Not everyone can be teacher of the year—but these sadistic educators take "cruelty" to the next level. From jaw-dropping insults to ruining kids' lives just for the fun of it, teachers like these make school a living nightmare. For most of us, reading these stories will make us realize our teachers weren't so bad. For anyone who had to endure creeps like the ones below—we're so sorry.
1. Speaking for the Student
My mother and father passed when I was in my final year of school, I was off school for a while around the time of the second funeral. When I returned to school my tutor decided it was her job to tell the class what had happened to me, right there in front of everyone instead of letting me do it on my own terms. To say I lost my temper would be an understatement.
2. Inspiring a Walkout
I once had a terrible history teacher. He was horrible to everyone and said some extremely questionable things. He never bothered me in particular, a few things here and there but nothing terrible. Well, until my best friend drowned while canoeing with some other students. A few days later the principal had a moment of silence for him.
In response, this teacher said 'kid deserved it.' I lost my freaking mind. I started shrieking at him. I was crying, and he was just standing there with this mischievous smirk on his face. My friends pulled me out of the room while he called the principal. I ended up suspended but there was a student walkout the next day due to my suspension.
3. He Don’t Got Game
I was near the end of my senior year in college and needed to take an elective to satisfy degree requirements. I took basketball since I love the game. The "professor" was an assistant coach for the school's basketball team, and he didn't care about the class. Our class starts at 8 am in the old basketball gym on campus, and he was the only way that we could get into the gym.
A few times he had a colleague come to open up the gym for us, but at least 7 or 8 times over the semester, he just didn't show up at all so, after 15 minutes, the students just went back to their dorms or apartments. I was a commuter driving 45 minutes each way, so I had to skip work on the days I had class. I was working to pay for school.
Near the end of the semester, someone in class asked him about his attendance then he made an announcement that anyone that doesn't show up for the final exam (basically whoever could make a basket) will fail. On the day of the final exam, he didn't show up. No colleague. Nothing. On that last day, there were 30 students freezing cold sitting outside the gym in December. I ripped him a new one.
4. Don’t Listen to the Haters
A friend of mine wanted to go to a certain university that was out of state and somewhat tough to get into. The counselor told him not to waste his time as he would never get in. This made him rage. He stormed to the principal who told him to trust the counselor as that was her job. He applied anyway, got accepted, and taped copies of his acceptance letter to the counselor and principal’s door.
5. Books Are for Everyone
During quiet reading time, teacher brought me to the front of the class because I was reading a book for girls, and he asked me, “why are you reading a giiirrrrrrls book? Are you a GIRL?” Then made me chose a book for “boys” to read. I was maybe 10 or 11? The book was Matilda by the way.
6. Might Be a Hemophiliac
When I was in high school I got a lot of nosebleeds. Like, a lot. So I got one in the middle of class and I asked the teacher for a tissue, she said she didn’t have any so I asked to go to the toilet to get one and she said no. Soon, I asked again when blood was dripping from my hands and she yelled at me for “repeating myself,” which is apparently bad.
Soon, a puddle of blood was on the table and then I got sent to isolation for “disrupting the class.” I was then suspended for “acting inappropriate during class.” She was then fired for putting my life at risk. I gotta say, when you get a nose bleed like that, you really see how much blood is inside of you.
7. Piece of Trash
In first grade, I didn't want to eat a brownie that a classmate had brought in for their birthday. My teacher decided that this was incredibly rude and that I wasn't allowed to go outside for recess until I ate the brownie. When she wasn't looking, I wrapped it in a napkin and placed it carefully in the garbage can. She noticed, took it out of trash, unwrapped it, and still made me eat it.
8. The Proof is in the Printing
I had a teacher who hated me. To the best of my knowledge, I never did anything to make her feel that way at first, or if I did, it was something stupid and petty. Not being the type to enjoy being hated, I made her life as difficult as I could without breaking rules. Then this awful teacher started telling me that I wasn’t turning in homework assignments. Are you serious? I handed it to you yesterday same time as everyone else.
Principal calls my parents about me apparently just not trying, so they yell at me for a while and sit with me every night for two weeks while I do my dumb homework. Then this genius lady tells me again that I need to start doing homework or I'm going to fail the class. This message ends up with the principal and then ends up with my parents.
Now, they didn't believe me before this point, but now they knew I was doing my homework, and something fishy was going on. My mom asked to meet with the teacher. We went to this parent teacher meet up and she's sitting there all smug. She told my mom, "He isn't doing his homework." But my mom fired back, "I know he is. I've been making sure he has."
Then the teacher went, "Well then he must be choosing not to turn it in. Or maybe he's just not doing the homework for this class. Do you help him with the work? We're doing ____ right now, I'll show you the assignment." She grabbed a folder, opened it up, and right on top was my ungraded assignment. It had my name on the top in big ol’ letters.
My mom noticed too and snatched it. She gave the teacher a look, got up, and walked down the hall to the principal’s office. The look on her face was worth the nightmare I'd been through. I had never seen my teacher, or anyone else for that matter, look so devastated after realizing how much she screwed things up for herself. It was incredible. She finished out the school year but was not present the next year.
I guess there were a lot of issues with her.
9. No Sharing with the Class
I got a detention from a teacher for knowing something she didn't. We were learning about Japanese print making in art history class, and the text she was reading from mentioned Zen. Another kid asked what Zen was, and the teacher didn't know. I had just been to Japan and visited a temple, so I piped up and told them it was a type of Buddhism from Japan.
I wasn't trying to be a jerk or rude about it at all. I was just trying to help out the other kid and was excited about sharing my trip—I never expected what happened next. My teacher lost it, yelled at me, kicked me out of class, and then gave me a detention. She also taught art class and was terrible at that too. She just liked bossing kids around.
10. Front and Center
My fourth-grade teacher had a reputation for making one boy in her class an unpopular scapegoat each year. Lucky me. In previous years, I'd been just another kid in the playground, but within two months the other kids wouldn't play with me during recess. One day I refused to go outside for recess. She asked why, and I foolishly told her that the other kids didn't like me.
When they came back in, she marched me to the front of the class, and asked for a show of hands, who didn't like me. Fourth grade kids—mostly—did what fourth grade kids do. I broke down that night and told my mom what had happened and what had been going on all along. She marched into school the next day, got a meeting that included the principal, and tore the teacher a new one.
I was still stuck in that class, but the teacher moved on to a new victim. Funny thing how self-esteem influences academic performance. My school used to give us a Stanford Binet IQ Test every year. My score dropped ten points from third to fourth grade, and then rose twenty points in fifth grade when I had a nurturing teacher.
If you are still alive, SCREW YOU, Mrs. Ericson.
11. If You Could See Me Now
When I was in 8th grade, we had a history teacher who lost her left eye at a young age. She was the meanest teacher I ever had, but one day she went too far. We were in class, and I was in the back of the room. She called my name to answer a question and I didn’t know the answer. She calls me to the front of the room, intent on embarrassing me in front of the class.
When I failed to answer the next question she told me to get out of her sight. I promptly stepped to my right a few steps. Her face turned the color of a ripe tomato, and I was suspended from school. Totally worth it.
12. Projecting Hubris
A couple of weeks into my senior year of high school, the president gave a speech about the importance of school or something. I don't know. I wasn't really paying attention. Anyway, all the teachers in my school had to set up their projectors, so we could watch it. However, my math teacher couldn't figure out how to get her projector working.
So, me being the nerdy kid, offered to help. She had a total meltdown. She started screaming about how she wasn't stupid and how I needed to just sit down and shut up. After a few more minutes of her failing to fix it, she pointed at me and ordered me to fix it. I said, "Fix it yourself." Bold move. She told the whole class to go next door to watch the speech in that teacher’s room.
When we got up to leave, she pulled me to the side and told me that when the class got back, I was going to stand up and apologize for being so rude to her. I refused and went to join the rest of the class. She spent the rest of the year making my life miserable. She told me on several occasions that she was going to make sure that I failed her class. Sure enough, I failed her class. It's the only class I ever failed.
13. Devil’s Pardon
Ah Mrs. Tansa. You can rearrange her name to spell Satan. She was my fourth grade teacher, and she would make fun of you anytime she got. My favorite memory about her was when I was riding my bike and saw a bunch of police a few doors down from my place. I walked up and noticed a police officer with the same last name on his name tag, and I asked him if his wife was a teacher.
