Speaking as a former classroom teacher, it's impossible to know everything about your students. You do what you can to get as professionally close as possible, to learn their likes and interests, to bring those to into your lessons so you can better educate them, but you can't know everything. They have a whole life outside your four walls, and sometimes that chaos and hilarity comes crashing through your door.
Reddit user, u/OneHundredForcer, wanted to hear from the ones who see and hear it all when they asked:
Bratva = Russian Mob
"Yeah the police is going to scout our school for a few weeks because one of our [Russian-speaking] kids is working as a lookout & courier for the bratva to scare them off doing even more insane sh-t"
We all debated whom of our dozen [Russian-speaking] kids it could be and we were pretty sure which one...
Turned out it was true... this 12 year old little girl was a drug courier for the local bratva.
Truth Is In The Change
I became friendly with one of my students in study hall a few years ago. We would chat about mythology, video games, literature, and other "dorky" topics most other students didn't have too much interest in. One day he wasn't in class, and he came up in conversation. One of the students asked me if I knew about his past, and I'm like, " Not really, I figure he is just a quiet guy who likes to read." So it turns out he was bullied in middle school and one day had a nerdrage on his tormentor and attacked him with scissors shouting about how he was going to take his eyes.
From what I understand it was pretty brutal. The bully transferred schools and most of the other kids left my student alone. It didn't change how I viewed him, but I did notice after that how the other kids treated him. I'm not saying that we're afraid of him but not many people, even other gamers and geeks associated with him. I always thought he was very friendly.
Let's Drink All These Awful Memories Away!
Girl was supposedly hooking up with the band teacher. Never heard any proof, band director left. I moved away and years later met a friend in a pub on a holiday visit. The two of them walked into the place together and I looked him dead in the eyes as he was coming in...he kinda froze and then awkwardly came over to say hello.
They had one drink and then left.
A Fall From Grace
During my first year of teaching I had a 10th grade student who suddenly in the spring was put on emergency expulsion for 10 days. I was really shocked because this student was great! She was chill, very involved in the school community, a cheerleader. I had even written her the recommendation to be eligible for the cheerleading team. Admin gave zero explanation for her sudden removal. I knew nothing until I had overheard little bits and pieces. Apparently, she had gotten caught having sex with her boyfriend in one of the locker rooms at school. Out of the blue during her expulsion she emailed me and asked me to shut down any rumors or sh-t talking about her. Of course I had already been shutting those conversations down and continually told my kids to mind their own business and focus on themselves, so I assured her I was handling it. I think this situation really f-cked her up and she wasn't really the same afterwards.
The next year she ended up running away from home with another boy and she was a missing person for quite some time. Out of nowhere earlier this year (her senior year) she pop's up in my classroom, she's heavily pregnant, and starts talking to me and ultimately asks if she can wait in my room until her mom comes to pick her up. Completely baffled, I let her sit at my desk and notify admin, asking if she still goes to the school and if she was still on the missing person's list. Thankfully she was no longer on the missing person's list and she did go to the school, but through online classes. It was wiiiiiiiild. Definitely one of the more bizarre things that have happened as a teacher.
It's Not Just The Kids That Aren't Alright
I was a student in a French class in Belgium. One of my fellow students from Peru was very distressed one day and left class in a hurry but contacted the teacher afterwards. It turns out My fellow student recognised a new student that joined the class as being a most wanted Shining Path guerrilla fighter from Peru who was hiding out in Belgium under a false name. They alerted the Police and at the next week's class they waited in plain clothes and arrested him when he turned up.
EDIT: this was an adult class aimed at people learning French
netrev08How Is This Spread Without The School Burning Down?
That he was having sex with the principal (41) while dating the principal's daughter.
Edit: Everybody knows this happened, the whole town knows, but no one did anything about it and if there were any court cases, they were really hushed. He started dating her daughter so he could come to their house without it being weird, his grades were amazing and she is still a principal, but is about to retire I believe.
What A Way To Start The School Day
I teach High School English.
