuts or scars very well if they're underwater. Chances are, most people will be unhappy about having to swim, and will be in their own world. Change quickly and behind a towel, in a stall, or in a shower, if your school has them, keep yourself wrapped up in the towel, and try to get in the pool quickly. I'm not sure what your PE swimming requirements are, but mine didn't require a lot of getting out of the pool.

At my school, you had to wear a shirt over bikinis. I'm not sure about yours, but if you have a rule like that, you could make sure you don't bring any one-pieces. Use a big, beach towel if you have any and wrap it around your waist when you're not swimming.

Most pools technically have a rule against getting in the pool with open wounds, but at my school, at least, we kindof ignore that for little cuts, or even skinned knees and stuff. In my lifeguarding training, my teacher saw cuts all the time and never said a thing.

I'm not sure about where you are, but where I am, technically teachers and staff members have to report any self-harm. I was lucky for a long time and could confide in one of my teachers (now my coach) and he didn't say anything until I expressed suicidal ideation. If your PE teachers are cool, maybe you could tell them? You could also cover any fresh ones with gauze and a lot of medical tape, and if anyone asks, just say you got in a fight with a bear and won (I've actually used that one before).

could you say your terrified of water or something?

Try and tell someone at school, you never know they might not phone home.. are you close with any teachers ? What do you think is the worst that would happen if your parentswere to know anyway ? cause it's neveer as bad as you're expecting :) x