He said yes, and I said I was a student in her class, and all he said was, "I'm sorry."
14. Miss Maleficent
My teacher and pretty much the whole school knew I was a foster kid. I was painfully aware of this so I kept to myself. I didn’t make many friends and spent all of my time at home playing in the woods. In the middle of the semester of third grade, someone went into my teacher’s purse and stole money from her. It wasn’t a small amount either—like hundreds of dollars.
Without sending anyone to the principal’s or even investigating the situation, she called my parents and told them it was me because “orphans lack manors and we all know it was him.” She demanded that my foster parents pay up and they did. When I got home that day, my foster father punished me for being a thief and it was painful.
When I got to school the next day with bruises on me, she knowingly looked at me and said, “Got what you asked for, huh?” That was 20 years ago, I went to her funeral give years ago just to make sure the grim reaper did the job.
15. The Favorite
My little sister took ceramics during her freshman year of high school. They had to do some project and she wanted to look on Google for some reference images. She went to ask her teacher if she could use his computer, and she saw that he had a computer folder open that was full of pictures of her. Talk about creepy.
She was like, "Why the heck do you have pictures of me on your computer?" and he came out with some lie, so she told my mom when she got home. My mom called the school about it and he denied everything. The school did nothing about it. So my mom called him personally and threatened the life out of him.
I don’t know what she said but he definitely left my sister completely alone for the rest of the semester.
16. Too Smart, Try Again
I had a 10th-grade French teacher accuse me of plagiarism for writing something that was "above my level of French." I was shy and didn't talk much, but had been in total immersion since grade school. In grades 7 and 8, I even competed in public speaking, winning out of the school and going to provincials.
They put me in the highest level with one other contestant who had just moved from Quebec. Did she bother to back-check anything? Heck no. But that was just the beginning of the nightmare. That jerk screwed my grades up so bad that I went from being an honor student to barely showing up because I didn't know what to do. If I did well, I'd get in trouble, so what's the point?
17. Straight up Degradation
A French teacher who made me hate French. She humiliated me in front of the class by making me get on my hands and knees and picking up a piece of trash with my mouth. I was being punished for throwing an airplane while she went out to chit chat with another teacher. She was terrible. Always miserable, just a wretched woman.
18. Chocolate Covered Revenge
Mrs. Danner in the third grade. She was a terrible teacher in general. She talked about her migraines constantly instead of teaching and explained how chocolate and Taco Bell triggered her migraines and explosive diarrhea, and told us that anyone who drinks diet soda would immediately get cancer even if they drank it because they have diabetes and can't drink regular soda.
She picked on different students and loved to have loud, patronizing conversations with her teacher friend next door about students in her class as a passive-aggressive way to get on to students. She was particularly mean to me because she wasn't from what would be considered a "good" family in the area but married well.
In her new social circle, she wound up rubbing elbows with my grandmother, who absolutely despised Mrs. Danner and was not shy about making that fact known. So, when she saw my last name on the first day of class, she decided to get her revenge. It all culminated in one incident in which I had an altercation with a boy outside of school hours and not at a school event.
On the Monday following the event, Mrs. Danner and her teacher friend pulled me into the hallway and said things like, "Looks like the Pandersons aren't as wonderful as they pretend" and "how ashamed your grandmother must be" and other things that turned poor, sensitive Dan Panderson into a teenaged, sobbing mess.
I went home and my tears turned my mother into a bear ready to attack. The following day, my mother put on her best suit, donned her pearls, pulled her hair into an elegant chignon, and stomped her high-heeled feet into that school at 3:00 p.m. and stepped into the classroom. I'll never forget the next few moments.
Mrs. Danner said, "Hello [Mom First Name]." My mother said, "Oh, you may call me Mrs. Last Name, my friends use my first name," and then laid the most gloriously condescending smack-down on that jerk that the world has ever heard. Eventually, the principal came down and Mama said, "Well, I've said my piece."
"Mrs. Danner will finish the year being much nicer to Dan or I will be forced to have a meeting with my cousin (the school board president) and see how he feels about renewing her contract." Mama flounced out leaving shattered remains in her wake and it was honestly amazing. Mama, being a grade-A jerk, proceeded to sign up to make all the baked goods for class, and only made chocolate because Mrs. Danner can't have chocolate.
19. Ain’t No Zero
I flipped out on a logic professor who "lost" my assignment's records. I had to call him to talk sense into him. He responded by yelling at me, "You didn’t do them! I am looking at your grades, and they are all zeroes!" That's when I absolutely lost it. “Look you inept pissant,” I said, “I have papers that you've graded right here. They aren't even good, but they are definitely not zeroes.”
Eventually, I read through his comments on my papers while he was trying to argue with me. That's when he's like "okay... that doesn't sound made up. Scan your papers and email them in." My grade went from a D to a B.
20. Some Things You Can’t Plan For
One of my best friends in high school passed in a car accident, and a couple of days later my friends and I told my teacher we would not be able to make it to class because we wanted to attend the viewing and be there for our friend's family. The teacher then proceeded to tell us that we need to plan our days better and how irresponsible it was of us. I've never felt so much rage. Screw you, Mrs. Weaver.
21. Some Teachers Never Learn
My I.T. teacher wanted to inspect my work on the computer and accidentally deleted the file. I was upset and tried to point out she just deleted my work. She started to shout at me, telling me I should have saved frequently. I shouted back telling her that wasn't the issue, she outright deleted the file. It got pretty heated. My parents were called.
We were outright yelling at each other for a good couple of minutes to the point where we were both in tears. I was about 14 at the time. She should have known better. A few years later, my sister had her when she went to that school and that same teacher berated my sister. She would belittle her and call her names in the middle of class.
22. Disrespecting Grief
When I was 13, my friend's little brother passed. Because of her loss, she had been away from school for like a week, understandably. On her first day back, one of our teachers gave her a lecture about missing school saying she "had to face reality, time doesn't stop because of tragedy." She was beyond grief, and we all lost it on the teacher.
23. When You Gotta Go You Gotta Go
In eighth grade my literature teacher, Mrs. Kropp would let the girls use the restroom but would not let boys. This policy ended when a boy asked her three times to go and on the third refusal he immediately walked to the corner of the room and urinated on the floor.
24. Looks Can Be Deceiving
Teacher told me I was a liar in front of the whole class, as she didn't believe my grandmother was a World War II evacuee. She refused to believe me as she assumed my mum was younger than she looked at the time, and therefore my grandmother was younger as well. She thought my mum was in her late 20s when in reality she was in her early 40s at the time.
25. Encourage Don’t Discourage
I had a first-year lecturer in classics who went out of his way to terrorize the class. His first words to us were, “I suspect as many as half of you cannot read.” He then administered a test, which two-thirds of the class failed. He was not shy about voicing his rather gleeful displeasure. I did well enough to avoid his wrath, and, annoyingly, get singled out for praise.
He would routinely throw questions at students who weren't paying rigorous attention—in a three-hour lecture on Friday morning—and then berate them for not knowing the answers. His comments on papers were beyond trenchant—“Are you illiterate?” “Do you imagine this makes sense?” “This is childish.” etc. The unfortunate part is that he was a superb classicist.
A close second was a novelist-turned-writing-professor who hurled a girl's manuscript out of his office door—nearly hitting me in the hall—as he shouted, “THIS. IS. NOT. WRITING.” She came out to pick up her magnum opus moments later, weeping. Great writer, self-confessed terrible teacher.
26. Burning Bridges
In shop class, we were given balsa wood sticks and clay to make the strongest bridge we could, which would be tested by putting the bridge between two desks and then placing weights on it. The teacher took one kid's bridge to place it between the desks, and while grabbing it, (accidentally?) crushed the main body of the bridge. The bridge failed almost immediately and the kid got a really bad grade. The teacher acted like nothing happened despite our complaints.
27. The Spanish Inquisition
Spanish teacher gave me zeroes on a bunch of homework that I knew I'd done and turned in like everyone else. My father refused to believe me and punished me in accordance with the rules about my "bad grade." I swore to him that I had turned in the work, so the next morning he went with me to the teacher's "office hours" or whatever you want to call it.
She showed up 30 minutes after the posted start time, so he was already mad because he was missing work. She unlocks the door and proceeds to tell my father that I'm a bad student, didn't do my work, and was disruptive in class. I shove past her into the room, go to her desk, and pull the four missing papers from her "turn it in tray."
