Unruly students can drive a teacher insane, and there's only so much discipline they can dole out before they lose their cool in front of the rest of the class. Younger students can suffer sitting in the corner for a time-out for being disruptive and write standards like, "I will not talk during class," one hundred times before the day's through.
But sometimes, more serious disciplines can really drive a lesson home, where parents look down on their kids with shame.
To find out what bad behaviors caused dismissal from school, Redditor FilmingCrewCrew asked:
"What’s the craziest reason someone got suspended from school?"
All that unchanneled young energy is bound to cause some trouble.
Unwarranted Photo Shoot
"I got suspended from public school because one of my classmates took a photo of me in the change room in my bra and ran out and showed a bunch of boys."
"We both got suspended even though I was 'the victim' it was really messed up. Keep in mind this was like 2002 lol"
– kitkatsmeows
The Accusation
"I got suspended because someone else wrote 'xxxxx is gay' on a wall in a classroom."
"They thought I wrote it and was declaring to everyone I was gay. This was in the early 90s. Wasn't even in my handwriting. I'm also not gay."
"Oh also, in about 96 we had a new computer lab in my school. I was looking up the anarchist cookbook and got pulled into the principal for looking at porn. The 3 girls sat next to me were the ones looking at porn, I just wanted to learn how to blow sh*t up. Valid, but at least get the accusation right."
– ChallengeFull3538
Verbal Reaction
"I got an in-school suspension in 2010 for saying 'f'k you' to a guy that snapped my bra strap and wouldn't let me down the row to leave the classroom. My teacher came into the room just as the words left my mouth. The guy that did it admitted he did it and got one day of detention."
– prailock
Nobody Wins
"Boy #1 pantsed boy #2 in gym class, so what did the school staff do? Suspended BOTH of them."
– salty_lickherish
"Probably a 'zero tolerance' in policy for 'fighting.' When I was in 10th grade, there was a 19-year-old still in 10th grade as well, and he was bullying me and punched me, and we both got sent to the principal's office."
"We were told we're both going to be suspended for fighting, but then later, privately, the principal told me he wasn't going to suspend me. So I guess he realized I wasn't a willing participant."
– thefragileapparatus
A Trim Too Far
"He shaved his head to a #2 the day before the last day of school and wasn't allowed back until he had counselling."
"We didn't get it either; the headmaster just seemed to think it denoted he was going to turn into an anarchist or riot or something that he needed counseling for?"
"He did attend counseling, and they asked him if he was angry. Did he want to attack people?"
"So he laughed the whole way through and called them delusional until his mum yelled at him for getting his suspension extended and he ended up saying it was hot and he was going to work on motorbikes and oil is hard to get out of hair and it was hot."
– Bobcat-Narwhal-837
Sometimes, the punishment comes before the trial.
Bad Promo
"I got sent home from school in 4th grade for wearing a DARE shirt when the DARE cops came to our school. I borrowed it from my teenage brother. Under the D.A.R.E., it said 'Drugs Are Really Exciting.'"
– avalonhan
Mistaken Identity
"This is one of the more f'ked up ones."
"A kid was arrested for a crime he did not commit. The school suspended him and he lost his Bright Future scholarship over it. He was mistaken for another person and the arrest was in err."
"The school didn't relent on this and he wasn't able to go to college because he lost his scholarship. He came from a sh**ty home environment and it was his only way out."
"I heard he wasn't doing too well."
– WorstYugiohPlayer
Jealous Mom
"A mom at my high school tried to get a student suspended during his senior year when he had been accepted to West Point. She was pissed her son had gotten suspended and wanted to spread the blame around for stealing."
"Our friend saw it happen and didn’t want to be involved, so he left. Unreal what some people will do to ruin the lives of those around them."
– AsthmaticClone
Cruel Punishment
"There was a story that got national attention years ago. It was back in the early 2000s, when schools started implementing 'zero tolerance' policies. An Eagle Scout did an axe safety demonstration at a Cub Scout meeting. The axe broke during the demonstration, and the eagle scout put it in his truck to be repaired later."
"The next day at school, he told a friend what happened, and some other kids that thought he was too much of a goodie-two-shoes turned him in for having a weapon. The school's security searched his truck and found the damaged axe."
"He was suspended for the rest of the school year, didn't graduate on time, and lost all his scholarships."
– Deitaphobia
Some faculty members are quick to jump to conclusions…or they're on a power trip.
Aspiring Chemist
"I got suspended in grade 6 for having a ziplock bag full of sugar. I used to mix Gatorade powder and sugar in a water bottle."
"They claimed I was selling drugs, claimed 3 students 'tried it' and 'took it back to their parents.' "
"In grade 6."
– SquallZ34
Walking Malware
"Computer lab."
"I copied folders and ctrl a then c then v repeatedly in a shared drive (all empty)"
"Got suspended for 'hacking' and asked to 'remove the virus.' ”
– Bleglord
"So my dad was a network administrator for a bunch of area schools. He worked for a para-school organization called BOCES, and they had three servers for, maybe ~22 schools."
"So they allotted each user a certain amount of storage, and idk all the ins and outs of it, but it wasn’t just straight storage, there were things that, even if they didn’t take up the room, would break the system until they got it ironed out."
"All that to say, this was one of the things that students would do which would cause a fault, and bring down a server. The limit for folders and subfolders was something like 20 layers, and they couldn’t redo the system then, but he changed the limit to 150 layers, and it didn’t happen again."
– Famous-Example-8332
Unforgivable Reason
"A student in my school was suspended because she was a lesbian. The principal in the suspension letter wrote that she is not to be sent back to school till she 'turns straight'."
– letusalljustbreathe
Precocious
"Our student body president was sent to the continuation school for 'problem' kids, because she said in class that a dress code rule was 'asinine.' I suspected they hit her harder because she was a slightly overweight girl, not a male jock."
– Snarky_McSnarkleton
Borderline Expletives
"I was once put in ISS for saying 'that sucks'. Was pretty crazy to me. It’s not even a 'bad' word. When they brought me into the office they asked if I said 's—-s' and all I could think of was 'sh'ts' and I knew I hadn’t said that."
"So I forced them to tell me the word. Then said yeah I said that. What’s the problem? I was young and it went a long way to my losing respect for authority. The teacher that reported me didn’t even say anything to me. It was a total surprise when I was called into the office."
– Shigglyboo
What The ___?
"I got dragged to the principal's office in 1992 for saying "hell" in the hallway between classes, and I mean physically dragged. A coach grabbed me and hauled me in. They tried to give me 3 days detention."
"I said I'm not going to detention for saying hell. They told me if I didn't go to detention, they would suspend me. I told my parents about it, and while they agreed with me that it was ridiculous, they said you should just go to detention and be done with it."
"When I didn't go to detention the next day, I got called back to the principal's office. He said I was going to be suspended. So I said 'you're really going to suspend me for saying hell?' and they dropped it and told me to go back to class."
– thefragileapparatus
I'm not a teacher, but I guess that being a public school faculty member must be like playing whack-a-mole.
There are miscreants, truants, and rabble-rousers. It must be difficult to determine which offense, depending on the severity and frequency of trouble-making incidents at school, warrant severe punishment.
You can't suspend them all, can you?
