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People Share Their School's Biggest Scandal

Think there was drama at your school? Was it anything compared to these stories?

Anbar48 asked: What was your schools huge scandal?

Submissions have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.


10. Huge invasion of privacy.

My school district gave all high school students laptops that they could bring home with them to use for school work. They could also remotely activate the webcams and spy on students (although of course they didn't tell us this). One kid got caught smoking weed this way while he was in his room at home and I think was going to get suspended. He sued the district in response for invasion of privacy and won the case. It got national media attention for a little while.

sagittariisXII

Good for him! My friend's sister got suspended for an fight she got into after school, off school grounds. Their parents fought it and got the suspension reversed. I'm tired of schools thinking they have any say in what kids do on their own time. Unless a student specifically gets school personnel involved, it's none of their business.

goggle_pocket

9. Whoa.

The Assistant Principal died in a car accident. There was a big, somber school assembly in his honor.

His wife said a few words, and then his 14-year-old daughter came to the microphone to say a few words. She sort of snapped and unloaded about how he was not a good guy, he was a monster who had been abusing her and her little sisters - and she was glad he was dead.

I've never heard a room full of people grow so silent, so fast.

MGrego

Damn. How'd the wife/mom react to that?

Towelie-O

She just stood stone still. Hard to say if it was because she was shocked and didn't see it coming or because the terrible family secret was out.

The girl walked out and a teacher who was leading the assembly stammered for the band to play because that was next on the agenda. Only about 1/4 of the band kids even picked up their instruments but the rest of the family exited awkwardly at that point.

MGrego

The only song I remember playing in junior high band is The Stars & Stripes Forever, so I just pictured a bunch of kids haphazardly playing that to break the silence.

keeko85

8. Shoulda been obvious.

Everyone's favorite teacher was in fact banging that student he always hung out with, who would sit in his lap and would visit him after she graduated. They could not have been anymore obvious.

Edit: For everyone asking this was a performing arts high school in San Diego, from about 2005-2008.

Permanenceisall

She sat on his lap at school in front of people? How is that allowed?

Spinnakerr

It isn't, but surprisingly doesn't get talked about. It's a clear sign that something inappropriate is happening, but it is hardly ever reported.

Kingshabaz

7. This is why we need comprehensive sex education.

One ninth grader broke water on her field trip and one of the teachers had to help deliver the baby.

SoapSilly

6. Corruption, embezzlement.

My high school districts's superintendent hired a relative who wasn't qualified for the job, increased the salary of administrators every year, used the district's credit card to buy meals, groceries, gas, personal electronics, and gift cards. When the state audit went through they said that the overpay of administrators and the personal spending cost the school district around 1.1 million dollars.

Her husband was also an administrator. When she eventually got caught, she just retired and for some reason never faced federal charges. When she retired she had a $260,518 salary. My favorite part is that the state audit discovered that the district's credit card was used to purchase logging equipment the same month the superintendent's husband filed paperwork to open a timber company. Everyone knew there was corruption in the school district, but no audits or investigations happened until someone was threatened by the superintendent's husband on Facebook.

TheSethsation

5. Tragic.

The caretaker killed two local girls and hid them in the school, he tried using the clay kiln to burn them. He later dumped them a few miles away

Iwantcaaaake

Oh I lived in the UK when that happened, we had literally just moved there.

It was very sad. Didn't he get in the news looking for them? His girlfriend was shady too.

I don't care who you are to me, if you kill a couple of kids I'm going straight to the police.

WhoriaEstafan

It was sad.

He did, and that was what aroused suspicion. She was there was something that came out about their history too!

Iwantcaaaake

It turned out the girlfriend, Maxine Carr, knew nothing - She wasn't there. But she did - incredibly stupidly - claim she was to give him an alibi when he asked her to.

When it all came out she plead guilty to perverting the course of justice, but was cleared of aiding an offender.

It was a tragedy for her too. She was a teacher's assistant and the girls, Holly and Jessica Chapman?, had come to visit her unannounced. She was out and the boyfriend, Ian Huntley, abducted and murdered them. How do you live with the guilt of that?

