Not everyone's maturity level belied their age back in school.
But as adults looking back on the wild activities of our rambunctious classmates in retrospect, what may have been considered funny back then may not have been as hilarious as we once thought.
Curious to explore this notion, Redditor Silent-Zebra asked:
"What's something that a friend/classmate did in high school that was seen as funny at the time, but you now realise was actually not ok?"
Teachers became the victims.
Car On Fire
"Few messed up kids in my primary school lit a teachers car on fire, just because she gave one of them failing grade on midterm. It wasn't one of the mean teachers, she was mostly nice to students."
"Cops got involved but don't think they got punished accordingly, i know one of them was in and out of juvie already, and were all around 13- 14yr old, one was even in nazi sh*t. I know later on those kids got all tangled in dealing and robberies, probably all went to jail at some point."
– spooch001
Into The Cupboard She Goes
"Our religion teacher went into the cupboard for supplies, she was quite strict and not liked but now I’m an adult I realise it doesn’t excuse what happened next. The class clown snuck up and locked her in the cupboard."
"We all thought it was hilarious at the time and we all left the class. She was in there for the rest of the class until another teacher found her in there crying an hour later. She took 2 weeks off after that."
– usernamegenerator98
The Awful Rumor
"I had a Spanish teacher, Ms. G."
"EDIT: This was in Arizona. I found her full name in a yearbook because I had her sign mine in 2008. I’m not sure I should put her name out there, but I’m guessing she’s retired now. She doesn’t have a Facebook either. 😔"
"Students would lock her out of her classroom, unplug her computer, and they spread an awful rumor that she was having sex with another woman teacher in front of a classroom."
"She got locked out because a student came back from the restroom and said her car was hit in the parking lot. She ran out and then a kid locked her out. A few kids unlocked the door for her, but that was really sad."
"This teacher was so kind hearted, soft, and an excellent Spanish teacher. It was really sad what students put the teachers through. 😢"
– cakelover33
Bullying The Teacher
"In our school there was a teacher who had a mole, so of course the kids decided her nickname would now be 'mole.' She must have felt really hurt, as she eventually had the mole removed, leaving a little dent where it used to be. Did everyone then stop calling her names? Nope. They started calling her 'hole' instead."
– bemmu
People didn't know what to believe.
The Kidnapping
"My friend faked her own kidnapping. i was all fun and games until the police started chasing her 'kidnappers' van."
– AvocaDotty
These Low Effort Jobs Have Surprisingly High Salaries | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Have you ever worked one of those jobs that paid you to kinda sit there? If you have, you know the joy that comes with watching the entirety of Breaking Bad ...Showing The Goods
"Living in the Netherlands. Classmate was showing on his phone a whole online shop he claimed to have with all kinds of drugs and weapons. We thought it was funny because we didn't take it too serious. He dropped out of school early and turned out to be a big drug dealer. Well we could have known I guess."
– Environmental-Cold24
Kids can be so cruel.
Paralyzing A Kid
"Had a kid in my year who'd had a surgery that left a nerve bundle in his neck exposed. If pressed it would paralyse him. From memory it was for spina bifida and for some ungodly reason he told everyone."
"Certain boys took great pleasure in going down stairs behind him and pressing it which completely paralysed him for a few seconds and he'd fall like a brick. Usually onto whoever was in front of him."
"So dangerous. There were a fair few teeth knocked out because of this, his and other people's."
"It happened so much that in his 3rd year the school installed an elevator and you had to have a special key to use it. He got the only permanent issue key at that time."
"Kids are a**holes."
– notalotasleep
The Towel
"A kid took another kids towel after gym class shower. He used the other kids towel to dry his ass. Put a sh*t stain on the towel 3 foot long. Lots of nervous laughter because we were glad it wasn’t our towel. Sick bastard."
– Realitycheck-4u
Bye Bye Bike
"this was in elementary: my dad bought a brand new bike for me and i rode it to the park and these older kids came up to me and asked if one of them could take it for a test drive."
"i said ok and about 10 seconds in, i see the guy riding my bike being pushed off and my bike being stolen right in front of me. the older kids 'helped' me look for my stolen bike but growing up I realized that they plotted this whole thing and yeah i basically gave my brand new bike away."
– SingaporeanSlaw
It's difficult to imagine that some of these incidents were considered remotely humorous when certain people were targeted for their jokes.
What's not shocking however, are that the ones who came up with the most violent schemes wound up having run-ins with the law later in life.
Bullying in any form, whether online or in person, is not acceptable.
If you or someone you know has been a victim of bullying, there are resources online that Stop Bullying that are helpful.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
@nyknicks/X
@RaqiThunda/X
@SLCLunk/X
@thegodshow.com/Bluesky
