Grade 5 or 6, teacher was introducing a project about the wisdom inherent in proverbs (not biblical, traditional sayings). In discussion I opined there was no wisdom in contradictions like “look before you leap” versus “he who hesitates is lost” and “many hands make light work” versus “too many cooks spoil the broth”, the wisdom was knowing which proverb applies to the situation at hand. Sent to the principal and received a beating with a paddle for being a disruptive smart aleck.

Not wanting to play sports.

I was ahead with reading during Dutch class.

We often had classical reading exercises where one student is tasked to read a text and at some point another student would be pointed at to take over. I was a pretty fast reader at the time and class was soooooo slow, and I figured I wouldn’t be called upon, because I had to do it the week before already, so I was ahead quite a bit in the text and there was 1 sentence that got repeated in the text.

You can guess the rest, I get called upon, my neighbour whispers the first few words of that one repeated sentence and I start reading from the wrong instance that sentence appeared. The entire class confused.

Got me detention that day.

Why do you not crosspost when you copy someone else’s post?

Not really a strange reason, but I have adhd, and I had a horrible teacher in 4th grade that sent me to the principal for being distracted in class. She was well aware I was in Special Ed and she didn’t care. I was terrified, I never went to the principle, I was a good kid.

2nd grade, the meanest teacher I ever had got mad at me for using a colorful pen to write on my classwork. In front of the class, she told me to “never bring that pen back to school.” This was a new pen that I had just bought - the kind with multiple colors inside and I wanted it for my babysitter’s after school so I could use it on the Spirograph - so I said, “Can’t I just keep it in my backpack? I go to my babysitter’s…” and that’s where she cut me off and proceeded to yell at me in front of the whole class and made me sit out for recess for “talking back”. Since I had “lunch detention”, I had to eat last, but I had never been in big trouble before and I cried the whole recess and, by the time my lunch came I couldn’t eat from crying so they called my mom to talk me into eating.

Went to a pretty strict school with uniform/dresscode in Asia. One of the rules is we’re not allowed to dye our hair. One of my high school teachers was convinced that all Asians have black hair, so my hair that’s very slightly brown under sunlight cannot be natural. It’s so subtly brown that most people would say I have black hair. It’s just that he saw me under the sun with my friends who had blacker hair than me that he assumed I died my hair.

At first he gave me a written warning. I thought it was stupid so I ignored it. The next time I had his class, he pulled me aside and told me he was gonna send me home cos I still hadn’t dyed my hair back to black. I’d never really been in trouble at school so I didn’t even know what I was supposed to do. Since he was teaching a class, he sent me to the teachers lounge and find someone there and tell them I’m supposed to be sent home. Luckily the teacher I found there was someone who liked me and when I told her about the issue she just laughed and said that’s stupid. She let me hang out with her until the end of the period so I didn’t have to deal with the other teacher until she got a chance to talk to him.

Asking questions and wanting to learn more.

Inadvertently walked in on two teachers discussing their affair in junior high school.

My choir teacher, at the time a young woman in her twenties, was fucking a history teacher in his 40’s who was married to another teacher at the same school. I walked into the room where all the sheet music was stored to get something and they were talking, at which point he immediately turned to me and snarled: “Do you mind?!” I didn’t even hear what they were saying, but in hindsight, the circumstances make it obvious.

I was just a teenager and not expecting this weird moment, was stunned and just backed out of the room. I didn’t put it all together until later because I couldn’t imagine a young woman screwing what I saw as an old man at the time.

I got called in to the office later that day and she’d made an allegation that I’d harassed her and I was going to be suspended, but really, she and history teacher concocted this to cover for themselves in case it got out.

It was an important early lesson in distrusting authority.

Detention for “smiling.” Teacher took it as disrespect and told me to stop, but given the ridiculousness of the request and my classmates’ giggling as I repeatedly tried and failed to put on a serious expression, I was kinda doomed.

Also not saying I deserved it, but I had broken plenty of rules and not gotten in trouble so it felt fair enough.

Someone – I don’t know who – claimed I had broken into a classroom. I had not. They could not prove I had. There was no clear motive. Just an allegation. I felt like the principal had an axe to grind with me throughout high school and in hindsight my attitude and responses like, “I don’t want to be here at all. Why would I break into a classroom that I have zero interest in being in?” probably did not help.

Ended with me getting a three day suspension. My parents seemed to think the whole ordeal was really stupid. If they doubted I was telling the truth, they didn’t say it and I didn’t get into any more trouble at home.

I had just learned how to shoot a rubber band with one hand at school in 5th grade. 1998ish. Thought it was the coolest thing. I had this teacher everyone hated. She was so self centered and mean.

So from the back of the class, I shot a tiny rubber band toward her. She unfortunately saw me out of the corner of her eye. She immediately went into hysterics and I was sent out of class to wait in the office. My mother was called to pick me up. This teacher was crying into the arms of the principle like some victim of some heinous act.

My mom found out that the teacher was one of her best friends from Catholic school. Was outraged at me. I had no idea wtf they were so mad about. I’ve shot tons of rubber bands in class and never before had they gone so nuts about it. I only find out later that they had told my mother I had pretended to shoot a gun at my teacher.

My mother threw me down two flights of stairs and held me on the wall by my neck, feet dangling. She hissed and spit in my face, telling me how embarrassed she was and how horrible I am. And to this day she doesn’t believe I was shooting a fucking rubber band like kids fucking do.

I was a very well behaved kid, but somehow got punished multiple times for absolute bullshit reasons.

I think the most inexplicable was when I had changed schools. My old school was strict about sun safety. Hats were expected every time we were outside. The new school was the opposite, not allowing hats to be worn indoors at all, because they were only worn by rebellious kids or something.

I still wore one at lunch out of habit, and because I burn easily. One time I was going from one outdoor area to another, and had to pass through a covered walkway. It would have been 2 seconds under cover, but a teacher saw me. I got detention and my hat was confiscated.

I wore overalls that were too tight.

I’m a guy.

I drew a caricature of Osama Bin Laden on a handout for our presentation that was given to other students. I don’t know why I did that but I thought it would be funny. My teacher was not happy at all and I got into some serious trouble.