She was given a new identity after being released, because a lot of people blamed her for the murders, and has dropped out of public view. The last news was that she had had a child (because the order banning her identity being revealed was extended to it too).

She deserves to live her life in peace. It's been hard enough on her.

size_matters_not

4. Way to stand your ground.

My highschool guidance counselor f*cked a science teacher's wife and everyone knew about it. They got a divorce. Both teachers still work at the same school to this day, and students will never ever let it go. The story has been handed down from year to year.

Sweener253

So it is written, so it is told.

Bad-Brains

Lol, that's pretty ballsy to just not give a f*ck and stay on.

Tawerts

3. Bro...

A year after I graduated HS, a woman was stabbed 40+ times with a pair of scissors while jogging on our track on a Sunday. One of the guys in that year's senior class wound up hanging around the track over the following days, obsessively pestering investigators with questions and theories, so naturally some suspicion fell on him. When the woman's description of her assailant (she survived!) matched him spot-on, he was arrested, and both the scissors used and his bloody clothes were found at his house. Dude was sentenced to 10+ years in prison.

End of story, right?

Wrong. Two years after the trial, the jailed kid is ordered released after his little brother, one year younger and a dead lookalike for his big bro, is popped for violent assault on a woman, and confesses to the stabbing during questioning. Turns out the older brother took the fall for him, falsely confessing so that he could keep his younger sib out of jail. Dude never told anyone, but did admit the lie after his younger brother's arrest and confession.

I knew both kids when I was a student there. Both brothers were definitely thought to be weirdly intense, but their behavior was attributed to their military dad's strict style of parenting, and not anything darker.

The39Steps

Amazing how the human body works. On one end you have "man gets punched once in bar figh, dies" and on the otherits "woman gets stabbed 40 times, survives".

deadcomefebruary

2. Lol wtf? How bizarre.

I went to a small Christian high school that also had a middle and elementary school on the grounds. The principal of the high school had a child that was in my grade. One day he comes over the intercom and announces that he's stepping down from his position. He then goes on to talk about how he and the female gym coach had been having an 'emotional affair' for the last few months. This announcement goes through every speaker in all three schools. I remember everyone in my class looking over at his daughter who had a look a complete surprise on her face. From what I gathered this was the first time she was hearing about all of this.

Shortly after the gym teacher also left her position, but the most interesting part? The gym teacher had no idea this was going on. She was just doing her job and thought she was friends with everyone. The principal read more into their relationship and decided to go to the church with it and they made this decision. The gym teacher left her job out of shame and had to spend a lot of time explaining to her husband what exactly was going on.


EDIT: Adding information that others have asked about. The gym teacher's husband took a little time to realize that there was no actual affair that went on. After that they rumors and gossip in the area got to be too much and he ended up getting a different job pretty far away and moved them both to start fresh.


The principal and his wife got a divorce within a day or so of the announcement. The wife got custody of all three kids, plus I think eventually their house and a fair amount of money. The former principal took a job selling either cars or furniture, I can't remember which, and pretty much faded from the radar. I don't think his eldest daughter had anything to do with him after all of that. I wanna say that she intentionally made sure he stayed away from her wedding.

SingTheDoomSong

What an absolute loser. "Oh no I have a crush on a pretty lady who only sees me as a friend/coworker, time to throw my life away."

I know emotional affairs are real and a serious issue in a relationship, but if the other person wasn't even aware of it, then I seriously doubt it counts.

FlutestrapPhil

1. Yeah, ya can't do that.

A very popular guy at my school was arrested for videotaping people using the restroom. He was 18. They were not.

yellowskies2393

Old Wives' Tales People Still Believe For Some Reason

"Reddit user the_spring_goddess asked: 'What is an old wives tale that people still believe?'"

Close up of an owl tilting their head to side, looking bewildered
Photo by Josh Mills

The old wives' tales.

They are the stories of legend.

I think we all need a big DEEP Google dive though.

Where did they originate?

WHO ARE THE OLD WIVES!

You don't hear about them as much anymore.

It's like science and logic are suddenly a thing.

