Redditor x3Nekox3 was hoping some people would share some tales about the times elders have shown less than perfect behavior. So they asked everyone:
"What was the most petty thing an adult did to you, when you were younger?"
Rules. Adults holding onto rules that make no sense, just because.
So petty.
Unreadable
hands swerk GIFGiphy"I broke two fingers on my dominant hand in 9th grade and had a splint on them so I couldn't write. I had a test at school and the teacher made me write with my left hand then marked my answers wrong because she couldn't read them."
j0hnniefist
Penmanship
"I have horrible handwriting. I have forever, no amount of intervention or practice has helped. When I was in 5th grade, my Social Studies teacher seemed to take a lot of pleasure in constantly reminding me of how awful my hand writing was. We used to have to bring out notebooks up for her to check our homework."
"I dreaded this so damn much. She would hold up my notebook so the whole class could laugh at my handwriting. I'm grown now, that was a long time ago, but I still hate to have hand write anything that other people will see."
KringlebertFistybuns
Thinking Back
"In grade four, a teacher gave us a few questions before lunch break and expected us to answer each of them correctly right after the break was over. A classmate couldn't get a few answers correct so the teacher made him walk to each bench and get a slap from each student present in the class. Thinking about the incident now, I feel like going back in time and beat the sh*t of that horrible teacher."
Geniar_med
Grunt Work
"At 16 years old, I had a job at a gas station after school. Did all the grunt work (sweeping cigarettes in the parking lot, emptying trash bins, etc.)."
"I'm taking the trash out one day and a grown a** man in his 40s comes up to me and says something along the lines of 'I make more money in a week than you do in a whole year' and all I could think at the time was 'Well yeah, I sure hope you do I'm in high school.'"
"Such a petty thing to say to a kid just trying to make a little bit of money after school."
therealjoshua
Hey Bunny
"I was at an Easter Egg hunt when I was around 6. It was in a big park area with lots of rocks. I saw a little chocolate egg foil glisten and ran over to pick it up. As I reached my hand out to pick it up a man trod on my hand to stop me getting it, then he called his kid over to 'find' it."
HedgeHoggington
Why is Easter always such an issue? Hunt responsibly...
Traitor
lies liar GIF by The Maury ShowGiphy"I did a chore that my father had asked me to do. My mom got home and commented on how nicely the chore was done. My father took credit for it in front of me - so I fired back saying that I was the one who had done it... he then yelled at me and called me a traitor."
MadeItForTheArt
Still Salty
"I got in trouble in 6th grade for reading during home room. Home room was like a random 30 min period to work on homework but I always did my homework the night before so I would just quietly read. For some reason my home room teacher hated it."
"One day she just yelled at me for always reading in her class and told me to do my homework. I told her all of my homework was done. She told me to prove it so I showed her all of my completed homework. Then she confiscated my book and sent me to the principal’s office for being disrespectful. I’m still salty about it."
omglookawhale
Still Shocked
"A math teacher handed back our tests in class. They were graded and marked and all that. She was going over some of the questions that most people got wrong (myself included), so I was writing down some notes on my test so I could reference it later and remind myself why I got things wrong and what I was supposed to do."
"She ripped my test away from me and started screaming at me that cheating is absolutely not allowed and that I should be ashamed of myself. Confused and in shock, I started choking up and tried to explain that I was just trying to take notes. One of the most humiliating times of my childhood (around 13 years old), and I still don’t understand why it happened."
Soulfighter56
You too?
"One of my uncles was in a years-long fight with my mom. To stir trouble, any time he greeted my sister and I, he would tell my sister how beautiful and wonderful she is and to me just say 'Oh, you're here too' and then promptly ignore me the rest of the night."
"I used to adore him up to that point so this ended up in me being extremely hurt and crying to my mom for hours about how I'm ugly and not special."
"He got his petty vengeance on my mother and crushed my self-esteem. Till today I don't forgive him for it."
super-ro
Just Ill
Sick Season 4 GIF by FriendsGiphy"I was feeling sick one day in grade 3 or 4 and the substitute teacher wouldn’t let me go to the nurse’s office because 'I didn’t look sick enough.' I had strep throat."
buzzybee2
Some adults really are a mess.
