When Teachers Cross the Line: Shocking Classroom Moments
All the Educators should be encouraging and supportive but they are not either, unfortunately. When asked about what the worst thing an educator told them was, the users of Reddit were on a spree to send in their appalling replies. These teachers definitely get a failing grade.
1. Storytime Break
When my younger brother was in junior high, he wrote an incredible short story about the end of the world. In the end, a huge device would explode and would end most lives on earth. The school tried to suspend him. The teacher thought after reading the school said that he is at risk of blowing up the school and that he needed psychological help if he was writing about the whole world ending.
My mother was infuriated and she refused to sign any paper of suspension. They told her that my brother was suspended and was not allowed in school for 3 days whereas my mother did not let that happen and took him to each one of his classes on all those 3 days.
2. Locked Her Away
When I was in 7th grade, once two popular girls from the class locked up a teacher who was hated by everyone in the classroom. She stormed in and asked who locked the door and no one said anything. She singled me out and hated me — and said that I would be getting a week's worth of detention for this. I still had not snitched out the girls who locked the door.
I was against it as the rest of the class hadn't said anything either. She took me inside the hall and told me one of the most hurtful things I had ever heard. She said, Nobody would ever like me and that I would never have real friends. This was all true, but hearing her say it was like a punch in the gut. I just stood there and cried.
3. My Mother Ruined Him
When my brother was in middle school, a kid banged him against some lockers and broke his arm. The worst part is the principal refused to accept it was broken but towards the end of the day, he called my mother. Before my mother arrived, the principal told my brother he was worthless and would never amount to anything.
When my mother reached and got to know what was told, she completely LOST it. She stomped out of the office with rage and shouted, 'Who told my son was worthless?? Who?' From that time, the principal was the nicest person I had ever dealt with.
4. Everything Or Nothing
I had always been a compulsive reader. During my elementary school days, the school had a series of books that we had to read in order to write the answer sheet with cool invisible pens. We were motivated to go at our own pace and submit once we finished. I felt it was quite interesting and fun, so I started working on it right then and also it seemed to be easy.
Bunch of total 25 books were in the series. I was on number 22 and almost halfway through the first term right before Christmas break. The teacher took me aside and said I was reading them very quickly and I should wait for classmates to catch up. So while others were reading the books, I sat at my desk for an hour or two every day and did nothing. Apart from that, I also wasn't allowed to read or do anything else until others caught up. I finished the year sitting at the same spot they stopped me.
5. Say Sorry? What For?
A day after 9/11, when I was in the 6th grade and before the English lecture began, a bunch of students harassed me by asking if I was happy about what my people — I'm Lebanese—had done. Keeping in mind that my parents moved from the Middle East to get away from things like this and how I was upset as others of what had happened, I ran out of the room in tears.
The teacher took me along and sat next to me and I thought she would console me but I couldn't have been wronged more than that. She instead yelled at me for overreacting, and my storming out was unacceptable. Apart from that, she asked me to go back inside and apologize to everybody including the ones who bullied me. It was for sure the most embarrassing and degrading moment of my life.
6. My Teacher Was Wonderful
During one of the days in seventh grade, I started developing very bad allergies. Once, I spent 5 minutes draining my head of snot in the washroom which made my nose red. When I got back to the class, the teacher took me out of the class, into the hall and accused me of snorting dope in the bathroom, I couldn't believe it.
I never had any drink until then, forget snorting and I still haven't. I also told my guidance counselor that it was utter nonsense and this person has a twisted view about me. That entire year, I got an A in the class.
7. Santa Went Bananas
During my high school days, just before the winter vacation began. I had a history teacher who everyone hated because was quite strict and was being hard on all of us. Few days before the break, he wore a Santa outfit and came to the school and lecture he taught was about the history of Santa Claus. That particular day, some kid was acting like a fool in class was being disruptive
When the teacher walked around the class during his lecture that particular kid stood up hind him and set the teacher off, the reaction to it was quite awful. The teacher proceeded to turn the kid around and kept the kid like an arm-bar headlock combo and proceeded to push him into a wall and then slam him into a desk. He kept doing that the entire time and — in his Santa costume — he yelled, 'Are you OK? Are you OK?'
He looked concerned genuinely about the kids' safety while actively crushing him. Maybe at some point before he became a teacher, he was into the service and law enforcement, so maybe it was just a knee-jerk reaction to a perceived threat behind him, I am not sure but this teacher was not a small person either.