My father watches all this, looks at my teacher (who has turned bright red), and tells me to go to class without breaking eye contact with her. She started failing all of my assignments from that point forward until my dad complained to the principal, superintendent, and school board. She retired the next year.
28. Read the Room
The class was learning about the legal system and doing a mock trial. The case involved a girl being attacked. The student who was picked to play the girl, coincidentally, had been a victim in real life. She felt it was going to be too draining on her and tried to get out of the role. The teacher wanted an explanation but she wasn't willing to share, she was just saying it was very private.
It was not clicking in the teacher's head why a girl may have very private reasons not to play an assault victim in front of a class. She kept on trying and finally the teacher raised his voice, "You're holding up this project for the entire class for no apparent reason. Why the heck is this such an issue?" The whole class was looking at her at this point when she said she had been a victim and started crying. As far as I know, the teacher didn't face repercussions but the project was changed.
29. Master’s in Death
I don't remember her name, but I do remember multiple times when she was wildly inappropriate and just a horrible person. I was in second grade, and my grandpa had just died. I ended up missing school because of the funeral, and as a result, I missed the spelling test that day. The day I got back she told me, "Next time someone dies you better have the funeral on the weekend."
My school was in a snobby nasty district and town that never admitted they did anything wrong, but needless to say, I’m glad we got out of there.
30. Complete, Effortless Disregard
In sixth grade, I was sick and missed a day of school, so I didn’t know what the homework was. The next day in class, the first thing I did was ask one of my classmates for the previous night’s homework so I could do it that night. My teacher gave me a zero and a detention in front of everyone for not turning in the assignment.
I went to her privately after class and explained that I didn’t have any friends in the class and had gotten everything I needed to do it that night as soon I walked in before class started. The horrible thing she said to that day has stuck with me the rest of my life. She told me it wasn’t her problem if I’m a loser and that I should have found a way instead of making excuses.
I was a great student with straight As, never missed school, and was always well mannered. I was absolutely mortified and so deeply hurt because in reality, not only did I not have any friends in that class, I didn’t have many friends at all. The friends I did have who were more school friends than actual friends were on another “team” so had a different set of teachers.
But it didn't end there. Later in the quarter, I turned in a poem that I was incredibly proud of. I got nice paper to print it on and everything, and the poem itself was very real and very raw. She failed me on the project. When I approached her about why she failed me, she told me the whole thing was dumb—the visual presentation and the poem itself.
My mom still has that project framed in her house and reminds me from time to time how meaningful it was for an 11-year-old to have written it. I’m not sure what that teacher had against me and still haven’t been able to make sense of it all these years later, but I’ve never forgotten how she treated me.
31. Bleed or Fail, Your Choice
One time while taking an exam in my Calculus class, I got a random bloody nose that dripped right on to the test. My teacher's response was incredibly disturbing. After I explained what happened, she said if I left the room to go clean up, I wouldn't be able to retake it. My options were to grab another test and start over halfway through, without being able to copy my previous answers, or leave and fail the exam.
I walked out of the classroom and withdrew before I got to my car.
32. Heartless, But a Good Shot
Third grade. We were reading Where the Red Fern Grows and we got to the part where the boy's dog passes and everyone in class started crying. I was sitting there waiting for the next kid to read and some girl across the room called me out, saying, "Why isn't he crying like the rest of us?" To which the teacher lady replied, "Because he doesn't have a heart."
I threw my book at her from across the room and smacked her right in the forehead. I was suspended for a week.
33. The Power of Christ Won’t Compel You
In the early 90s, I was diagnosed with ADHD, put on Ritalin, and also lived in the deep south in Mobile, Alabama. The Ritalin made me itch and made me feel like things were "crawling" on me. I started pulling out my eyelashes and clumps of hair. I mean I was just a kid and I didn't realize I was being weird or my behavior was troublesome.
I was always getting in trouble, all the time. Principal's office every day. Parent-teacher meetings. But this one teacher, she made me feel terrible. She'd take me out in the hall and make me "pray to Jesus" to "forgive me" for my behavior. One day when my mom came to pick me up from school she told my mother that I had a devil in me.
It made me feel so terrible. I was like 6 or 7—I thought they gave me pills because I was stupid and now I'm being told I'm evil and have a devil in me.
34. Whistle While You Work
There was a high school English teacher, Ms. Blades, who was ignoring me for a while. It's worth mentioning that she didn't really like me for some reason. I had my hand up because I had to use the bathroom, and she kept pacing about the room, answering other kids' questions but would glance at me and immediately look away.
After about 5 minutes with my hand up and getting ignored (and about to poop my pants), I whistled as loud as I could. Interrupting anyone was completely out of character for me, but my whistle was the equivalent of firing a shot in a closed room. Absolutely deafening. The entire room went completely silent. The teacher then snapped her head around.
As her name might suggest, Ms. Blades was staring daggers into my face. Then one kid goes, "Ooooh, he just called you a dog, ooohhhhhhhhhh," then she gained serious momentum and said, "Oh, I don't think so! You think I'm a dog!? You think I'm a dog!?" I got sent to the principal's office for disrespecting an ignorant teacher. I "used the bathroom" on the way there.
35. The Dog Days of Science
When I was in eighth grade, I had a crazy science teacher who thought it was a good idea to bring her dogs to lessons in the science lab...even though two kids were allergic to dogs. The day before the last test of the year, she decided to give us an extra 16 pages of new material to learn by ourselves that would appear on the test. Needless to say, everyone lost their mind and started complaining. I wrote her an angry letter and by the end of the year she got fired.
36. The Latex Conspiracy
I had a teacher that thought latex allergies were fake. One day we did an experiment with balloons and a kid said she was allergic to latex and the teacher screamed, “NO YOU AIN’T!” She then started rubbing her violently with the balloon. It was a crazy sight to see, and the whole class was flabbergasted. She got fired that semester.
37. He’ll Be Watching You
I did a math test and, on the paper, you could ONLY mark your answer and had to do the calculations on another sheet. Long story short, my teacher lost my calculations paper and wouldn’t admit it. He said I didn’t hand it over, claiming that I cheated and calling me names. So, I went to the school supervisor and asked to take the test again, and she let me.
My teacher asked to look while I did the test, and he made it, immensely more difficult. Guess what!? I freaking aced it, right in front of him. He hated my guts for the rest of high school and I couldn’t care less.
38. Learning Another Language Is Hard Enough
This was the worst professor I ever had. She was the only Spanish professor at my college and I had to take two of her classes to finish off my Spanish minor. She literally told me that because I wasn't a native Spanish speaker, I would fail her class, even though she was whiter than I am and learned Spanish in high school just like me.
She ridiculed me in class for having one or two errors in my responses, and then started giving me zeros in participation for not talking. She said that I was “mediocre at best” and that I should've never taken her class because I couldn't handle the academic level it was at. I had a 4.0 GPA. She reported me for plagiarism twice and accused me of having my boyfriend—who is Hispanic—do my homework for me because I couldn't possibly know certain phrases in Spanish.
She's the only reason I didn't graduate with highest honors. Still pissed about it.
39. Punished for Doing Something Right
When I was growing up, it was unheard of that girls could have ADHD so I wasn't diagnosed until I was an adult. So I was constantly late for school and classmates teased me for it, which made me anxious about being at school in general. One day, I left for school extra early to avoid being teased about being late, got to school and walked into class a few minutes early.
The teacher made me wait at the door until all of the students were there and decided to single me out. Keep in mind I was 11 years old. “Oh look, Coffee_and_Cats_Life graced us with her presence on time for once!” He started clapping and got everyone in on it and completely ignored the fact that everyone was laughing at me and some people were calling me names.
I wasn't able to tell my mom about it because she decided that I was just lazy and irresponsible rather than bothering to see that I had similar symptoms as my brother who was diagnosed with ADHD because “girls can't have ADHD.” Mind you, she also refused to get him treatment since she thought mental illness and neurological disorders were fake.
Not the most traumatic thing that a teacher has done to me but it still stands out as a hurtful memory even 15 plus years later.
40. All This Over a Piece of Paper
In middle school—seventh grade—I was in band and we had a concert on a Saturday that was with a lot of other schools so we had the option to leave with our parents when we were done or we were to stay until the end and take the bus back to our school. The permission slip was due the day before the concert and I forgot to get mine signed and ended up turning it into my band teacher the day of the concert instead.