Do you have any experiences to share? Let us know in the comments below.
One Reddit user asked:
What was the most ridiculous thing you got in trouble for at school?
and hey it turns out school really DOES prepare you for the real world where rules only apply to some people some of the time!
Who Do I Ask?Â
Algebra teacher yelled at me for asking for help.
First, he told me "Don't ask me. Ask your partner first!"
Later, I turned around and asked my "partner" for help. The teacher then yelled me at again "Don't ask her. If you need help ask me!"
I Know My Own Name
American Horror Story Fx GIF by AHSGiphyMy parents wanted my name to be unique and went with an extremely uncommon spelling on top of a rare name.
My first grade teacher called a parent-teacher conference to impress upon my parents that I refused to spell my name correctly. Before the parent-teacher conference, when my teacher refused to let me use my first name correctly, we negotiated that I could use my middle name.
That's when I proudly told her my middle name is Apostrophe. This lead to her claiming I'm a liar on top of my sh!tty attitude - all of which she told my mother.
I'll admit, I had a shitty attitude because I 100% knew my name and my name's spelling - and I loved it. I was frustrated with this dumb witch of a teacher who seemed to hate me for some reason.
My mom was furious and chewed my teacher out for making her leave work early for something so stupid.
Shockingly that incident did not make my teacher like me more.
If you know a kid struggling with a unique name... the children's book 'Crysanthemum' is great. Was my favorite book for a long while after this incident.
Intimidating
Reading a book.
Apparently the head of History found me sitting on a bench reading across from her office window "intimidating".
I was a grungy 90's white kid just sitting there minding my business.
- klc81
How the hell do you read "in an intimidating" manner...."reading intimidatingly?", "intimidatingly reading at me, causing me to fear for my life and safety?"
"Tattling"Â
In grade 1, there was a day where everyone brought in their favorite stuffed animal. The teachers warned us not to bring valuable ones because there was a chance they could get damaged.
I brought my favorite stuffed animal. The teacher's daughter and a boy in my class completely and purposefully destroyed it; ripped it, cut it up, colored on it).
I went to the teacher and told on them. They got absolutely no punishment for destroying my stuffed animal. The teacher reprimanded me for "tattling" and told me that I shouldn't have brought a stuffed animal that I cared about, since there was a risk of it getting damaged.
Most of the teachers in the school were really awesome, but that one was decidedly not. I didn't get along well with her daughter, and she always took her daughter's side.
When Your Locker Is Too Far
Not putting my jacket and back pack in my locker.
All of my classes were on the first floor and one end of the building. My assigned locker was on the second floor and in the furthest corner from my classes. I would have been late to every class, so I just never used it.
The administrators refused to move my locker... so pretty much every day this one teacher would write me up and I got a couple of in school suspension for it.
Finally after a few meetings I got the principal involved and she essentially told the teacher to leave me alone.
- Met90LX
Rural Life
GIF by DemicGiphyOne time in 7th grade I was talking about how I went hunting with my dad over the weekend. The school made me talk to a counselor about it
I got the same crap in grade 1 for saying that I helped my grandfather kill turkeys over the weekend.
My 4th grade teacher was one of those people who would always ask on Monday what you did during the weekend. She went around and made everyone in the class share what they did.
Hunting is a big thing in my state, so naturally when the season opened a lot of kids said they went hunting and got a 6 point buck, or 8 point buck, etc. After about the 5th or so kid said they went hunting the teacher got mad and said something to the effect of, "Ok, no more stories about hunting, talk about something else you did."
That's not fair, what if someone else went hunting and that's all they had to share? If my memory is correct, that is exactly what happened. More kids said all the did was go hunting so they had nothing else to share.
The teacher got mad again and stopped asking what everyone did during the weekend.
No Touching
Two month into the first grade I got suspended for lightly touching the arm of the teacher.
