This article is based on the AskReddit question “What’s your most memorable high school moment/story?”
[Source can be found at the end of the article]
1. Bunsen burner lesson
My biology teacher was possibly the greatest person ever. Best moment: We were learning about Bunsen burners when someone came in with a hall pass for a girl (who apparently was requested at the office or something). They handed it to my teacher who, before handing it over to her, casually stuck the corner in the Bunsen burner.
He offered it to her and they sat there for about 10 seconds with him giving her a nice smile and holding it out, her completely dumbfounded, and the hall pass being ON FIRE.
Eventually he shook it out and gave what was left of it too her. Loved that guy.
jumpbreak5
2. The bathroom door prank
We were hanging out beside the bathrooms when a friend went inside to a toilet. We decided to block the door and see what he does when he tries to come out. He finished his business, unlocked the door and tried to come out but as we were blocking the door he couldnt come out. He didnt know that it was someone blocking the door outside so he thought the door was still locked so he tried to unlock it (it was unlocked the whole time so now its locked again). We then went away from the door but then he starts to have a panic attack as he is thinking he is stuck inside the toilet. He starts kicking the door and running against it. We are all freaking out thinking WHAT is happening? About 10 seconds later he kicks the door open and is sweating and all out of breath. Everybody is looking at him thinking what was that? We had to eventually repay the door.
ramzie
3. Senior prank!
My junior year of high school, some of the seniors decided to pull a prank the night before our Homecoming football game.
When we came into school the next morning, there was a tree planted on our football field. In the middle of the fifty yard line. And did I say planted? I meant cemented in.
School officials got it out pretty quickly (no idea how), but it was still brilliant.
Caitlionator
4. Playing golf in the school tunnels
Found that all the foundations of the school was one long tunnel system. So naturally we brought down golf clubs and had a few rounds of underground golf. Then one day a teacher followed us. He was a big man and he chased us around the tunnels cursing at us. Still brings tears to the eyes thinking what people must have heard coming from the floor beneath them with the guy cursing at the top of his lungs.
Caca_Milis
5. Prom fundraiser
In my English class, I was saying how much I didn’t want to go to prom because it was lame (yeah I probably sounded so cool). My English teacher was upset and wanted me to go and I said I wouldn’t go unless you paid for my ticket (jokingly). Of course this started a school wide fundraiser to buy tickets for me and my (male) friend to go to prom. We went and fulfilled our $100 duty to the people who gave us money.
leblanck
6. Whoa, drama!
Two students got into a fight and the student who had started it by insulting the other students girlfriend was suspended. The following day he returned even though he was suspended and he brought a number of older male relatives and his mother, all of whom were armed with brass knuckles and chains. Apparently they were after the guy and his girlfriend but if I remember correctly, they beat up the wrong people and there was a big brawl in the school that culminated in the suspended students mother punching our principal in the face. The perpetrators left the school before the police arrived but were caught making their escape at a nearby bus shelter.
rauce
7. Spandex garments
The last day of my junior year in high school, my best friend and I decided to show up to our final… finals… wearing nothing but spandex undergarments. We both had the same final together at the end of the day, sitting next to each other in class, spreading our legs out towards the aisles with gigantic crap eating grins on our faces. (I was doing it mostly in my hopeless attempts to nail my English teacher.)
So we’re standing next to my locker during clean-outs, right before final bell is to ring, when our principal walks up behind us and yells What do you call this?”
I look at him, he looks at me, we both spin around on the double, thrust out our groins, and flip our principal the best imitation of an armed services salute we can manage while yelling, “SIR, MR. SMITH, SIR!”
Nearly 100 people turn on heel and stare at the commotion in the hallway as we’re saluting our principal wearing skin tight spandex, bulging crotches and all. He says real quietly, “Never again.” and walks off as the bell rings. Needless to say, Spandex Fridays were banned from that moment on.