When it came time to leave, my teacher pulls my mom and me out of the auditorium and proceeds to literally yell at her for letting me be so irresponsible and says he shouldn’t let me leave with her. The biggest thing that stood out to me was when he said I would never make it through high school. I never thought anything of it but when I look back at how I finished in the top ten percent of my high school class and how I graduated with my bachelors in engineering, I chuckle because he was dead wrong.
41. Proving Him Wrong
I enrolled in college early while still in high school and had a professor who really made me love politics and law, so I decided that’s what I wanted to focus my academic career on. I did well in all of my courses and was setting myself up to start my bachelors with political science pre-law as my major. All was going well until one professor, an older man who hated me from day one. He saw this young blonde chick in his class, which, let's be real, was an easy and basic pre-requisite at a community college, and decided I wasn’t worth his time.
He would constantly answer any of my questions condescendingly, and in an effort make me feel dumb, he would call on me to answer questions on material he hadn’t taught yet. Finally, at the end of the semester, he handed back my final paper and decided to have a talk with me after the rest of the class left. He told me that maybe politics/law wasn’t the thing for me and that maybe I should look into doing something different.
Joke's on him though, I ended up completing my major, and working as main staff on a major campaign during 2012. Then, after all that fun, I decided I didn’t want to go to law school and I now work for the government. But still, screw that dude.
42. Horrible Thing to Say
When I was in the second grade, my mom died. When I was in the third grade, the evil witch of a teacher held me back from recess one day for something. While it was just us in the room, she asked if I went to church. I said no. She then told me that I was going to hell and would never see my mom again. I hated that jerk.
43. Oh Just Cheer Up
I missed three months of my last year at school because I was treated for severe depression. School and every teacher was informed. I could finish with a lower degree or retake all the courses. Because I didn't know how I'd feel a year later and I wanted to have a degree in my pocket, I decided for the lower degree.
I worked hard, on my health and for my courses. After my final oral exam the teacher asked me why I missed so many lessons. I was confused and asked him if he did not get the letter I sent, which he said he got. So I said that everything was explained there. That I was treated for severe depression in a clinic several hours away.
He looked at me and told me with a disapproving glance, that everyone is sad once in a while. That's no reason to not attend school.
44. Culture Shock Trauma
I'll never forget Ms. K. She was an absolute monster. I was about 4 years old and had spent the early years of my life speaking only Korean. I had never spoken a single bit of English in my life and the language barrier between me and my pre-k teacher seemed to have sparked a toxic relationship. I remember her yelling at me to do something as she threw my coat at me. Me being only four years old and unable to understand her broke down and ran out of the room only to be comforted by the secretary.
In another instance, we were given lunch and were told we had to finish everything before we could get up and go outside. At this point, I picked up some English, and I had never seen anything fouler than the steamed green beans that were presented in front of me. And of course, since I was told to eat them, I did.
I proceeded to vomit into my cup of milk, which sweet old Ms. K forced me to drink because it did not count as finishing my vegetables. The list goes on and on like the time I cut my finger on a staple on the ground and she just ignored me the entire time as I bawled my eyes out. Of course, Ms. K was always sweet to my mom whenever she came to get me.
It took years until I told my mom. I thought every kid had gone through the same thing. My 5'2" tall Korean mother absolutely flipped out. I remember her furiously calling the school, but alas Ms. K had left after I moved onto elementary school.
45. Singing Like a Devious Eagle
My high school choir teacher was emotionally abusive. He lectured us daily on all the things we did wrong. Once, he made me have a panic attack because I missed ONE rehearsal for an AP test. Even some of the other teachers were wary of him. They finally had someone else take his job after 50 years of teaching choir. Now he's an assistant director.
46. The Importance of Understanding
A little bit of a backstory. My dad was a horrible father. He cared more about how he looked in the community than he did actually being a good dad. My brother (18 months older than me) and I would be left at home all weekend with no transportation and no guidance while he played house with his girlfriend. I was 11, my brother was 13.
Anyway, I got into trouble. I don't blame this entirely on my dad, but as a kid so young and confused needed guidance, reinforcement, and discipline. My mother is bi-polar and my father kicked her out of the house, onto the street, and claimed that she was crazy and wanted to end us. To my father, discipline meant him putting his fists in my face as often as possible.
He would make me stay home from school if I had black eyes or marks that showed. He locked me in my room when I was 14 for the entire summer with nothing but a radio (no books, nothing to draw on, no friends) for getting caught with cigs. Anyway, I confided in a teacher in high school about all of my problems.
I really didn't have many friends who I thought would understand, and I was also really embarrassed that I was powerless to stop him from hurting me. So this teacher was someone I thought I could tell things to. I told her about my home life, being left alone for days at a time, not having food in the fridge (and we weren't poor), having to stay at friends' houses and their parents being responsible for me…
You know, just an entire list of bad stuff. Well, I cut school one afternoon. I know, dumb. But I paid for it in an even darker way. Knowing all that this teacher did... she picked up the phone and called my dad. He beat me so freaking bad that I had huge purple bruises all over my back and ribs. I went to school three days later, walked into the teachers’ lounge where she and about 10 other teachers were, raised up my shirt, and told her thanks.
47. Math: Forever Ruined
I had the same teacher for grades seven and eight. Up until then, I had always been extremely good at math, I'm talking top of my class. Well, this particular teacher seemed to think that girls couldn't be proficient in math and would assign me work that was harder than other students, under the auspices that he thought I should be "challenged."
Then, when I couldn't understand what I was being assigned, his reaction chilled me to the bone. He belittled me and made me feel stupid. This resulted in my confidence being shot and I never excelled in math again. Also, he demanded my parents come in for a meeting where he basically told them I was a trollop because you could see a sliver of my stomach when I raised my arms sometimes.
48. Why So Serious?
An English teacher I had in high school asked the class to spend half of the class in the library, finding a love poem. I chose Sonnet 130 by Shakespeare. It's not a standard love poem; it says nothing nice about the lady until the very end. She failed me on the project. The very next project was to choose a poem that described our general feelings around that time.
I chose a poem from the existentialists. I don't recall exactly which one, but it was about taking your own life. Again, I failed the project. I'll never forget her response after I read it aloud, "Why would you choose something so awful and sad??" A girl in the class said, "Maybe that's how he feels?" She sent me to the principal's office for punishment. I felt like I wasn’t allowed to feel what I felt, and it made me want to rage even more.
49. Orgueil et Préjugés
I had a French teacher in high school who was an incredible xenophobe. I had heard about it from my older sister, but we all brushed off her concerns because she was generally dramatic about everything. He told prejudiced jokes in class and then told the kids not to tell anyone outside the class the joke because ya know, it was funny, but they wouldn't get it. He would give better grades to white kids who worked on the same project as non-white kids.
At that point, I had enough. I decided to withdraw from french as I felt I already knew the language and didn't need this bullshit. I took a free block instead where I worked in the library. Other French teachers tried to talk me out of withdrawing from the program, but he argued that I wasn't very good at french anyway and it was probably for the better.
One day one of my friends who was a visible minority came running in the library crying. I don't remember what he had said to her but it was pretty culturally insensitive. I marched up to his class room with her and called him out for his prejudice, telling him off in French. After that school year he stopped teaching and returned to France.
50. Pushing All The Wrong Buttons
In high school, a teacher wanted to play a movie on a DVD, but she kept pressing the eject button thinking that it was the play button. The third time she went to press the same button after inserting the disc again, I may have slightly snapped that she shouldn't press the button. To which my teacher responds "Well sorry, at least I get along better with people than with computers."
Cue class laughter due to the sick burn of the teacher. Fast-forward to next time I have that class, at the start of the lesson the teacher waits till everyone is seated. Then she says, "I'm sorry about what I said in the last lesson. I was unaware that you're autistic." As far as I'm aware, I don't have autism.
51. The Teacher with no Faith
I had a history teacher in high school that decided that because I was doing so well on my tests and not on the homework that I must be cheating on them. She proceeded to move the 2 people sitting next to me on the next test, only to find out I nearly aced it. Next test, both the person in front and behind, as well as the 2 next to me, were moved. Same result. Next test, moved me into the hallway. Same result.
After all of this, she pulled me aside and said she would still be failing me on the exam because I must have had notes hidden somewhere. Had no proof, but low and behold I got a 0 on the test. Took it up with the assistant principal, and he said nothing could be done. I walked back into the class and lost my mind on her when she handed me the test back with a large 0 written across it. It was 14 weeks of rage.