This wasn't the first time I got in trouble with her. She was very very strict and I grew up with my rather laid back mother and I've been to a lets call it "hippie kindergarten" (Kinderladen).
So this teacher was my first real authority person.
We were standing outside at the class room door, there was a lot of noise and I wanted to tell her something but she did not listen. I do not remember what it was. So I touched her arm lightly to get her attention.
I got suspended and the school janitor watched me until my mother picked me up.
I did switch schools after that to a much more understanding and patient teacher.
The Guy With 12 Guns
So I was the good nerdy kid in school. My sophomore year we had a new principal and she saw some video that showed a guy with 12 guns hidden on his body.
The new principle made a rule that your t shirt had to be shorter than your fingertips at your side. I'm a small guy so all my shirts were non compliant.
So long story short I was sent to in school detention for the first time in my life.
I loved that PSA video!
Let's see him walk with all that hardware. Unless he gets wheeled in Hannibal Lecter style on a dolly, he'll be lucky if he doesn't just sound like a toolbox falling down the stairs.
Half the guns would slip out and clatter across the floor, and the other half would quickly follow as soon as he tried to bend over.
JUG Units
Jesuit high school. Detention was called 'jug' it stood for Justice Under God. It was in 30 minute unit intervals of sitting in silence doing nothing after school. If you missed it without an excuse, it doubled.
There was a school rule that you had to check the jug list every day. Well, I didn't. I was given two units intended for a kid with a similar name to mine.
By the time I realized I had jug, it added up to 16 units. I explained my situation to the person in charge of discipline. He saw my point and removed the original 2 units. But, since I broke the rule of checking the list, I had to do the other 14.
That's 7 hours.
The Wrong Blue
I got in-school suspension because I wore blue tights under a dress. They were not a school-approved shade of blue.
This was my senior year of high school. My school decided to enforce a dress code. Navy was one of our colors, but apparently my tights weren't navy enough.
I was a straight A student who never got suspended till this.
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When I was a kid, I had my fair share of enduring a variety of punishments.
Being grounded and missing out on an allowance were frequent penalties, while being spanked with a belt was saved for the worst of my rotten behaviors.
When Redditor Thefishman1 asked "What is the worst punishment you received as a kid?," strangers on the internet shared their most traumatizing memories they would soon like to forget.
Some of the responses will leave you convinced that the punishment definitely did not fit the crime.
Intense Spanking
"Got a citation at school for yelling at a bully in middle school. It was a fake one from a cop to scare me."
"Parents took it well and told me to straighten up and to not let people get to me. Dad didn't really seem to mind."
"Few days later I was playing outside with my cousins, dad comes out high on Xanax and goes 'oh yea, that goddam citation come here.'"
"He gets very very very angry and abusive ok Xanax and he would pop several."
"I'm confused because I thought everything was okay, I thought it was over."
"Drags me up stairs makes me pull my pants down. I couldn't sit down without it hurting for a week. Told my mom I was gonna tell someone at school but she said not to. He never touched me again after that but I'll never forget it."
"He also used to destroy everything in the house when he got high. Like literally destroy. Throw TVs out in the yard , knock over sh*t. Mess with my mom. Break sh*t."
Abusive Mother
"One time when I was around 8, my mom said she would help me with my math homework. I don't remember in detail what it was about, but I remember that it was oh so easy for mom, and I just didn't get it. With every 'huh?' from me she got more and more mad, and finally she threw everything to the ground, jumped up, dragged me from my chair, all the while hitting and slapping me. I tried to cover my head and walked backwards until I reached an armchair, she threw me in it and continued her blows until she got tired, then left me there. I hid in my room for a few hours, she started to vacuum outside. That year, we had planned to go to Disneyland Paris for the summer holidays, so I made a little eiffel tower out of legos as a 'make up gift' for making her mad, brought it outside and placed it on the ground. One standard behavior when she was mad was to pretend I didn't exist, so my eiffel tower didn't exist too and she hit it multiple times with the vacuum, shattering it all over the place, sending me in a hurry to clean 'my' mess up to not make her mad again."