One morning I was walking down the hall and I overheard some random student tell her friend "OMG Jake and Sarah were having sex in the stairwell yesterday and got caught by a teacher!" then they both broke down in giggles.
I know this was true, because I was the teacher who caught them.
When The Kids Know More Than You
The rumor was that prior to Christmas break, he brought a gun to school and had a hit list with students and teachers on it.
Not only did it turn out to be true, but the school decided not to tell the teachers. We found out about a major security breach and a potential school shooter from our kids.
How much trouble did he get in
He was expelled and maybe arrested. I don't actually know. Even after we found out no one would tell us much.
The Lives Our Students Lead
When I was teaching middle school (8th grade mathematics) a young lady transferred mid-year, very quiet and very low-achieving, probably at a 3rd or 4th grade level in all subjects. Rumors quickly started to spread that she had a baby and had to leave her last school, which is how she wound up at ours. Turned out, she had TWO babies by two different young men, one of whom was 20 years old.
Her aunt just openly told me all of this at conferences... said her niece was a really good mom though. My Lord, that poor child.
"Several members of the football team..."
Two rumors, but from my sister's high school.
Several members of the football team robbed a local grocery store at gunpoint. They all got arrested and suspended and there weren't games for the rest of the year.
Also another rumor about a male teacher sleeping with a freshman girl. He was fired.
"He had to call the cops..."
Someone started a rumor that a girl in my grade tried to seduce the gym teacher. We thought it was some stupid joke until it was discovered that she showed up at his house one night and wouldn't leave. He had to call the cops to take her home.
My sister is a teacher in a school where about once a semester a different girl gets "pregnant." Last year she actually was.
"She said no."
Not a teacher, but in the 10th grade (1996-97) we had an insanely hot biology teacher. All the "studs" flirted with her, but she was also happily married to an equally insanely hot firefighter. One guy got expelled after he literally dropped his penis on her desk and dared her to say no.
She said no.
"A female teacher quit..."
That the reason why our cranky science teacher Mr. Johnson is always so cranky is because his wife left him for one of students.
This was true, Mr. Johnson was an @sshole to his wife who used to be a teacher and apparently a senior student fell for her and the two eloped. Weirdly, her family supported it.
That members of the football team and the cheerleading team had an orgy in the boys locker room.
True, we were more pissed that they did that after they lost a game.
A female teacher quit because none of the boys wanted to f*** her.
Learned this one later, she was in her 50s and was apparently heavily flirting with any boy she liked but when she didn't get f**ked in the 3 years she was teaching at our school, she left and made a Facebook post about it.
"It gets even more bizarre..."
My mother is a teacher, but she does have a crazy story that sends shivers down my spine. She use to work for a private school that is now in trouble financially and academically as a few rumors went around that a few students brought meth to school and sold it to some parents. They were never caught, but most had thought it was untrue, until one of the students that went to the private school was caught at a magnet high school and admitted to selling meth since 5th grade.
It gets even more bizarre as those students' parents were meth makers and were using their kids as mules. The school district confronted the former and current directors of the private school and asked why they didn't catch the students earlier. Some said they were too busy to notice or didn't bother to confront the students selling the meth.
Nowadays, that private school is known as "The drug trade school". There are now less than 15 students at that school now.
'The Other One'
The other one is about a staff member and it's just kind of sad. So student transfers to my school from other school where teacher used to work. Says teacher left other school because he had to take time off because he had cancer! All the other kids instantly jump on this. So and so has cancer! Did you know? Of course I didn't know and told them that they can't just gossip and speculate about someone having cancer. That they should confront rumors and not spread them. Get the story from the horses mouth. I thought this was a great teachable moment (I think this was my second year so I was inexperienced.) So they won't ask him. I ask him privately. Yep, he most definitely has cancer and doesn't want it to be public. So I lie for him and tell the kids to stop spreading rumors and mind their own business.
"And the moral of the story..."
This happened when I was a student about a teacher.