But they sure are a good way to keep your kids and their behavior in line.

Redditor the_spring_goddess wanted to discuss the tall tales we've all been fed through life, so they asked:

"What is an old wives tale that people still believe?"

"Wait an hour to swim after eating."

What a crock!

So many summer hours wasted.

I want revenge for that one.

Say Nothing

Giphy

"An undercover cop has to tell you he's a cop if you ask him."

LonelyMail5115

"Pretty much most advice when it comes to cops are old wives tales. I’m not even a cop but most of the advice you hear is pretty off."

I_AM_AN_A**HOLE_AMA

Say Something

"That you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing."

Severe_Airport1426

"I really think this one is important and should be the top regardless. As it’s a piece of advice that needs to be relearned and the only way to do that is through awareness."

crappycurtains

"This used to be true. I think they changed it after some guy named Brandon went missing back in the '80s or '70s. You used to have to wait 24 hours if the missing person was an adult because they had 'a right to be missing' and then everyone realized that was stupid and stopped doing it."

AlbinoShavedGorilla

Body Temps

"That drinking ice cold water after eating oily foods will solidify the oil and permanently remain in your body. I informed my coworker that if your body temperature ever reached that point, you’d have bigger problems than weight gain."

chriseo22

"Oh, I have a cousin who 100% believed this. One of those guys who believed every early 2000s internet rumor and old wives tale. One night I chugged a big glass of ice water after dinner and he started freaking out and saying my guts were gonna harden."

"I sarcastically told him to drive me to the hospital if that happened. Obviously, nothing happened and the next morning I said something like 'Thanks for being on standby in case my guts filled with hardened oil.' He just walked off muttering under his breath."

apocalypticradish

Arms Down

"When I was pregnant, I was told by young and old alike that I should NOT raise my arms above my head or exert myself in such a manner because it could cause cord strangulation to my unborn sons and daughters."

Fatmouse84

10 Years Actually

Unimpressed Uh Huh GIF by Brooklyn Nine-Nine Giphy

"Chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years."

REDDIT

"I remember accidentally swallowing a piece of gum when I was a kid in like 1995 and just accepting my fate like welp, gonna have this in my stomach til high school I guess."

Gecko-911

I was so afraid to sallow my gum when I was young.

This tale is haunting.

High/Low

Hungry Debra Messing GIF by Will & Grace Giphy

"You can tell the sex of the baby by how you carry."

LeastFormal9366

"Pregnancy certainly wins awards for the most old wives tales. So much absolute BS was repeated to us by everyone we talked to."

IllIIIlIllIlIIlIllI

The Cursed

"If you’re a woman and you wear opal jewelry but opal is not your birthstone (October), you’ll never be able to have children, or will be widowed, or just generally have bad luck or something. You can counteract this by having a diamond in the same piece of jewelry as the opal, though."

"I have a nice opal ring that my parents gave me years ago, and I’ve had other women give me this 'advice' unprompted more than once when I’ve worn it. I have absolutely no idea where it started, but I’m pretty sure this little chunk of silicate rock has no concept of what month I was born in, let alone of how my reproductive organs work."

SmoreOfBabylon

Stay In

"Going outside with wet hair will make you get pneumonia. Or an earache. Or maybe arthritis. Depends on which old wife you listen to."

"Jokes on them - I haven't blow-dried my hair in decades and usually leave the house with wet hair in the morning. On winter mornings, the tips of my hair get frozen. No ear infections or pneumonia or arthritis yet."

worldbound0514

Dreams and Facts

"You never make anyone up in your dreams you've seen everyone in your dreams somewhere else before and never make anyone up entirely."

"How would you possibly prove that to be true? My partner adamantly believes this and tells me this 'fact' whenever I have a dream about someone I've never met before."

mattshonestreddit

"My late wife used to tell me that before she met me she would have dreams of standing at an alter on her wedding day but could never see the guy's face, no matter how hard she tried. After meeting me the face was filled in with mine. Don't know if it's true but one of those things I like thinking of every now and then when I miss her."