– furzmadame
No More Electronic Devices
"Senior year, high school. Long story short, I had learning disabilities and due to things changing in the district, those programs us disabled used were very suddenly axed and threw us out into normal classes. Where the teachers couldn't bother to give a quarter of a f'k about us and pretty much all of us started failing, badly."
"My mom, however, saw this as more of a my fault thing, that it was my fault I wasn't adapting. This was right after she met someone new and that someone new was VERY hardline in his parenting and that rubbed off on my mom."
"So as my grades fell, I lost everything dear to me. My laptop, my iPod, my old CD player (that I kept around even when I moved to an iPod), my cell phone. I cobbled together another computer from old 90s parts just so I could manage to still complete essays. That got taken too. My grades plummeted further. I was just managing to barely pass my classes, now I was actually failing them."
"Boom, now my parent(s) took my door away, no more privacy. They also 'took away' my rides to school, as punishment I had to walk to school (which involved me waking up at 5am so I barely slept as I had to stay up until midnight just to keep my head barely above water with the massive amounts of homework I got and no computer to help me get it done faster)."
"When I failed some classes, that resulted in my electives being taken away, so now school was all academic, all the time. No fun allowed, AT ALL."
"I still don't know how I managed to pass and graduate, but it was the most hollow f'king victory I ever got. The constant punishment I took that year wasn't worth it."
"EDIT: for those wondering, I did eventually put this all behind me and I'm fine with my mom now. Her boyfriend had a near death experience and in that moment he regretted all the sh*t he put me through. Some say I'm too easy, but in my eyes it's more energy to hold a grudge than it is to just accept it and move past it, learning from experiences."
– We1tfunk
The Yelling
"It might sound silly, but getting yelled at by my dad. Hes got a short temper and sometimes I felt like I was walking on eggshells around him. Even hearing him yell at my siblings sent me into shakes and tears."
"EDIT: Thanks for all the nice comments and support, and hugs to all of you dealing with similar things. Happily I'm living with good friends and I've cut off contact with my dad, so I'm doing okay."
– mx_tae
Tied To A Chair
"I have no memories from my childhood except for this one. I must have been 8 or 9 but one time, i stayed 15 min in class to help the teacher clean the brushes and tables from the art class. My mom was very particular about not letting us play outside, each day after school we just couldn't be late. As I was helping the teacher in school and not playing with other kids i thought she wouldn't mind but i was sooooo wrong."
"when i came back, the entry of the building was occupied by some drunks so i decided to enter by the north entry to avoid them (i was terrified to even look at them). i ran past some other girls playing and arrived home to find my sister concerned about me 'where were you??? mom is going to kill you!' 'But i'm only 20 min late.'"
"here comes my mom, veins popping out of her face, she starts to yell at me, letting me know that the girls playing told her i was running the other way around from the building and then she tied me. to a chair."
"The rest was kind of blurry but i remember she put harrissa in my mouth (it's a very spicy sauce), she hit me on the stomach and left me alone in her bedroom for until dinner (so about 6 hours)."
"yay"
– imlikeatomato
Consequences Of Wearing A Favorite Shirt
"When I was 4 years old I was supposed to change into a nicer shirt because we were going to my grandma's on Mother's Day. I refused to change because it was my favorite shirt and my mom lost it and stripped me buck naked."
"She dragged me into the car like that with my siblings laughing at me. When we got to my grandma's house she paraded me out in front of the neighbors and I was so hysterical by the time we got inside that I wet myself all over my grandma's carpet. I got yelled at even more."
"It's a really awful memory that sticks with me even now."
The Quarter
"My parents weren't particularly punishing, in fact my dad has frequently lamented their decision to not spank us. The one really d*ckish punishment they used was to make us stand in front of the wall while my dad pulled a quarter out of his pocket. He placed it against the wall and we would have to hold it in place with our noses for a set time. If it fell, he'd replace the coin with a smaller one and start the time over again."
– Heck_Tate
The Shovel
"I refused to clean my room so my mom got out a shovel and anything that was on the floor was shoveled into a big black garbage bag and thrown away."
