School is hard enough as it is, but each of us had that one teacher who just seemed to go out of their way to make every student’s life miserable. From shocking secrets to cruel and unusual punishments, we’re going to give each and every one of these horrible teachers an F-minus.
1. Speaking for the Student
My mother and father passed when I was in my final year of school, I was off school for a while around the time of the second funeral. When I returned to school my tutor decided it was her job to tell the class what had happened to me, right there in front of everyone instead of letting me do it on my own terms. To say I lost my temper would be an understatement.
2. Inspiring a Walkout
I once had a terrible history teacher. He was horrible to everyone and said some extremely questionable things. He never bothered me in particular, a few things here and there but nothing terrible. Well, until my best friend drowned while canoeing with some other students. A few days later the principal had a moment of silence for him.
In response, this teacher said 'kid deserved it.' I lost my freaking mind. I started shrieking at him. I was crying, and he was just standing there with this mischievous smirk on his face. My friends pulled me out of the room while he called the principal. I ended up suspended but there was a student walkout the next day due to my suspension.
3. He Don’t Got Game
I was near the end of my senior year in college and needed to take an elective to satisfy degree requirements. I took basketball since I love the game. The "professor" was an assistant coach for the school's basketball team, and he didn't care about the class. Our class starts at 8 am in the old basketball gym on campus, and he was the only way that we could get into the gym.
A few times he had a colleague come to open up the gym for us, but at least 7 or 8 times over the semester, he just didn't show up at all so, after 15 minutes, the students just went back to their dorms or apartments. I was a commuter driving 45 minutes each way, so I had to skip work on the days I had class. I was working to pay for school.
Near the end of the semester, someone in class asked him about his attendance then he made an announcement that anyone that doesn't show up for the final exam (basically whoever could make a basket) will fail. On the day of the final exam, he didn't show up. No colleague. Nothing. On that last day, there were 30 students freezing cold sitting outside the gym in December. I ripped him a new one.
4. Loss After Loss
At the age of nine, I lost my father in a horrific accident. I returned to school a few days later, and after attendance, the teacher said to me, "The class got together and sent flowers to your father's funeral. I paid your share, so make sure you bring in $2 tomorrow as I need to be paid back," and went on with lessons.
5. Real Road Lessons
My sociology professor in college once stopped mid-lecture, looked around the room, and said, "Don't ever get road head while riding a motorcycle. There, don't say I never taught you anything," and then walked out an hour early.
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6. Get The Geezer
We had an old German substitute teacher at my high school—like so old it looked like he could collapse at any given time. My school was predominantly white. We had around 20 black students total. The sub had asked one of these students to bring him a stapler or something like that, which the student brought to him.
His response, which got him fired immediately, was something like, “Wow, I didn’t expect one of your kind to be helpful. A lot of you people are like monkeys.” I’m pretty sure the only reason that the student didn’t punch him in the face is that the teacher would’ve crumbled into dust.
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7. An Alarming Tale
I had a Grade 1 and 2 class last year and one student had diabetes. Let’s call him Adam. Adam had a cell phone that beeps when his blood sugar is too low or too high. It’s connected to the monitor in his arm and hip. The cell phone has no other uses, no apps, no data, and is not connected to the school wifi. The substitute saw his phone on his desk and promptly took it away as per the “no devices” rule.
During gym class, an EA comes in to make sure everything is ok, and Adam is visibly ill. He was pale and sweating. Luckily this EA knows Adam’s medical plan, and instantly asks Adam for the phone and he explains that the substitute took it away in the morning. The EA then loses it on the substitute, demanding the phone.
The substitute calls in the principal to reprimand the EA, but then she got reprimanded herself as obviously she did not read the student’s safety plans. She was asked to leave and the principal taught the class the rest of the day. Adam was fine, drank a couple of juice boxes and had a granola bar. His mom picked him up shortly after.
8. Her Own Drummer
Back when I was a teacher, I had a sub decide my plans weren’t good enough for her and went rogue. She decided to show my students videos of animals giving birth on YouTube. I taught English...
9. All Together Now
During the early 80s, I went to high school in a little Appalachian town that was 35 miles from the closest traffic light. We had a machine shop teacher who was caught making silencers for the friggin' mafia. This guy would have his students use lathes and milling machines to work on “class projects” when they were actually making the silencers. Insane.
10. Another One For Me
In history class, we had a lot of random documentary and movie days while the teacher drank her tea in the back of the room. Once, there was a day she didn’t get up after the movie ended. She just sat there not moving with her eyes were closed. That's when we learned that she wasn't actually drinking "tea."
An administrator came down and found her passed out; when they looked in her desk, it was jam-packed with of booze. She got fired pretty fast after that.
11. Complete, Effortless Disregard
In sixth grade, I was sick and missed a day of school, so I didn’t know what the homework was. The next day in class, the first thing I did was ask one of my classmates for the previous night’s homework so I could do it that night. My teacher gave me a zero and a detention in front of everyone for not turning in the assignment.
I went to her privately after class and explained that I didn’t have any friends in the class and had gotten everything I needed to do it that night as soon I walked in before class started. The horrible thing she said to that day has stuck with me the rest of my life. She told me it wasn’t her problem if I’m a loser and that I should have found a way instead of making excuses.
I was a great student with straight As, never missed school, and was always well mannered. I was absolutely mortified and so deeply hurt because in reality, not only did I not have any friends in that class, I didn’t have many friends at all. The friends I did have who were more school friends than actual friends were on another “team” so had a different set of teachers.
But it didn't end there. Later in the quarter, I turned in a poem that I was incredibly proud of. I got nice paper to print it on and everything, and the poem itself was very real and very raw. She failed me on the project. When I approached her about why she failed me, she told me the whole thing was dumb—the visual presentation and the poem itself.
My mom still has that project framed in her house and reminds me from time to time how meaningful it was for an 11-year-old to have written it. I’m not sure what that teacher had against me and still haven’t been able to make sense of it all these years later, but I’ve never forgotten how she treated me.
12. Miss Maleficent
My teacher and pretty much the whole school knew I was a foster kid. I was painfully aware of this so I kept to myself. I didn’t make many friends and spent all of my time at home playing in the woods. In the middle of the semester of third grade, someone went into my teacher’s purse and took money from her. It wasn’t a small amount either—like hundreds of dollars.
Without sending anyone to the principal’s or even investigating the situation, she called my parents and told them it was me because “orphans lack manors and we all know it was him.” She demanded that my foster parents pay up and they did. When I got home that day, my foster father punished me for being a thief and it was painful.
When I got to school the next day with bruises on me, she knowingly looked at me and said, “Got what you asked for, huh?” That was 20 years ago, I went to her funeral give years ago just to make sure the grim reaper did the job.
13. Extra Spicy Take
One day, our AP calculus teacher in high school had a mental breakdown. He ranted for an entire class period about some kind of nonsense and then drank an entire bottle of salsa! After he finished, he stormed out and just never came back.
14. No Sharing with the Class
I got a detention from a teacher for knowing something she didn't. We were learning about Japanese print making in art history class, and the text she was reading from mentioned Zen. Another kid asked what Zen was, and the teacher didn't know. I had just been to Japan and visited a temple, so I piped up and told them it was a type of Buddhism from Japan.
I wasn't trying to be a jerk or rude about it at all. I was just trying to help out the other kid and was excited about sharing my trip—I never expected what happened next. My teacher lost it, yelled at me, kicked me out of class, and then gave me a detention. She also taught art class and was terrible at that too. She just liked bossing kids around.
