Blonde-haired and bubbly, sophomore Mary Elizabeth Miller laughed with classmates in her sixth-period World History class over teacher Kirk Abe’s guidelines.

“And then he said, ‘If I take you to the office, you can either join my wrestling team or get a mark,’” said Miller, giggling.

This was a unique rule for Miller, who was born in Louisiana and over the years has moved to Fremont, Burlingame, San Francisco and eventually Saratoga where she finds the accepting atmosphere to be a drastic change from previous schools.

Most recently attending The Academy – San Francisco @ McAteer, a predominantly Hispanic public high school of about 300 students, Miller felt excluded despite having friends and participating in various sports.

“I am a Christian white girl and a lot of the kids there weren’t very kind to me because of how they viewed Christians and white girls,” she said.

In one incident, four girls who had been in her math class for a year suddenly turned on Miller.

“They looked up saying, ‘Who are you and what are you doing here? You don’t belong at this school. You can’t sit next to me and need to move it,’” Miller recalled.

So far, she feels comfortable, especially after a warm welcome.

“On the first day, people walked up to me saying, ‘Hey are you new here? Let me help you around,’” Miller said.

At the New Student Barbeque last month, Miller made friends with other new students, including freshman Aliza Zaman, who bonded with Miller as a fellow new student.

“She came from a different school too, so we didn’t know each other,” Zaman said.

Later this year, Miller plans to continue pursuing her passion for sports by joining teams such as soccer, swimming or softball.

She can already sense that being herself here won’t be an issue.

“I really do feel more welcomed here,” Miller said. “The teachers and students are a lot nicer.”