Giving myself a second chance/Failed by my school system

THIS IS LONG BUT PLEASE READ THIS IS IMPORTANT

Hey. I'm a Black student that went to a really good private high school in SF that graduated this year. I had a terrible experience there, I got literally no support during covid (I was a transfer from a diff high school so I came in sophomore year during covid) and was not guided on the proper transition and expectations of what my new school was asking from me. I have terrible ADHD, so I really fell behind bad during that year. It also happened again my junior year, except this time I was experiencing unsupportive teachers who denied me my accommodations and were not kind to me. I went to my dean and school counselor so many times that year for help telling them how bad my mental health situation was getting and they did nothing about it, although I heavily noticed that all the white students that went to my school were getting all the help I was asking for right away, meanwhile I was denied them all. I got so depressed and lonely that the last day of junior year, I took (drgs/) in an attempt to to take my life, however my friends came to me during the school day and called the school for help. They took me to the hospital, and that summer I got all the care I needed from health professionals and my personal therapists. I got in medications that drastically changed my mindset and mood, and when I returned to school for senior year, I worked hard, developed relationships with teachers that cared about me, and made sure I was taking care of my mental health through active therapy sessions. I had a 4.0 in freshmen year, and my senior year gpa by itself is 3.62 unweighted and a 3.91 weighted (i took 7 honors courses senior year) and when I combine that with my freshmen gpa, I have a cumulative of 3.74 unweighted and a weighted gpa of 3.92. I experienced so much racism during my time at my private high school (predominantly white). A lot of my teachers did not support or help me like they did the white students and my school administration never helped me with my mental health or helped me make sure I was successful during my school year. Later that year, I found out that I got a disciplinary action that stated that I violated school policy by taking drugs. I went to my dean and he said he wasn't going to suspend me because it was a mental health problem (plus all my health care professionals sent notes to the school and said it would be unfair to be suspended for this action), UNTIL a student that I barely knew who heard about it from a friend of a friend went to my dean and said that my overdose traumatized her so she could get out of a math test. So I was suspended on the condition that I traumatized and caused mental harm against another student, which is against the policy. I literally felt awful, and when I applied to my colleges senior year I was so ashamed of everything about me as a student. My counselor also hated me so she barely met with me, except made me state for my disciplinary action section that I plainly state what happened and made me write it as if I was some student druggy that I did it just for fun. I got denied from almost every single action, which I blame on my transcript, my suspension, my lack of care from my previous teacher recs and my counselor rec. my supplementary essays were great in my opinion, but that didn't save me.

SO I decided to take a gap year. I completed my senior year with an amazing transcript that represents my come back, took on an internship for a prestigious Black nonprofit where I write their newsletters and study/research their historical archives, and got a part-time job at a bookstore. I'm applying to colleges that I believe are more of a target, and I got my own personal counselor who loves me and got two of my senior year teachers who gave me amazing grades and loved me so much. I will always feel ashamed about how my high school year went, and I feel like I always be judged by it and that I will never be able to reach my dreams and actually be seen by colleges. My dream school has always been NYU, and I'm applying for ED 1 again. If I had it my way, I wish I could just report my senior year and freshmen year transcript together. I want colleges to know that no, I'm not a dumb idiot that was a druggy, I'm incredibly smart and know what I want to do with my life, and that I'm a person who knows so much about myself and that I succeeded even through adversity and the blatant racism. I'm not a failure.

This was incredibly long, but it's all important to me. I want a real second chance for colleges, and I feel like I can't just leave out that I was failed by my school system /given no support by anyone. I also want to write out a better suspension explanation in a way that obviously doesn't read like a pity party, but gives them an understanding about what I went through and that ever since then my life has never been better. Most importantly, I want them to pay closer attention to my successful senior and freshmen year, and if there is a way for me to do that strategically and make me stand out more than other students.

NYU is my dream school, and I want to be able to say at the end of the day that I 100% did what I could and that I could potentially get the second chance I feel like I deserve.

Thank you for reading, please help.