Students Share The Dumbest Reason They’ve Gotten In Trouble At School
Every grade has a class-clown, a kiss-up, a chatterbox, and other types of annoying kids who are constantly getting on the teacher’s last nerve. Usually, being quiet, well-behaved and focused can keep you out of the line of fire with punishment-heavy teachers. However, ending up with a moody or unkind educator can be the worst — especially when it comes to punishments!
Could you imagine punishing a kid for having an allergic reaction in class? Or for missing school because of a family member’s funeral? Could you punish a kid for having tights that are “too blue?” Or for simply smiling in class? While giving a consequence to a child in these situations may already sound absurd, many have had to face the wrath of unforgiving teachers for far lesser crimes. These students share their tales of woe over the punishments they’ve received for the stupidest non-issues!
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#35 And This Is Why Dress Codes Are Ridiculous
In the middle of winter, I put my coat under my desk before the class started. My teacher insisted that the coat (which I wasn’t even wearing) was out of dress code, despite it being one of the school’s approved colors. He demanded I give him my coat so he could hold on to it until the end of the day, but I refused because I didn’t trust he’d actually give it back to me. Plus, I had to walk outside to get to my other classes. He sent me to the principal’s office, and when I told the secretary what happened, she rolled her eyes and wrote me a pass back to class.
#34 Red Fish, Blue Fish, You Definitely Stole This
The library insisted I stole a Dr. Seuss book and couldn’t prove I did it. They kept trying to convince me I did it, and I wouldn’t give in. Like, they literally sat me down and said, “Just admit you did it and that’s it! You won’t have to pay the fee if you just admit it!”
They eventually gave up and the principal said “Just so you know… I’m paying $12 out of my own pocket for this. I’m disappointed that you won’t own up to what you did.”
#33 So, Having Fun Is Off-Limits
Playing Dungeons and Dragons during recess. Another kid told a teacher we were practicing witchcraft. Yay, the midwest.
#32 Way Too Late To Apologize
I had a substitute teacher in Spanish. We had a test that day. Our teacher left a note for the sub saying we could play games when we were done with the test. So I finished the test, pulled out my computer, and started playing on some dumb app I can’t even remember. Everyone else was also playing games and surfing the web.
The teacher came up to me, slammed my computer lid down on my hand, screamed at me to get off my computer, and walked away, ignoring everyone else doing the same thing. Then she stopped and asked, “Wait, are you guys allowed to play games?” Everyone said yes, and she looked at me with this “Oh no” look in her eye.
#31 Just Let The Poor Kid Get Their Epipen
I have a bad allergic reaction to the wood in pencils. When I asked to go to the nurse, I got yelled at in front of the entire class for not informing the school about my allergy before. But I had declared it before — it was listed under “natural allergies.” The teacher said that if I was ACTUALLY allergic the pencils would have been banned from the school a long time ago. Meanwhile, I’m sitting there with a swollen throat and beet-red eyes…
#30 It’s Not Like They Spoiled The Ending
We were learning about ancient China and watched a documentary on the Chinese emperors. The documentary got to a scene with the terracotta warriors and my teacher asked the class if we knew what they were. I said, “Yes, they’re the terracotta warriors,” and my teacher yelled at me, telling me how I had ruined the film for my class. Not a fun time.
#29 Three Strikes And You Fail
College. My school had a dumb black-and-white “three absences you fail” policy in an attempt to appear tough.
I missed one class, then ended up failing altogether because I couldn’t make the last two classes due to my grandfather’s funeral. I had even turned in the work needed. Still mad about that to this day.
#28 When Everyone’s Really Conspiring Against You
One time I logged into the school’s library computer to check out a book after hours. I was a library volunteer, so I made sure to not do anything but check the book out with the library system. They called me to the office the next day and suspended my computer privileges for three months after accusing me of using the library computers for personal use. Word traveled quickly (even to teachers I didn’t have for any classes) and my least favorite teacher decided to assign a big computer-based project that we would work on in class for several weeks as punishment.
#27 They Were Trying To Be A Good Influence
A classmate would not stop talking to me during class and it was really annoying because I was trying to learn. I ended up getting detention for telling her to stop talking to me.
#26 This Is Total Garbage (Literally And Metaphorically)
At lunch, a kid threw food and garbage all over me. Somehow, I ended up getting in trouble, not him. The security officer came over and yelled at me some, even though I explained that the other kid threw the trash at me. He didn’t believe me and gave ME a referral. That kid was in one of my classes and guess what? He didn’t get a referral!