Anonymous
8. Rum cake
In World Geography class we were having student projects where each student was assigned an area of the world and had to do a presentation on it. Cooking native food for the class was an option. Somebody made rum cake for theirs and didn’t cook out the rum properly. Soon, the whole class had a slight buzz, and became giggly and talkative. We kept this all a collective secret.
lizardclit
9. Barefoot and in love with the English teacher
My shoes finally fell apart after 4+ years of use. I didnt want to ask my poor parents for things, so I went to school without shoes. Made it through 4 periods before getting sent to the dean, got suspended. Dean called me “the barefoot contessa” for the rest of the year.
There was also the time when I stood up in front of 40 classmates on a retreat and told my 23 year old English teacher that I was in love with her and there was nothing I could do about it. She high fived me as I walked to sit back down. The only time I ever had any physical contact with her.
Anonymous
10. Messing around with school computers
Back in junior year, when I began to take an interest in computers, I began testing the limits of the computer protections in the library. They had blocked the command prompt, however they left the run prompt open for exploitation. So I told a friend of mine next to me to type “net send * I am god, hear me roar” and press enter. He does and his screen blinks for a second, followed by nothing. Five minutes later, the IT department security guy interrupts the class and pulls my friend outside. Two more minutes and I’m taken outside too and informed that my actions had resulted in the message “I am god, hear me roar” flashing on the screens of 11,000 computers across the entire Northern VA school network.
Best part is my Dad refused to punish me and instead bragged about it at work the next day.
gordonta
11. The tale of Rasta Dave
My high school had early dismissal for kids who went to the vocational school. This happened halfway through the day, right around lunch time. Our last day of our senior year, the bell dismissed us to lunch, third period or to leave and people made their way to the cafeteria. Just as everyone was sitting down to lunch, one of the guys in my class, let’s call him Rasta Dave, jumps up onto one of the long lunch tables full of sophomores and does this loud war cry. He then proceeds to run down the table kicking and stomping peoples lunches and screaming Screw this place! Im out of here!”. Nearly everyone who was not covered in their food was laughing. No staff saw it and he avoided any punishment.
fightinscot
12. The ketchup freedom fighter
This is probably a “you had to be there” type story but here it goes…
When I was a freshman one of the seniors in my lunch period tried to get a few extra packets of ketchup and was told they’re only allowed to give out 2 or something. He made a huge scene… basically the whole cafeteria knew of this mans ketchup troubles.
So the next day he sits down with his tray, reaches into his backpack, and pulls out this giant industrial sized bottle of ketchup. As he unloads it on his tray he screams out at the top of his lungs “I HAVE KETCHUP, WHO NEEDS KETCHUP?!”
The entire cafeteria is cheering him on as he starts going around to every ones lunch squirting ketchup on it like he’s some kind of freedom fighter rebelling against the lunch lady’s oppressive reign.
helicoid
13. The mysterious poop
This happened in my final year of high school. I was in class one morning, and someone started complaining that the room smelled like poop. Some guys tried to find the source of the smell but they weren’t having much luck. Eventually, they opened up a drawer of a small filing cabinet and discovered that someone had left a little surprise. People went ballistic and started taking pictures of said turd, and our teacher went red in the face from laughing so hard. The caretaker said that in all his years working, he had never had to deal with poo outside the bathroom.
carebanana
14. Spongebob boxers and water balloons
During the final day picnic at my freshman year band camp, we had a water balloon fight. I decided that would be an opportune time to strip down to my Spongebob boxers and charge the football field through the horde of fighting band geeks.
Everyone stopped for a moment while I ran past, and then the whole thing stopped and turned into “Let’s get the underwear kid!” It was like “The Running Man” with water balloons. Had to jump the fence to escape.
dmcnelly
15. Taking over another students job
As the culminating project for economics the class had to run a week long business on campus (sell donuts or something similar). The class voted for the various company officers, CEO came down to a runoff between me and a popular kid. We were asked to give a short speech before the final vote. I went first and talked about working hard, getting a good grade, real motivational stuff. He went after me and promised to bring cookies if he won. He won. Afterwards as a way to apologize he appointed me to be in charge of issuing the company stock. The idea was that every student in class bought a dollar worth of stock so we were all invested in the project, and so we had some money to buy whatever we were going to resell. Instead of issuing 30 pieces of stock so everyone in class could buy one I issued 60, bought half immediately, and performed a hostile takeover. I moved for a new vote for CEO, and about three people voted for me. When the teacher told the class that I was the now in charge of the company the class erupted. I made a kid cry, and not the one whose job I took.
