This article is based on the AskReddit question “What is your worst memory of public school?”
[Source can be found at the end of the article]
1. On frog dissection day, I was partnered with this really nerdy, cute girl. This is an important detail, because it provides some semblance of an excuse for just how stupid I was.
As we’re cutting up this little frog, she looks at me and says: “Dare you to eat a leg.”
She could have dared me to swallow the frog whole and I probably would have obliged, so down goes the leg. Unfortunately, it doesn’t go down all the way. The webbed foot gets stuck in my mouth, and then the dangly leg bit is down my throat.
I of course start gagging, the teacher runs over, kids are squealing, and everyone watches as I reach into my mouth and pull out this sad little frog leg.
The girl is in shock, the teacher is in shock, I’m in shock. The only person who makes a comment is this quiet mousy kid who sums it up with: “Ew.”
So yeah. Dissection is pretty good times!
failing_forwards
2. We had a substitute growing up who would shamelessly fill in for any class, whether it was orchestra, PE, computer science or pre-school. One girl asked “How can you master so many subjects?”
He answered: “I just fake it. No one knows what they’re doing anyways.”
It was then that I realized adults were a bunch of phoneys for the first time.
laterdude
3. When I was in fourth grade there was a kid in our class named Chris. Every day Chris would ask to go to the bathroom repeatedly. One day he asked for probably the third time that day and the teacher told him “No, you’ve gone twice in the middle of class already. You can wait until the next class break”. Several minutes later a smell started to permeate the air growing ever more pungent and awful. He crapped his pants.
icantrecallaccnt
4. Getting punched in the shoulder every single day on the way home from school. No one could do anything about it because it wasn’t on school grounds. There was a two year period during middle school when I had a perpetual bruise on my upper arm, except on summer vacations.
I finally put an end to it by leaving a piece of cardboard filled with thumb tacks outside for a week so they rusted, and duct taped it under my sleeve. The kid punched me one more time, and got a grid of puncture wounds on his fist. He didn’t tell anyone.
FultonPig
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5. We had this small group of kids who’d show up an hour before school started. Mostly because our parents worked early. We all became pretty close given the circumstances. One day two kids were messing around going down the slide and the bigger kid fell on the others titled hand. I just remember a shriek and then this.. 9? Year old boy hold up his arm, dripping with blood and a protruding bone from his wrist. It’s a strange and horrifying thing seeing extreme pain on a familiar face when you’re young and impressionable.
Didiams
6. So my school had this automated phone system that was used mainly for bad weather. (I live in the south so tornadoes occurred often so it was a pretty effective system) This same system was used to inform parents that their child was failing a class/school in general. My principal accidentally sent that message to every kid’s parents in the entire school system. I was raised by my grandmother and grew up with very good grades and when I walked into my house after school the first thing she said was, “Wanna tell me something??” I started crying instantly (still pretty young) and confessed that it was me that broke the headlights of her car and not my friend who lived next door. Thanks public school.
Gerbis
7. The worst memory (memories) is moving around constantly since elementary school. I’ve never been too good at making friends, and moving constantly made that even harder. I gave into being friendless and talking to other anonymous users online until high school when my first friend was someone who physically assaulted me when we first met.
Sicatlo
8. My 4th grade teacher having me stand up in front of the class to tell me that she hates my guts. Yes guts. Then she proceeded to get the entire class to tell me, in unison, that they all hated my guts.
She told all the parents during interviews that us 4th graders were all sex-obsessed perverts. She also told us that there is automotive antifreeze in ice-cream and that the Australian states were all different countries with different languages.
Xyston-ulex
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9. Back in the day, before classes began for the day, elementary age kids were allowed to play outside on the playground. There I was, playing in the big mass soccer game, when I (legitimately) stole the soccer ball from an older kid. He got mad at this. He tackled me, and started pummelling my face. My face became a bloody mess, and I was in a daze.
When my mother was called in, she spoke to the vice-principal about what would be done with the other boy. His response was “boys will be boys”, and nothing was done. That was the tipping point for my parents sending me to private school. That, and the Florida school system was one of the worst in the country.
Artful_Dodger_42
10. I got teased a lot but still always tried to fit in with the “cool kids”. One day I wanted to show off my new outfit that I felt super confident in so I walked up to the kids and tried to just hang out but they were not having it! So they knocked me to the ground, ripped off my skirt and threw it in a tree. Obviously mortified standing there in my undies, I took off and ran home to change. When I showed up back at school I was pulled into the principals office and was suspended for leaving school. When I tried to explain what happened I was told “I shouldn’t have tried to hang around people who didn’t like me.
chickensdontclap23
11. Either the day in 7th grade where my art teacher refused to let me go to the bathroom and I shit my pants, or the day in 11th grade where I dropped too much acid before school and my then girlfriend decided to tell me she swallowed an entire bottle of pills.
synthabusion
12. There was a point in time when the class clown set off a fart bomb in class, but I don’t remember exactly when. It was a quiet afternoon in maths class, and everyone was quietly doing work. Until we heard the ‘pop’ sound of the fart bomb. Everyone took a minute to look at the back of the class and took a whiff. The smell was spreading so quickly that we didn’t have time to even think of what it was. Everybody went haywire and ran out of class while the teacher yelled for everyone to come back… Honestly, it was an experience to finally smell the scent of a fart bomb.
