School is a lot of things: It can be fun. It can be educational. It can be rewarding.
It can also be ridiculous. Dumb punishments are a thing, people. (I remember receiving several days' worth of detention for not having a hall pass, myself.)
Today's burning question came from Redditor Southsidevixen, who asked the online community: "People of Reddit, what was the dumbest thing you got punished for in school?"
Let's just say it's amazing how brazen some of these teachers are!
"I was suspended for three days..."
In 7th grade I found a notebook in the hallway and turned it in to my teacher. I was suspended for three days because there was a drawing of a centaur holding a pitchfork and they deemed that as gang related(!?!?!). This is in Atlanta, so, no gangs matching that description here.
"Was in the bathroom stall..."
Elementary school. Was in the bathroom stall taking a dump during lunch. Someone runs in and starts kicking all the stall doors in to where it becomes a pain for kids my age (at the time, obviously) to open them. Kerblam, door swings in toward me just a bit and gets stuck. I'm trying my best to get the damn door open to no avail. Don't remember how long I was in there alone just crying, but one of the lunch aides comes to lock the door to the bathroom for the day, hears me, gets me out of there, then proceeds to yell at me for being in the bathroom at that time. She goes so far as to take me to the office to have my mother called in, which they do instead of letting me explain myself. When she shows up and I explain myself to her, she gets irate and tears everyone in the school office a new one.
No matter what I did from then on, I never had my mother called while I was there.
"We got 25 questions for homework."
We got 25 questions for homework. I did 24 questions but didn't understand question 25, the teacher gave me "20 lines signed by my parents" for not doing my homework.
"Flipped the monitor screen..."
Flipped the monitor screen upside down (CTRL + ALT + Arrow Key), got banned from using any school computer for the rest of the year.
"One of my teachers..."
One time my best friend at the time and I (both female) exchanged a hug at recess because we were in different classes. One of my teachers sent us "to the wall" where we had to stand for 30 minutes alone, because she claimed by hugging we were trying to turn on our male friends. We were in grade 6.
"In 6th grade the teacher ripped up my assignment..."
In 6th grade the teacher ripped up my assignment in front of the class and gave me detention because I didn't wait until I was home to do my "homework."
"My teacher bent down and whispered..."
8th Grade. Our school had a weird layout where you had to walk through classrooms to get to another classroom. As I was passing through one, I was telling my friend how this new video game is "Freakin' Awesome!"
Teacher pulls me aside and asks what I said. I told her I said it was "Freakin' Awesome" and she scolded me for using a substitute for a bad word. What.... dis aint even my teacher and she's telling me I can't use a substitute? I asked her, "What about darn or heck? Aren't though they technically substitutes?"
She got all red in the face and huffy and said, "GO TO THE PRINCIPAL'S RIGHT NOW FOR TALKING BACK!" I told her I would be late for class which is right through that door! She didn't appreciate the added defiance and grabbed my bicep and dragged me into the classroom. She told my teacher what I said and yelled, "Discipline him however you feel is necessary." My teacher nodded and she huffed out of the room.
My teacher bent down and whispered that she gets grouchy in the mornings. Just be careful what I say when I pass her and that was that.
"They said I needed a hall pass."
Trying to go to the library during lunch.
They said I needed a hall pass. Fine, I went and got one. Then they were upset because the hall pass didn't have an "end" time on it, but the teacher who gave me the pass was the same class I'd return to after lunch (it was a split period class) ... and when I tried to show them my schedule to prove that they sent me to the principal's office for "insubordination". I just wanted to do some research for a paper!
Joke's on them, that teacher ended up just giving me several pre-signed passes because in his words "that is just really dumb."
"One day after a weekly assembly..."
My school forbid students from dyeing their hair. One day after a weekly assembly, they decided to do a spot check. No socks? Punished. No school badge on your breast pocket? Punished. See my hair is black. But when exposed under the sun, it turns dirt brown. They did a spot check under the sun that day and guess who got punished for "dyeing their hair". This was 10 years ago.
"I was in math class..."
Yawning.
I was in math class and while the teacher was doing a problem, I yawned. Not loudly, not exaggeratedly. I just covered my mouth and did a silent yawn.
Teacher saw and literally stopped teaching and stared me down. I turned red and just sat there and she squared her shoulders and said, "since you aren't going to apologize for disrespecting me, you can get out of my classroom. It's too boring here anyways for you, I suppose". I was confused and asked why and she said, "you're just too smart to be here, so get out".
