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A few more things that teachers in my day got away with that would likely get them in trouble now:
1. As I mentioned many times in the past, there was an error on my medical record saying I had Tourette's syndrome, which I never had. Another student was snooping through papers on a teacher's desk, and saw the list saying that I had Tourette's. One day, he announces to the entire class that I have Tourette's, and that I am semi-retarded. The teacher said "You are only half right". I suspect that nowadays, a teacher implying that a student was fully retarded would get in trouble for it. (as a side note, I was really angry that this student got into Princeton).
2. In 5th grade, during band, the teacher kept yelling at me, saying I was playing a wrong note. I kept saying that I was playing the note that was written. The other 1st clarinet player either was being deferent to the teacher or just didn't know how to read music, and kept saying that I was wrong and the teacher was right. Eventually the teacher said that he will walk over to see what my sheet music says, and that if I was wrong, that he will dump his coffee on me. I accepted, knowing that I was right. He walked over, and saw that I was right, and that my sheet music had an error on it. He profusely apologized to me. Nowadays, that would have likely gotten him in trouble, since he was basically threatening to assault me. Given how many times he apologized to me (very out of character for a teacher), I think that even back then, he was worried about possibly getting in trouble for his threat.
A few more things that teachers in my day got away with that would likely get them in trouble now:
1. As I mentioned many times in the past, there was an error on my medical record saying I had Tourette's syndrome, which I never had. Another student was snooping through papers on a teacher's desk, and saw the list saying that I had Tourette's. One day, he announces to the entire class that I have Tourette's, and that I am semi-retarded. The teacher said "You are only half right". I suspect that nowadays, a teacher implying that a student was fully retarded would get in trouble for it. (as a side note, I was really angry that this student got into Princeton).
2. In 5th grade, during band, the teacher kept yelling at me, saying I was playing a wrong note. I kept saying that I was playing the note that was written. The other 1st clarinet player either was being deferent to the teacher or just didn't know how to read music, and kept saying that I was wrong and the teacher was right. Eventually the teacher said that he will walk over to see what my sheet music says, and that if I was wrong, that he will dump his coffee on me. I accepted, knowing that I was right. He walked over, and saw that I was right, and that my sheet music had an error on it. He profusely apologized to me. Nowadays, that would have likely gotten him in trouble, since he was basically threatening to assault me. Given how many times he apologized to me (very out of character for a teacher), I think that even back then, he was worried about possibly getting in trouble for his threat.
The fact that private information was disclosed improperly, even if erroneous, is a bad thing. The second incident you talk about doesn't seem that big of a deal. At least he accepted that you were right, rather than saying you were "insubordinate." I really doubt that he would have actually dumped coffee on you. If he had, that would have been a major issue I would think. I never saw that happen in school.
I feel that any type of corporal punishment is completely hypocritical. And, it teaches kids fear rather than respect. There is a difference.
Of course, it's easier to instill fear than respect, so that's why some people choose that. And in fairness, some students don't respect anything even if it deserves respect, so fear is the only way to keep them in line.
Unless a punishment is unbelievably bad, the fear goes away after the first couple of times the punishment is inflicted. Much of the fear is predicated on the unknown. Once it becomes known, the fear is gone.
I think punishments like that have been inflicted repeatedly on recalcitrant students more as an example to other kids of what will happen to them if the misbehave more than an attempt to actually change the behavior of the recalcitrant students. They just get used to it and continue their bad behavior, but others may be scared away from such bad behavior.
I should also mention: why did my school not realize that by sealing off the 3rd floor restrooms, they gave the students who vandalized them what they wanted: power. Every time one of those students walks by a sealed restroom, it reminds them of how they were able to inconvenience the entire school. Which is what they want.
I would imagine that the vandalism was repeated and not a one-time thing, so they felt they had no choice. Today they would probably put cameras there to catch whoever was doing it.
A while back, there was a school near me that closed off all the bathrooms but one because of students smoking in the bathroom constantly.
Swats. I was terrified of them and more terrified of being made to cry in front of the whole class. Some teachers would keep going until you cried.
Interesting. I have some buddies who used to get swats in school, and they always said they preferred the swats to a long detention (which they also got a lot of) because it was over with more quickly and they could get on with their life after school rather than spend the afternoon sitting in some classroom bored out of their minds. I think you're the first person I've talked to about this who considered a long detention to be preferable to swats. The swats must have been pretty bad.