Iolitecat
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13. The worst was probably fighting with the school over whether I qualified for free or reduced meals. My family was/is poor so this was a big deal that thankfully got resolved to my benefit. Other than that, public school was actually pretty great. I grew up in a very poor city but the school hard both great teachers and curriculum. I still credit them with my success in undergrad and law school.
G-I-Joseph
14. I got sent home in primary school because I was wearing brand name sneakers. Apparently wearing brands made the poor kids feel bad about themselves. Except my mum bought them from the local op shop and they were cheap, like $10. This was a regular occurrence for my school, which defeats the purpose of an education. Luckily I moved to a private school the following year and got sent home for wearing my summer socks during the winter semester because at 7am the difference between tan and grey is not much. 6 of one, half a dozen of the other.
himym101
15. I’m a lesbian and I was nominated for prom queen. A guy in the junior class printed up hundreds of fliers that said “No lesbians for prom queen” and posted them everywhere, handed them out, etc. One person told me that he tried to get the people counting the votes to eliminate votes for me. Not entirely sure why he wasn’t punished for it, but he wasn’t.
Regardless I was the prom queen.
Hyndmandy
16. Certain kids weren’t allowed to go to the bathroom or locker room during gym class because they would disappear for the rest of the period. One time, this one girl insisted that she needed to use the bathroom. She was one of the people notorious for cutting class and either smoking or harming herself in some way, so she was not allowed to leave.
She dropped her shorts, squatted in the middle of the gym, and pissed more than I’ve ever seen anyone piss before, all while making direct eye contact with the gym teacher.
Because of her we had to run a mile and a half instead of a mile and I had undiagnosed asthma, so I thought I was dying. Gym class in general was the worst, actually. (The cops came and arrested that gym teacher for sexual assault of a minor one morning during school, too)
cordonbloo
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17. In third grade I went into the bathroom, as I did an older student was coming out of the stall. She pushed me against the wall and held me there by my neck, said “don’t look at me.” Then walked out. I just stayed there crying until my friend came in and found me. Turns out she was a special needs student or something.
Begsley
18. I had a bully teacher/coach in high school, always screaming about something. He never seemed to like me even though I tried my hardest in sports, I wasn’t very good. I did get great grades and was in my first year of college. I had to stop by the high school to pick up a transcript, walked by his classroom on the way to the office. He stops lecturing the class and comes out in the hallway to berate me for wearing a hat in the school. I took my hat off, adjusted the bill, looked him in the eye, put it back on and walked away. He followed me to the office grumbling about how I had a lesson to learn and he was going to show me. Principal comes out of his office to see what all the yelling is about, I still haven’t said a word. He starts retelling the story to the principal. I turn step to the secretary and ask for my transcript, remind her I called earlier. She hands it over, I turn to the principal and ask him if all guests in the school were treated like this. I think he forgot I wasn’t a student anymore. I always wish I would have told him off and created a big scene, but I just left.
buckeye111
19. A few to recount. One was a teacher in 6th who was so disengaged with the students to actually give us the tools to get stuff she set us out to do. I had to have a binder with all my stuff in it, a bit of blame on me was that I didn’t have all my papers in the binder, but I had them. Not good enough for her. She ended up ripping the papers in the binder to shred, flinging the binder and paper shreds in the trash and calling me a failure.
Another was a “guidance counsellor” telling me I’m an idiot because I threatened a girl who was physically and verbally abusing me on a DAILY basis. That girl made my life hell in 6th grade, guidance counsellor didn’t make it any easier by favoring her every time I reacted, but turning her head every time she did something to me. She even told my mom I should just suck it up and be a man. So my mom got the principle involved, who is one of the greatest human beings I ever met in a public school, and his first year as one, and he straightened those cunts out real quick.
ImNoSheeple
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20. My school decided to start locking boys’ bathrooms (except the one near the cafeteria) during lunch, to prevent vaping in there. What a wonderful solution, right?/s Then, after the boys started complaining (it got to the point of a short walk-out), this extended to the girls’ bathrooms.
Unheroic_
21. I only went to public school for 2nd grade and part of 3rd. I was bullied and, even after telling my parents, teacher, and principal, nothing changed.
So mom told me that next time the girl hurt me, to hurt her back. So I did. She pushed me down and punched me, I kicked her in the shin. She went down immediately, started crying, and I got detention. She was not punished at all, but she never touched me again.
thatonegirlfrommath
22. There was one time in middle school that we had recess in the gym due to cold/rain/something like that. Well my group of friends and I were sitting on the bleachers talking, as we did often. Eventually, some of the jocks decided to start kicking a football to try and hit us. The teacher in charge was out that day, so all we had was the guy who apparently had a job there, but was personal friends with all of the athletes.
So they kick the football and eventually peg one of my friends in the face hard enough that he started crying. At this point, one of my friends decided to hold on to their football until recess let out. The last thing I remember is my friend in the fetal position as they tried to violently get the ball from him. The only reason a full-on fight didn’t break out was that the bell rang just then. That guy who was supposed to be preventing that sort of thing just kept looking on.
johneaston1
23. In 5th grade we had a class camping trip. I’m from Pennsylvania but the trip was to a camp site in New Jersey, so we spent some time learning about the Jersey Devil. Each of the bunks had to put on a skit about the trip or what they learned, and my group decided the devil would be our topic and I would be the devil. Our skit starts, and I’m amped up for my big entrance. I jump out, make an ooga-booga-like sound, slip and crack my head on the cement floor. I started bawling my eyes out, while the entire 5th grade class erupted in laughter. Even now if I see someone from back then they will occasionally make mention of this.
ender815
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