I went to the office and couldn't tell them why I was in trouble. When the teacher called down she said I yawned and looked bored. The principal wasn't very happy with her reason and scolded her before sending me back to class but still. What the f*ck?
"There were these two sisters..."
Giphy
There were these two sisters who bullied me and my best friend for months, we went to the principal many times and nothing was ever done about it. One day they were following us around after school talking sh*t and finally I turned around and said something along the lines of them being fat and to leave us alone (I know it's a sh*tty comeback especially compared to all the things they were saying but whatever) My friend went home and minutes later they jumped me from behind in the main lobby and I got a two day suspension for instigating the "fight."
"There was this terrible teacher..."
For answering a question incorrectly.
There was this terrible teacher who would make you stand up in the class and say "I'm a twit" if you answered the question she asked you wrong. It's a terrible thing to instil in kids, to be afraid to make a mistake and to attempt to humiliate them for trying.
"I was forced to write the two boys..."
Getting beat up by two other kids in the bathroom.
When I was in 5th grade, we were doing our end of year testing, so we were supposed to be well behaved and serious. They gave us a bathroom break, so a large group of boys all went. When I came out of the stall, one kid grabbed me from behind and held my arms behind my back, and another kid kept punching me in the stomach and chest. My teacher came storming in, everyone dispersed, and she grabbed me by the arm and dragged me back to class.
I was forced to write the two boys, who beat ME up, an apology letter. She threatened to "have me expelled from the entire school district" if I didn't, and never gave me the chance to explain myself. Me being a 5th grader, I thought I had to listen to her, and I was always too afraid to tell my parents out of fear of getting in trouble. The two boys never got in trouble, I was the only one who did, and I was never allowed to explain my side of the story.
"I'd shave in the morning..."
Not shaving (Catholic school). Boys had to be clean shaven every day.
I'm Greek. The company that makes brillo pads pays us royalties.
I'd shave in the morning and have a five o'clock shadow by 10am. Shortly after lunch I had legit stubble.
Two detentions and a forced dry shaving before I went in one morning, presented myself to the Dean of Students to show how nice and cleanly shaven I was and then reported back after lunch with an almost beard.
Punishments stopped after that. I don't know what I would have done if the DOS had left the school before graduation. I guess go through it all over again.
You say Fish?
Giphy
I was around 8 at the time, sitting in our school assembly, with everyone singing Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer. Little me thinking I was hilarious, sang out "used to laugh and call him names, like fish face," and then laughed at my amazing wit. My teacher instantly gave me daggers, and tells me I have after school detention. So I'm annoyed sitting in detention, forced to write out the lyrics to the song over and over, thinking wow this woman is passionate about Rudolf. After 45min i mustered up the courage to ask what's so bad about saying "fish face," as it turns out she thought I said "f**k face." Still had to stay in detention for another half hour. who_datboi
It's not the Same....
5th or 6th grade, I told a friend i liked a girl or had a crush on this girl, he wrote her a love letter signed my name and slid it in her locker. The next morning i got called to the office my teacher was there, with another teacher holding the note, asked me why i done this. I didn't do that I said, they got my notebook to compare the handwriting, COMPLETELY DIFFERENT but they insisted it was identical, I gave up after about 30 minutes and accepted my punishment of 1 day lunch detention (eat lunch alone) whatever... 2 days later i found out who did it... ha ha ha good times. tedstone
Don't Shoot!Â
I was into serial killers as a teen. In a "it's interesting how the human brain works" kind of way. Someone mentioned a rather famous one, randomly, while we were on break in a class. I said "oh yeah he's super interesting" went into no details. The teacher says "who is that you're talking about?" I said "oh, he was a serial killer, known for killing young boys." Boom. Trouble. Name written on the board as a trouble maker, sent to the principal's office.
I was also sent to the office by the same teacher because a new student was threatening to shoot me in the head. After she verbally threatened me for awhile she started making shooting motions with her hands when the teacher wasn't looking. Finally i said to her "stop threatening to shoot me!" And yep, said the word "shoot" so I got sent to the office. My explanations didn't matter to them. Rainingcatsnstuff
You're Wrong Dear....
Giphy
One time my teacher was explaining a math problem on the board and she made an arithmetic mistake. I raised my hand and pointed out the mistake and she looked at her notes and verified that she had transcribed it correctly. I tried to argue that just because it's written in her notes doesn't mean it's correct and that she should investigate here and now. Unfortunately I was just a kid and couldn't explain that very well. She thought I was being rude and sent me into the hall. RRuruurrr
Try not to follow the bad advice given here, because you don't want to get the results that these guys did.