I was in choir in high school but missed the beginning of class one day to talk to my counselor about classes for next year and college plans for when I graduate. I walk in and see the choir teacher in tears and a lot of the other students crying. Super awkward to walk in on, so I just quietly shuffle to my seat and a buddy leans over and said the teacher just announced she was leaving at the end of the school year.
A few weeks later we hear the principal was also going to leave at the end of the school year. Naturally, students started talking and rumors about the principal and the choir teacher having an affair with each other surfaced. I dismissed them as just rumors.
Nope, it was 100% true. I got the details a few years later from my former theater teacher when I went back to the school as a substitute getting experience while applying to teaching jobs of my own. The theater teacher and choir teacher were friends and the drama teacher had told the choir teacher that there were rumors among the staff about the affair with the principal. The theater teacher did this out of a place of friendship and didn't actually believe the rumors at the time. However, telling the choir teacher backfired and the drama teacher started being targeted by the administration who would do everything they could to make her life miserable at school.
And the moral of the story is don't tell people rumors about an affair they are having when one person is in a position of authority.
"I work..."
Middle school history teacher here. I work in a lower income southern school district. I had an african american student named Trevor in one of my classes. Quiet kid, behaved, finished his work. Then one day Trevor got in a fight with another student. The other kid ripped Trevor's shirt, and underneath his skin was white as snow.. Turns out Trevor was applying makeup every day to his face, neck and arms. He wasn't an african american, he was actually a homunculus the whole time.
"Had a kid..."
Had a kid dumped into my classroom mid semester. The guidance counselor told me has some issues, and not to be confrontational with him.
Rumor mill gets going and I hear that he has been kicked out of 2 schools and the last school he beat a kid with a pipe or club. He is on his last chance and my school took him in with 3 months probation. If he f's it up, then he is out.
So, I am a fairly laid back teacher and usually bond with my students. The kid is an angel in class and no issues. Ends up being a favorite student.
Then the 3 months end. Totally forget about this rumor.
I am in the lunch room on duty and I see the kid get into an argument with another student. They get into it and I run down the entire length of the lunch room and try to break up the fight. I am 23 and 160 lbs at the time. I tackle the kid and he flips on me like he is possessed and grabs me by my tie and starts to strangle me with it. I am like F***. Luckily the other student jumped on him and he let go. Took 5 adults to pin the kid down and he was still screaming he was going to kill everyone.
Well, the rumors were true. He was a psychopath. Never wore a tie after that.
"Apparently..."
I knew a girl, a junior, who was in love with a janitor.
Apparently she had a breakdown during a lunch period about how she couldn't be with him or something. He must have had a crisis of consciousness or something. Apparently nothing ever came up of it, but they were supposedly close. She ended up moving to do homeschooling and the guy never returned the next year.
"We all had to suddenly evacuate..."
We all had to suddenly evacuate the halls into the grounds outside or into the classrooms and have teachers lock the doors because there was some crazy woman running around the school halls screaming at the top of her lungs the entire time as she ran.
From what I heard apparently her son was getting bullied in school and she had lodged multiple complaints and when he kept getting bullied one day she came in and just started screaming and running. She was running for the best part of half an hour. The police came and had to taze her to make her stop when she refused to even communicate and just ran past them each time.
It was a great example of the doppler effect for students each time she ran past though.
"They all three..."
We had a young lady (7th grader) who was in the office after hearing the word she has sex at school with a boy. Admin states she admitted to having sex with 1 boy (who denied it). She then lets out that she had sex the next day with a different boy, getting caught by the after-school group (he couldn't deny it). They all three were suspended for 10 days, parents were called, and the kids had a lot to explain to their parents. As a younger teacher, it blew my mind.
"I didn't believe them..."
I'm not sure if this counts as a rumor but I had a student that was usually at school every day not show up to my class one day. I asked the students where she was. They told me she was suspended because she let the boys in her pe class run a train on her.
I didn't believe them but let it go and decided to ask the PE teacher later. Not only did he confirm it, he told me he was the one that walked in on her mid act with two boys and a few others waiting in line.
"This last year..."