15. Difficult Divorce
A teacher in elementary school would, after every test, pick the lowest scoring girl and boy and force them to hold hands, perform a brief marriage ceremony in front of the laughing class, and then announce, “Congratulations, you're a marriage of dumbos made in heaven,” then have the class sing, "Here Comes the Bride."
She’d have the two kids sit together at the side of the classroom for rest of the lesson and stay holding hands until the bell. It happened to me. Three weeks was about how long the teasing lasted, and six years was roughly how long me and the "groom" avoided speaking to each other after that out of residual humiliation.
16. Devil’s Pardon
Ah Mrs. Tansa. You can rearrange her name to spell Satan. She was my fourth grade teacher, and she would make fun of you anytime she got. My favorite memory about her was when I was riding my bike and saw a bunch of cops a few doors down from my place. I walked up and noticed an officer with the same last name on his name tag, and I asked him if his wife was a teacher.
He said yes, and I said I was a student in her class, and all he said was, "I'm sorry."
17. That Doesn’t Count
My worst teacher was probably my 10th grade geometry teacher. She openly admitted to the class that she hated teaching math. She told us that she'd gone to college, and gotten a degree in English, but was stuck with teaching math instead, etc. Only one person in that class got an A, two people got Bs, a few got Cs, and everyone else either barely passed or failed.
The worst part? She'd also mark your test answers wrong if you misspelled a word even if you got the actual problem right. I had to go to summer school where our PE teacher taught geometry, and I aced it. I couldn't believe how easily it made sense to me when he taught it to me.
18. Why So Serious?
An English teacher I had in high school asked the class to spend half of the class in the library, finding a love poem. I chose Sonnet 130 by Shakespeare. It's not a standard love poem; it says nothing nice about the lady until the very end. She failed me on the project. The very next project was to choose a poem that described our general feelings around that time.
I chose a poem from the existentialists. I don't recall exactly which one, but it was about taking your own life. Again, I failed the project. I'll never forget her response after I read it aloud, "Why would you choose something so awful and sad??" A girl in the class said, "maybe that's how he feels?"
She sent me to the principal's office for punishment. I felt like I wasn’t allowed to feel what I felt, and it made me want to rage even more.
19. Don’t Listen to the Haters
A friend of mine wanted to go to a certain university that was out of state and somewhat tough to get into. The counselor told him not to waste his time as he would never get in. This made him rage. He stormed to the principal who told him to trust the counselor as that was her job. He applied anyway, got accepted, and taped copies of his acceptance letter to the counselor and principal’s door.
20. Spreadsheet Master
I had an 80-year-old professor "teach" us Excel by drawing lines on the whiteboard. Then he showed us an example from his spreadsheet on his computer with a screen projector. Makes more sense to just...use the projector, right? Not according to ths guy. When he wanted to show us how to edit Excel or change a formula, he would close the projector and go back to the whiteboard "because it was easier." How is this even allowed?!
21. Ain’t No Zero
I flipped out on a logic professor who "lost" my assignment's records. I had to call him to talk sense into him. He responded by yelling at me, "You didn’t do them! I am looking at your grades, and they are all zeroes!" That's when I absolutely lost it. “Look you inept pissant,” I said, “I have papers that you've graded right here. They aren't even good, but they are definitely not zeroes.”
Eventually, I read through his comments on my papers while he was trying to argue with me. That's when he's like "okay... that doesn't sound made up. Scan your papers and email them in." My grade went from a D to a B.
22. Need The Skills
My design and technology teacher really resented that I had very little interest in her subject. She asked me what I wanted to do when I left school. I told her I was going to do something with music. She told me to be successful at that someone had to be either extremely talented or very hardworking...and I was neither.
23. Unremarkable Accomplishment
During English class, we’re watching Tomorrow When the War Began. Those of you who have seen the movie know they start the movie talking about intercourse. The teacher said, “Intercourse is not that great. I have actually not done it before.” He's a full 30-year-old man and said that to a bunch of 14-year-olds. The old days.
24. What Are The Chances
The teacher was using an example to illustrate a concept. He was a very nice, bubbly man who we all liked. He pointed at a random student and said, "For example, Bob, imagine you're adopted-" The second the words left his mouth, he realized he'd made a terrible mistake. Almost half the class cringed as they knew what Bob was going to say, "Um, I am adopted." We watched the gears turn in his head.
The poor teacher just looked like he was freaking out in his mind, “Oh no…I can’t say sorry because that implies being adopted is bad…uh…” The silence was palpable as he tried to come up with something to say. He eventually just turned to another kid, "...are you adopted?" "No," "Ok so, now, imagine Steven is adopted-"
25. Herr Jaegermeister
I’ll never forget Frau Taylor in college German. This dude was a riot, let me tell you. When I first took the class, I heard rumors that he was a bit off but I didn’t know any specifics, so I had a fairly clean slate when it came to my experience as one of his students. He always wore a suit and was constantly sweating even though it was normal temperature in the room and he was not overweight.
Most days I had this class, he ended 20 minutes early because he had to “lie down because of his migraines.” I also saw him quite a bit out of class. As any college student, I frequented the local grocery store liquor section, and I saw him there just about every time I went. After weeks of seeing him behave erratically in class and witnessing his weekly cartfuls, I connected the dots that he was likely an alcoholic.
About a month in to the class, things started getting nuts. He would go on these long rants that were completely unrelated to the course, and we would just sit there in silence as he talked about being a hippy in San Francisco in the 60s and sleeping with some random “free spirit” on Jim Morrison’s grave. He once went on a 20-minute rant about Catholics and how religion has completely destroyed the fabric of academia and will be the end of civilized society as we know it.
When he saw that we were just sitting in silence very awkwardly, he’d just smile and say, “You guys are just too young to understand.” This dude also LOVED squirrels. We would sometimes have class out in the quad because he’d rather talk about the senseless attack on Dresden during WW2 and how it destroyed a ton of art under one of the shade trees.
He would constantly get distracted if one wandered by and immediately yell out, “Oh my, look at that one! It’s so pudgy and cute!” He once even claimed he saw a squirrel that looked EXACTLY like John Lennon. I wish I was making this up. Also, if you drew a squirrel on your quiz, you were given extra points. Not that this class was hard because he handed out the quizzes on Monday and collected them on Fridays each week. I never got below a 102 on any of them.
In the end, I felt bad for him. He always talked about loves lost and how great it was to be a hippie in the 60s. I didn’t learn much about German that semester, but I guess I got a taste of what radical hippies were like back in the day. It was a wild ride.
26. That’s Not How You Treat a Lady
I had an arrogant English teacher who would say things like, “You will address me as Dr. [Jerk]. I speak Russian, you know!" He once called a blonde girl a rude name because she got the lowest test score one day. This was in a high-scoring class. Her score was fine but it was just not as high as everyone else's. He asked her if she "could even read." She cried.
I didn't like this girl, but being 14 and cocky, I had to say something. I asked him if he enjoyed picking on children. He puffed out his chest and yelled, "WHAT did you say?!" and got in my face. I won't pretend I said anything clever or witty because I didn't. I just called him a “miserable old jerk.” I also told him to apologize to the girl.
I didn't get into much trouble in the end because I explained to the departmental head who confirmed my story with the girl in question. The detention I was supposed to have with Mr. Fat and Miserable never happened.
27. Horrible Impression
I was only 8, but my second grade teacher has always stuck with me as the worst teacher. I have always wanted to look her up and push my masters in statistics in her face. I was never good at the math she was teaching. One day, I learned that I could get help if I asked. After asking for help 3 times, I learned that the teacher would yell at me and scold me for asking questions. She told my mother I was bad at math. But that doesn't even scratch the surface of how awful she was.
