Current and past students share their most traumatic experiences with a teacher. The stories shared result in the accused teacher getting fired or punished. Take a look to see how far some of these teachers went and see how they affect their students.
Secret Admirer
“Starting in sophomore year of high school, every Valentine’s Day I would get a secret admirer card in my locker. Being an idiot high school girl, I was super flattered and my friends and I would try and wring our brains to figure out who it was. Finally come senior year I get another sweet admirer card, except this year it is sent to my home address and, instead of being handwritten, is typed out and pasted onto the card, with the lyrics from one of my teacher’s favorite Bob Dylan songs ‘Simple twist of fate.’ So turns out my secret admirer all throughout high school was in fact one of my teachers. On top of the secret admirer cards, the day after I graduated, he started texting me, asking me to have ‘pillow talk.’ No thanks buddy.”
Stapler To The Head
“I had a religion teacher in high school named Mr. N, who was working on becoming a Jesuit priest and was a really cool guy. He always had a smile on his face and did his best to make class a fun experience for everyone.
There was a kid in my class who was a really annoying jerk, but Mr. N was always really patient with him, until one day he pushed him too far. I forgot exactly what the kid said, but it definitely crossed the line. Mr. N slammed his fists on his desk and shouted, ‘Why can’t you EVER just shut up!’ He then picked up his stapler and chucked it at the kid, missing his head by a few inches and leaving a huge dent in the wall and then stormed out into the hallway.
Even though I wasn’t the one that got the stapler chucked at him, that was still something crazy to experience. I had never seen a teacher blow up like that and I definitely never expected it from him.”
“She Started Pounding It With Her Fists”
“I went to a prestigious art college. My sculpture teacher was very angry and manipulative. She would tell us very nicely, in kind, small old lady voice, to ask for help if we needed it. Nevertheless I did my best to avoid speaking to her because I knew of her true nature. The worst incident was when sculpture kept falling apart and eventually I had to ask for help. She got extremely angry and began pounding on my sculpture with her fists. She complained she had arthritis and she shouldn’t be doing my work for me. She punched my sculpture so hard, she cut herself and started bleeding all over my work. Eventually she ended up banning me from the class even though I had a passing grade and this led to me being kicked out of the school. She did fix my sculpture, though.”
Failed 5th Grade
“Fifth grade teacher, Mrs G. She was just awful to me. I hate learning because of her.
First day of school she had us make a ‘hobbies list’. Basically we wrote down things we liked to do and we would share it with the class and try to make friends that way.
What I wrote is not important, but once I was done I set the paper aside and went to put my pencil back into my case that was in my desk. I ended up knocking the paper over and it fell to the floor. The kid next me picked it up, made it into a ball and threw it at Mrs. G. She saw my name on it and branded me the culprit. From that moment forward I was branded the class troublemaker. It didn’t help that I had been diagnosed with ADHD a few years prior and had a hard time focusing.
She did everything in her power to make me feel stupid and miserable. She would take away my pens and pencils and make me write out my assignments with broken crayons. She wouldn’t let me go to Special Area (Art, Music, PE) unless I was absolutely required to go.
At one point she got so fed up with my ‘misbehavior’ she put my desk in a corner, the opening facing the wall so I couldn’t get anything and wouldn’t let me participate in any lessons. I had to wear earplugs so I couldn’t hear any of them either. I was given the Literature textbook and nothing else.
I had to sit alone during lunch and wear a tag that said I wasn’t allowed to talk.
After winter break, we had our reading skills tested. I don’t remember what they actually called it. Basically a handful of school board officials would come in for a week and test every single students reading to see where we ranked. She tried to tell them I was to stupid and to skip right over me when my turn came. They ignored her and still tested me. When the results came back I learned that I ranked highest in the school with a tenth grade reading level. Then she took the Literature textbook away from me after that, and made me just sit in the corner alone with my thoughts.
By the time FCATs (Florida equivalent of SATs or something similar) rolled around, she refused to give me my tests and marked me absent for the days used to take them. I ended up taking them a few weeks later in the principal’s office.
My mother knew about all of this and tried to get me moved to a different class, but failed because the principal saw nothing wrong with how Mrs. G was treating me.
I failed the fifth grade and repeated the year with much better teacher.