– the-smoking-dove
Taste Of Soap
"Physically having my mouth washed out with soap for blurting out the F word. I don't think I had even started school yet, (uk), so who knows if I really knew what I was saying."
"I can still taste the soap now 🤢"
– sickofsitting
Scared Of Dad
"One evening, I went to my friend's house (which was directly opposite to mine) to play. Both of us ended up watching a movie and only when it ended did I realize that it was 15 minutes past my 'curfew time.'"
"My father was already waiting for me at the door when I left my friend's house. When we entered my house, he caught hold of me and smacked me across my face. The impact was strong enough to send me flying back against the wall. He grabbed me and slapped me again. By the time he was done, I had already pissed my pants twice (I was six)."
"I was always afraid of him after that."
– ambitioushoe
Food
"Forced to eat food I absolutely despised until I vomit. My mother never believed I hated certain food and they make me absolutely ill."
"From the age of 8 till I was 12. Then when I started cooking because she was working, I made sure twice a week to make things she hated just to force her to make her own meals."
– rustedlion
Belts And Spoons
"My parents were fond of physical abuse, dad preferred belts, mom liked wooden spoons. The stuff that really got to me though was the verbal and psychological stuff. Worst was taking the door to my room. I suddenly didn't have even a trace of safety at home anymore. I still have nightmares about it."
– KirinG
Stove Burns
"Ye old hand on stove was my nightmare, still got rings on my hands from the scars. It's pretty common, I've met lots of people with the same burns."
– thatbrenon
Combat Boots
"I wouldn't salute so I was punched in the sternum and while laying on the ground trying to catch my breath I was kicked with combat boots until I was coughing up blood."
"Dont ask why this happened. I dont remember. I do remember realizing that this was probably not normal."
– Milkshakeslinger
The Stink
perfume GIFGiphyI got sent out of drama class because the teacher told me my perfume made me smell like a cheap hooker and when I left the room she sprayed me with her own perfume on my way out.
"WHERE IS YOUR TITLE?!!!"
In college I once got a full letter grade off a paper because I had 7 sources instead of 5.
Same professor almost failed me because my presentation was supposed to be on the last possible day. I didn't actually pick the day I was presenting, by the way. Every presentation was on a different subject and he assigned dates to each one, you just had to pick the subject you were going to research and do the presentation on the day it was assigned. I picked the last one because it was something I was genuinely interested and knowledgeable in.
The day of my presentation comes up and I'm there with my laptop and a backup on a flash drive and he starts the class by saying "I don't want to do any more presentations. If you haven't presented by now you'll get a zero on the assignment," knowing full well I had signed up for that presentation months in advance and was the only person left. Had to go to the Dean and present proof that I had the presentation ready beforehand and that I had signed up for that presentation months in advance. We reached a compromise and I just got a B on the project without having to present.
Dude had it out for me and I'm not sure why, never will be. He even took a letter grade off a paper for my title because he didn't like.... something about it? Idk, he never even told me what his logic was, he just wrote "WHERE IS YOUR TITLE?!?!?" right next to my title which was very clearly up at the top of the page, centered, and following the format he had assigned us.
edit: Oh, senior year I got a very stern talking to from my professor in some bullsh*t class called "Health Through the Life Cycle". Why did I get such a stern talking to? We were having a discussion about whether or not we should allow polygamous marriages and I was the only person in the class against it.
a fat slice
When I was a teenager working at McDonald's a special order came back without tomatoes. So I made the sandwich and sent it up only to have a manager come back and yell at me for not putting tomatoes on the sandwich. He then slaps a fat slice of tomato on the sandwich and send it's up. Turns out an old lady was allergic and I got chewed out. The next day I got fired for it.
max greenfield no GIF by globaltvDuring a session I built a tower of wooden blocks and he insisted my parents punish me if it fell down.
Since it was a tower made of wooden blocks it fell down and I was punished (banned from playing SNES or something).
He was later banned from practicing psychology for some reason or other.
