Teachers are supposed to be kind individuals, instructing a class of (most of the time) open-minded students how to learn and grow and critically think. In an ideal world this would be the case for all educators, but as any person who's been through the education system can tell you, a good teacher is not always a guarantee.
Reddit user, u/throwaaawayx0, wanted to hear about the worst of your class life when they asked:
[Serious] What really messed up thing did a teacher do to you?
Letting Preconceptions Get In The Way
I'll go first, its a story which I only remembered some years ago.
I come from an immigrant family (Iraqi).
I was always an extremely shy and introverted kid, never talking much.
So one day the teacher starts talking about antisemitsm and he says how I am Iraqi which means I HATE Jews and I would love it if they all just died, some people looked at me, for example a buddy who sat next to me asking me if thats true.
I said that thats not true and that I respect everbody regardless of religion, sex, sexual orientation or whatever and I was really confused, it was not a joke because he didn't laugh and even if it were a joke its not a funny joke and at that age many people will get brainwashed since they believe everything a teacher says.
In the end nobody except the people in class knew about what happened but I thats now probably 7 years ago and if I had said something to the principal (which I wish I did) the teacher would've probably gotten suspended.
Sad that people like that are teachers.
Keep Your Hands To Yourself
In high school, we were having some sort of drill/lockdown. Don't remember what the situation was exactly. Some students were laughing and talking during the it and the (substitute) teacher was getting clearly frustrated. She told them to quiet down repeatedly, which being high schoolers they didn't liste, until she was yelling at them to be quiet. I responded to her saying, "you're being louder than they are." Not trying to be rude, but for real she was.
She didn't like that, so she smacked me. After the drill, she called in a counselor, about the students. She probably shouldn't have done that, because it was just brought up how she was being loud and then continued to hit a student. Never saw her again.
Terrible
When I was in seventh grade, I was having issues with anxiety and depression, and I went to my guidance counselor. I was visibly crying and she told me to stop blubbering like a 5 year old.
When Your Dad Steps In To Have Your Back
Seventh grade. I was a shy, awkward teenage girl who didn't wear makeup, do her hair, and was going through a gangly growth spurt. I came in one day wearing shorts, in California mind you so it's hot six months of the year. My science teacher Mrs. Sylvia, a frumpy old bag of a woman who never smiled, made me stand up and humiliated me in front of the class for wearing "short shorts", which they were not, and claimed 'my ass was hanging out of them.' They just hung on me awkwardly because my parents hadn't bought me new clothes yet because we couldn't afford any at the time.
I was mortified to the point of being in tears and told my dad. Well, she messed with the bull there. He called a meeting with the principal and her without me there and tore her a new one. Said how dare she humiliate students like that, especially the way she dressed, which was in spandex workout shorts every day. The principal tried to calm him down saying, "Er, ah, let's not talk about personal appearances!" My dad said, "To hell we're not! She talked about my daughter's appearance so it's all fair game!" He called her an old burnout and told the principal his school was full of them, which was true. He told me that day that as a parent, you have to have your child's back, because no one else will, especially not teachers or administration. It's a lesson I have taken to heart.
A Little Sensitive
My music teacher for an extra curricular(so not even my actual band teacher) once yelled at me for like 5 minutes after I said "Ow" softly while he was talking. I had accidentally hit my back on the wall. He went so far as to insinuate that I did it for the attention! It was so unfair and humiliating, i started crying. After that day, I never went back. Jokes on him though. I saw him about 3 years later, in a university music hallway that I was attending at the time. He waved, I didn't.
Singling Out A Specific Type Of Student
I was in first grade, with another girl and I being the only kids of color in either of the first grade classes. One of the other kids got lice and my teacher (horrible woman) decided to ONLY bring out me and this other girl to the hallway and aggressively check our heads...as if to suggest we were dirty and the cause of the lice. I went home and innocently told my mom, because me being 6 I hadn't realized what happened.
My mom lost it.
She threatened to sue the school district and demanded the teacher have disciplinary action. Nothing ever happened to the teacher unfortunately, my mom only got a hefty apology from the principal and my teacher just never bothered me again. To this day, my mom still gets pissed talking about it and hates that teacher.
...wow...
I went to school without wearing a bra. I was 13 and completely flat-chested, but I guess the barest hint of nipple through my shirt enraged my teacher.
She made me stand up in class and asked me if I thought it was appropriate to come to school dressed like I was while pointing at my chest, then asked if I was "showing off" before ordering me to the principal. Nasty, bitter old woman.