The fact that private information was disclosed improperly, even if erroneous, is a bad thing.
I've posted about that several times in the past on this thread. Did you see my previous posts in this thread? Including a case where a teacher physically attacked me? This post was specifically about the teacher who implied that I was fully retarded.
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The second incident you talk about doesn't seem that big of a deal. At least he accepted that you were right, rather than saying you were "insubordinate." I really doubt that he would have actually dumped coffee on you. If he had, that would have been a major issue I would think. I never saw that happen in school.
Maybe not, but I do wonder if a threat would be taken more seriously nowadays, even if an idle threat. If you see my previous posts in this thread, many of the items that I posted were about threats made by teachers that were not taken seriously, that may be taken seriously now.
I would imagine that the vandalism was repeated and not a one-time thing, so they felt they had no choice. Today they would probably put cameras there to catch whoever was doing it.
But this isn't going to stop vandalism; the vandals will just move onto another restroom.
Also, keep in mind that I was in this school 2 decades after the vandalism incident, and the 3rd floor restrooms were still sealed off! Shouldn't they maybe try reopening them at some point?
And, keep in mind that, whether you agree or not, the school was violating state law by not having a useable restroom on every floor. Isn't the school hypocritical by requiring students to follow rules, but then the school chooses not to follow rules that they don't agree with?
Cherry bombs in the toilet, I sort of blew up the electronics lab, and while being swatted by the p.e. coach took the paddle from him and broke it in two.
I would probably not only be expelled today but in prison.
We played a game in the a hallways called assassin. I do not remember the rules, but it involved catching someone alone and shooting them with a toy gun of some sorts. About 50 - 60 kids played and everyone carried real looking toy guns that fired something. We played that game on and off for three years.
We regularly picked the locks on the school/office/classrooms (until we got hold of a master key) and went in and did pranks, or just hung out. It was little stupid things like taking some red paint we found in the basement, getting a ladder and painting the claws and fangs of the golden lion mascot hanging 15 feet up in the cafeteria.
While making a movie for filming class, I accidentally blew up several ceiling tiles in one classroom one evening with an overloaded flash pot. We just switched them out with some tiles from the hallway, but the ones in the hallway were newer and whiter, plus the sudden appearance of mangled scorched dingier tiles in the hallway did not go unnoticed, plus the janitor came running when the explosion shook the whole school.
In freshman chemistry, we put zinc (i think) in some acid to make a gas. We did not know this at the time, but the next day, we would capture some of the gas and burn it in a controlled way to see the gas was flammable. I suspected the gas was flammable on the first day and convinced a cute girl who smoked to hold her lighter over the beaker. It blew up and shot acid all over the place. Ruined some clothing, but no one got hurt. I think the chem teacher got in more trouble than I did.
Later in high school, we borrowed some chemicals from the chemistry lab and made explosives. We got caught blowing things up with our homemade TNT and Nitroglycerine. They compelled us to tell them where we got the chemicals, so they made up pay for them. (we were just blowing up rotting stumps and some old cars that we fond abandoned out int he woods - the police came - our only punishment was to have to pay for the chemicals. I had to do some creative word dancing to keep this from getting back to my parents.)
During a play we loaded an 1860s pistol with blank cartridges. This was unpopular with he admin, but they finally allowed it for the sake of realistic theater. On the last performance, I slipped a blood capsule into my cheek and bit it when they shot me. They carried me offstage with my head dragging on the ground and blood running from my mouth. A lady in the front row fainted. She recovered immediately and I apologized profusely, Otherwise, I probably would have been suspended for that.
We had a styrofoam wig head that we put clear blue marbles in the eyes. We then decorated it with stage makeup to make a pretty but creepy face and put a wig on it. Then we put a rake handle in the bottom of the head. Late one night, we hid in the bushes below the window of a cute cheerleader and tapped on her window with the head while repeatedly calling her name in a raspy scary voice. She freaked out and her mom ran into the room and stubbed her toe. Later when the cheerleaders were practicing in the cafeteria, we put a-head on a chair on the stage with alternating red and blue lights shining on her. We filled the stage with fog. Then one person opened the curtain a bit while someone else chanted the cheerleader's name over the school PA system in the same scary voice and a third person flashed the blue and red lights on the head. It worked perfectly in that the cheerleaders all ran out of the cafeteria screaming. However they of course reported it and the admin was somewhat chagrined that we someone hot into the locked office, the locked PA room and activated and used the PA system. I never understood why I could not get that cute cheerleader to go out with me. I certainly put a lot of effort into getting her attention.