Deep Dislike
I had a teacher in middle school who just outright hated me. The day before a major project was due she had me show her what I had, and then proceeded to tell me I had done it all wrong. I went home and "corrected" it, staying up pretty late to change what she told me to.
So the first person goes up to present, and it's done JUST the same as I had done. Second person goes up, same thing. Then, when there's time for one more person to go, she looks around the room pretending to look for another person to go before her eyes lighting up as they rest on me, knowing I had done the assignment wrong due to her comments and now I can't go back home to do it right. So I go up and it looks like crap and I of course get a bad grade.
Nobody believed me that she had lied to me and when I of course got a bad grade, she finally had what she needed to make sure I was academically suspended from my sport causing me to break down in class. Later a different teacher overheard me talking crap about it and saying I'd love to get her back and I got expelled for threatening a teacher.
Lesson Learned
At my school we had to wear our ID's visibly (most wore it around the neck). This was the first year of the school requiring this, so it was new to everyone.
Around halfway through the first semester, I forgot my ID at home. We had block scheduling (half my classes one day, half the next) and I had two backpacks, one for each day. I put my ID away and forgot to transfer it to the next day's bag once I got home. Easy mistake to make.
Due to my parent's work schedules and the distance to school, I got dropped off super early, like over an hour before school started. I realized I was missing my ID, so I went to the office to get a temp one since there was absolutely no way of getting my ID from home.
I got it. But I also got detention. Which was the punishment for being caught without your ID.
Funny thing was I knew that if I just went to classes and stuff like normal the teachers probably wouldn't have noticed/cared that I didn't have my ID and there's a solid 90% chance I wouldn't have gotten any punishment at all for not having it.
So thanks school, you taught me that the punishment for trying to make things right for an honest mistake that doesn't hurt anyone is the exact same as not trying to make things right... only I'm guaranteed to get caught if I try to make things right. So it's better to conceal your mistakes and hope nobody notices.
Great lesson.
Damage
I was recently fired for following COVID safety protocols. A coworker was feeling ill, so I quietly gave her a thermometer to take her temperature. It was "damaging to the image of the company." We came to an agreement that if they honored my unemployment claim, I wouldn't tear them a new one.
Now I can get out of that industry and ensure my safety. I'm pretty cool with it in the long run. I was satisfied with our arrangement. Plus, even if I decided to sue and won the case, the publicity would possibly complicate my future employment opportunities. Also, I fear conflict.
Keep your 50!
Seth Meyers Goodbye GIF by Late Night with Seth MeyersGiphyAt my old job, I had my annual review. They told me that I did the work of 3 people and they loved me but because I used my sick/personal time earlier in the month (my kid was sick) that they 'really look down on employees that use the sick/personal without any prior authorization/notice.'
Then they had the balls to tell me if I know my kid is asthmatic that I should avoid taking any vacation hours in the summer (separate time off from sick/personal time) if I know he is going to get sick in the fall.
Instead of the bullcrap 50 cent raise, I only got 30 cents because of that. 50 cents was max.
I no longer work there.
Ruled
One of the requirements in my grad program is seminar attendance. There's sign in sheets that are collected during the seminar.
And then because someone who rigidly followed the rules did what they asked and emailed explaining their situation, that's how we found out they never checked them.
Multiple people missed that seminar. The only one who was chastised and warned by the administration was the one who let them know he wouldn't be there. Punished for following the rules.
God Bless
scared season 1 GIF by The White PrincessGiphyI started going to a sort of catholic club. One day, the rosary thing took a little longer. I got home one hour late and was grounded for three months. FOR PRAYING AT A CHURCH.
Being Social
Logging on to my personal Gmail on a school laptop. Because those were not for social media. I got a 3 day Suspension.
I remember a study hall teacher I had way back in high school flipped out about me using Facebook.
I had done all my homework, and not only that, another student near me was on Facebook and I could see papers sprawled out all over the desk.
To be fair, that teacher singled me out so goddamn much.
You're Sorry!!
incredulous excuse me GIFGiphyFinding a wallet in a mall. A woman started screaming while I pick up, accusing me of stealing. Security took me to their office, a hour later they let me go, saying she drop and was recorded.
