When I was younger I attended Mountford Manor Primary School. I went on to Churchfields Secondary School. In Year 8 my friend started at the school as well.

A group of us that went to primary school together, including my friend, started skiving lessons. We were just missing a few lessons to start with. We used to hide in the Design Technology block, write in people’s schoolbooks, smoke or sometimes go to the park and just sit on the swings.

I started to skive with my friend more often; we used to run around the school when we should have been in class. We would go back to have lunch and then skive again in the afternoon. Sometimes if no-one was in at my friend’s house we went there.

The teachers noticed that we were missing lessons and started to get suspicious. They made phone calls to our parents and sent letters home informing them that we were not attending school. The letters warned that we would be excluded if it carried on.

For a few weeks or so we stopped skiving, but then it started again. We started going back to Mountford Manor Primary School. We skived there for a couple of weeks which ended up in us getting an Acceptable Behaviour Contract (also known as an ABC).

We stopped going to Mountford Manor and started attending school and doing well there. After a while I got a bit out of line and started skiving again. This time we were constantly running around our school and going back to Mountford Manor.

Mountford Manor made complaints to our school and to the police about us climbing on roofs and banging on windows. We also got blamed for things that other people were doing like throwing stones and eggs.

At this point the Community Safety Partnership Team and one of its Anti-Social Behaviour Investigation Officers got involved. They sent a letter to my mum at first. Then they got more complaints about us.

The officer came to my house at about 7 o’clock one morning. They were banging the door down to issue me with an Asbo and court date. He came in and talked me through the order.

The conditions were that I stayed away from my friend, stayed at home between 8am and 7pm and was not allowed anywhere near Mountford Manor school or surrounding areas.

My name was made public and my picture was put in the Advertiser. I still feel really discriminated against and embarrassed because some people have done much worse than I have and they don’t get Asbos.

I got arrested twice in the first couple of months and got kicked out of school. I have lost so many friends and I realised how close I was to getting a custodial sentence. I knew that I had no choice but to stop. After going back to court for breaking my Asbo for the second time I knew that I had to stop offending.

I have been on the Asbo for 15 months now. I also have a court order (separate to my Asbo) so have been working with the Youth Offending Team (YOT) too. I have engaged in lots of different projects. The Asbo and the work that I have done at the YOT has helped me.

However, I don’t think that it was the orders alone that helped me to stop getting into trouble. It was my own decision to get on with my life and be good. I was fed up with the way things were going and I wanted to stop it all.

I have not got into any more trouble since. I realise now that all the trouble that I got into was just a waste of time. It upset me and my family and lots of other people.

I never meant to upset anyone but we used to get so bored. I know that it is not an excuse, but there is nothing for young people to do so we ended up getting into trouble.

I am glad that I got the opportunity to prove to people that I am a good person. I have not been in trouble for a year now. I improved in school and am starting college.

I am no longer working with the Youth Offending Team because my order was revoked for excellent progress. My Asbo has also been revoked because I have shown that I’m keeping out of trouble.