Darthdemented

Cracked

Getting Ready Episode 2 GIF by The Office Giphy

"Some people still believe cracking knuckles causes arthritis."

Choice-Grapefruit-44

"There's a doctor (Donald Unger) that cracked his knuckles a couple of times a day for 60 years, but only on one hand, just to prove it. Both hands remained exactly the same."

MacyTmcterry

I love my knuckles.

Do you have any tall tales to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.

lottery tickets
Erik Mclean on Unsplash

A lot of workers daydream about some day winning the lottery and being able to say goodbye to their job.

Far too many workers are unhappy with their job duties, workplace dynamics or company culture.

But with a taste for luxuries like housing and food, they keep plugging away, year after year.

However not everyone feels that way about their job.

So what are these compelling careers?

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Therapist talking during session
Photo by Mark Williams on Unsplash

Some people stand firmly stand behind their beliefs that everyone would benefit from therapy and that therapy is life-changing.

It's because of the totally life-changing truth bombs their therapist had dropped during their sessions.

Curious, Redditor anonymiss0018 asked:

"What is a little bombshell your therapist dropped in one of your sessions that completely changed your outlook?"

Communication Issues

"'If you don’t have these problems with any other person in your life, why do you think you’re the problematic person in this one?'"

- maggiebear

"I love this. I have a 'friend' who I always seem to run into misunderstandings with. Every time we had a conversation, it somehow turned into a debate even if it was me talking about my day. The conversations were never easy."

"I always evaluate myself first and take into consideration his critiques. He was very good at convincing me that I was contradicting myself or wasn't good at communicating my thoughts."

"I NEVER had this issue with ANYONE else in my life. I kept trying to figure out where the miscommunication was coming from. In the end, I just minimized contact and now I don't run into this issue."

- chobani_yo

"I read this quote somewhere once (and probably have it a bit wrong): 'It's a waste of time arguing with someone who is determined to misunderstand you.'"

- Reddit

Emotional Regulation

"'You can’t control your emotions, but you can control what you do with them.'"

"At the time, I was a young adult who had learned zero healthy emotional regulation skills (only suppression and shaming) growing up, so this blew my mind."

- lil_mermaid

Tough Relationships

"'It sounds to me like you are trying to convince yourself to stay with your girlfriend. I'm not so sure it should be so difficult.'"

"At the time he said this, I remember it was like he said, 'The earth is flat.' I thought he was crazy when he suggested relationships don't need to be difficult. But eventually, I started to realize I was trying to change myself to stay with this person rather than just being who I am."

"It took me three more months to finally break up with her but from that day on, I vowed to never again abandon myself just to be with someone I had convinced myself was better than me."

- metric88

High-Stress Situation

"I was at a high-stress time, and I asked her how people live like this."

"She replied, 'Oftentimes they have cardiac events.' She said it as an urging to care for myself as much as possible."

- KittenGr8r

The End of Alcohol

"I was struggling with my alcoholism, and we were discussing how I had been cutting back."

"She asked what I would consider success, with regard to my drinking."

"I said I wanted to get to a point where it wasn't interfering with my daily life. I wanted to just be able to have a glass of wine at holiday dinners or family gatherings."

"She simply asked me why. Why was it important for me to drink at those times?"

"It was as if she'd turned on a light. Alcohol had always been a key ingredient in every family function, for my entire life. When I smell bourbon, I think of my uncle. When I smell vermouth, I think of my dad. Alcohol ran through almost every happy childhood memory."

"But, even more than that, I was very afraid of the explanation I'd have to give when family and friends asked why I wasn't having a drink. I had tried to quit before but failed. What if I admitted my problem, only to fall off the wagon?"

"When she asked why I didn't want to completely quit, it was the first time I saw that last part of the big picture. I'd be willing to drink myself to death in order to avoid being scrutinized, or judged for possible future failures."

"That was the day I quit. I've been sober since May 6th, 2017. 2,407 days."

- sophies_wish

Acceptance vs. Enjoyment

"'Accepting something doesn’t mean you have to like it.'"

"That took away a lot of my inner conflicts about situations because I could accept a situation without expending energy internally fighting against the injustice of it."