#25 That’s Some Unfortunate Resemblance
I got suspended for looking at POLLstar.com (a concert tour website). The librarian was absolutely convinced that I was looking at an adult website instead, even after I showed her what site I was on.
I got a one week in-school suspension, which I loved because I could just sleep all day.
#24 …At Least They Changed
It was the late 90s: I was wearing a DIY, sort of punk rock T-shirt that said: “Bite me!”
My teacher gets all riled up about it and tells me to go home and come back with something more “appropriate”.
So I went home, changed, and came back wearing a plain white shirt with the words “Not Offensive” written across it in Sharpie.
#23 I Guess Happiness Isn’t Allowed
I’m a smiley type of girl. I smile for no reason sometimes. During a lecture, the professor called me out for laughing at him and said the next time he would kick me out. I wasn’t even laughing, I was just smiling because I ate a strawberry gummy and it was delicious. He talked to me after class and told me he didn’t appreciate my attitude and wouldn’t tolerate it further. I began sitting behind a pillar in his lectures so he wouldn’t see my face. I had him for two more semesters afterward.
#22 Remember, Kids, Don’t Read For Fun
In the fifth grade, I got thrown out of reading class.
For reading.
My parents were university professors and we didn’t have a TV, but we did go to the library at least once a week. By the fifth grade, I could zip through an entire week’s reading assignment in about three or four minutes. So one day the teacher gave us an assignment out of the stupid little reader, and I read that sucker in no time flat. I immediately went back to my novel. I was heavily into John LeCarré and Robert Ludlum at the time, so it was probably one of those.
The teacher had an absolute meltdown that I wasn’t reading the assignment and couldn’t believe that I’d already finished it. She threw me out of class after berating me in front of everyone.
#21 Troubled Breathing
I was breathing. Teacher said my breathing was sarcastic and sent me out of the room.
#20 What Even Constitutes As “Too Blue”
I went to a Catholic school. My tights were “too blue.” Blue was okay per the handbook, but I got lunch detention for wearing the wrong shade.
#19 So… They Shouldn’t Do The Homework?
At my elementary school, they would always write what homework was due the next day on the chalkboard and it’d be left on there the whole day. I was someone who usually finished class activities pretty quickly, so I would always start the homework whenever I had finished classwork early and had nothing else to do.
Any time I was caught, I’d get yelled at for it. One time I was even threatened with detention for it. I still don’t get it to this day. I never did the homework while the teacher was talking. I never copied someone else’s homework. I wasn’t disturbing the class in any way. What was the issue?
#18 An Accidental Caricature Of Jesus
I was drawing Jesus in the first grade and made his hands and feet huge so I could fit all his fingers and toes in. Mrs. Brugerman sent me to the office, I think because she thought I was making fun of Jesus or something?
#17 The Smile Police Are Onto You
In middle school, we were doing a unit on the digestive tract. The science teacher wanted each student to decorate a wooden spoon so she could put them into a cup and use for random student draws.
Most students drew the digestive tract on the handle and made the “head” of the spoon into a smiley face. I did the same, only I drew a frown instead (I figured it was a little strange to draw a happy face on a spoon with all its organs showing).
I was later called into the office. As a generally well-behaved student, I couldn’t figure out what I could have possibly done wrong. The receptionist told me the new principal “just wanted to get to know the students”.
So I entered the principal’s room and she asks me about my summer, etc. So far it seemed as though she really was just interested in getting to know me.
Then she pulled out my spoon from science class. She wanted me to explain why it has a frowny face. As it turns out, the science teacher thought this was a definitive sign that I was depressed and suicidal. I assured her that this was not the case, and I went back to class.
#16 Taken Down By A Drama Queen
I was playing tennis in gym class. I served the ball and it hit my opponent in the knee lightly after it had bounced a few times. This is how it went down:
Him: *screaming in pain* “My eye!!”
Me: It hit your leg…
Coach: Go run laps for the rest of day!
#15 No Coughing In Class
Coughing. I was just getting over pneumonia at the time and was sent to the office for causing a distraction.
#14 Was It A “Number 1” Or “Number 2?”
In the second grade I got in-school suspended for saying I took a poop.
I asked to go to the bathroom and went to the dang bathroom. My teacher got on my case for taking too long, and kept asking me what I was doing in there. I kept saying I was “going” to the bathroom.
After being asked a hundred times what I had been doing in the washroom, I finally gave up and did what any annoyed kid would do: I said I took a POOP. The teacher was not pleased with that answer.
