I recently got in trouble at school for speaking my first language. For background, I’m currently in high school finishing my junior year & I was born in Indonesia and moved to America when I was 6. My school is extremely diverse (I live in California) but I had never met another Indonesian. A couple of years ago, I met a new person in school who is also Indonesian and we became extremely close because it was a first for both of us. She and I have similar schedules and often talk to each other in our language because we both know it fluently.
Nobody is any of our classes, none of my friends, and no staff/teachers have ever been bothered by her and I speaking to each other. However, there is one person (i’ll call them Ace) who I have tension with who had apparently gone to the teacher and complained about solely me claiming I was talking about them. I was pulled aside and scolded by the teacher, even after I denied it. I know mostly everyone in all of my classes and I have never heard this complaint, so it definitely shocked me. According to a mutual friend, they have an especially strong dislike for me and suspected I was talking negatively about them with my friend after they “heard their name mentioned.” Both my friend and I have never name-dropped them in any conversations because we’re not that stupid to do it with them in the same vicinity as us.
The next few days went normally, my friend and I continued to talk in Indonesian until a pass was sent to me from the office. The admin had been informed by both Ace and the teacher that I was continuing this behavior. They had told me to tone it down because I was making “everyone uncomfortable.” I was obviously upset and when I went back to class and I was telling my friends about it, Ace came up and said, “next time be careful what you say.” Everyone looked at them blankly as they walked away and I was visibly upset after. I have refused to work with them because of the incident, which caused Ace to become upset. They said I could have simply apologized and they wouldn’t have went that far but both my friend and I tried to argue that we, once again, had never name-dropped them.
Some have taken their side and said their feelings are valid too, but most have taken my point of view on the situation. Should I have apologized?