52. Getting in the Halloween Spirit
When I was in high school, my English teacher asked us to write Halloween or Horror themed short stories to help us get in the Halloween mood. It was due that Friday and I got it done that Monday night since I didn’t have any other homework to do. The limit was ten pages or less, and I did ten pages exactly. When I told her that I had mine done and printed to be turned in early, she asked if I could just turn it in on Friday so it wouldn’t get lost.
I told her okay and kept it safe. For extra credit, I taped a small pack of Halloween stickers mostly to make my teacher laugh. Friday came, and I turned in the story with the stickers. My teacher loved the stickers which made me happy. Then Monday comes and I go to English class. My teacher had me stand to the front and held up my paper and said it was copied off a website because the words were spelled wrong. I explained that I typed fast and if she wanted me to fix the spelling, I wouldn’t mind doing it.
Then she said the character names were too hard to read—I used Ed and Albert. Then the teacher said the story was like a movie. My teacher got so mad she ripped the paper right then and there. My classmates said my face went from annoyed to murderous. Five hours of my life just ripped away. I called my teacher a witch and the only reason she was even teaching high school English was that she didn’t have the brains to teach anything else.
My classmates all walked out with me. The teacher was suspended and later fired for doing the same thing to ten other students' hard worked stories and calling another student a prostitute for wearing space leggings.
53. You Can’t Have My Heart
My gym teacher decided to tell me that having a heart condition is no reason to not participate in Track and Field. It was a hot day, and he enforced mandatory running, in addition to playing other sports. I have a bad heart, and even though I participated, I had to stop after one hour. But he forced me to do all the running events (except for the 1500m.)
After the running events I was having chest pains and he wouldn’t let me sit out of the field events, so I just punched him and then called my mom. Afterward, I did end up going to the hospital and my heart kind of was like “nope” and stopped for a few minutes.
54. Some Excuses Are Valid
This was the one and only detention I ever received. I was in third grade, and had a math teacher that had this stupid policy that every math test, after she had graded it, needed to be brought home and signed by our parents and returned to her within two days. During that school year, my mom got in a terrible car accident, in which she got hit head-on by a semi-truck. She almost died, was permanently crippled, and spent several months in the hospital.
We had a math test a couple of days after her accident. My step-dad spent the whole week in the hospital by my mom’s side, no doubt stressed out of his mind and not knowing if she would pull through. He didn’t want to bring my brother or me to the hospital, as he didn’t know if we could handle seeing my mom in that condition.
My brother and I were left home alone all week, with neighbors occasionally checking in on us to drop off meals. Anyway, I hadn’t seen either of my parents in days, and obviously couldn’t get either of them to sign my test. When I tried to explain the situation to my teacher, she cut me off and said that she “didn’t allow excuses” or some similar stupidity.
Then she gave me detention the following day. Since I didn’t have anybody at home who could pick me up, I had to walk the two miles or so home from school after the detention was finished. A week or so later, when my brother told my step-dad about everything that had happened, he showed up to pick me up from school, which he’d never done before, as we took the bus to/from school, and absolutely tore the teacher a new one, almost bringing her to tears.
The teacher never apologized to me, or looked me in the eyes again, for that matter, and I forged signatures on every other test that year. Also, FWIW, I had gotten 100% on the test that led to my detention.
55. The Mad Teacher
My history teacher would kick you out of the class if you yawned without covering your mouth. He also made me stand in the corner for asking him to repeat the question he mumbled.
56. Shouldn’t Have Told Her
In twelfth grade I had been taking German as a foreign language, and was in German V. Class was small, and had AP kids mixed into it—damn near really fluent kids. Teacher was crazy. Frau H. as I'll refer to her, was strict, yelled for no reason, and absolutely would not tolerate English in her class. I understand that as a teaching perspective, but my German was so bad I dreaded that class for fear of not being able to say anything.
Anyway, I come to the realization that Frau H's class isn't worth it in the first quarter and get the counselor to switch me out for a BS elective. I go to tell Frau first thing in the morning. I pull her aside and tell her I'm switching out of her class. I see the insanity build in her eyes. She pulls me into the hallway, and without shutting the door, begins to berate me for dropping out. Tells me how much of a waste I am. How my two-week exchange program to Germany two years prior is shameful now. All well within earshot of all of my classmates.
Up until then, I had never had a teacher treat me in such a disrespectful and humiliating manner. I froze, and peered in to see my friends look at me in horror. I walked away. Apparently, she then proceeded to go on a rant for half of that block about me, and for months after. She got a few scolding emails, a slap on the wrist, and wrote a BS half-assed apology to my family.
57. Not Very Lutheran of You
I was in Lutheran elementary school despite not being Lutheran. In third grade, we were talking about baptism, and the teacher asked for everyone to raise their hands if they had been baptized. I was the only kid who didn't raise my hand, and I was already kind of a weird, picked-on kid. A boy in the class said that not being baptized meant I was going to hell.
When I started crying and asked the teacher if that was true, he said that it was. I felt awful for the rest of that day and my classmates definitely did not let up picking on me.
58. More Bully Than Teacher
My elementary school gym teacher, Mr. Hildebrand. I was a super overweight child, diagnosed with PCOS at 14, had WLS at 19, but am now an incredibly healthy 24-year-old. I attended an elementary school with 60 children K-4, and my class had 11 including myself. I was the only one that was overweight. I’m sure you can see where this is going.
He constantly called me out for not being able to run as fast as anyone else, encouraged the others in class to pick me last for teams, asked why I was sweating like a pig when I wasn’t working very hard, would make me attempt to do sit ups and push ups while the others watched and made fun of me. It was incredibly traumatizing. The school didn’t require the kindergarten class to have gym, so this started in first grade when I was six.
We had gym class once a week, and I would get so nervous that I would throw up. Every single week. I was also a really anxious and sensitive child, so knowing that I would have to go and be embarrassed for 50 minutes was way more than I could bear. I think the school nurse figured it out after a little while, as sometimes she took mercy on me and let me stay in the office, sometimes she made me go.
But, no one ever asked why. No one ever told my parents this was an issue they were having with me. No one did anything to protect me.
59. System Failure
My father died early in the morning on the first day back at school for the year. He had been sick a few months and most of my summer holidays were spent visiting him at the hospice. At the end of the previous school year, the school decided to change the uniforms. I went back to school day two and I was called up to the vice principal’s office because I didn’t have the new shirt.
They knew my father had died the previous day—I was told if I didn’t have the right shirt tomorrow I would be suspended. I had to scrape together the money and get the bus to the shops to get the shirt that day because my mum was dealing with enough and I didn’t want to add to it. That was the day I stopped caring about school and it was a real turning point—for the worse—in my life. I was an A student before then.
60. It’s All in the Family
I had a teacher in high school who hated me. I wasn't the best literature student, but I hardly deserved her treatment. She once ripped up a paper of mine in front of the class saying it was the worst thing she ever read. I had to get it graded by the English department. My uncle worked at that school as a guidance counselor, but before that he was the English head when this particular teacher started. I think she took out her hate for my uncle on me.
61. Messy Handwriting, Messier Teaching
Third grade teacher told my parents I needed a shrink because my handwriting was so bad. I saw a psychiatrist weekly for about a month. I don't remember much. Nice guy. Anyway, apparently, he called the school and chewed out my teacher over it, taking the stance she was harassing kids for stupid reasons. All he told my parents was to get me a typewriter. Handwriting is still terrible, but you should see my words-per-minute.
62. It All Worked Out
High school freshman year English teacher didn't like my attitude or penmanship (lefty) so she recommended I be sent to remedial English for my sophomore year. It took two classes in sophomore year for the teacher to figure out I didn't belong there, but the freshman teacher was also the Department Head and wouldn't approve my transfer, so he gave me an A, a list of books to read, and asked me to help out leading discussion with the rest of the class.
63. Not Fit for Teaching
One of my teachers had a bit of a breakdown, and her screaming caused one of my classmates to have an epileptic fit. However, the teacher thought he was faking it and stood over him screaming at him to get up. Whilst we were all aware of his condition, he was still going through diagnosis but the school gave us training on what to do when he had an episode.