CaptJoyceJun
16. The best chemistry teacher ever!
My chemistry teacher was an absolute hero. A few times we did cool things, burning smiley faces into the desks and making setting fire to sugar bombs and jelly babies and stuff.
My favourite was when she did Halloween chemistry and we, in our table groups, had to make sparklers using salts with different transition metals so they were different colours. She then went in next door to a younger class and in a serious voice was all, I must have these two students in my classroom now.’
They thought they were getting in trouble, they were actually there to judge who made the prettiest sparkler display. As we were all the real winners, we all got a chocolate bar to say well done.
I’m now, contrary to previous plans, studying chemistry at uni. that lady literally changed my whole life.
Melivora
17. The best school project
Every Monday during my senior year we could go off campus for “senior projects.” My group was by far the most trusted and hard working members of our class, so no one cared when we would stay out until like 1pm. We accomplished nothing, got plastered at my house every week, and by the end of the year, our project was way better than every other groups. We built a go-kart out of scrap metal and parts, and had some guy assist us with aesthetics. It eventually came out looking like a rhino, which was also pretty awesome. I miss those days.
TAYLQR
18. The secret loft
My school had a secret loft above the auditorium that you accessed through the catwalks. You’d take the ladder up to the place where you accessed the stage lights, which was in the ceiling above the seats, and then walked across the structural beams holding up the ceiling to a hole in a cinderblock wall which you climbed through to a homemade ladder room that led to a room that was just a plywood floor somehow wedged into a gap in the walls between the exterior of the building and the wall of the stage. There was a chair, a bed, electricity, empty liquor bottles, etc.
I’m so disappointed that I only found out about it with about a month left in senior year.
nyuncat
19. The boys bathroom rave
My Senior year a few friends of mine brought some speakers and a strobe light, and in between classes invited everyone they saw to a rave in the boys bathroom. It was incredible, we packed at least 50 people in there, turned all the lights out, turned on the strobe light, and passed out glow sticks and just raved for about 5 minutes before the administration came to break it up. Most of the teachers thought it was hilarious, and both the Principle and the Vice Principle’s daughters (being friends with them had some nice perks) had been a part of it, so we all got away clean.
Artreynne
20. Leaving school for lunch
By the time I got to high school, we were not allowed to leave the campus to get lunch. We were forced to pack a lunch or eat their crappy food so we decided to sneak out one day.
My two friend and I were in 5th period Algebra 2 class with an awesome teacher. We told her how we were going to leave the school for lunch. She laughed and told us what she wanted from Quiznos. As were sneaking out through the gym, the female gym teacher who I hated, and she hated me, saw us leaving.
She started shouting at us to stop and we asked her what she wanted for lunch. This pissed her off more. She actually chased our car as we were drove off. Surprisingly, we never got in trouble for it.
sryguys
21. A wonderful moment to remember
I was a super nerdy guy in high school and had never been to a dance in whole life. A girl that I had talked to a lot and thought of as a friend (again, I was nerdy, she wasn’t on my radar and I didn’t even have a radar) asked me to stay after a class and I honestly had no clue as to why. After all the other kids had left. She was super quiet and more nervous than I had ever seen her in my life.
She could barely say it but she asked me out to my Jr. prom. I remember there were a thousand thoughts in my head. “I had never been to a dance before. I didn’t have money for tickets. I don’t even know if my dad will pay for a tux.” Regardless, I stood there dumbfounded for a few minutes before I realized she was nervously waiting for a response. My instant reaction was to say something, anything, just so she would have an answer. And with so many thoughts in my head I just said the first thing that popped in. So I practically yelled into her face: “I CAN’T DANCE!”
There was an awkward silence for a bit before she nervously said that it was ok and that a lot of people are bad at dancing but it would be fun. Long story short I said yes and we had a wonderful time that night. We dated for a while afterwards but went our separate ways our Sr. year. When I came back from college I ran into her again and I have been wonderfully dating my high school sweetheart for over two years.