#13 He Didn’t Even Throw A Punch
Older kids in high school beat me up for being a freshman. I didn’t fight back — instead, I curled up and protected my vital areas until the security came. My school had a zero tolerance policy for fighting, so I ended up getting suspended for a week AND a referral for being involved in a fight (even though the security cameras clearly showed five guys trying to beat the life out of me).
#12 Sure, Pick On The Goth Kid
I was a goth girl in high school, and Columbine happened at the end of my senior year. There were about five weeks of school left at that point.
I had worn dog collars and choke chains to school daily for three years, and all of a sudden the school cracked down hard on us weirdos/outcasts. I was told to not wear the collars or choke chains anymore, but I thought, “Forget this!” and wore them anyway. I was told several times to stop and was even threatened with detention or a suspension, but I had a hardcore case of “senioritis” and I didn’t care. I was a good student otherwise and had a hunch they wouldn’t do anything about it, so I called their bluff.
I was correct and they eventually left me alone.
#11 Ever Heard Of A Thing Called Friendship?
I was in charge of our class display board, so I drew one boy and one girl flanking the board. Literally just two kids standing a meter apart, fully clothed in a school uniform, not even looking or gesturing at each other.
I was accused of encouraging improper relationships among students and was ordered to take it down.
#10 No Recess For The Honest
I hadn’t lost any baby teeth when I was in first grade so I didn’t answer a question on a worksheet that asked when my first baby tooth had fallen out. When I explained my situation to the teacher, she said it was weird and held me in from recess because of it. From that point on, she pretty much made random excuses to hold me in from recess every day until I switched schools halfway through the year. She was the worst.
#9 A Deadly Bag Of Doritos
In middle school, I popped open a bag of Doritos in the cafeteria and a teacher said it “sounded like a gunshot”. I was suspended for a week.
#8 The Smartest Kids Have It The Worst
In the fifth grade, the teacher kept calling on me to read out loud because I was the fastest in the class. I hated being the center of attention in any way, and was really shy because most of the other kids made fun of me at one point or another.
After another kid read a couple sentences, she called on me to read a paragraph. It was like she was trying to get me to read through a whole chapter of a textbook or something. Eventually, I just said “No.”
She sent me to the office. They told me to just hang out there until my next class.
#7 And That’s What You Get For Teaching Yourself A Life Skill
I tried to teach myself to code and got accused of computer hacking. I froze up when they asked me what I did… I just kept saying I didn’t know. I got suspended for five days. Afterwards, they wiped the internet blocks for some unknown reason and the whole school thought I actually did hack into the school’s system and unblock YouTube or something. Seventh grade was weird.
#6 They Were Just Defending Their Honor
My French teacher insulted me by saying, “You played the piano well, but I think the country singer was better and should have won the talent show, not you.” Later in the week, we had to write a page on why we enjoyed her class. I wrote about how much I loved being able to chat with friends because her hearing and eyesight were so bad she couldn’t tell anything was going on half the time. She gave me a few days of detention and I was told by the school’s disciplinarian to apologize to her. When I did and expressed the reasoning behind my written rant, she wanted to hug it out. No thanks.
#5 They Got What Was Coming To Them
I dodged a punch someone threw at me. They hit concrete and broke their wrist badly. I nearly got suspended and expelled.
The other guy did it to impress this girl because the girl didn’t like my face. In their defence, I do have a pretty unlikable face.
#4 Band Blues
We were doing breathing exercises in band and after we were finished I had to yawn. The director looked at me with an angry face and said, “So, you think you’re a comedian, eh?” He then sent me to the principal’s office.
#3 They Could Have Gone Into A Literal Coma, But Go Off
A fifth-grade teacher made fun of me in front of the class for being a “drama queen.” She yelled at me when I ran out of the room crying and then tried to give me detention.
But the reason I was being a “drama queen” was because the teacher had actively prevented me from managing a blood sugar condition. It wasn’t my fault that my blood sugar had crashed and needed to call my mom urgently.
#2 Bin There, Done That
After lunch every day, two people in my year level were assigned to go around, collect all of the outdoor bins, and lock them away in the bin enclosure.
One time my friend and I did it, and as I was putting the last bin away my friend thought it would be funny to lock me inside the enclosure. He went back to class and tried to come back right away, but the teacher wouldn’t let him.
I was found by the teacher an hour later when school let out, and when she let me out she told me I had detention for skipping class. Fun.
#1 Now That Is Financial Responsibility
I rented out my locker to another student who was very disorganized. I was called into the dean’s office and was told I wasn’t allowed to sublet my locker. He called my parents (who were very proud of my resourcefulness) and I was forced to pay the other student back.