We started clearing the tables and chairs around him so he wouldn’t hurt himself, and someone ran off to get the school nurse (the teacher lunged at her as she tried to leave the room and knocked her into a filing cabinet but she managed to get out and get the nurse). Luckily the nurse at my school was a badass and as soon as the teacher started screaming at her she replied with a quick backhand and the teacher stormed out the room.
64. Celebratory Anaphylactic Reaction
There was a girl with a bunch of health issues and allergies in our class, including latex. One day, Ms. Morales chose to let her favorite student hold a birthday party in our class with latex balloons everywhere. The girl who was in a wheelchair got to class and immediately had breathing problems and started breaking out.
She asked the teacher if she could go to the nurse, and this woman had the audacity to say, “Just tough it out until next period. I’m not letting you go to the nurse yet.” Luckily, our TA saw the girl and convinced Ms. Morales to let her go, but the girl wheeled to the nurse at the other side of the school by herself because the teacher wouldn’t let anyone else go.
She got an EpiPen shot and was ok, but it still makes me angry four years later.
65. The Finger Method
I hated my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Chamberlain. She would always say I counted like a little kindergartner when I'd use my fingers, and then the other kids would laugh. I ended up having to hide my hands in my desk to do math. Like I'm 22 now and still use my fingers to count. It hasn't hurt me in life at all.
66. Later Problems
I worked throughout college sometimes with long hours, and most of my professors were fairly accommodating about this. This one day I got called in for a 6-hour shift after a co-worker quit, and I asked one of my professors through an email if I could have a small extension on a minor assignment because of that. He said yes and I thought it was the end of it.
Then in the next class I had with him, he called me out in front of the class and told them how I shouldn't expect more time and how I have to put his class before work. I got angry and told him that tuition was too high for him to make that argument. For the rest of the semester, he didn't mention it again, instead just opting for passive aggressive jabs.
67. Punishment Without Cause
I got detention for saying "okay" to my home economics teacher in middle school. Seriously. We were in class, and she asked me to do something, and I replied, politely, "okay." The teacher has a detention board, and a day later, I see my first name on it. I have a very common name and, joking with her, went, "Haha, that's for me, right?" She said it was.
I asked her what I did, and she said it was because I replied okay to her when she asked me to do something and she hates when people do that. Apparently, she just wants them to do it. I was absolutely stunned. I told her I wasn't going to detention. I got home and told my mom what happened. My teacher's son was in the same grade as my older sister, so my Mom knew the teacher.
She ended up calling her, and the teacher apparently was fumbling over her words trying to justify the detention. The next day, she goes to me, "You served this detention, right?” in a wink, wink, nudge, nudge type of way. I said no and that I wasn’t going to. She then said, "No you served it, right?" I decided to just say "sure" and that was that.
68. Girls Learning Science? Ha!
Grade 9 science teacher told us that physics and chemistry used to be harder, but they had to make the subjects easier so that girls could do it.
69. Stop Being Picked on, Then!
Mrs. Hazlet. Had her in 5th grade and she was extremely rude to most of the class. I was picked on a lot during elementary school and I would always come to the teacher and my parents for help. She would never do anything about it at all and would sometimes just get me in trouble for asking her about it or telling her.
So, one day I get beat up by some kids outside because they were trying to take a kickball that I brought from home. I was covered in dirt and extremely upset, and she comes over to them. I thought that this was finally when she would ream them out for something. I've never been more wrong. She screams in my face and tells me to not tell my parents about this.
Went home and told my dad about it and he talks to the principal about the situation and is furious. She was removed for a week from class and we had a sub. She came back and never paid much attention to me after that.
70. Success Is the Best Revenge
My AP US history teacher in 11th grade. I had him in 9th grade and he was awesome when I was one of the best students. But Junior year, everything changed. I struggled hard and was doing pretty poorly. I was also suffering from crippling anxiety that made deadlines for assignments feel like the end of the world.
He would hold me back at the end of class at least once a week to berate me for "not trying harder" and constantly tell me I was going to fail. One day, he told me I was never going to amount to anything in my life because I sucked at US history. I would leave in tears every time. I usually had chemistry afterward, and my chemistry teacher used to give me this sad look each day.
When I came in upset, he'd say "history?" and I'd cry more. This was almost 15 years ago, and I still hold so much hatred in my heart for that one teacher. It was completely unnecessary. I will be graduating from medical school this year and I'm so tempted to send him a letter saying I amounted to something, and sign it. Freaking douche.
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71. April Fool's
I’m not going to actually name her, but I’ll just call her Mrs. April. She was my first-grade teacher and I have some hot tea to spill on her. When my older brother went into second grade, she was his teacher. One day, she tells my parents that he is not focusing in class and should take some of these random pills. My parents agreed, thinking it was for his own good.
Long story short, it was not for his own good. He was banging his head on the wall and floors and yelling. My parents stopped giving him the pills, and he stopped that behavior. Later, they found out the truth. He was deadly allergic to those pills. But when they told Mrs. April, she insisted they keep giving them to him. Thank God they didn't.
Anyways, when I was in first grade, things were terrible. I got detentions almost every day and we had stupid clip charts. From top to bottom it went like this: Outstanding, Great, Ready to Learn, Teacher’s Choice, and Parent Contact. Surprisingly, I only had to contact my parents once when I got on parent contact. But every day she would torment me with the clip chart.
One day, I got Outstanding and we had to all do this hand motion called “roller coaster” and I felt super happy and jumped off the stool I was standing on. She got mad and I immediately had to clip down to Parent Contact. Another weird example of our torment was whenever an adult would visit the class, she would act super polite, but as soon as the adult left...She would explode with anger!
Pointing out every mistake and clipping everyone down to parent contact. She made me so angry all the time. Keep in mind, we were in first grade and all weak. One day, out of anger, I just snapped a pencil in half. Another time, I threw a freaking iPad on the ground. I also lost hairs there because I ripped them out of my head. It was clearly a negative situation.
72. Rallying the Temper
I was in math class in high school and having some difficulties solving a problem on the whiteboard, and the teacher started to make fun of me and then laughing at me. Before I knew it, she had rallied the other students to make fun of me too. I lost my mind and flipped her desk, then when I was walking out, I punched a hole in the wall and then just left the school and drove home.
Surprisingly enough I didn’t get in any trouble because a few of the other students went to the office after I left and told them what happened. The teacher lied and said I flipped out for no reason (I’m not the type of person to do that). The teacher got suspended and I got to change to a science research class that they counted as a math class for me.
73. No Candy in Class
Back in the 7th grade, I had a teacher who literally didn't care about anything I did. Dude absolutely hated me. One day we were watching a movie and I got called for eating candy in class. I told the man that I wasn't eating anything that I was just playing with my pen. Dude tried to go into my pockets to see if I had anything, so I pushed him off because I was about to be felt up by no one.
Dude got in my face and started demanding me to empty my pockets, or he was going to call the administers. I told him that he didn’t have to do that because I was about to leave myself but the dude wasn’t having it and stayed in my face. I remember screaming "IF you don’t let me get out of this class, I'm going to punch your lights out." Long story short, he finally let me out and I got 10 days suspension for eating a closed fruit roll-up.
74. Take It Down a Peg
In second grade at the end of school one day, a few of us were up getting our backpacks on earlier than the end of day announcement and my teacher—Ms. Grayson from HM Pearson—decides to pull on the back of mine and another kids backpack handle in an attempt to aggressively get us back to our seats, but instead, we tumbled to the ground on our backs.
We both went to the principal after that but nothing ever happened to her.
75. Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid
I had a math teacher who was also the track coach. One day during practice she was assigning people to events during an upcoming track meet. Kids were saying what event they wanted to participate in and she’d write their name/event on an index card then put it in her folder. Well, she left her folder open and you could clearly see that on the back of each index card she’d written either fast or slow.
A lot of kids were upset to see that they were considered “slow” and a bunch left the team after that because they felt bad about their efforts. The worst part is this was middle school and the stakes clearly weren’t that high, so she essentially ruined it for us for no reason.
76. Not a Sip
It was a super sunny and hot day and I was in class. I just wanted to take a quick sip of my bottle (other teachers had no problem with this in such a heat, and it was three days before summer break, so nothing was really happening anymore in school) and then the teacher noticed me and came over to my place. He then said something like "Either you put that bottle away or you go outside the classroom and do whatever you want!"
16-year-old me just went outside the classroom and my classmates were going nuts because he probably expected me to just put my bottle away. He got super angry as I closed the door and took a seat in the hall. I just heard him complaining about me. After five minutes or so he came out and sent me to the principal.