This last year, another teacher told me that my favorite student has a very violent past. This kid was quiet but got along with his neighbors and helped them on their homework. He was the smartest kid I had at this school. He was probably a grade level ahead at a school where everyone else was about two grade levels behind.
He ended up getting expelled for jumping a kid and putting them in the hospital. I had to learn about it from my friend in the HR department who reviewed long term discipline plans for kids because my principal didn't tell me squat about why my student was no longer in my class.
A slightly more fun rumor but still kinda sad was that some student had 43+ cats. They lived out in the country and so they weren't house cats, but all came by for meal times and eliminated a rodent problem they used to have. Parent confirmed they had had that many cats when student told me, but the rodent problem turned into a coyote problem and they lost about half the cats now, but apparently those that survived were the favorite/smartest cats do it was ok
My previous school was a small farm town, pretty good kids that never get in trouble. One of the girls allegedly sent nude Snapchats to a boy in the town over and they were spreading like wild fire. None of the girls wanted to be her friend any more. When I mentioned to another teacher how bad I thought the others were treating her, the teacher's response was about how provocative the photo was and how the other girls now feel pressured to be sexual if they want to date any of the boys at "next town over school." I was flabbergasted that this teacher had seen the photos. I understand even teachers sometimes getting curious about rumors, but this teacher asked to see for herself if it was really Student.
"You keep hearing..."
You keep hearing about students touching themselves under the desks. You tell yourself it can't be, you pretend it's not true. And every year you find out that it is.
"He wasn't her student..."
So this is from when I was in school, but I am a teacher.
My sophomore year in high school, halfway through my senior year the choir teacher was asked to resign because she was sleeping with a senior. He wasn't her student and he was 18 and she was on the younger side. Technically, there's nothing illegal about that, but still creepy nonetheless.
"Private Christian schools..."
Student rumor about teacher turned true.
My male HS gym teacher was rumored to be "flirtatious" and found out to be a predator. It was eventually exposed he was having an ongoing relationship with a JV cheerleader as well as providing her with alcohol. His fiance at the time was the principal's daughter, who was also the JV cheerleading coach.
Several years later said principal was arrested for soliciting prostitution/open container.
The MS history teacher was rumored to be gay. Never married, no kids, very witty and compassionate. This was confirmed later when he was murdered, while meeting a male stranger for sex at a well known hot spot for that in town. The school officially announced it as he was robbed due to their religious 'integrity'. He was an incredible and very beloved teacher.
Private Christian schools are so messy.
"One of my kids..."
One of my kids swore a sub got arrested for drunk driving. She was a good kid so I figured I would Google the dude and prove her wrong... She was right.
"One day after school..."
Not a teacher but a student. My last year of high school out of nowhere the drama teacher disappears. Rumor starts going around that she's under investigation of having relations with a student.
One day after school the play cast (there was like 12 of us) were hanging around waiting for our director (not the drama teacher, this dude only ran the play). We all start discussing the rumors and the guy sitting next to me, who had the lead role, pipes up and says he was the one in a relationship with the drama teacher.
He was 18 but she was still being charged for having relations with a student and investigated to see if there was anyone else (there was). Dude's little sister was the one who reported it because she was worried (thank god). Last I knee the former teacher got a jail sentence, had to sell the deli she owned, was divorced by her husband (who from what I understand is happily remarried to a very nice guy my uncle works with) and she is not allowed to see her son.
"The rumor was..."
The rumor was that prior to Christmas break, he brought a gun to school and had a hit list with students and teachers on it.
Not only did it turn out to be true, but the school decided not to tell the teachers. We found out about a major security breach and a potential school shooter from our kids.
"Her aunt..."
When I was teaching middle school (8th grade mathematics) a young lady transferred mid-year, very quiet and very low-achieving, probably at a 3rd or 4th grade level in all subjects. Rumors quickly started to spread that she had a baby and had to leave her last school, which is how she wound up at ours. Turned out, she had TWO babies by two different young men, one of whom was 20 years old (she hadn't yet turned 14 when I found out).
Her aunt just openly told me all of this at conferences... said her niece was a really good mom though. My Lord, that poor child.