- alibelloc

Emotionally Immature Parents

"You are not responsible for your parents' emotional wellbeing. They are independent adults who have been on this earth for many more years than you."

- SmokedPears

Not So Lazy

"'Why do you think you're lazy?' Then she listed off all the things she knows I'm doing for my family, my job, and my life."

"It kind of blew my mind when I struggled to come up with an example."

"She also described family dysfunction as water. Some families are messed up in a way that everyone can see the huge waves across the surface. Others are better at hiding it, but there's still a riptide that you can't see unless you're also in the water."

"It made me realize that trying to keep the surface from ever rippling doesn't erase what is happening underneath."

- flybyknight665

The Harm in People-Pleasing

"'Why do you make people more comfortable when you are uncomfortable?' when talking about people pleasing and fawning."

- ERsandwich

Agree to Disagree

"'Stop trying to get everyone to agree. When you need everyone to agree, the least agreeable person has all the power.'"

This really changed my outlook on planning family events."

- freef

Grieve and Start Anew

"For context, I had a major TBI (traumatic brain injury), seizures, strokes, and all around not a fun brain time when I was 28."

"They said, 'You have to grieve the loss of yourself.'"

"Most people wanted me to go back to how I was. The f**ked up truth is that part of my brain is dead. The person everyone (including myself) knew died. I needed to grieve the loss of myself."

- squeaktoy_la

Multifaceted Identity

"They told me that my job and career is just a way to make money; it's not my life or identity. That took a lot of pressure off me."

- unfairpegasus

Breaking the Cycle

"They validated me."

"'You always talk about not wanting to do to your daughters what your mom did to you. You worry about it so much in every interaction you have ever had with them."

"But your children are 19 and 21 now. They are happy and healthy and they trust you because you’ve never abused them in any way. So I just want to validate for you that you really have broken that cycle of violence."

"You did that. And you should be proud of it. I’m proud of you for it.'"

- puppsmcgee74

The Grieving Process

"I was constantly bringing up how I felt like a completely different person after my mom died... like there was a marked difference between before and after her death."

"But once, she was asking about my hobbies, I got really into describing all the things I loved to do or at least used to do before I got into a deep depression."

"She was like, 'Wow, you seem very passionate.'"

"And I just sat there like, 'Well, I mean, I can't change what I like to do, they're still fun to do.'"

"And it's like she knew when to take a step back, because it was like, wow, I may be super depressed about my mom passing, but I'm still me. I'm still my passions and those don't go away."

"I don't know, maybe it only makes sense to be, but it really started getting me back on track."

- Hannibal680

Sharing the Load

"I've never really had friends. I've had colleagues and classmates and housemates and people who have hung out with me, but I never really felt close to any of them."

"And I did that thing you see on here sometimes; I stopped reaching out to see if I would be reached out to, and I wasn't, which I took as confirmation that they didn't really want me around, or at the very least, that they wouldn't mind my absence."

"I was talking to my therapist about people I'd been close to in college, and she told me to pick one and talk about him. So I did. After I shared some basic stuff like his name and his major etc., and a couple of anecdotes, she asked me what else I knew about him."

"And I couldn't answer. It wasn't really a broadly applicable bombshell, but she said, 'What else?' and I started crying because I realized that for as simple as the question was, my inability to answer spoke volumes."

"I've never had good friends because I've never been a good friend. I'm withdrawn and reserved and I always made others do the work to drag me out, without ever extending my own friendship in a meaningful way in return. If I wanted to have meaningful relationships with other people, I would have to build them."

"I'm still working on this, but I'm trying to make more offers and extend more friendliness to others in my daily life."

- Backupusername

The discoveries in this thread were incredibly touching and profound; it's no wonder these were lasting concepts for these Redditors.

It's important to keep ourselves open to inspiration and insights from others, as we have no idea how their experiences could help us, or how we could help them.

Aerial view of a church in a small town
Sander Weeteling/Unsplash

There's something comforting about living in a small town.

It's characterized by close communities where neighbors know each other by name and there is an abundance of kindness extended to others.

