This happened during my first semester of college two years ago. There was a girl in my class who never talked to the teacher. He would ask her questions, but she stayed silent. I can’t remember her making any noise at all.
One day, the teacher got very angry. He thought she was ignoring him and being rude, so he shouted, “Hey! Didn’t anyone teach you how to speak?”
The whole class went silent. It was one of those moments where everyone freezes, unsure of what to do or say. The girl didn’t flinch, didn’t even look up. She just stared at her desk, her hands folded tightly in front of her. The teacher, still fuming, waited for some kind of response, but all he got was silence.
Then, something unexpected happened. Another student, a quiet guy from the back of the room, stood up. He was normally so reserved that most of us barely noticed him. But today, he cleared his throat and said, “She can’t speak, you know.”
The teacher’s face went blank, and the rest of the class seemed to hold its breath. The girl’s eyes flickered up for a second, just enough to meet the student’s gaze. She didn’t say anything, but her lips parted slightly, as if she wanted to speak but couldn’t.
The quiet student continued, his voice steady, “She has selective mutism. It’s not that she’s ignoring you or being rude. She just… can’t talk sometimes.”
The teacher’s expression softened, his anger draining away, replaced by an uncomfortable realization. He didn’t say anything else for the rest of the class, and the girl finally looked up, giving the student who spoke a small, grateful smile. It wasn’t much, but it was enough.
After that day, things changed. The teacher became more patient, and the class, though awkward at first, started to give her space. She never spoke up in class, but she didn’t need to. We learned how to communicate in ways that didn’t always involve words.
I never did find out her story—why she had selective mutism or what her life was like outside of class—but that moment taught me something important: sometimes, silence isn’t about rejection or defiance. Sometimes, it’s about something deeper. Something we may never fully understand.