He seemed genuinely concerned for the kid’s safety while still actively subduing him. I know that at different points in the teacher's life, he had been in the service and law enforcement, so maybe it was just a knee-jerk reaction to a perceived threat behind him; I don't really know. This teacher wasn't a small dude either.
It was one the most odd, scary and unsettling things I had seen in my life. back then. No one said or did anything after that incident even though the incident was reported to the administration. I think there was no disciplinary action taken against him as he was planning on retiring and it was his last week at the school.
8. Unable To Take The Truth
When I was in first grade, my teacher asked us to write a story about what we did that particular day. As a 6 year old, I wrote that I had a KitKat that day, early and it made me feel good so I wrote cause that's exactly what I did. I also gave the story to my teacher assuming I did a great job and when she took me along to her office, she said she asked me to keep my hands on the desk and she then and there, paddled me.
I was surprised that I could not react. She also said that what I wrote was trash and I would never amount to anything.
9. Crushing The Creativity
During my 5th Grade days, it was an achievement sort of milestone for the kids to make huge weaving things for art class. They were made to put up on the display in the entire school as a final hurrah before we were sent off to the middle school. My mother tagged along with me to the craft store to purchase the supplies and I carefully selected the colors of yarn and little details like beads and such.
It took me almost two weeks of time to complete the weavings and I was very proud of what I did. By the end of the 2 weeks, my art teacher was taking rounds around the room to see what all of us had done and when she came to mine, she looked down and said, 'That just looks ditsy.' I was completely crushed thinking what kind of art teacher would dig at a kid who was displaying creativity is something I cannot understand.
10. The Funeral Blunder
I had to miss the first day of my college class as I was attending my mother's funeral. When I told the educator about the reason for me being absent, he replied saying, 'Well, I guess you can't use that excuse again. Haha' I was shocked as I looked at him mildly and then sat down. I figured out that our teacher wasn't a jerk, he was just socially awkward and clueless in general.
11. No Evidence Based Assumptions
In my 8th Grade, we were asked to write a short story from the point of view of someone who survived the Civil War raid. My teachers didn't know that I was obsessed with historical fiction and was a great writer.
I was happy to tune my writer within me and I was SOOO SURE that this will help me turn around my grades, which was quite needed. I thoroughly researched the topic, worked tirelessly, and submitted it.
After 3 days, the teacher stood up and said, 'Good job everybody', but SOMEONE has plagiarized and SOMEONE wouldn't be getting theirs back and they must come to her desk so they can go to the office. Sure enough it was me as she stood beside my desk with empty hands shaking her head sadly at me.
Everybody started giggling and whispering and I was so embarrassed that I was about to cry. I waited in the hall with a puffy face for the librarian who assigned this and tracked down. She came out of the class and started yelling at me in the hall about how I was a cheater and nobody heard my protest so I had to go to the principal's office where he was waiting with a look, 'I am disappointed in you.'
I was a mess because I cried but I managed to say, 'What proof' in between the chaos while he spoke about suspension. He looked at the librarian and my history teacher, who looked at each other and then the librarian said she had not specifically found it, yet. The principal asked what she meant by 'specifically'. Apparently, she had graded mine last of fifty-four and decided that because it was four times as long and better written than the others, that I most have cheated. They shifted around for a minute and sent me to PE without so much as an apology.
12. The Hole Theory
My language teacher for German was a crazy woman because she always spoke about how girls are better than guys and would pull hair out of her students. Once, she told us that cheese was a male world because it has holes. Because we were all 12 years around and terrified of her, the classroom was usually silent. One kid suddenly said, 'But I thought women had more holes.'
Her face went pale, and without saying anything, she stood up, took a sponge, soaked it with water, and squeezed it into his sweater.
13. Baby, Calm Down Calm Down!
I was friends with Ross, who was a good kid and lived down the street but he was also a bit of an odd duck. If something did not go the way he would have anticipated or if people picked on him or bullied him, he would then enter his violent rage mode. I got so used to that side of him that I knew how to calm him. I would get him to stop hitting within a few minutes. When we were in 6th grade and working on a project at the end of the school. One of the kids picked on him and he was in his rage mode as the bell rang while I stood at the door trying to calm him.