I still hate her. She’s still working as a teacher for the same school and still treating students the same way she treated me.”
“7th Grade Was By Far The Worst”
“In 7th grade, the new girl and I did not get along. After we got into an argument, she stormed out of the class and went to the principal’s office. A couple hours later, the principal comes up and halts the class for a moment. She explains that she is tired of this problem between new girl and me. She just had new girl in her office for the 8th time this week and had to send her home again. So Ms. Principal went around the room and asked every one of my classmates what they thought of me. 7th grade was by far the worst I had it in terms of bullying, so when the ‘popular’ group took it upon themselves to get me in trouble, most other kids followed suit or said ‘no comment,’ including my friends at the time. Due to the sheer amount of spite being thrown at me, I was crying. To which the principal, said out loud, ‘And to anyone who’s CRYING right now, it’s probably because all of this is true.'”
“That Woman Was A Nightmare”
“When I was a kid, spanking was normal and accepted. If a teacher smacked you in a face, you’d look forward for another spanking when you got home. Still I had a teacher in 3rd grade that was bad enough that all the parents were able to get together and have her fired.
I have a bunch of stories from her but the worst was when I was in class just before lunch. She wanted me to do some division exercises but I still couldn’t quite figure out how division worked (even though I was a very good student at the time, for some reason division wasn’t sticking). She told me I couldn’t leave for lunch before I was able to do the divisions by myself. After a couple of minutes, I was really frustrated and started crying. She had a big ring on her finger which she turned so it would inflict as much pain as possible. She started smacking me repeatedly telling me to do the divisions which, by now, I was completely unable to do…
She slapped me in the face a fair bunch of times and I actually got a small cut that started bleeding. She told me to tell my parents I hurt myself on the playground and sent me home cursing me and calling me ‘a worthless idiot’ and stuff like that.
I was so sad and ashamed and horrified I didn’t told my parents but eventually they noticed my mood changes and started to figure out what was wrong…That woman was a nightmare.”
“She Continued Teaching After Everything”
“I’m in my late 20s now but this happened when I was in elementary school. I’m a dark-skinned Latino who grew up in a small predominantly white town of upstate NY, I remember the teachers always being out to get me; I know most children tell their parents this but in my case it was VERY real, the blatant disrespect and racism I suffered was mind-blowing to me even as an adult.
I recall an instance in which we were at lunch and I got up and go to the bathroom. My first-class teacher followed me to the bathroom and pushed me against a wall. She took off my winter jacket and, with her foot, smears it throughout the bathroom floor while insulting me (i can’t recall what was specifically said) but I was crying.
Luckily my neighbor, who was much older (13), was passing by when she hears the commotion and walks in to see the teacher doing this. Her being much older and aggressive, she went off on the teacher and went to the principal and told my parents after school. I’m not too sure what happened afterwards but my parents told me this teacher paid them a visit in tears apologizing and asking them not to go through with filing charges as she was having a bad day and wasn’t herself, etc. My parents, being young and stupid, fell for her acting and accepted her ‘sincere’ apology – she continued teaching after that.
Shortly afterwards, my parents moved to another small town in Rhode Island in which I was the only dark-skinned child in all my classes. I was almost 13 by this point. Not only did these teachers have it out for me, but they almost caused me to get sent to a foster home. So here’s what happened. I would attend class as normal everyday, I know this for a fact because my father would drop me off everyday and I had friends in those classes. Well somehow my 2nd period teacher always marked me as absent despite me being there. This went on for nearly 2 months, despite me speaking to her and letting her know I was there and she could clearly see me in the front of the class.
Eventually so many absences triggered a truancy court hearing. My parents were furious at me and although I swore up and down that I was there, they didn’t believe me. Being that my parents didn’t know English at the time, as they had only been in the States for 3 years, they brought an interpreter to the hearing. Basically what was said during this hearing was shocking to me, again even as an adult today I get mad every-time i think of this. That teacher who marked me absent didn’t only say that I was skipping her classes but that she also caught me smoking in the school bathroom. What? After the hearing, I received the whooping of my life. My parents didn’t trust me and it became clear to me that the teachers hated me.