She constantly talked to the class about how important personal hygiene was. This was directed at me. She would ask my mother constantly if my clothes were clean. Then I was accused of stealing someone's cookie in class. A girl blamed me and my teacher refused to believe me. Then when I was scheduled to serve detention, I was given no directions and missed the detention earning me more detentions. I ended up missing lunch recess for at least an entire week.
28. Singing Like a Devious Eagle
My high school choir teacher was emotionally abusive. He lectured us daily on all the things we did wrong. Once, he made me have a panic attack because I missed ONE rehearsal for an AP test. Even some of the other teachers were wary of him. They finally had someone else take his job after 50 years of teaching choir. Now he's an assistant director.
29. The Proof is in the Printing
I had a teacher who hated me. To the best of my knowledge, I never did anything to make her feel that way at first, or if I did, it was something stupid and petty. Not being the type to enjoy being hated, I made her life as difficult as I could without breaking rules. Then this awful teacher started telling me that I wasn’t turning in homework assignments. Are you serious? I handed it to you yesterday same time as everyone else.
Principal calls my parents about me apparently just not trying, so they yell at me for a while and sit with me every night for two weeks while I do my dumb homework. Then this genius lady tells me again that I need to start doing homework or I'm going to fail the class. This message ends up with the principal and then ends up with my parents.
Now, they didn't believe me before this point, but now they knew I was doing my homework, and something fishy was going on. My mom asked to meet with the teacher. We went to this parent teacher meet up and she's sitting there all smug. She told my mom, "He isn't doing his homework." But my mom fired back, "I know he is. I've been making sure he has."
Then the teacher went, "Well then he must be choosing not to turn it in. Or maybe he's just not doing the homework for this class. Do you help him with the work? We're doing ____ right now, I'll show you the assignment." She grabbed a folder, opened it up, and right on top was my ungraded assignment. It had my name on the top in big ol’ letters.
My mom noticed too and snatched it. She gave the teacher a look, got up, and walked down the hall to the principal’s office. The look on her face was worth the nightmare I'd been through. I had never seen my teacher, or anyone else for that matter, look so devastated after realizing how much she screwed things up for herself. It was incredible. She finished out the school year but was not present the next year.
I guess there were a lot of issues with her.
30. Heart Of The Matter
I had a sub who demanded I turn over my heart monitor in front of the class. It was my junior year I was having major heart problems and had to wear a heart monitor 15 hours a day. It had a phone attached that when I had heart murmurs, it would send the data to my doctor. I was wearing it and started having heart issues.
The monitor buzzed and I went to click ‘send’ when the sub demanded I turn over my cell phone. I started to explain why I couldn't, and she snapped at me, so I lifted my shirt to show the wires and sensors strapped to my chest, in front of the class of 50 students. I’ve never seen anyone’s face drop that fast in my life.
31. By Any Other Name
One sub made an elementary student cry insisting her name was misspelled and made her stand up in front of the class and admit her name was spelled wrong. I asked that she not return but I still saw her around as other teachers had her sub.
32. Do What You Love
My teacher was fired for being a chronic liar. Her most insane lie? That she was even qualified to teach us. She didn't have the right degree! Other stuff she lied about included her romantic relationship with Brad Pitt, her alleged gang connections, and even the fact that she was supposedly a multimillionaire. Despite her “millions,” she was still a teacher because she "enjoyed it." That lady needed help.
33. Wide Spread
Someone found an old YouTube video of our high school art teacher painting with his butt cheeks. It didn’t take long for the video to spread all over the school. I mean, it was hilarious. But when the administration found out about the clip, they were ticked. The students held a protest to try to keep the teacher around. Unfortunately, they fired him anyways.
34. Every Man For Himself
My teacher planned a canoeing day for gym class. He brought fifteen freshmen into the water channel that was by our school…without checking the weather. While on the water, everything went wrong. A severe thunderstorm hit, but instead of helping us, our teacher paddled to safety, leaving us teens in the water. We had to tie our canoes together and row back to school.
When we got to shore, our teacher was just standing on the dock without a care in the world. When the school found out what happened (AKA that our teacher nearly cost us our lives because he was completely incompetent), he was fired two days later.
35. You Can't Be Ser
I don't remember her name, but I do remember multiple times when she was wildly inappropriate and just a horrible person. I was in second grade, and my grandpa had just passed. I ended up missing school because of the funeral, and as a result, I missed the spelling test that day. The day I got back she told me, "Next time someone dies you better have the funeral on the weekend."
My school was in a snobby nasty district and town that never admitted they did anything wrong, but needless to say, I’m glad we got out of there.
36. Under Experience
My seventh-grade math teacher heard these ninth graders say he probably never gets any. Then he explained to the entire class that he sleeps with his ten years younger wife a lot and that they are in an open polyamorous relationship. He was also our homeroom teacher. There is a lot of lore behind this teacher. We met his wife too.
37. Got A Leak
I had an art teacher who got caught drinking. Someone from the previous period told on her. The vice-principal came into our class and told her to come with him. We all heard her yell, "They drove me to drink!" from the hallway.
38. This is Not What I Signed Up For
The French teacher for the highest-level class offered in school didn't feel the need to speak French with her students even though there's an end-of-year exam with large spontaneous speaking components. She wondered why everyone's skills were worsening.
39. Some Things You Can’t Plan For
One of my best friends in high school passed in a car accident, and a couple of days later my friends and I told my teacher we would not be able to make it to class because we wanted to attend the viewing and be there for our friend's family. The teacher then proceeded to tell us that we need to plan our days better and how irresponsible it was of us.
I've never felt so much rage. Screw you, Mrs. Weaver.
40. Some Teachers Never Learn
My I.T. teacher wanted to inspect my work on the computer and accidentally deleted the file. I was upset and tried to point out she just deleted my work. She started to shout at me, telling me I should have saved frequently. I shouted back telling her that wasn't the issue, she outright deleted the file. It got pretty heated. My parents were called.
We were outright yelling at each other for a good couple of minutes to the point where we were both in tears. I was about 14 at the time. She should have known better. A few years later, my sister had her when she went to that school and that same teacher berated my sister. She would belittle her and call her names in the middle of class.
41. Disrespecting Grief
When I was 13, my friend's little brother passed. Because of her loss, she had been away from school for like a week, understandably. On her first day back, one of our teachers gave her a lecture about missing school saying she "had to face reality, time doesn't stop because of tragedy." She was beyond grief, and we all lost it on the teacher.
42. Fatherly Feel
I had a professor that had given us an in-class assignment. He was an awful teacher, and we were first-year students, so we didn't finish it. He told us to take it home and finish it and when we were done to, "Bring it to me. Bring it to daddy." He was Greek and didn't get it, so we all held back our giggles and left.
43. Trashy Opinion
I was 9. My teacher asked the class what we wanted to be when we grew up. One kid said he wanted to be a garbage man. The teacher started a rant saying that jobs like that were for the lowest most unintelligent people in society and that he should aspire to be better than that. She asked why he wanted to be one anyway.
"Because my dad's one," said the kid, who was now in tears.
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44. Traffic Jam
I was 13 in seventh grade. My homeroom teacher was Mr. Baker. I lived in a neighborhood a few blocks away from a park, and I was finally old enough to walk there by myself. I was overweight, and I had started walking there almost every day. I would walk the track for hours and then walk back home. It was a positive for me.
It would have probably led to healthier choices down the line. Then Mr. Baker said something so hurtful it just broke me. One day during free period, he called out my name. In front of kids I'd known my whole life plus a few new people, he said he’d seen me walking. Laughing, he said he had to wait ten minutes for me to move out of the way because I was blocking half the road.