The principal was chill and there were no consequences. But from that day on the teacher always hated me and gave me bad grades. Because I wanted to drink something on a hot day...
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77. Filthy Mudblood
When I was in first grade, the first Harry Potter movie came out, and I brought the movie to class so our class could watch it during our Harry Potter event. I forget exactly what I did wrong but apparently the teacher turned me into a Muggle and at the end of the Harry Potter event she gave the whole class candy except for me and I cried.
My mom called the school and was furious at the teacher and she never apologized. So even though I brought the movie, I was the only one without any sort of reward at the end of the event.
78. Shame On Her
When I was in 10th grade my math teacher (a super nasty and mean women who was like 65 or 70) screamed and kicked out this one girl for wearing one of those crop top skirt things. She called her a bunch of names and the girl looked like she was about to cry. Our school had a dress code but it was never really enforced but I will never forget the math class where the teacher decided to waste like 25 minutes over a girl who was showing like half an inch of skin.
79. That’s Not How You Treat a Lady
I had an arrogant English teacher who would say things like, “You will address me as Dr. [Jerk]. I speak Russian, you know!" He once called a blonde girl a rude name because she got the lowest test score one day. This was in a high-scoring class. Her score was fine but it was just not as high as everyone else's. He asked her if she "could even read." She cried.
I didn't like this girl, but being 14 and cocky, I had to say something. I asked him if he enjoyed picking on children. He puffed out his chest and yelled, "WHAT did you say?!" and got in my face. I won't pretend I said anything clever or witty because I didn't. I just called him a “miserable old bully.” I also told him to apologize to the girl.
I didn't get into much trouble in the end because I explained to the departmental head who confirmed my story with the girl in question. The detention I was supposed to have with Mr. Fat and Miserable never happened.
80. Horrible Impression
I was only 8, but my second grade teacher has always stuck with me as the worst teacher. I have always wanted to look her up and push my masters in statistics in her face. I was never good at the math she was teaching. One day, I learned that I could get help if I asked. After asking for help 3 times, I learned that the teacher would yell at me and scold me for asking questions. She told my mother I was bad at math. But that doesn't even scratch the surface of how awful she was.
She constantly talked to the class about how important personal hygiene was. This was directed at me. She would ask my mother constantly if my clothes were clean. Then I was accused of stealing someone's cookie in class. A girl blamed me and my teacher refused to believe me. Then when I was scheduled to serve detention, I was given no directions and missed the detention earning me more detentions. I ended up missing lunch recess for at least an entire week.
81. One on One Attention
I had a semi-permanent substitute who was having trouble keeping the class in line. It wasn’t just me, mind you, and while I was talking to a friend instead of listening, he grabbed me by my shirt, lifted me out of my chair up on my toes, and yelled, "IS THIS WHAT I HAVE TO DO? IS THIS THE ONLY WAY YOU'LL LISTEN??" The class fell super silent for a few seconds and then I cracked up.
I started laughing loudly and pointing in his face, which caused the class to join in, which completely enraged him. He kind of dropped and shoved me back in the chair, and then he stormed out of class with his hands on his head cursing to himself. He came back after a few minutes but didn't say another word for the rest of the day.
I didn't really care about the ordeal. I wasn't hurt or intimidated, and I didn't say anything to my parents or administration about it. I found the whole thing hilarious. But, as kids do, gossip got around and it built until the story was that I had been picked up by the neck, choked, cussed at, hit, and then thrown on the floor. Administration was not happy, and a big ordeal was made.
I tried to explain that the rumors weren't true, and that he had only grabbed my shirt and yelled, but I'm pretty sure he was fired anyway. He definitely wasn't our substitute anymore. I was pulled into several meetings afterwards where they seemed to be convinced that I was lying because I was assaulted and now scared of the teacher, but I did my best to make the truth clear.
Interviewing the other kids in class verified what I was saying, but it took quite a while. My dad was super angry with the guy at first, but after I had explained things, he understood and calmed down. He told me, "I'm surprised he didn't just clock you for laughing at him like that." To which I laughed and then got a hard smack on the head. My dad said, "They can't hit you, but I still can, so watch your step, huh?"
82. A Teacher Scorned
She really, really loved the boys but always hated on and picked on the girls. Just as an example, I worked really hard on a project for her class. It came back with a D- on it. My mom had had enough of my teacher and took my project to the principal. She asked him to tell her what grade he would give the project. He looked it over and read through everything and said it was definitely A work. Mom showed him the grade she had given me on it.
The teacher was spoken to and my grade changed. I was a straight A student except for her class. She also failed me in that class, along with several other females, claiming I had never turned in any homework. I had but couldn't prove it. The boys in her class never received less than a B. The year after I had her, she "retired" after speaking with the principal and the school board again.
83. French Class Sans French
Oh, let's see. This teacher threw chairs, desks, keys, chalk, you name it, at students. He also didn't believe that I could read chapter books...in grade five, as a 10-year-old. One day, we were learning about PH values and tested bleach. It came out as a base...because it is a base. He was surprised and told us it must have changed from being an acid because it had been sitting on the shelf for so long.
Then he doled out his worst punishment. He made a kid do detention in the hall with a sign that said "future squeegee kid." Just horrible. He was all-round a pretty poor teacher with a terrible temper. Maybe he would have done better in high school when classroom management is a little easier. Middle school? Not so much.
I forgot another terrible teacher. The subject was high school French. The subjects we covered were his favorite hockey team, his favorite hockey player, the miseries inflicted upon him by his wife, and how terribly behaved the students at his previous school were. All of this was in English. We didn't learn a lick of French that year and the administration couldn't figure out why everyone kept dropping out of the French program after taking his class.
84. Mr. Thanos
I had a professor who had a goal of failing 50% of the class by midterms, making them drop out of the class, and failing 50% of the remaining people at finals. I squeezed by with a D and retook the class a few years later, since I don't think a D would let me graduate.
85. Ex-Spelled
My second-grade teacher. I always had terrible penmanship, but we had to write a report on a book about an animal. I picked penguins. The next day, she called me up in front of the class. Then she gave me a heartbreaking punishment. She said my report was so bad and illegible that she was going to have to tell the principal and that I was going to be expelled.
From second grade. I bawled my eyes out because I thought I was going to never be allowed to go to school again and knew I'd get my butt whooped when I got home. I mean really, I can't get over it to this day. She told a second grader that he was going to get kicked out of school because of penmanship. She was just a terrible human.
86. Attacker
This was a gym teacher. The other kids would often make fun of me and sometimes beat me up. She would only intervene if I fought back, and that was to punish me and me alone. I went to the guidance counselor one time after getting kicked out and told him what happened. When he called her, she told him a dirty lie.
She said that I was attacking them and they did nothing. Since she was the teacher and I was the student, you can guess who the guidance counselor believed.
87. Misdirected Anger
My mother is a wretched person and was sleeping with my math teacher's husband. Of course, the spurned woman made it her priority to be demeaning to me in every chance she could. I understood where she was coming from, but at the same time, I'm not my mother and it's not my fault that she's a witch. My patience was wearing thing and then, one day I just snapped.
I threw a book at my math teacher's head, she fell backwards and slammed her head on the board. No concussion but was stunned enough that I had time to grab my stuff and bolt away while cursing at her What saved me from being expelled was that I didn't storm out of school. Instead, I went straight to the principal's office, and stated that either I was changed class or I would tell all about why the teacher was treating me so badly.
That would have been quite the bad thing for the school, so I was indeed transferred, but still was treated like a pariah for the remaining of my year there. Wretched teachers and staff knew I was beaten every frigging day and didn't do a single thing. May they rot feet first in a lousy third class retirement home.
88. Revenge Best Served Over A Full Course
This is the story of how I got revenge on the worst teacher in the world. I had a teacher in a private college that enjoyed calling everybody stupid and that we were only studying there because our parents showed how much they earned. There were a lot of scholarship students, myself included. I can't be quiet when I hear these kinds of things, so we argued in almost every class. She failed most of the class, but we appealed with the dean, and she let us take another test, with another teacher. Everybody passed.
In the second course the teacher repeated her actions, but this time the dean said we were being dramatic. The teacher decided that there would not be a test, only a group presentation. She settled the groups. I got stuck with two lazy guys who did nothing, so I did the entire paper and the presentation. Both of them got a 9 (A) and I got a 7 (C minus). I only needed a C to pass, so I failed and lost my scholarship.