U/Duckerton375 asked: What's the worst advice someone ever gave you, but you still followed?
The workplace can bring a cornucopia of terrible advice. Don’t follow these unless you want to get fired.
​Bad jobs are usually not worth it.
Stick with a job no matter how bad it is. I stayed with a terrible job working retail, dealing with horrible customers and sexual harassment. I was told I wouldn't find anything better.
"No, no, you misunderstand. I said you wouldn't find anything better at making you feel like complete garbage."
This gets really creepy really fast.
frustrated workplace GIFGiphy"After you put in a job application, you need to call them at least once a day every day until they hire you."
Note: this did not get me hired. It got me called out by the HR person I was calling and forbidden to ever contact their facility again.
I work for a law firm that employees over 1500 people in the home office alone. Once I received a call from the building security saying, "Insert Name is here to speak with the owner." Well we are run by a committee so that's odd. Found out they just applied for a job and wanted to talk directly to the person that would potentially hire them. Told him the firm will contact them to schedule an interview. They refused to leave without "talking to the owner." Had security escort them out of the building.
​This is absolutely not true.
"Sleep is for people who do not want success" great words from my uncle, it almost killed me.
Now I may be oversleeping.
​Interpersonal relationships are also a big breeding ground for terrible advice. Don’t listen to any of these.
Heartbreaking.
My father always tought me and my brother that "having friends is bad and in the end they will never be there for you" so everytime I told my father about my friends he would get kinda mad and give me the advice to stop talking to them.
Now I am afraid of people and have several trust issues, thanks dad.
​This won’t end well.
A Christmas Story GIF by filmeditorGiphyIn the fifth grade my teacher was talking about bullying, then she said "if anyone tries to bully you just agree with them." So the next time I got bullied I agreed with the bully and they bullied me more.
Dude one time I saw an anti bullying video that told the victims to just BE NICE TO THE BULLY. Like the bully was hurling insults and the victim was smiling and complimenting him. My first thought was about how much I hated the mere thought that this would work. My second thought was of how the people who came up with that method had clearly never been bullied.
​Oof.
When I met my now wife at the age of 19, one of my coworkers said that it's very important to start at the bottom with presents and work your way up, she still has the socks I gave her on our first anniversary on the wall over our bed as a reminder...
I'm still trying to teach my boyfriend about good presents and bad presents. Biscuits from the supermarket = bad present. Cheap unbranded laptop battery from China as my only present = bad present (and only lasted 2 months). Anything off my 7-page wishlist = good present. It's literally a list of things I want to receive as presents.
​Can tell you from experience that this is a bad idea.
Had a falling out with some friends. My husband recommended I reach out to an old friend who ghosted me suddenly in a manner that induced some pretty severe abandonment trauma. Went for it anyways because "it's been so long, surely they changed". Am now experiencing the same things as last time.
When you follow bad advice, it can lead to mistakes that you just can’t come back from.​
Buying a house is tricky.
for sale dancing GIF by Lisa VertudachesGiphy"Buy a home now before the prices go up!" -my FIL in 2006.
We bought in 2007 and paid $259,500 for our 1,300 sq ft house (we really couldn't afford it and had an 80/20 so we had 8% interest for one loan and 6% on the other) and in 2008 it was worth $97,000 so refinancing wasn't even an option. We watched all of our neighbors walk away or get foreclosed on but we kept paying our bills and as of this very moment our house is worth $462,000. I'm so happy we stuck it out, we both worked our @sses off and the house will be paid off in 2 years.
It worked out for us, it's a horrible idea. Especially since 1300 sq ft houses are $460+k
My heartbreaks for future generations, I honestly don't know how people are going to afford housing in the future.
It’s there for a reason.
"Never apply for any government assistance."
Cue years of suffering trying to work full-time with a painful disability. Quit a particularly terrible job, and wanted to apply for food aid until I could find another gig; a friend with lots of DHS experience recommended I apply for Social Security "just to get in the system." Turns out my disability was bad enough to get accepted the first time, which I wasn't expecting. Really could've used that support, oh, the 30+ previous years of my life.
Credit is important to have.
I was told to not get a credit card until after college. I was super fortunate to have my college paid for so I had no loans, car paid in cash, no credit card or anything to start building credit. Found myself out in the world at 22 years old with a credit score of 0.
So while a lot of this bad advice came from trusted people, oftentimes they were too misinformed to give that advice in the first place. Don't trust the word of one person--do your research, and make decisions for yourself.
It'll be way better in the long run