Two-months later and it continued happening, this teacher continued marking me absent and it triggered yet another court hearing. At this point, my parents were being threatened with having me taken away and placed in a foster home. Not sure what happened afterwards but I was being sent to go see a shrink for several years everyday after school. These experiences were traumatic to me, to the point that I try not to think about them; I’m almost sure they contributed to some of my issues today as an adult.”
“Do Fish Have Hearts And Rainnbows On Them?”
“When I was 6, we each made and painted a big paper mache fish and hung them up in the hallway.
The next day, my teacher, Mrs. S, had me stay behind during recess.
Once everyone else was gone, she slammed the door behind her and began screaming at me about how embarrassing my fish was. I’ll never forget the look in her eyes, too. The fish was pink and purple and had hearts, rainbows, and stars on it.
‘Do fish have hearts and rainbows on them?!’
Well, no. I suppose its silly to draw anything on them… But I was 6! She didn’t like the colors either and went on to yell about how everything of mine was pink, or purple, or rainbow, or had rainbows on it, or hearts, etc., and that she was sick of it while asking me what was wrong with me.
She then had me climb up a ladder and get the fish down, then told me to paint it a normal color.
I sat there sobbing and covered it in thick, dark blue paint. I never understood why she got as angry as she did over it.”
Dresscode
“During junior high, I had a gross gym teacher. He would encourage girls to wear anything they wanted during swimming and liked to watch these girls who wore super revealing swim suits. He didn’t like that I wore a t-shirt over my one piece, despite the fact that it went with the dress code, and told me to take it off or I would not get my participation points of the day. I did take it off out of fearing of failing my class but decided that it wasn’t worth it so I chose not to swim.
When we were not swimming, he confronted me again because I was not wearing proper gym clothes. I was suppose to only wear black shorts with a shirt that was either orange or an orange shirt with my school’s logo on it. I only wore the logo shirt with long pants. He confronted me and asked for my address and said he would pick me up and take me shopping and make sure I’m wearing the right outfit for his class. I said no, told my parents, and he was fired.”
Teacher Bully
“I’m from a small town. One of my classmates in English class was dating the teacher’s best friend’s daughter. He was a decent kid, well liked, he just had troubles in school and was a bit hyperactive. Well, an untrue rumor had started earlier in the day that he had cheated on his girlfriend. By our class in the afternoon, the rumor had been cleared up. Apparently it was started out of spite by a previous friend of the guy. Anyways, apparently the teacher hadn’t received the news that it had been cleared up, she’d just heard the content of the rumor.
Class starts and the teacher (who is a known bully) starts off by saying, ‘Today, you are going to hear a special piece of literature in order to comprehend the importance of spelling and grammar.’ Immediately the hairs stand on up on the back of my neck. I had this feeling, I just knew whatever she was planning to do, she was going for the jugular. And it didn’t feel right.
I stood up (kind of stunned with myself) and yelled, ‘You better stop this nonsense!’ Picture the quietest, most easily bullied kid in your class saying that. The rest of the class didn’t comprehended my intent and I froze. Maybe they just wanted to witness the drama. Anyways, I got a few shut ups from classmates and the teacher chirps in, ‘Yes, please do. Are you crazy?’
I look directly into the guy’s eyes and he mouths, ‘It’s okay.’ And I mouth, ‘I’m sorry.’ In hindsight, I should have just ran to the office but I was scared.
The teacher then proceeds to read out a very personal letter that she says is written by a guy to his girlfriend. It includes details about how the author was forced by his step-father at 14 and the confusing feelings he had about the situation and thoughts of suicide. This is the 1990s and this kind of abuse wasn’t well understood and the victim would sometimes be shamed for apparently ‘wanting it.’ She also intentionally stumbled at every grammatical and spelling error. She then turns to the guy and says, ‘See, if you wanted to confess your feelings to your girlfriend, you should have edited first.’
The class bursts out laughing. The guy is just emotionally stunned. I didn’t know how it impacted him and was too shy to even ask. And it just wasn’t ever discussed. That kind of bullying was so normalized. And I stupidly worried I’d be in trouble, too, for failing him and worried nobody would believe me. And afraid I’d be bullied more. Luckily the rumor mill didn’t fly. He had good friends, I guess.
Years later at our high school reunion, he came up and asked if I could chat. He then proceeds to thank me for my kindness and apologizes for never standing up for me. I said, ‘But I failed you.’