He was looking at me which was a good sign when the teacher came over to the door and told me to leave and when I said that he was calming down she called, 'No' and he punched me in the chest.
I never was punched so it hurt me pretty bad and made me sick. My mother had come to pick me from school and asked me what was wrong so I lifted my shirt and showed her my bruise that was developing. My mother went to the guidance counselor and principal.
What was bothersome was that the guidance counselor tried to defend the teacher's actions and then went around bad-mouthing me. The principal refused to do anything. Lastly, my mother resorted to convincing them to shift me to another class, where I had the kindest teacher ever.
14. Was Horrified Of The Snakes Alive!
When I was in first grade, I peed my pants and then ran from the class. I was sitting outside because I was very scared to go back inside again. The teacher came outside and sat next to me and told me a story about her uncle who was bitten by a snake and didn't survive. She said if I did not come in, the same thing would happen to me.
I got the credit here for the effectiveness — as it got me inside — but it definitely was a horrific thing to say to a child in first grade who was socially traumatized in front of classmates.
15. Running For My Life
When I was in 6th grade, there was a terrible teacher. When I was playing paper football with 3 dudes at our table. The teacher came and held me by my shoulder and said she would send me to the principal's office. I was shocked that I was sent for something so stupid. She wrote a note to the principal saying that she had repeatedly told me not to play paper football, which was a lie. Adding to that, the principal took it way too seriously and he told me that I would receive three hits from the paddle.
I was in a state of shock and despite that I had asked if I could change into my jeans as I was in my gym shorts. However, I ran out of school and lost my way back home and reached the highway where I was spotted by a state trooper.
I took off by running and hiding in a small cove and the next thing I could hear was dogs. I figured out that an officer had a dog with him and came and sniffed me out then I decided to head back to school when it was over. However what happened was that I was suspended for a week but never paddled.
16. A Major Glitch With My IT Teacher
Once I had a teacher who would make inappropriate and offensive jokes all the time. The entire student body feared him but being who I am, I was threatened to report his actions to which he took it to make an example out of me. He went to the office and reported that I had the admin password for the computers in the school.
He gave me those passwords as an IT teacher so I could repair computers. I had no idea I was not supposed to know the password as he had openly given me that. The office also asked if I knew it to which I said, 'Of course, why wouldn't I? From then, it became my word versus the teacher's which is not a situation one would like to be in.
The Vice Principal of the school and the Administration of the district realized I was helping the school by fixing broken computers, I was thanked by then to which the teacher intimidated the VP saying if I was not expelled, he would report him. This teacher did not only bully and suppress them but also the school's staff.
The VP actually had all of my credits completed, he really let me graduate early but told the teacher he expelled me. This way I went to the college without any hiccups and 6 months later, a man hired me for some website work. After two months of working on it, he complained about the teacher who nearly got me expelled and knowing I had any connection to him so I couldn't believe it.
My ex-teacher was literally blackmailing my client. I told my client about some awful things the teacher had done and others in the past. To which he responded by dragging the teacher to the court. Although I never heard back from him, I am sure it turned out bad for that jerk towards the end.
17. Stacking The Cards Against Me
During my junior high and high school, I played Magic: The Gathering and when free in my class, I would go through my deck of cards to make quick changes. When I was in 8th grade, the substitute teacher in my class that day had my deck sitting in the corner of the desk; I wasn't touching it or anything.
The teacher went by to pick up the cards and looked through them and shook her head all the time making a 'tsk tsk tsk sound.' and gave me a look while asking me which church I went to and had I known what I was up for. I abruptly said I did not believe in going to church and her response to that was provoking: 'I should have known.'
She then suddenly started lecturing me about life and that I did not know what I was into. I stood in disbelief and said, 'I don't know what your problem is but it's a card game.' For which in return I received a month's worth of detention for using profanity, and the deck was confiscated until my parents came to talk to the teacher and retrieve it.
18. Cutting Off For No Reason
In my school, I had to work for my huge history with a group and the subject we were given was Education reform. The project had everyone going up in front of the class to explain our research and findings. My entire group excluding me was in a different period.
I stood up and started with my bit of presentation and within less than a minute, my teacher said, 'Ok that is enough. You don't know what you are talking about.' Except I ACTUALLY DID because I did more than half of the project alone and the subject matter was my idea.
