A 12-year-old boy in California recounted his experiences with racism at school — including being physically hit by his peers — during a moving address to his school board.

“I have been hit, chased, thrown down and called the n-word several times this year,” Daniel Pocklington said at a meeting of the Rocklin County School Board. “It is hard for me to find a safe way to go to school and actually feel important. It keeps happening and I don’t feel safe or like it’ll get better.”

He told CBS 13 Sacramento that he once received an anonymous note containing a racial slur — and that none of his classmates would own up to it.

“Why does this keep happening to me?” he mused in an interview.

Responding to Pocklington’s stories of racist abuse, the school board said the administration at his elementary school “took appropriate action” and eventually addressed his entire fifth grade class about tolerance.

After video of the preteen’s school board speech made waves in his community, he reportedly received a letter of support from his hero, former President Barack Obama.

“He represented [that] this is what black people can do. Don’t judge us by our skin,” Pocklington told ABC10. “We can do better than you think.”