The student advisory board got a rule passed that any posters or flyers hung or distributed in the school had to be approved and stamped "SAB approved." They had a special stamp made for this purpose and kept it in a safe they had in the SAB room. The drama department had the gall to put up posters announcing the school play without "SAB Approved" stamps and they made us take them all down. Then out of spite, they delayed approving the posters so we could put them back up before the play. The next Monday, over a dozen playboy and penthouse centerfolds appeared on the walls of the school stamped "SAB Approved" No one could prove anything, but there was a lot of concern over how the special "SAB Appproved" stamp got out of the safe that was in a locked SAB room. That one may have gotten someone suspended if they had proof of who it was. They knew who was behind it but had no proof at all.
It seemed like we were getting called to the office almost daily in my Senior year. It was part of the morning announcements. Every time something happened, a list of about five people were called to the office.
Sometimes they knew it was us, sometimes they just guessed. We got scolded a lot. Threatened, but not suspended. They did make up some creative punishments, usually involving doing some cleaning or repairs in the school. Sometimes they knew it was not us, but figured we knew who it was. They made us sit there until we told them, or just sit there all day. There were other people they would call in to the office too. We learned to never discuss anything that we had anything to do with - eventually they would find someone who would tell. Trust no one.
We had a closed campus. You could be suspended for leaving, but no one ever was. The school had something like 54 doors (not to mention lots of windows). They would have ended up suspending 90% of the senior class if they enforced that rule. I had independent study in Set design and construction. Frequently one of my tasks was to take the teacher's car and go to the theater arts shop in a nearby town to buy things that were needed. Sometimes it took a bit longer than it should have. Sometimes there were other people in the car that were not supposed to be there. Sometimes, her car came back prettily decorated inside. Eventually I was no longer allowed to use her car, and we had to find a different car for shopping trips, but we were still able to get passes allowing us to leave. I had to modify my report card before my parents saw it. It would have been hard to explain only 3 absences in three classes and 42 in another.
The high school had no air conditioning. Fans were a coveted commodity. My favorite teacher had her fan stolen by another teacher. the other teacher denied it. One night, someone got into the other teachers classroom, removed the fan, painted it red white an blue and returned it to my favorite teachers classroom. Unfortunately the paint tended to flake off and come flying out of the fan. Thief teacher pitched a fit about the fan disappearing from her locked classroom. When asked, my favorite teacher asked her whether the missing fan was red white and blue. No? Well then this clearly is not your missing fan.
Many of the teachers did not get along with each other. Some of the nasty ones who locked horns with the good/nice teachers, had strange problems occur in their classrooms. (all the decks upside down in the morning. All the wall decorations moved to the ceiling, strange decorations added to the walls and sometimes not noticed for days. Etc).
They really did not expel people back then. All the guys carried knives. Many had switchblades. We made bowie knives as a project in shop class. I do not remember anyone bringing a gun to school though. No one got hurt. People only fought with fists, and maybe an occasional chair. People sometimes got suspended for fighting, but not expelled. There was a girl killed with a knife in the stairwell by her ex boyfriend a few years before I got into high school. However the guy had already graduated. People did get expelled for repeated drug use and for stealing. Otherwise, the only person I know of to get expelled peed in all the janitors cleaning spray bottles, threatened a teacher with a knife, - fourth or fifth offense tried to burn the school down. He was suspended the first several times, but the fire was the last straw and he was permanently expelled. They had to have a bunch of hearings at the school board in order to do it though.
We had an outside smoking lounge for students over 16. Many students took to rolling their own cigarettes so the admin could not tell the cigarettes from joints. They also smoked clove cigarettes so the smell was hard to distinguish. As far as I could tell, as long as the pot smokers were not flunking out or making trouble, the admin just looked the other way. However when some "good students" got caught smoking pot in the choir room after school, they dropped the hammer on them.
Sounds like a typical week in Taylor Truman from 1975-1978....
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