Unequal Grading System
My english teacher in 8th grade hated me. So when she saw I had got full marks in a test, she grabbed my test sheet and scanned it with full attention to find any minor mistake. She found a spelling error and deducted a mark. A friend of mine had a spelling error in the same test but he had only half a mark deducted for the same.
Adding Awful Fuel On The Terrible Fire
I had a math teacher in 8th grade pick on me a lot as well as (what felt like) single me out due to failing the class. I am adhd and depressed, I was struggling after the death of my mother 2 years prior and the subsequent abusive stepmother I gained shortly after.
He once asked me if I was planning on marrying a rich husband instead of having a career because I would need to if I kept up my bad grades and lack of attention during class. On occasion he would also humiliate me by reading or describing the doodles and jokes/stories I would write during class instead of paying attention. He really made me feel worthless.
A Serious Lack Of Ego
My teacher told me to go to the principal's office because I didn't want to take off my jacket.
Same teacher, he just wrote to my mom because I was cleaning my desk before the start of his class. In his words, I was being disrespectful because I wasn't looking at him when he greet us. After that he said that if I don't hurry up [cleaning my desk] he will call the principal.
Deadly Grass
4th grade my teacher would always open the windows when they had the grass cut. Now there's me a inferior gene'd child with bad allergies and asthma. I would always ask her to close the window because I was having trouble breathing and she never would. At a certain point I just stopped asking for her to close the windows. (Context this school had recess before lunch, why idk. Hindsight it's pretty stupid but w.e.)
So one day, like always the windows were open and they cut the grass later in the day. This meant, come recess they were still cutting the grass. Fast forward an hour to lil me on a stretcher, on oxygen after getting a breathing treatment being put into an ambulance due to an acute asthma attack. This Reddit, is how I ended up getting home schooled.
Excessive, Much?
When I was in third grade, if you didn't have your homework done the teacher would throw you a pity party.
She would make you stand up and then have the entire class chant "1, 2, 3, awwwwww"
Then she would put your name, and the assignment, in what she called the F-Tablet. She claimed that if you had a single assignment in the F-Tablet at the end of the year she would fail you.
You would also lose recess privileges.
Trying To Have Your Back
A little more light hearted than the other stories.
In third grade I was making a presentation in front of class. In the far back of the class I saw the substitute teacher pointing at her crotch and mouthing something under her breath. I was really confused.
At the end of the presentation I just HAD to know what the heck she was doing.
"Mrs. Smith, what's the matter?"
"YOUR ZIPPER IS UNZIPPED!"
I looked down, my underwear was clearly showing, everyone started to point and laugh.
Nearly 20 years later and I still triple check to make sure that I zipped my pants.
Endangering Students For Fun
When I was in sixth grade, we walked across the street for ice cream as a class. I lost my shoe in the middle of a busy street and the cars were already coming both ways, but my teacher made me run out and get it.
Same teacher would fail me on assignments for no reason. I don't know what I ever did for my existence to piss her off
Let Them Use The Bathroom!
Whacked me with a yard stick after I asked for the nth time to please use the bathroom. Then screamed at me when I pissed myself. Mrs. Peacock was my personal Snape in first grade.
A Hateful Vendetta
My 5th grade teacher would intentionally fail everything I did because my mom pissed her off.
Also, I flunked a math course the year I was supposed to graduate and I had to go to another town for summer school. The summer school gives me all of these packets that I'm supposed to complete. But they come back wrong. So my sister lets me use a computer program (like a calculator that teaches you how to actually do the work) to complete the work. Still wrong. I have a neighbor help me. Still wrong. I have a really old friend who was going to college for engineering help me. Still wrong. As it turns out, someone at this school did all of the answers BY HAND, and got them all wrong and they just assumed it was right this whole time. So they just passed me, which was the good part. The months of hard work, frustration and stress was sh-tty though.
Seriously. Messed. Up.
I had a restraining order against a family member, and the school knew and alerted all my teachers before events and open house. My art teacher decided she knew better than the court, and not only let him into a school event, but showed said family member all of my artwork and portfolio and divulged personal information about me. She somehow didn't get fired!
Probably Shouldn't Be Allowed Around Kids
Made fun of a disability in front of the whole class multiple times.
I have a prosthetic right leg. He would make fun of it all the time, impersonate me, ask me to "walk better", and then some. Even changed lyrics in a song the class was singing to joke about it one time. 4 years of that.
In addition, he'd intentionally try to make things awkward with people dating, etc... I had dated a girl briefly in the class and for the next 2 years he would keep making jokes and trying to make everything more awkward than it needed to be, and did it to tons of others as well.