He said ‘you didn’t, you tried.’ He said that it was discovered the girlfriend had given the letter to her mom out of fear for his safety. And the teacher had taken it from her best friend (this lady was a bully to everyone). The teacher had since passed away from cancer.
To this day, I sometimes wake up screaming, ‘Stop, stop!'”
“I Broke Down In Tears”
“I’m disabled and in school I required an aid, which I had from third grade until eighth grade. This woman was…horrible. She called me fat, stupid, ugly, dumb, and would even chastise me for taking food from friends and not eating the school lunch. The most traumatic experience occurred in sixth grade math. She was sick and grumpy, like a child, and I didn’t understand a new lesson. A friend helped me out and once she was done, my aid snatched the paper out of my hands and asked me what it was. At this point, her verbal abuse had made me scared of her and I said in a weak voice that I didn’t understand what my friend was doing. She lost it. ‘HOW DID YOU NOT KNOW WHAT SHE WAS DOING? WHY ARE YOU BEING SO STUPID? I AM SO SICK OF YOU!’ and more yelling. She did this in front of the entire class until I broke down in tears. This truly traumatized me and sometimes I still cry about it today.”
That One Bad Apple
“This happened to one of my classmates.
Jeremy was a brat, obnoxious, mouthy and an all around jerk. He frequently disrupted class, bullied some kids, and threw tantrums all the time. Everyone quickly became tired of his antics, but he felt his actions were justified and would make him popular. He knew better but just didn’t care. He had to be the center of attention at all times. For some reason Jeremy signed up for a math class that was a little more advanced than his capabilities. A few weeks in, it is obvious he can’t do the work, but as usual Jeremy blames everyone else and that the teacher must be truly terrible. The teacher is a nice old lady who was known as being firm, but fair. She always had time to help a student if they asked for it. Jeremy is mouthing off daily, is rude and interrupts everyone constantly. We are all fed up with it. Every time he spoke the entire class just groaned. He had stormed out several times already and everyone was sick of his drama.
One day class starts, the new worksheet is handed out and we get to solving the math problems. Jeremy is totally lost and loses it. He starts ranting that no one can do this work, the teacher has not taught us right, the directions on the worksheet are wrong. The teacher tries to help him, he calls her stupid. She tries to help him again and repeats her simple instructions, but he gets even madder and refuses to read the page. Well… the teacher snapped.
Honestly, there is only so much a person can take. She actually pushed the back of Jeremy’s head into the desk and yelled, ‘Look at the page!’ – and in an instant she knew what she did was wrong but it was too late to take it back. Jeremy freaked out and knew what had just happened, he jumped up hollering about how ‘she was fired, he was suing the school, she was going to jail for assault, he had tolerated her for ‘too long’ and ran out of the room.
The teacher left, another teacher came in for the remainder of the period. The rest of us went back to our work. It was nice to do it in peace and quiet for once.
The results: I do know the teacher never got fired but was transferred. That was the only blemish on her record. I don’t think Jeremy ever sued the school since that would have been big news there and nothing was ever heard from him again. Not one student in the class gave a statement in defense of Jeremy. The teacher gave us a sincere apology.”
“Banished To Play The Triangle and Jingle Bells”
“My senior year of high school, my mental health took a steep dive. I was dealing with a lot of instability at home, one of my closest friends had become a relentless antagonistic bully to me, and the only thing that made me feel better was playing bass guitar in the jazz band class. Or it was, until our band teacher left. The replacement – Mrs. R – was just terrible. I think she tried, but she was not good. My bully ran that class and she encouraged it. My bass guitar skills ‘weren’t good enough’ so I ended up being banished to play triangle and jingle bells. It’s a small miracle I didn’t kill myself throughout that year, because Lord knows I wanted to.
I’ll never forget the day she asked us our opinions on a specific piece we were playing (which was objectively horrible). She called on me and I said that I didn’t like it. She then yelled at me for being negative and ‘being the worst member of the band’ until I cried (fortunately, that was not long). She made me play songs faster and harder until I permanently scarred the tendons in both of my wrists, and whenever my bully decided to lash out at me, Mrs. R would watch and laugh.
I hope I never see you again. I hope you step on Legos for the rest of your life.”