Am I wrong for refusing to say my brother’s suspension was “just a misunderstanding”?
My brother is 16 and got suspended for three days last week. The school called my parents because he and two other boys made a fake account using a classmate’s name and posted a bunch of disgusting stuff pretending to be him. It wasn’t just one dumb joke. They kept it going for almost a month, and apparently the kid had been getting blamed for things he never wrote. My brother admitted he helped make the account, but he keeps saying he “barely posted anything” and that everyone is acting like he ruined a life.
The problem is that he has a summer program interview coming up, and the suspension might come up because the school has to send a conduct form. My parents asked me to talk to one of the program coordinators, who happens to be someone I know from an old robotics club. They want me to say my brother got caught up in a group thing, that it was becuase of pressure from older kids, and that he’s definitley learned from it. I said no. I told them I’m not calling anyone to soften it, because I don’t actually believe he understands what he did.
Now everyone is treating me like I’m enjoying watching him lose an opportunity. My dad said siblings are supposed to help each other when things get serious, not “act like a judge.” My brother hasn’t apologized to the kid yet, at least not sincerely. He wrote one note because the school made him, then came home and complained that it sounded “too guilty.” I don’t want his whole future damaged over being stupid at 16, but I also don’t want to help rewrite what happened so he can dodge the first real consequence. Am I wrong here?