19. Shamed For My Dyslexia
When I was a kid, I had a speech defect and I wasn't aware about the fact that I was a dyslexic dysgraphic. One year, my writing and reading teacher decided to take it upon herself that I was faking difficulties for attention, especially since I was in the gifted program. She decided to force me in reading every assignment loudly in front of the class apart from writing every assignment up on the board, and subject me to public mockery.
It was a nightmare. She reprimanded me each time I got the word wrong. I used to love to write little stories but this crazy woman found my journal and threw it away, telling me that, 'I needed to learn how to write properly, or just not do it at all' as my handwriting is awful. As I was also a stubborn kid, I would not cry or react in any way, let alone telling my parents about it
Hence, she concluded that I was rude and headstrong. She also made it her mission to make me weep in front of the class subjecting me to verbal harassment and telling my classmates not to play with me during the break.
I just went into a shell and spent my time on the playground reading or doing math drills by myself, having her think to herself that 'nothing could be wrong with me.'
When the Winter break started and I got home, I opened up again and when the first day came around again, I had an all-out panic attack. My parents asked me what happened and what was wrong and I spilled the entire story and they pulled me from the school and homeschooled me or at least attempted to do so until high school. When my parents told the school board what happened, but they did NOTHING, very disappointing.
20. This Teacher Just Turnedover
When I was in 3rd grade, I was quite hyper and was diagnosed with ADHD and that bothered my teacher. I was not really too bad but I finished my work in the quarter of the term it took for others so I was always bored. Instead of giving me more tasks, she asked me to quietly sit down, which I did not do. Once my teacher was not there and someone suggested in the class to throw 'parties' like the ones we see in the movies.
Everybody was throwing paper at one another and I was assigned to be at the lookout so if I saw someone coming, I would warn everyone. As I sat on my seat, it was our teacher and when she figured what was happening and saw me sitting on my seat, she blamed me for everything and went beyond from there. She also came over and yelled at me, getting angry, flipped desks and spilled my things on the floor.
I was light and small so having a solid metal school desk fall on me hurt a lot. When I got home, I was obviously upset and shared with my mother what had happened. Apparently, my teacher called her for lunch and said that it was an accident and she was trying to get a textbook from my desk when it flipped. And my mom did not believe what I said.
It took another 6 months to hear about that from other parents for her to believe me and my parents said it was too late to do anything about it. When I went back to see the teacher as I went off to middle school and she defended her actions and was not even sorry. Apart from that, she also claimed she lost her cool while dealing with me for the whole year and that it was my fault for being a troublesome kid.
21. Their Backtracking Boomerang
During my middle school days, I was going to be held back in my garage because I was not able to do my homework even though I aced my tests and everything that I did in my class. My mother fought for me and they said if I was able to finish the entire year's worth of homework for all my classes in 3 days — during school — they would accept all of it late and not hold me.
I guess they thought it wasn't enough time but it took me a day and half to finish. A look on one of the teacher's faces, I still remember and she said that I couldn't possibly be finished and it might be rushed and junk with another expression that changed while going through it. Even after it all, they tried to take me back from what they promised and barely gave me a passing grade.
They argued that I may have cheated even though I was by myself in the room and with another teacher all the time. They argued that, 'That is not really what they meant' which flipped into, 'We did not think he would actually do that well.' They also threw another one of 'It isn't fair for other students' bit but lastly, they changed their mind and gave me the grade they had agreed on, but they did it resentfully.
22. Gendering The Toys
After getting the Kindergarten registration, I went to see the teacher and there was a big set of wooden blocks that the kids were playing with and I made a note to play with them when I came back from school. On day one of school, I went to play with the toys and the teacher said, 'Those are boy toys, go play with something else.'
23. Fire His Big Mouth
My teacher asked me if I was gay —accusingly — thrice in the middle of the boy's locker room. I was for sure a closeted gay person but he would ask me so cause I sucked at football and not because I checked someone out.
He also informed my friend who was a female and spoke a lot that, 'She should not be surprised if she grows up and a man hits her.' He eventually got fired for saying something about people of color.
24. A Circle Of Life
When I was in my 7th grade, my science teacher was quite annoying about letting students use the restroom during class. Once we were asked to read and did nothing important really like paying attention to the lecture. I realized I wanted to go for a pee break badly so I went to his desk to ask for his permission, and he looked up from his newspaper enough to wink and say 'No'.