Still waiting for apologies, was like six years ago.
No Coughing
Once coughed in class and the teacher ranted that she didn't expect me to have that sort of outburst (she thought I was laughing or crazy).
Okay this reminds me of the two separate times a teacher accused me of faking being sick for attention. In grades 3 and 7 I had a persistent cough that lasted for weeks. And both times after about the 3rd day my teachers convinced themselves I was doing it on purpose. First time was Pneumonia, second was Whooping Cough.
Day Camp Issues
I went to some summer day camp thing with an emphasis on sports when I was like 5. A bunch of my friends from school were there as well.
We were all just hanging out in the gym, I think playing basketball, when one of the counselors just abruptly rounded us up and put us in time-out. I assume it was something one of my friends did, because to this day I still have no clue wtf I did lol.
tanking....
I have epilepsy. I didn't call my work to let them know I couldn't make it that day, I was in the Hospital and could not get my cellphone. In hindsight I could have asked a Nurse to get me the number, but after a seizure i'm not thinking straight for a good 2 days or more.
Later, I get home and see I have numerous missed calls and texts, I ignore it all and wait until my next shift.
My boss calls me in and basically told me not to have another seizure. Since I never enrolled in FMLA (my fault) he claimed me having a seizure cost the company money. My brain messed up caused, a multi billion dollar company to lose money? I must be a top asset apparently..... Or these fools are about to tank.
Sing Out
mic singing GIFGiphyMy parents used to make me do singing competitions when I was in elementary/middle school. After hours of continuous practicing, I'd start forgetting the intricacies of the song (ie. trills, crescendos, whatnot) or I'd briefly zone out and mindlessly sing. Got grounded nearly every practice for that.
Looking Into It
One time this kid that constantly bullied me every day in middle school was bullying me at recess so I did what I was taught To do and stood up for myself and chased him away. Next thing I know he punches me hard in the stomach. I tell my mom after school and she drives me back to tell administration.
The school knew that I was always getting bullied and after "looking into it" my assistant principal for my grade and the principal sat me down at recess and told me it was my fault because I "instigated" it even though he was making fun of me. Then they told me the usual "if you kept your interests to yourself they wouldn't bully you". I didn't really get a punishment per say, just a slap on the wrist for expressing myself.
It's just a spill....
For spilling soda my teacher brought to the Christmas party. The 2 liter bottle was already shaken up, perhaps from the ride in her car. I didn't know this and soda spilled all over me, the carpet, and her mother's cooler that she deiced to bring. She turned red with anger and shouted at me, making the room go quiet and having all eyes on me (I understand that she was mad I got soda on her mother's cooler, but why bring it if this kind of thing were to be expected with 12-13 year old kids?).
Everyone watched me as she made me wet a cloth and try to clean the mess on the carpet as I cried (this was in 6th grade and when my anxiety was at it's absolute worst). No one was allowed to help me and it was so embarrassing for me. I got called "crybaby" after the whole ordeal.
After that, she tried to make it seem like it never happened and tried to be all buddy-buddy with me after that. I didn't talk to her for the rest of the year for anything, I was too scared of her after that. Looking back on it, it makes me angry how she dealt with the situation.
I'm a Nerd
One time in middle school I got suspended recess time for carrying a notepad.
It was 4th grade, and after lunch was recess time, go out and play and burn off some energy. Sometimes kids would get punished and not allowed to go out for recess, they would have stay inside.
I was feeling asocial that day, so I brought a notepad and pen to work on this D&D campaign I was running.
A teacher saw me carrying that, and just assumed it was because I was on suspended recess. I tried explaining that I just wanted to write outside, and asked her to find the person who ordered that punishment, but she didn't want to listen.
I wasn't too upset, as my goal was to sit quietly and write/brain storm, but it was still messed up as I felt like I was being punished for being a nerd.... would have been nice to be a nerd outside.
Wrong Answer
smh GIFGiphyFor having an anxiety attack brought on by the very teacher who then punished me for it and told me to get over it.
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