Most of the class laughed with him. I had to sit there holding it all in until the bell rang. Then I went to the bathroom and sobbed. I never walked to the park again. I was afraid to leave my house for a really long time. That was so uncool and messed me up for a long time. People really suck for absolutely no reason.
45. In Ancient Times
My sister once had a teacher tell the class that they had to write a paper on a “famous Egyptian. You know, like Socrates.” My sister was given an in-school suspension for disrupting class with her laughter. She appealed it, and in the appeal meeting with our mom and the principal, the teacher insisted it was true he was.
The suspension was canceled, my sister didn’t have to write the paper, and, as far as I know, that teacher is still working at the same school.
46. Class Decor 101
One sub rearranged my classroom. Not in a "Moved Student A away from Student B and put her by Student C" way. It was a "move the giant rug over to the opposite corner of the room, and completely change the layout of student desks, and rearrange a bookshelf" way.
47. The Sub That Ruined Christmas
The first year I taught Grade 5, I wanted to do something special for my students before Christmas vacation. I spoke with my team and we came up with the idea to make every student a personalized Christmas ornament. We were going to surprise them by displaying the ornaments on a Christmas tree the day before vacation and they would be able to take them home.
I was gone for a department thing the day before we were going to set up the tree, and one of the least-liked subs was scheduled to teach my class. Since I had stored all the ornaments in my closet, I simply asked the sub that if the students needed any supplies, that she get them herself and not let them see the surprise.
The thing about this sub, and the reason she wasn't liked, was that her first line of defense was that she always threatened to take away something for misbehaving: recess, free time, lunch, (I think you know where I'm going with this). Fast forward to the end of the day, I get back to my classroom in the last 30 minutes of class so I could dismiss them when all of a sudden, I'm met with 25 kids asking about their ornaments!
I tried to play dumb and asked them what they were talking about and of course, they informed me the sub said something. She told the students about the ornaments and said if they misbehaved, she would tell me and I would take away their ornaments. Instantly, I was filled with horror that the surprise was ruined for the entire class (they're kids, they told the whole grade during recess), anger because the sub ruined the surprise, and disappointment because I wanted to see their faces when they walked through the door the next day and saw a special Christmas tree with their personalized ornament.
It’s not the biggest deal or anything, but I was upset that weekend. To this day, when I talk to my old partners, I still refer to her as The Grinch!
48. No Rhyme Or Reason
My middle school history teacher used to invite me and some of my friends, all of us girls, into his room before class started. Since our only other option was to stay in the incredibly cramped hallway, we welcomed the invitation, especially when he let us play with the Cleverbot on his desktop. It was a nice gesture, but there was a catch.
He was pretty strange and only wore velvet suits with pocket squares. Sometimes, he would even randomly start crying in the middle of class. But that wasn’t even the weirdest thing he did. He made us listen to his love poetry that was supposedly dedicated to his late wife. We learned later that his wife had never even existed, which meant that the poems were probably for us 12-year-old girls.
The worst part of it all was that he had a favorite, my friend Ruth. She looked notably younger than average, and he would always tell her to write notes on the blackboard. While she did, he would stare at her the entire time. The rest of us knew Ruth was his favorite, but we didn’t think it was that strange back then.
Then one day, Ruth had gotten to school earlier than the rest of us. She went into our history teacher’s classroom, and I guess that he tried something; Luckily, I don’t think it got very far. He was put on leave, but then they brought him back a year later. Gross.
49. You Better Watch Out, You Better Not Cry
Back when I was in high school, our history teacher looked like Santa Claus and was pretty chill. He made jokes during class and kept it entertaining while still making lessons very informative for us. There was a time when a grade 9 kid was being loud and obnoxious in the hallway, and the teacher went out to ask him to stop. The kid didn’t listen.
So, the teacher stepped out of class to ask him nicely to stop talking so loudly in the hallway as it was disrupting his class. Now, I’m not exactly sure what the kid said to him, but whatever went down, my teacher absolutely lost his mind. He held the kid up against the locker and punched him in the eye. The kid ended up getting a broken nose and a black eye. My teacher was fired soon after.
50. Messy Lunch Break
One day, during a busy lunch period, a teacher went over to another teacher (who was his wife) and just started to scream at her. We later learned that he had caught her getting it on with the janitor…during school hours.
51. Overdue
In Grade 6 we had a pregnant woman as a substitute who was actually past her due date so she was understandably distracted and uncomfortable. But she just sat there reading the newspaper and didn't even speak to us. Some kids beat up another kid and got away with it because she claims it didn't even happen.
52. A Learning Process
We had a new grade 9 English teacher who liked three things: Jesus, medicating her autistic son, and Anne Rice. She was weird—but one day she went too far. During class, a couple students brought up another student who attempted to take their own life. The teacher responded by getting up and explaining how to properly cut your wrists to the whole class. WHY??
Pexels
53. Playing The Cards Right
When I was in third grade, Pokemon cards were all the rage. During recess, my teacher would confiscate cards from students. And then in class, she said we could buy them from her for a quarter each; we just couldn’t have them out during school hours. Somehow, the principal found out about her side hustle and fired her.
54. Bad Press
One of the teachers from my school was involved in a brutal crime. She was the victim’s best friend and one of the last people to be seen with her. The media caught wind that she was a teacher and showed up at my school to try to get a comment from her. As you can imagine, it became a huge distraction for the students.
Eventually, it was such a huge scandal that the school had to let her go. It was sad because not only did this poor woman lose her best friend and become pretty infamous in my state, she then had to go and lose her job because of something completely out of her control. I still feel bad for her and I hope she's doing okay now.
55. Sounds About Right
While I was in school, I was a pretty good student who got mostly A’s and B’s. But even though I went for tutoring after class, I was almost failing in my Spanish class. My classmates and I were talking, and we realized that most of us were performing way below average. I told my mom that, and she called the principal.
So, the next week in class, he came unannounced to just sit and observe her. He did this a few times. Then in the new school year, she was no longer a teacher but had another position in the school district. What we didn’t know was that our principal was fluent in Spanish and clearly realized that the teacher had absolutely no idea what she was doing.
56. The Finger Method
I hated my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Chamberlain. She would always say I counted like a little kindergartner when I'd use my fingers, and then the other kids would laugh. I ended up having to hide my hands in my desk to do math. Like I'm 22 now and still use my fingers to count. It hasn't hurt me in life at all.
57. Later Problems
I worked throughout college sometimes with long hours, and most of my professors were fairly accommodating about this. This one day I got called in for a 6-hour shift after a co-worker quit, and I asked one of my professors through an email if I could have a small extension on a minor assignment because of that. He said yes and I thought it was the end of it.
Then in the next class I had with him, he called me out in front of the class and told them how I shouldn't expect more time and how I have to put his class before work. I got angry and told him that tuition was too high for him to make that argument. For the rest of the semester, he didn't mention it again, instead just opting for passive aggressive jabs.
58. Mr. Purveyor
A male teacher from my school was talking about the dress code to me and a friend of mine during the lunch period. He stated to us that he didn't like "seeing a bunch of fatties wearing short shorts," but then gestured towards a thin girl in short shorts going up the steps and said to us, "But that…That I don't mind."
59. A Long List
I had a sub who yelled at one of the only girls in my high school engineering class saying girls don't belong in engineering. He also kicked his feet up on the desk and read the paper the entire day. He banged a yardstick on a desk to get everyone's attention then pointed it at the whiteboards with the daily objectives. All without saying a word.
He disappeared at lunch and came back smelling like weed. These are all reports I got from my students the next day. This guy was a retired teacher, too.
60. Class Dismissive
I was on maternity leave for 10 weeks and the long term sub didn’t grade any of the work that my students turned in. The other teachers I worked with said he would watch The Simpsons on his laptop while not teaching. So I came back from leave and had 10 week’s worth of papers, tests, and assignments to grade. My department chair banned him from subbing for the department ever again!