She transferred to our school for 8th grade because everyone knew at the last school that she was pregnant. Her reading was about a 3rd grade level, no computer at home, phone was often disconnected. By the start of the year her son was already 7 months old. She rarely came to school because her mom couldn't always drive her. I don't know who the father was and never asked because it's not my business but I can only hope it was another middle schooler.
Almost nobody knew about her baby at the school. Only a few admin, a few teachers, but no friends knew about the baby. At her 8th grade promotion, I was telling her how proud I was of her and she said she was very determined to show up and do well in high school. None of her older brothers had finished high school and she wanted to be the first. She brought her son to graduation (family passed him off as her brother) and I had to make my goodbyes quickly so I could go and cry in my classroom. I'll never forget her and I hope she is doing well.
"One morning..."
I teach high school English.
One morning I was walking down the hall and I overheard some random student tell her friend "OMG Jake and Sarah were having sex in the stairwell yesterday and got caught by a teacher!" then they both broke down in giggles.
I know this was true, because I was the teacher who caught them.
"Never heard any proof..."
Girl was supposedly hooking up with the band teacher. Never heard any proof, band director left. I moved away and years later met a friend in a pub on a holiday visit. The two of them walked into the place together and I looked him dead in the eyes as he was coming in...he kinda froze and then awkwardly came over to say hello. They had one drink and then left.
"The next year..."
During my first year of teaching I had a 10th grade student who suddenly in the spring was put on emergency expulsion for 10 days. I was really shocked because this student was great! She was chill, very involved in the school community, a cheerleader. I had even written her the recommendation to be eligible for the cheerleading team. Admin gave zero explanation for her sudden removal.
I knew nothing until I had overheard little bits and pieces. Apparently, she had gotten caught having sex with her boyfriend in one of the locker rooms at school. Out of the blue during her expulsion she emailed me and asked me to shut down any rumors about her. Of course I had already been shutting those conversations down and continually told my kids to mind their own business and focus on themselves, so I assured her I was handling it. I think this situation really fucked her up and she wasn't really the same afterwards.
The next year she ended up running away from home with another boy and she was a missing person for quite some time. Out of nowhere earlier this year (her senior year) she pop's up in my classroom, she's heavily pregnant, and starts talking to me and ultimately asks if she can wait in my room until her mom comes to pick her up. Completely baffled, I let her sit at my desk and notify admin, asking if she still goes to the school and if she was still on the missing person's list. Thankfully she was no longer on the missing person's list and she did go to the school, but through online classes. It was wiiiiiiiild. Definitely one of the more bizarre things that have happened as a teacher.
"The problem..."
One of my students was really smart. The problem is she rarely goes to school and nearly dropped out because of it. There was a rumor that she got raped by her brother and stressed out so she rarely goes to school and went to the park instead. Turn out, it was true. So sad because she was my best student that year, always got the highest mark in maths (the one I teach).
"I was assigned..."
I was assigned a group in highschool of only 11 students. Basically there happened to be a teeny bit of budget extra. And they took my group of 22 and split it into two classes. So my colleague got the other 11.
So I got really close with these kids. We had a blast. Some days felt more like summer camp than normal class.
Anyways one day, two guys just could not stop ANNOYING one another. So I sent one to the far back corner because I knew he was instigating.
I was focused more on the board and the kids on front, but I turned in time to see corner boy stick a metal rod into the heater and essentially a giant blue explosion followed, with this kid sitting dead straight and then turning green.
He was so scared he couldn't talk. But he was fine physically. It was terrifying seeing a 15 year old boy go completely mute.
Left class with a supervisor. Took him to get help. Had to call his dad...started off I was shitting myself. How do you tell a father their teenage son found metal and stuck it in a heater!? Ended up with the dad making me cry of laughter. Kid got checked out. Everything was fine.
But for like a month rumours circulated that someone got electrocuted
Meanwhile. When he came back and started joking about it, it became the class motto. Everytime someone acted up, a student would point to the corner and shout "It's your turn!"
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