Evil_Monkeys
22. Dance choreography mishap
There was an assembly one day at my school that the entire student body attended. It was in the auditorium of my high school which had an elevated stage and stadium seating. On the floor at the foot at the stage was a live band that played the music for the choir to sing along to.
One of the songs that they sang had 5 of the boys come out and do a reenactment of the Backstreet Boys video for As Long As You Love Me, which you will remember, had the famous chair dancing choreography.
So the band is playing on the floor, and the choir is singing at the back of the stage, and these 5 guys are dancing with their folding chairs at the edge of the stage above the band. The final awesome move in the choreography is flipping the chair over your shoulder so it comes down in front of you facing backwards and you sit down with your arms crossed on the back of the chair like AC Slater from Saved by the Bell.
Well 4/5 of the guys did this perfectly, but the 5th guy flipped the chair over his shoulder and went to sit on the chair backwards and didn’t realize that one of the legs was hanging off the edge of the stage. When he say down he fell straight off the stage and took out about 3/4 of the drumset that was under him. The most amazing part: the drummer didnt miss a beat. Kept playing even after this guy had just crashed through his whole set.
The entire auditorium of my high school erupted. People stood up and pointed and laughed, kids were rolling around on the floors cracking up. People were taking pictures.
DavidisGoliath
23. The punch compliment
Was having lunch. Buds and I decided to go outside. On the way out, I bump into this guy.
“Watch it!”
I, thinking ‘There’s no way I’ll remember this kid or he’ll remember me.‘ blurt out, “No, you watch it!” Entirely joking. We keep going our separate ways, or so I thought.
Turns out, the doors were locked, so we had to double back to the lunchroom.
And suddenly, there he is. He has me by the collar of my shirt against a locker, “What’d you say?”
“What?” He didn’t even care. He just punched me. Right in the face.
I’m not a fighting kind of guy. I was a good student. Never thought I’d get into a fight. But that rush I got… I got a right jab into his gut, then two left hooks and a right into his face. He went down.
Being an upstanding citizen or whatever, I then go to take responsibility for my actions. I run down the hall, about 50 yards to the security office to confess and call a nurse.
I get thrown into in school detention for about half an hour, before I get called into the principles office. “This is you, right?” It was ALL on tape. First time in my life, I loved CCTV. I told him what I had done to “anger” him, and why I defended myself. He called up my dad, with me in the room. “Your son has a great left hook… You should see the other guy.”
The other guy got a suspension, and his second recommendation for expulsion.
I got a 30 minute detention and a complement on punching someone.
TCoop
24. Fun teachers!
So I’m in Physics and while the teacher is writing on the board a small red light (obviously a laser pointer) flashes around the board. He turns around (he’s pretty chill so he’s not really annoyed, just amused) and asks who has the laser pointer because he just wants to play with it too. No one responds, so he keeps writing. After this happens two or three times, he looks outside and spots the AP Chemistry teacher with a laser pointer standing outside his window. Our Physics teacher promptly shouts “You rascal!” and takes out an automatic fully loaded nerf gun from under his desk and chases after the AP Chem teacher.
easy2rememberhuh
25. Friendship goals
My best friend in high school lived in Japan most of his life, moving to America around fifth grade. He was one of the smartest people I’ve ever known. As we approached graduation he found out that he would not be receiving a degree with honors despite his very high GPA. The policy with the school was that the only way a student could receive the honors diploma is if they had a high enough GPA, took 3 or more years of a foreign language, and some other things. The only thing my friend didn’t have was the 3 years of a foreign language through the school. He told the principal (in Japanese) “Why can’t I get my honors degree, I can clearly speak another language just fine.”
Graduation day came and we were waiting to go up and get our diplomas. The way it worked at our school was that you would get two gold ropes to wear on your robe if you got honors. I was wearing my ropes as the principal read off names. In a hurry I took off one of my ropes and gave it to my friend. His face filled with pride and we were called up. He walked across the stage with one gold rope and took his diploma, taking a very long time to shake the principal’s hand. He told me later that he thanked the principal for recognizing his academic achievements, in Japanese of course.