I tried to explain that I needed to go RIGHT NOW and could I PLEASE go to the restroom? Again, he smirked and said, 'No'. Being a sincere child I was who got straight-As and went to sit back at my chair. I kept shifting at my seat as the urge to pee got worse and worse and sure, he knew of it and my fidgeting got the attention from the rest of the class who looked at me weirdly for a few seconds.
Finally, I couldn't take it anymore and the DAMN doors burst open and I peed over my new dress, on the chair and the backpack under the table and the title on the floor which was white. Everyone immediately scooted away from me and other students pointed at me laughing and pointing. I immediately started crying and the teacher realized his mistake in not letting me go. He took me to the office, where I had to sit alone in cold, wet clothes until my mother arrived. He never mentioned it to me or apologized.
That entire year and later, I was known as the 'Potty'. When I was preparing myself to move out of the state, some people signed my yearbook, 'To Potty: We'll miss you, don't forget your diapers!' I hope they got a poor janitor to clean up my puddle, but I'd like to imagine the teacher cleaning it up himself. Later that year, he received a payback in the form of a student who put Ex-Lax in his coffee and later was expelled for it.'
25. Lost Between The Lines
In my 3rd grade, we were reading out of a textbook. Each time a teacher would call me, I could not find our place. She would keep calling me every time. I tried my best but could not find where others were reading in the book. Each and every time she would call me an Idiot and ask what was wrong with me.
Everyone in the class laughed at me and towards the end, she came to me and tell me where to read. It turns out that I was reading entirely a different version from others. The teacher asked me to shut up and listen until I would be given another book. Although she did not apologize or anything.
26. The Exercise Remark
I was quite a heavy kid when I was in my third grade and I was a bit of an outcast. We also had a sub-geography class one day and he was quite a 'typical cool teacher' who would crack jokes around and bond with the kids by reinforcing their cliques. Once my pencil dropped and I bent over the desk to pick it in front of all, he went on to say, 'I bet that is the most exercise you have ever done since your Nintendo broke'. For once, I just sat there in shock.
Later, I was crying on my way to the principal who then called my mother asking her to pick me. She chose not the confront the teacher as she was fearful of how her anger would turn out. Later on the teacher personally apologized to me and removed me from subbing at our school. However, my classmates never forgot it and made the rest of school difficult.
27. Threats About Throwing Out Of The Window
When I was in 10th grade, there was a math teacher who hated me for no apparent reason. Once, I forgot to bring my calculator to the class and asked If I could borrow the spares from the school for such an occasional situation. She said that I could not and then she intimidated me out of a window if I ever forgot my calculator again.
After a few weeks, I stayed late in the class to clear a few things up as I did not have the time to go to the locker and get my calculator because I didn't want to ask for a spare one again. I quietly sat in the back of the class not doing any work to not get punished but she eventually call me and asked what the answer to a question was.
I admitted that I did not have a calculator to which she said, 'Well it is a good thing I don't have windows open' and sent me to the principal's office with a note for 'being disruptive.'
28. Red-Light Stupidity
During my elementary school days, our school decided to include a 'stoplight system'. It was used to control the volume of the students. It was implemented with signifying different colors for different actions such as, green meant to talk, yellow meant to get quiet, and red meant 'No Talking Whatsoever.' I was a talkative kid in my own world. Once I begin talking about a topic I keep talking and keep talking not because I was rude, but because I'd forgotten it was red-light time.
If I was caught talking, then I would be sent to the corner in front of everyone. In my case, it happened more than once. It was extremely demeaning and sometimes forgot me and left me there once. I was so upset that I went back home telling my mother, 'I am bad, I am bad and I cannot be good.' I was that crushed.
29. Broke My Love For Science </3
As a young child, I was fascinated with the world of astrophysics and knew nothing about it so I decided to randomly come up with unsupported theories as to why a collapsing star turned into a black hole.
I would also discuss such things with my friend after the class, keeping away from others. Instead of supporting and redirecting my interest into productive studying, my science teacher said, 'You don't know anything and stop pretending like you do.'
Her saying that entirely ruined my passion for science.
30. Playground Payment
When I was in my second grade, I was roaming around the school playground and found a $20 note lying on the concrete near the kindergarten classrooms. I thought to myself that it was my responsibility to return it to its rightful owner and went to class and told them that I found it in the playground. The teacher took it, said thank you, put the money in her purse and walked away.
