Reputation on Fire

Have you ever been singled out in class and wrongly accused in front of EVERYONE! 60 eyes stare at you like a scared mouse surrounded by 100 hungry cats. Sometimes well meaning teachers make mistakes and sometimes students are right. Why, is it that if someone is wronged publicly the apology follows quietly when no one is around. This is shaping up to be a year of reputation preservation. There have been many fire's to put out recently in order to protect my reputation...but that's High School.