61. Punishment Without Cause
I got detention for saying "okay" to my home economics teacher in middle school. Seriously. We were in class, and she asked me to do something, and I replied, politely, "okay." The teacher has a detention board, and a day later, I see my first name on it. I have a very common name and, joking with her, went, "Haha, that's for me, right?" She said it was.
I asked her what I did, and she said it was because I replied okay to her when she asked me to do something and she hates when people do that. Apparently, she just wants them to do it. I was absolutely stunned. I told her I wasn't going to detention. I got home and told my mom what happened. My teacher's son was in the same grade as my older sister, so my Mom knew the teacher.
She ended up calling her, and the teacher apparently was fumbling over her words trying to justify the detention. The next day, she goes to me, "You served this detention, right?” in a wink, wink, nudge, nudge type of way. I said no and that I wasn’t going to. She then said, "No you served it, right?" I decided to just say "sure" and that was that.
62. Misdirected Anger
My mother is a wretched person and was sleeping with my math teacher's husband. Of course, the spurned woman made it her priority to be demeaning to me in every chance she could. I understood where she was coming from, but at the same time, I'm not my mother and it's not my fault that she's a witch. My patience was wearing thing and then, one day I just snapped.
I threw a book at my math teacher's head, she fell backwards and slammed her head on the board. No concussion but was stunned enough that I had time to grab my stuff and bolt away while cursing at her What saved me from being expelled was that I didn't storm out of school. Instead, I went straight to the principal's office, and stated that either I was changed class or I would tell all about why the teacher was treating me so badly.
That would have been quite the bad thing for the school, so I was indeed transferred, but still was treated like a pariah for the remaining of my year there. Wretched teachers and staff knew I was beaten every frigging day and didn't do a single thing. May they rot feet first in a lousy third class retirement home.
63. Rallying the Temper
I was in math class in high school and having some difficulties solving a problem on the whiteboard, and she started to make fun of me and then laughing at me. Before I knew it, she had rallied the other students to make fun of me too. I lost my mind and flipped her desk, then when I was walking out, I punched a hole in the wall and then just left the school and drove home.
Surprisingly enough I didn’t get in any trouble because a few of the other students went to the office after I left and told them what happened. The teacher lied and said I flipped out for no reason (I’m not the type of person to do that). The teacher got suspended and I got to change to a science research class that they counted as a math class for me.
64. No Candy in Class
Back in the 7th grade, I had a teacher who literally didn't care about anything I did. Dude absolutely hated me. One day we were watching a movie and I got called for eating candy in class. I told the man that I wasn't eating anything that I was just playing with my pen. Dude tried to go into my pockets to see if I had anything, so I pushed him off because I was about to be felt up by no one.
Dude got in my face and started demanding me to empty my pockets, or he was going to call the administers. I told him that he didn’t have to do that because I was about to leave myself but the dude wasn’t having it and stayed in my face. I remember screaming "IF you don’t let me get out of this class, I'm going to punch your lights out." Long story short, he finally let me out and I got 10 days suspension for eating a closed fruit roll-up.
65. Two Can Play That Game
During my freshman year in college, I had a mandatory writing class. I like writing, but the professor was bad. The first day she said that all she cared about was the finished project and not the method we took to get there. It was even written in her syllabus. About 2 weeks later, we had our first writing assignment. It was to be a 5-page paper. But there was a catch.
It was due in 3 weeks, and she wanted us to turn in 3 full 5-page rough drafts before then. So, my first turn in was 3 paragraphs. She gave me an F, and I told her that everyone in there just made stuff up for 5 pages and that she was a hypocrite. My second turn in was just 2 words: F. You. She gave me an F again, so I went to the dean of students.
I told him I'd take the F's, but she couldn't lie and say the writing process was independent, and then have mandatory rough drafts. He agreed with me, had the Fs wiped, and had a meeting with the professor. I was informed that I didn’t need to participate in the rough drafts the rest of the semester, but I did turn in the third one. 2 words: I. Win.
I got an A- in the class.
66. You Can’t Have My Heart
My gym teacher decided to tell me that having a heart condition is no reason to not participate in Track and Field. It was a hot day, and he enforced mandatory running, in addition to playing other sports. I have a bad heart, and even though I participated, I had to stop after one hour. But he forced me to do all the running events (except for the 1500m.)
After the running events I was having chest pains and he wouldn’t let me sit out of the field events, so I just punched him and then called my mom. Afterward, I did end up going to the hospital and my heart kind of was like “nope” and stopped for a few minutes.
67. Antique Math
In my sophomore year of high school, I was in a SAT prep program with a math teacher who was a 90-year-old man and thought that math was stagnant. He refused to teach the class anything he didn't know how to do and refused that way's existence. I would sometimes calmly correct him for using an unnecessarily long way of answering a question, but one time he decided to yell at me when I tried teaching him about the diamond game, quadratic formula, and the value of I.
He lost his mind and yelled at me, accusing me of making fun of him. When he started yelling I remained calm and started telling him how it was done and did the entire equation for him with fewer steps than him while he acted like a baby trying to be disruptive. Then he started making fun of me for how skinny I was and nitpicking other stuff about me and my friends. I lost my mind and screamed at him and told him he was just an old man that should've retired, so he could stop being a burden on society.
He told me to go to the counselor's office. I went to the bathroom and played on my phone and came back 10 minutes later. I just looked at him, sat down and continued to correct him, but now patronizing him for the next 2 months. I ruined his credibility among the class and any student that passed our room. Thank god I left that awful place.
68. Failure to Tingle
His name was Mr. Tingley and he was my grade 9 math teacher. Not even kidding, the entire class, other than me, failed the class. None of us ever understood what he was saying. As an adult now, I think he had dementia. I got 93% in math despite not knowing what was happening, ever, in that class. When I was doing placement forms for high school, they tried to put me in academic challenge math. I said no way, just please let me do normal math.
When I had my first test in grade 10, I got 34%. There was an emergency meeting with the teacher and the principal where they interrogated me about being on drugs. Nope. No drugs. For some unfathomable reason, the Tingler, which is what we called him, liked me and gave me that ludicrous mark in his class. The grade 10 teacher suggested moving me to remedial math.
I said no. I asked her to teach me grade 9 and grade 10 math in the same year. She said that would require 3 hours of homework per day just for the grade 9 math. I said fine. I wound up with 5 hours of math homework per night. I literally spent a year doing homework until 1 AM and getting only 4.5 hours of sleep per night to catch up. Ugh. Finished out the year with 85% in Math 10.
69. Celebratory Anaphylactic Reaction
There was a girl with a bunch of health issues and allergies in our class, including latex. One day, Ms. Morales chose to let her favorite student hold a birthday party in our class with latex balloons everywhere. The girl who was in a wheelchair got to class and immediately had breathing problems and started breaking out.
She asked the teacher if she could go to the nurse, and this woman had the audacity to say, “Just tough it out until next period. I’m not letting you go to the nurse yet.” Luckily, our TA saw the girl and convinced Ms. Morales to let her go, but the girl wheeled to the nurse at the other side of the school by herself because the teacher wouldn’t let anyone else go.
She got an EpiPen shot and was ok, but it still makes me angry four years later.
70. The Teacher with no Faith
I had a history teacher in high school that decided that because I was doing so well on my tests and not on the homework that I must be cheating on them. She proceeded to move the 2 people sitting next to me on the next test, only to find out I nearly aced it. Next test, both the person in front and behind, as well as the 2 next to me, were moved. Same result. Next test, moved me into the hallway. Same result.