I tried to talk to the dean, but she wouldn’t have it. So, I had to take the course again. I could do it with another teacher, but I chose her. I made sure I was the worst student she ever had. I sat in the first row, always made a fool of her, and even made her cry. She left the next year. I do not regret it and I would do it again, with an extra bit of cruelty.
89. Sister Acting Up
In the second grade, I had a teacher named Sister Brigid. She didn't like me at all. One day I was feeling ill, and I asked to use the restroom. She told me that I was lying. As she tried to tell me why I was a liar, I vomited all over her shoes. Needless to say, I wasn’t the only one who ended up angry about the situation.
90. A Serious Condition
I was pretty sick with an eating disorder in high school and consequently had to stop taking gym classes. The gym teacher cornered me in the hallway and said, "So how long is this going to be a thing?" to which I replied that I didn't know but I would be out of the class for at least a semester. His response was something along the lines of, "I thought it would only take you a week or two/I didn't think it would take you that long."
Looking back on it, I hope maybe I educated him a bit on the subject so if another student is in the same situation he can act with a bit more compassion.
91. Sassy Comeback
This professor giving a pointless class in college. My phone accidentally rang because I was waiting for a medical call. I interrupted him because of that. I apologized and said, “Sorry.” The jerk said, “Sorry for your parents that pay your college fee, they’re wasting money.” He said it loud too, in front of everyone in the class.
I had a huge urge to punch him but remained silent because I was changing my career that semester and would not see him for another course anyway. He always got away with humiliating students with those types of comments for petty things. Everyone hated that jerk.
92. Not Fun for Everyone
My fourth-grade teacher played a “game” in math class where we’d have to write the answer to the problem on a whiteboard, hold it up, and if you got it wrong, you’d have to do a “consequence”—dance, sing, anything embarrassing. I struggled with the math we were learning, so I was always getting questions wrong with a few other students and I hated the game.
It only made me hate math more and I fell further and further behind. I thought I was just terrible at math until I finally got a great teacher sophomore year.
93. Unbelievably Fast
In third grade, my teacher gave me The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and I started reading it on the bus home. It was so good that I kept reading it all afternoon, and ended up staying up late to finish it. The next morning I gave it back to her and she didn't believe that I'd finished it. I was surprised and told her that I had, so she sent me to the reading specialist, who had me read aloud and summarize it.
He sent me back to class with a note saying "seems like she read it" or something along those lines. This was before the internet/SparkNotes. The teacher promptly demoted me from the highest reading group to the second-lowest. I told my mom, who went to the principal on my behalf, and I was moved back up to the highest reading group.
Then the teacher sent me to the principal for "lying to my mom." She was a piece of work.
94. Bunny’s Gotta Eat
I had a rabbit that my mom was allergic to so I decided to give it to my school. Every day at lunch, I would go feed it. I didn't have the best track record with my teachers because I never did my homework or I would forget it. I had forgotten my math homework in my locker so I asked my teacher if I could get it.
She goes "the only reason you come here is to feed your bunny, you'd might as well just go to another school." I was in fifth grade. I left that school. So if you're a teacher and you said this to a student, I'm grown now, I do my homework, I'm in college and I'm going somewhere.
95. Old School Mentality
In fourth grade, I collected Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and I had gotten the—at the time—new Three Egyptian God cards. Well, I was caught playing with them during class and my teacher took them from me and threw them out. I was devastated after all the packs opened and cards traded to acquire them. I never forgave her.
Did they ever end up being worth anything before all the reprint boxes? I would’ve loved to see her face if she found out they were worth some coin. The teacher was an older Southern lady in her 60s, so she was definitely in that mindset that she had 100% say in whatever she did with our personal belongings. Pretty sure if corporal punishment was still allowed I would’ve gotten the paddle on several occasions.
I wasn’t the only one who lost cards that day. Buddy who sat next to me had his Black Magician of Black Chaos and Blue Eyes Ultimate taken from him.
96. Read the Signs
A teacher (who already didn't like me at all) asked me to turn the lights off so she could play something on the projector, and she got pissed off at me for being unable to reach the lights, because I'm 4-feet tall. She sighed loudly and said "Of course, you can't even do that. [Other student's name] can you do it, please?"
The reason she disliked me is that I was generally unmotivated and behind in class. Turns out I was very depressed at that time (verging on suicidal). Yes, I didn't finish homework, and I started skipping class, but just a year ago I had been a highly motivated, star pupil who enjoyed class. I feel like that kind of dramatic change should set off alarm bells.
Would have been nice if she asked what was wrong, rather than get angry at me all the time. Especially for having dwarfism, like what the hell lady.
97. Morally Corrupt
I was in China during my elementary school years. This was from 1998-ish to about 2002. To understand this story, you have to understand the background of the Chinese education system. In order for you to get into middle school, you have to take the entrance exam as a sixth grader graduating elementary school.
If you fail that exam, you will not be able to get into a decent middle school, which will be the key for you to get into a decent high school, which leads you to get into a good college. Unless your family has connections or money, or both, you may be out of luck. During the sixth grade, I developed affection for a girl, who was a fifth grader.
We exchanged love notes like regular teenagers would do, and everything was just very innocent and can be simply categorized as puppy love. However, my "homeroom" teacher somehow found out about it. The teacher recognized my hand writing on a note she intercepted and immediately took me out of the class.
She started badgering me and questioning me about who the note was to. I refused to give a name. She decided to publicize this to the entire school, marked me as an "immoral" and "indecent" student with filthy and corrupted thoughts. I was not allowed to attend classes at all, and they told me if I ever dared to mention to my parents about how I was not allowed in class, they would tell them about my immoral behaviors.
Being a kid back then who was scared and truly believed my behavior was bad, I couldn't go to my parents for help. I was complete alienated in school. My friends and classmates all distanced themselves from me. In order to protect that girl I distanced myself from the girl. The whole school knew about me and saw me as a terrible child.
It was almost like the "scarlet letter." Eventually, because of the fact that I was not allowed to attend any classes, I failed the entrance exam miserably. I was a top student in class all the way till my sixth grade. So my parents were extremely shocked to find out about my inexplicable failure. At the last parent-teacher conference meeting during the elementary school graduation.
My mom broke down in front of the teacher while the teacher just smirked at my mom and said your kid was just a bad kid. That took a lot out of me and it took me a while to recover. To this day I still remember the sight of my mother crying in front of that teacher who almost ruined my life. Thank goodness my parents brought me to the US later and I was able to recover and regain my confidence.
98. Homeroom in the Gulag
During the cold winter months, my seventh-grade homeroom teacher would open all of the classroom windows if even one student didn't finish their homework from the night before. We would all have to sit in the cold until every student finished. At this school, we were required to lock our winter coats in our lockers so we would have to sit in the cold with just our shirts. No wonder both of her kids ran away from home.
99. Llorar a mares
I had a Spanish teacher, and in order to gain other students' sympathy, she would make fun of one of the students for the entire class. Of course, other students would sometimes laugh because the class was super boring so it was like a show. However, I HATED the whole thing. She would pick the students that didn't reply to her provocation, the low-profile type, and she would say "Oh, it's just a joke!"
One day, she chose the guy that never caused trouble for her next victim. She used him as an example to describe a homeless guy in a picture. After 10 (long) minutes, he stands up and leaves the classroom crying. And when she stops him before he leaves, he turns around the drops the mic. He says his dad passed the previous night and pushed her away.
Once the door closed behind him, she paused for a second, pretending to be crying, and mocked him saying, "My dad just passed cry cry, poor baby" Before I realized it, she had my Spanish book flying in her face, and I called her an "ugly witch." Yeah, yeah, my insult level isn't great in Spanish, but it got the job done!
100. On My Father’s Grave
My worst teacher asked me, “Didn’t your father ever teach you how to act?” I had to inform him that my father had died four years earlier. Two weeks later, my step-dad comes to pick me up for an appointment saying he’s here to pick up his child. When the teacher was over the phone with the office, he asked, “You mean the deceased father is here for pick up?”
All through high school, that teacher just kept doubling down and never showed remorse for what he had said. He would chase me into other classrooms because I had a hat on and I needed to take it off. This gave me motivation to become the compassionate, empathetic, and awesome teacher that I am today. My kids always get the benefit of the doubt and I respect them.