Gift-giving is a commonality, as is the sharing of recipes, and people going out of their way to help each other in a time of need.

The pace of living in small towns is also a striking contradiction to city life, where crowds of people go about their busy lives without much interaction.

Curious to hear more examples of what small town living is like, Redditor official_biz asked:

"What's the most 'small town' thing you've witnessed?"

These are positive examples of a tight-knit community.

Live Updates

"We have a village Facebook page. Every time the ice cream man drives into the village, the entire page goes ballistic. People send live updates of where the van is and which direction he's heading. The ice cream man has started accepting DMs so he knows which streets to go down."

– PyrrhuraMolinae

Brush With The Law

"I’m from a town of less than 2,000 people. When I worked at the grocery store there people would often drop off stuff for my family members because they didn’t want to drive all the way down to our house. I no longer live there but recently got a call from my daughter. She had been stopped for speeding and handed over her license and insurance which happens to be in my mother’s name. The officer goes 'Hey, you’re Donnie’s granddaughter! I ain’t gonna write you a ticket but I’m telling Donnie when I see him tomorrow cause we’re going fishing.' She replied 'I think I’d rather have the ticket.'”

- Reddit

Roadside Catchup

"The traffic on the 'main street' of my town is so sparse, two drivers going opposite directions can stop and talk to each other for a few minutes without causing any problem."

– anon

When things go wrong, people take notice without incident.

Bank Robbery

"A guy robbed a bank and everyone knew immediately who he was and the teller got mad at him."

– AlexRyang

"A local bank was robbed and one of the tellers told the police to bring her a yearbook from about ten years earlier and she would be able to point the robber out. He had been in the grade before hers in school."

– Strict_Condition_632

Wise Woman

"When I worked at the bank in town there was an older lady that had worked there through 5 mergers."

"She knew everyone, there was a young guy yelling at me one day. She walked out of the back and he immediately quieted. She went off about telling his grandmother that he was treating young women like sh*t. She also said that if he didn’t straighten up not one girl in town would ever marry him she would make sure of it."

– ilurvekittens

Intoxicated Local

"Town drunk was paralyzed and used a motorized wheelchair to get around. I was driving home one Saturday night and said town drunk was passed out in his wheelchair doing circles almost directly in the town square. Had to call his brother who came and picked him up on a rollback truck. Strapped him down and drove off into the cold dark night."

– DoodooExplosion

Grazing Over To The Bar

"In my former small town, there was an older guy who'd lost his license after getting a few DUIs. Every day, he would ride his John Deere lawnmower to the corner bar around 3PM and sit around watching TV and sipping his beer well into the night. Then he'd head the couple miles back home on his mower. He even had a little canvass shell he put on when it rained or got too cold."

– brown_pleated_slacks

It's not surprising how small town people behave differently than those who are from metropolitan areas.

Welcoming Committee

"I lived in a small town. When I moved there, people would ask, 'Whose house did you buy?'"

–MoonieNine

"Move to a small town. 30 years later, you are still the new guy."

– impiousdrifter

"I lived in a small town for most of my childhood but I wasn't "from there" because my grandparents weren't from there."

– raisinghellwithtrees

"Worked with an older guy, relative of the owner of the business, he was 73. I asked him if he was a local, he said 'no his parents moved here when he was two.'"

– realneil

A Busy Day

"Lived in a town of about 5,000: A woman walked into the DMV on a Friday, saw that there were 3 people ahead of her and left to come back another time when they weren't so busy."

– KenmoreToast

Who Let The Dogs Out?

"My dogs got out while i was working. the police called my niece's elementary school (she was a 5th grader) to get her to round them up and take them back home."

– mediocrelpn

"There was a small kennel behind the police station for runaways. They called us saying they had our dog, and moments later our dog showed up home. He broke out of jail."

– Worried_Place_917

While life in a small town sounds appealing, I don't know if I can ever live in one.

I'm so used to life in big cities, I think it would be quite unnerving to adjust in a neighborhood where everyone literally knows your business.

I would be paranoid.

And I'm sure the same could be said of life in the big city.

Would you consider making the switch to life in a different setting?