After all of this, she pulled me aside and said she would still be failing me on the exam because I must have had notes hidden somewhere. Had no proof, but low and behold I got a 0 on the test. Took it up with the assistant principal, and he said nothing could be done. I walked back into the class and lost my mind on her when she handed me the test back with a large 0 written across it. It was 14 weeks of rage.
71. Sounds Wrong
The first day, the teacher walked in and wrote his name on the board. It looked like it was pronounced as “Asman.” He announced right away that it was not and that you would be thrown out of his class if you pronounced it wrong. He did attendance and got to a French African name that looked like it’s an offensive word.
Not using his better judgment, he called out the word. The student had always dealt with this problem, corrected him, and wasn’t pleased. The new teacher blew up and shouted at this 16-year-old who’s not backing down. It took some time, but they both disappear. The teacher was never seen again. It was the first day.
Wikimedia.Commons
72. Really Fishy
The history teacher in my freshman year of high school in 1988 was a strange but interesting man. He was a teacher I’d visit after graduating. In his class, he was a bit terrifying. He carried a four-foot metal rod that he used as a pointer, but once, I saw him take the corner off the wooden desk where a student slept.
I don't remember what the topic of conversation was, but it must have been boring or he was pontificating about something, and one of the girls in the class let out a loud sigh; that sigh that's both dramatic yet a symbol of boredom and disdain at the same time. He stopped talking and then went quiet for a few seconds.
Then he chuckled and said, "Girl, you sound like someone was tickling your tuna." He chuckled again and continued on with the lesson while we all sat surprised wondering if we had really just heard him correctly. I remember the jaw-dropped look of surprise on her face. It pretty much stayed there the rest of the class.
Flickr
73. Unbelievable Question
We went to the lab with our chemistry class, and some of the kids were goofing off in a corner. The teacher yelled at them and they all spread out a little except the kid in the middle of the group. She asked him if he was, "this student" or "that student," who were the only two black students in my class. We all stared.
All of us were wide-eyed like, "Seriously?!" There was a roar of laughter and astonishment at the teacher’s ignorance and lack of sensitivity, especially since this was probably the middle or three-quarters of the way through the school year.
74. A Born Loser
My sub lost more than half of the textbooks that I purchased myself. As well as textbooks that were school property. The administration just shrugged at this. Until they found out the textbooks belonging to the school were around $120 each. He also lost all the book assignments of four classes I asked him to collect so I could correct them at home. Kinda sucked for the students who did put a lot of work on it and didn't have digital copies.
Moreover, he didn't teach anything that I asked him to because he didn't like the subject matter. He also didn't bother grading. When I checked the grades he had given out there was only one grade and everyone was given 8/10, even students who didn't take my class.
75. Imbibe The Spirits
The sub had been drinking and passed out at my desk. The kids wrecked the room and took all my stuff. The kids had the sense to take themselves to lunch and recess, so no one in the school realized anything was wrong until after the kids had left for the day.
76. It Was A Hit
One Friday night, my gym teacher was brought in for purposely throwing a glass bottle out of his car window and onto the hood of an off-duty sheriff’s marked car. The bottle smashed, and my teacher got out of the car to fight the officer. He was not successful and was promptly subdued and tazed. We never saw him again.
77. A Hairy Odd Collection
One of my school's most beloved teachers had a creepy secret. He had a bag of female student’s hair in his desk. I still don’t know what to make of it because I was around him a lot being in sports. I had never seen him being inappropriate, and many of my friends and classmates had only positive things to say about him.
Unsplash
78. Please, Please Continue
I had a German teacher in high school, Herr Lipp, who really liked to remind his students that he had a PhD. I was in his class with my friend, and together, we were both total punks, and we liked to see how often we could get him off topic. He loved the sound of his voice so much that he never caught on. We could ask him the dumbest questions about literally anything, and he would drone on about it while we sat back and let our eyes glaze over.
One day, we decided to see if we could waste the ENTIRE class period, and we did it with one question, "Can you explain what your dissertation was about?" It was my proudest moment in high school.
79. Getting in the Halloween Spirit
When I was in high school, my English teacher asked us to write Halloween or Horror themed short stories to help us get in the Halloween mood. It was due that Friday and I got it done that Monday night since I didn’t have any other homework to do. The limit was ten pages or less, and I did ten pages exactly.
When I told her that I had mine done and printed to be turned in early, she asked if I could just turn it in on Friday so it wouldn’t get lost. I told her okay and kept it safe. For extra credit, I taped a small pack of Halloween stickers mostly to make my teacher laugh. Friday came, and I turned in the story with the stickers.
My teacher loved the stickers which made me happy. Then Monday comes and I go to English class. My teacher had me stand to the front and held up my paper and said it was copied off a website because the words were spelled wrong. I explained that I typed fast and if she wanted me to fix the spelling, I wouldn’t mind doing it.
Then she said the character names were too hard to read—I used Ed and Albert. Then the teacher said the story was like a movie. My teacher got so mad she ripped the paper right then and there. My classmates said my face went from annoyed to murderous. Five hours of my life just ripped away.
I called my teacher a witch and the only reason she was even teaching high school English was because she didn’t have the brains to teach anything else. My classmates all walked out with me. The teacher was suspended and later fired for doing the same thing to ten other students' hard worked stories and calling another student a bad name for wearing space leggings.
80. You Cannot Change What You Are, Only How You Argue with Teachers
In Year 11 English, I had a book review assignment that stated “pick any book.” I picked The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. I didn’t need to read it as I've read the series so many times. Regardless, I read it again and wrote my report. And practiced hard on my oral report because I hated public speaking. But I got it and I nailed it.
Teacher said "very well-spoken." Then a week later handed me a D. Giving me a whopping fail and dragging my overall grade down to a bee's feet below a failure. When I asked why my grade was so low he replied, "you picked a bad book." Whoa now, fella! I erupted and we argued. I told him some rancid words he could do to himself and headed for the door.
He jumped up and shut the door. I stepped on a desk, climbed out the window, scudded down a drain pipe, and walked out of school. Two weeks later the head of department asked me why I wasn't in remedial English. My response of "because I'm not a decrepit idiot" landed me an inter school suspension.
81. Cool Glasses, Man!
I had an issue with a chemistry TA losing my lab reports or other homework. After he confronted me about another missing assignment in our chem lab we had a fairly heated exchange and I stormed out of the lab. I made it about halfway across the large public campus before realizing I still had my lab goggles on. I can only imagine what people thought of some random angry off dude walking around with lab goggles on.
82. A Teacher Scorned
She really, really loved the boys but always hated on and picked on the girls. Just as an example, I worked really hard on a project for her class. It came back with a D- on it. My mom had had enough of my teacher and took my project to the principal. She asked him to tell her what grade he would give the project. He looked it over and read through everything and said it was definitely A work. Mom showed him the grade she had given me on it.
The teacher was spoken to and my grade changed. I was a straight A student except for her class. She also failed me in that class, along with several other females, claiming I had never turned in any homework. I had but couldn't prove it. The boys in her class never received less than a B. The year after I had her, she "retired" after speaking with the principal and the school board again.
83. For the Sake of Science
I had a professor who was awful at teaching. I never liked him. He eventually got fired after an investigation into him that was sparked by PETA. We were told the investigation found that he was doing unethical testing on puppies and falsifying data for academic studies before coming to our college. I forget his name but he taught genetics.
84. One on One Attention
I had a semi-permanent substitute who was having trouble keeping the class in line. It wasn’t just me, mind you, and while I was talking to a friend instead of listening, he grabbed me by my shirt, lifted me out of my chair up on my toes, and yelled, "IS THIS WHAT I HAVE TO DO? IS THIS THE ONLY WAY YOU'LL LISTEN??" The class fell super silent for a few seconds and then I cracked up.