A few weeks later he was about to leave to return to Japan go to college in Hokkaido. I was there at the airport to see him off. His parents told the family there to gather together for one more picture. I offered to take the picture, but his father looked at me questioningly. “How can you be in the family picture if you are taking it?” He asked.
Somewhere in Troy, Ohio there’s a portrait of a Japanese family with one American kid happier than he’s ever been.
RoRoRoYourBot
26. Bad timing
It was my sophomore year at my school where everyone knows everyone, about 60 people per class. At the beginning of second period, nature called and I got permission to use the restroom. I’m a bit of a leisurely pooper, so I took my time in there, and after ten minutes or so, finished up and walked out.
Upon leaving the restroom, I saw the halls empty except for one cop, who brusquely commanded I come over to him. My mind was racing as to what I had done wrong, but I could think of nothing. He asked if I had my phone on me, and I did, and began to reach for it. He sharply snapped, “Stop,” and took it out of my pocket for me. He then handcuffed me and walked me outside.
Upon exiting the building, I saw the entire school on the far side of the football practice fields, all staring at me as I exited handcuffed. More cops started looking through my phone, and had me stand with my nose inches away from the wall of the building. At one point, about 50 sixth graders walk by from the other side of the building, and as they stare at me, I politely ask them how they’re doing. At this point, I figure I’ve done nothing wrong and it’s just a big misunderstanding.
After a few more minutes of standing like that, and some spent sitting on the ground, still handcuffed, they finally gave my phone back and told me I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I found out later that there was a bomb threat made and the caller just claimed to be at one of the schools in the area in the “bathroom near the office,” which I was pooping in. When I finally got to the rest of the school to tell them this, they all had thought I had just snapped or something, since I was something of an upstanding guy, more or less.
Blor-Utar
27. No hoodies in school
My high school had a rule against hoodies. People always fought and questioned it, and the reason was always changing, from the hood concealing identities to the front pocket being able to hide things. During Algebra my teacher (good at math, interesting lady, horrible at teaching and controlling a class) tells this one popular joker kind of guy to take off his hoodie. He asks why and is told that the pocket could hide things. He says his pants have pockets too, should he take them off? She tells him to do whatever he wants.
So he stands up and takes off his pants. She doesn’t know what to do, so just stops talking for a bit then tries to continue class. After about a minute standing there pants-less he takes off his hoodie, puts it over his legs, puts his pants on his arms, and stays like this until the end of class.
Anonymous
28. The mysterious guy
I had been watching a boy in the halls for two years. Never said a word to him, had no classes with him and no friends in common. On the last day of school of his senior year (he was a year older than me), he walked up to me, kissed me very gently on the mouth, and said “I’ve been wanting to do that for a year and a half.” Then he walked away. I never saw him again. I’m kind of glad – it preserves the mystery.
mamacrocker
29. Elected to lead the student government in the quirkiest way
Junior year, my friend and I were beginning to joke about running to lead student government- talking about how we’d put condom machines everywhere if we won and similarly ridiculous stuff.
I was actually a junior grade representative in student government, but I had barely won that thanks to a small grade and I wasn’t too popular overall. I knew that there were other candidates running to lead the student government that had much better chances of winning, and I suspected that my friend and I wouldn’t have had much of a chance.
The day came where our grade nominated candidates for that election. All the expected candidates were put up, and then someone nominated me and my friend. He wasn’t around that day, so I accepted the nomination for the both of us, thinking there was nothing to lose.
I told my friend and like me he thought we had no shot, but we both decided to go balls out in an attempt to miraculously win. We had about a week and a half from that point to campaign. We put up probably 150 signs around the school, bought bowls of free candy to give to the school, paid for ice cream/ice pop days during lunch.
(continued…)
We started to realize that we were actually picking up a bit of momentum and that we had a shot at maybe taking this thing, or at least forcing a recount (the winning pair needed to take a majority of the votes).
About two days before the election, there was a game-changer. My friend had long joked about getting a big sign with his face on it and posting it. Well, I came to school that day and on the front of the main building was a huge blanket with a picture of his face on it and the word “SWAG” across the front.
That’s how my friend, the perpetual jokester, and I, the socially awkward kid, were elected to lead the student government our senior year.
mr_grission
(Source)