I started laughing loudly and pointing in his face, which caused the class to join in, which completely enraged him. He kind of dropped and shoved me back in the chair, and then he stormed out of class with his hands on his head cursing to himself. He came back after a few minutes but didn't say another word for the rest of the day.
I didn't really care about the ordeal. I wasn't hurt or intimidated, and I didn't say anything to my parents or administration about it. I found the whole thing hilarious. But, as kids do, gossip got around and it built until the story was that I had been picked up by the neck, choked, cussed at, hit, and then thrown on the floor. Administration was not happy, and a big ordeal was made.
I tried to explain that the rumors weren't true, and that he had only grabbed my shirt and yelled, but I'm pretty sure he was fired anyway. He definitely wasn't our substitute anymore. I was pulled into several meetings afterwards where they seemed to be convinced that I was lying because I was scared of the teacher, but I did my best to make the truth clear.
Interviewing the other kids in class verified what I was saying, but it took quite a while. My dad was super angry with the guy at first, but after I had explained things, he understood and calmed down. He told me, "I'm surprised he didn't just clock you for laughing at him like that." To which I laughed and then got a hard smack on the head. My dad said, "They can't hit you, but I still can, so watch your step, huh?"
85. Playing A Strange Tune
My French teacher was a bit of a kook. So much so that when officers knocked on his door, he answered it obviously intoxicated. He wasn’t wearing a thing and had a plastic trumpet. He proclaimed that he was Jesus then somehow got away. He ran through his neighborhood while pretending to play the trumpet and be a deity.
Finally, officers were able to tackle him down and pepper sprayed him. He shouted out, “Jesus is blind!” right before officers cuffed him and brought him to the station.
86. No Pleasantry
A teacher from my elementary school was known for paddling kids for smiling in class. He had to “retire” after throwing something at a student. He said that the student had provoked him, but the other students contradicted him and even reported that he had a bottle of Jack in his desk. A search proved that this was true.
87. One Way To Look At Things
We had a long-term substitute for geometry class while our teacher was on maternity leave. To put it bluntly, the sub was not great in his teaching abilities nor being a person. At the end of the year, the class was watching a movie while the teacher was on his laptop. One girl went to the washroom and never came back.
Barely anyone in class, including the teacher, noticed her gone. When class was over, the girl returned with the principal. We were all wondering what was going on, but the principal made us leave so he could talk to the teacher in private. Later, the whole messed up story came out. It turns out that the girl had seen the teacher watching adult content on his phone with his hand in his pocket.
The principal fired him right away, and he was blacklisted from all the schools in the district.
88. Big People Talk
One of my teachers got angry, swore at my classmate, and got fired. It doesn’t seem like the biggest deal or even a good reason to get let go (we all have bad days and lose our cool)—until you realize that this particular teacher was assigned to help a special-needs student...and we were in the first grade at the time.
89. Pushing All The Wrong Buttons
In high school, a teacher wanted to play a movie on a DVD, but she kept pressing the eject button thinking that it was the play button. The third time she went to press the same button after inserting the disc again, I may have slightly snapped that she shouldn't press the button. To which my teacher responds "Well sorry, at least I get along better with people than with computers."
Cue class laughter due to the sick burn of the teacher. Fast-forward to next time I have that class, at the start of the lesson the teacher waits till everyone is seated. Then she says, "I'm sorry about what I said in the last lesson. I was unaware that you're autistic." As far as I'm aware, I don't have autism.
90. Don’t Mess with the Thesis
It was the day of our final presentation during my 4th year in architecture school. I had worked my butt off the whole semester to produce the design and had been severely sleep-deprived for 2 weeks producing the final set of drawings. We had to pin up our drawings on partition boards. I had like eight A0 papers worth of drawings and our grades heavily depended on this set of drawings (80%).
I had moved several partition boards from our studio to pin up my drawings the night before. On the day of the presentation, my lecturer had received a message from lecturer B saying that several partition boards from the seminar room (on the 4th floor) were taken away and he needed the partition boards for his seminar.
I knew that it had nothing to do with me since I didn’t take the boards from the seminar room. Our studio wasn’t even on the 4th floor, we were on the 5th floor. Surely I could keep my boards, right? Nope. I was so wrong. The lecturer assumed I robbed the boards from level 4 and proceeded to yank the partition boards and ripping one of my drawings in the process.
I was furious. I shouted at him and told him to leave my drawings alone. He was surprised that I raised my voice as I am usually a mousy and quiet person. He thought he could intimidate me because I seemed like a pushover. I was sleep-deprived and had slaved away all semester for this day just to have him yank the boards away, no way Buster.
After that incident, he never really talked to me anymore and avoided eye contact with me whenever we happened to bump into each other at the faculty.
91. Identifying Bias
I was not there, but we had this substitute teacher at our school who was this old white dude who would typically spend the entire class talking about all the good he had done for students in poorer neighborhoods. Now I recognize what he said as a white savior complex as he had said several casually offensive comments.
But back then, he was just kind of annoying and seemed to be bragging. We had horrible subs for that school, and he wasn’t that bad; or so we thought. This was 2008 at the end of the first semester when Obama was elected president for his first term. The next class after the election, this sub came into class.
He spent the entire hour and fifteen minutes going on a super offensive rant about Obama using numerous inappropriate words and comparing a black president to a frowned upon regime. The people who were in the class constantly talked about the infamous rant all the way through to graduation. We never saw that sub again.
92. Artistic Differences
I had a substitute teacher in my high school French class show a totally inappropriate movie, but tried to explain that since it was in French it was artistic. It was equally frustrating because while I wanted to see women's chests, I also couldn’t stop reading the subtitles because I had to understand what they were saying. The teacher did not come back the next day.
93. All Chewed Up
We were taking a geometry test when the teacher caught someone cheating. He went up to the student’s desk and picked up her test. We thought he was going to rip it or something. Nope. He went to the next level. To the class’s bewilderment, he took a bite out of the paper right in front of her.
It was one of the strangest experiences of high school and weirdest reason why a teacher had to be fired.
94. The Punisher
Just before Christmas while I was a sophomore, my chemistry teacher was reprimanded for inappropriate conduct toward a female student. After he was dismissed, he went home, armed himself, drove back to the school, and pulled the trigger at every person who was in that meeting with him. The superintendent did not survive.
95. Get A Grip
There was an amazing teacher who we all loved because of the way he taught and how he interacted with everyone. The story goes that one of his classes was getting out of hand, which frustrated him. A student got up to ask him a question, and he saw red. He grabbed her ponytail and dragged her to her desk. He was gone the next day.
96. In Too Deep
My high school history teacher was a Vietnam veteran who shared impactful insights on world politics and who they affect. He would go over to the window where there was a big poster of the locals who had served, point to three names, and say, “these guys never made it back…my friends.” His emotional scars were obvious.
There was shocking news that he was fired a few years after I graduated. Everyone wanted to know what happened since he had always been such a good teacher. The students in the class said that one punk student disrespected him. The teacher snapped and had him by the neck against the wall. It was quick, but it happened.
97. Sudden Life Changes
There was a teacher at my high school who just didn’t show up one day. He was relatively young and healthy, so no one thought it was for health reasons. But for a little while, people were worried something had happened to him. Then we learned that he had left his wife and children to run away with one of his students.
98. Boom, There It Is
When I was in my freshman year in high school, we had regular threats that the school would be blown up. So, the school would have to evacuate for officers and dogs to check the building once a month. They finally found out that one of our long-term substitute teachers was behind it all. We all watched when officers took her from the school. It was nuts.
99. Tragic Fall
There was a teacher from my high school who found a student’s notebook. When he opened it to see whose it was, he made a chilling discovery. He found a draft of a "goodbye" note. The teacher had been around for years and was tenured, so he tried to confront the student to get help. He tried to convince her to go to therapy, which she did want to try.
But she was a junior with parents who didn’t believe in mental illness. So, the teacher made the hard decision to give her his cell phone number so she could call him when things were hard and he’d be there to listen to her. However, her parents found out and told the teacher to cease communication with their daughter.
They said that if he didn’t stop, they would escalate the issue to his superiors. The teacher tried to explain to them that they needed to listen to their daughter, but they shut him down claiming it’s, “just how teens are” and “she won’t do anything.” They refused to get her some help. Well, the girl called him again.
The teacher had to talk her out of jumping off a cliff. When her parents found out, they went to the school. He was fired for having an “unprofessional relationship” with a female student. Without any of the details about what happened, the community shunned and vilified him because everyone had just assumed the worst.
100. I’m Telling on You
When I was in seventh grade or so, I learned that my math teacher was a terrible person. She once wanted to call my mom because I wasn't doing something how she wanted, and she got mad at me because I didn't know my mom's phone number. She also told me in front of the whole class I'm not the brightest bulb.
101. Failed Expectations
The first day of class, Mrs. J, who taught sophomore English, stated outright, "I don't give As." For this reason, kids who cared about being valedictorian always got their parents to transfer them out of Mrs. J's class. She always made sure that work was graded low enough that nobody could earn an A because I guess she prided herself on being "that" teacher.
She totally ruined literature for me for a long time. I ended up getting my love for words back and eventually became a writer who runs an online used bookstore as a side hustle. But I will never forget how incredibly hard Mrs. J tried, year after year, to "break" students simply because she could. It was a long time ago, and I sincerely hope that she's rotting away in the world's worst nursing home somewhere.
102. In Confidence
I was asking teachers for animation advice and improving my drawing speed as I was not very happy with my skill level and was stressed about being left behind by my peers. I needed help—and instead, a teacher broke my heart. They said, "There are literally millions of other cute little Chinese girls just like you that are much better than you and can replace you."
103. Can’t Bring Me Down
In high school, there was a subject I really liked called Informatics 2, but it was mostly basics of graphic design and creative digital stuff in general. I was really inspired for my project we had to do and I really excelled in it. The professor Mr. V loved it and gave me an A+ and showed it to other groups of students.
And I learned he’d show that video presentation for students as an example of a well-done project. The other professor, Ms. M, who taught the same subject but not to my group, met me a few days later in the hall and told me, “I saw what you did for class. Congratulations! It's very good, but you shouldn't have done it."
I asked why. She said, “You've raised the bar for everyone else, so someone who would have gotten an A+ could now get a B or less." I took it as it was, and it’d kind of messed me up for a bit. Wish I could go back in time to tell her off. I'm not in charge of grading, and I've got the right to excel as much as I want!
104. Makes Me Want To Puke
I had a high school color-guard instructor say that she didn’t want to see any “jiggling” after our Thanksgiving break. That was bad enough, but what she said next was disturbing it's impossible to forget: "You ladies had better put your fingers down your throat if you can’t control yourselves.”
One of the members had recently been hospitalized for anorexia nervosa. Her comment did not go over well.
105. Orgueil et Préjugés
I had a French teacher in high school who was an incredible xenophobe. I had heard about it from my older sister, but we all brushed off her concerns because she was generally dramatic about everything. He told prejudiced jokes in class and then told the kids not to tell anyone outside the class the joke because ya know, it was funny, but they wouldn't get it. He would give better grades to white kids who worked on the same project as non-white kids.
At that point, I had enough. I decided to withdraw from french as I felt I already knew the language and didn't need this. I took a free block instead where I worked in the library. Other French teachers tried to talk me out of withdrawing from the program, but he argued that I wasn't very good at french anyway and it was probably for the better.
One day one of my friends who was a visible minority came running in the library crying. I don't remember what he had said to her but it was pretty culturally insensitive. I marched up to his class room with her and called him out for his prejudice, telling him off in French. After that school year he stopped teaching and returned to France.
106. Stop Doing That
I had a calculus professor in college who had such poor English, she could only say “you do this.” I confronted her about her lack of vocabulary one day after class. She said that it wasn’t her fault I was failing the class. So, I recorded audio from a lecture of hers to show to the head of the Math dept. I was able to count over 150 times the phrase “you do this” was used in a 45-minute lecture.
She was replaced two weeks later and that’s when I started understanding calculus. But I was furious that someone was put in a place to teach that could only explain things by saying “you do this.”
107. Couldn’t Hold It
A sub for my class urinated in my desk chair. Swear. To. God. He peed in my chair and the students noticed it and mentioned it to him. He ignored them and just sat there anyway with a huge puddle of urine on the floor. The kids called security on him. I came in the next day and sat in the chair. It was wet and about that time a security guard stuck her head in the door and said "Don't sit there, that guy peed in your chair."
108. On My Father’s Grave
My worst teacher asked me, “Didn’t your father ever teach you how to act?” I had to inform him that my father had passed four years earlier. Two weeks later, my step-dad comes to pick me up for an appointment saying he’s here to pick up his child. When the teacher was over the phone with the office, he asked, “You mean the deceased father is here for pick up?”
All through high school, that teacher just kept doubling down and never showed remorse for what he had said. He would chase me into other classrooms because I had a hat on and I needed to take it off. This gave me motivation to become the compassionate, empathetic, and awesome teacher that I am today. My kids always get the benefit of the doubt and I respect them.
109. Culture Shock Trauma
I'll never forget Ms. K. She was an absolute monster. I was about 4 years old and had spent the early years of my life speaking only Korean. I had never spoken a single bit of English in my life and the language barrier between me and my pre-k teacher seemed to have sparked a toxic relationship. I remember her yelling at me to do something as she threw my coat at me. Me being only four years old and unable to understand her broke down and ran out of the room only to be comforted by the secretary.
In another instance, we were given lunch and were told we had to finish everything before we could get up and go outside. At this point, I picked up some English, and I had never seen anything fouler than the steamed green beans that were presented in front of me. And of course, since I was told to eat them, I did.
I proceeded to vomit into my cup of milk, which sweet old Ms. K forced me to drink because it did not count as finishing my vegetables. The list goes on and on like the time I cut my finger on a staple on the ground and she just ignored me the entire time as I bawled my eyes out. Of course, Ms. K was always sweet to my mom whenever she came to get me.
It took years until I told my mom. I thought every kid had gone through the same thing. My 5'2" tall Korean mother absolutely flipped out. I remember her furiously calling the school, but alas Ms. K had left after I moved onto elementary school.
110. Llorar a mares
I had a Spanish teacher, and in order to gain other students' sympathy, she would make fun of one of the students for the entire class. Of course, other students would sometimes laugh because the class was super boring so it was like a show. However, I HATED the whole thing. She would pick the students that didn't reply to her provocation, the low-profile type, and she would say "Oh, it's just a joke!"
One day, she chose the guy that never caused trouble for her next victim. She used him as an example to describe a homeless guy in a picture. After 10 (long) minutes, he stands up and leaves the classroom crying. And when she stops him before he leaves, he turns around the drops the mic. He says his dad passed the previous night and pushed her away.
Once the door closed behind him, she paused for a second, pretending to be crying, and mocked him saying, "My dad just passed cry cry, poor baby" Before I realized it, she had my Spanish book flying in her face, and I called her an "ugly witch." Yeah, yeah, my insult level isn't great in Spanish, but it got the job done!
