Probably most of us have plenty of memories from our school years, whether we enjoyed them or not. Funny pranks together with our classmates, first crushes and fights with our friends, long hours doing homework or maybe even skipping lessons - good or bad, these memories may be slightly nostalgic. However, it's also important to mention that school, for some reason, is often associated with scandals that shake up the whole community.
While in some schools these scandals are minor and may be more like gossip or nothing extreme, other students can experience drama that may feel like a movie. On that topic, one Reddit user created a thread online asking community members to share the biggest scandals that happened at their school. And, well, let’s just say that they vary from teachers’ hookup stories to arrests.
More info: Reddit
#1
My school district gave all high school students laptops that they could bring home with them to use for school work. They could also remotely activate the webcams and spy on students (although of course they didn't tell us this). One kid got caught smoking [substances] this way while he was in his room at home and I think was going to get suspended. He sued the district in response for invasion of privacy and won the case. It got national media attention for a little while.
Report
97points
#2
A girl in my year lied about having a relationship with a teacher (in gross detail might I add). We all knew that she was straight up crazy and was making it up, but the school board obviously had to take it very seriously and the teacher was fired. Worst part was that the teacher's wife was also a teacher at the school, and so, even though she wasn't fired, she pretty much had to leave her job as well. The school board eventually figured out the girl was lying and offered both teachers their positions back, but they both declined.
Report
84points
While it may be ‘exciting’ to learn about some teachers’ love triangles at work, hookups and drama that happens between them, unfortunately, there are more and more stories and arrests of teachers charged with sexual abuse and misconduct involving their students.
The Children’s Center for Psychiatry, Psychology, & Related Services shared statistics that showed approximately 3.5 million pupils, or almost 7% of those surveyed in the eighth through eleventh grades, said they had experienced physical sexual contact with an adult, usually a teacher or coach.
#3
Two dudes got into a physical fight over a girl. She was lesbian.
Report
78points
#4
The caretaker [ended] two local girls and hid them in the school, he tried using the clay kiln to burn them. He later dumped them a few miles away.
Report
72points
#5
When I was a junior, a freshman girl came into school before first bell, wielding steak knives and then proceeded to stab 10 kids before a teacher tackled her and apprehended her. Best part was, there was a whole case afterwards of angry parents trying to get that particular teacher fired for putting his hands on a student. Edit: for those interested in the news article and her tumblr posts here you go
Report
63points
The worrying increase in cases of sexual misconduct and teacher/student relationships, as shared by the Children’s Center for Psychiatry, Psychology, & Related Services, is more than likely due to the use of social media and cell phones.
According to The Washington Post, about 35% of the educators convicted or accused of sexual misconduct had used social media to gain access to their victims or to continue the teacher-student relationship.
#6
Not a scancal per se but we had a huge sit down protest because the cool janitor got fired because of some petty argument with a lunchtime lady who had a lot of pull (looking back she was probably f*****g the principal).
All students from 10th to 12th grade sat down on the floor in the cafeteria when the bell rung at 8h30 AM up until the end of class at 3pm.
The principal came in at the end of the day and said the janitor would resume his employment.
We cheered. It made the news.
Report
63points
#7
There was a male and female high school PE teacher that essentially shared an office. They always got along really well, and kids would always joke that they we were dating. We were just dumb kids, so we never really thought anything of it.
After a couple years, they both started acting weird around each other, and there were rumors that he left his wife and kids for this PE teacher. This wasn't actually true though. What actually happened was they added on a bedroom to their house and the PE teacher moved in. The kids pretty much just had two moms and everyone got along wonderfully. It was strange for about a year, and then it was business as usual. I guess they're going on about 15 years strong.
Report
59points
However, probably most of you hear news more and more often about the violence in schools against teachers. Robert Kaiser, who is an expert in all aspects of violence, shared quite alarming statistics - 10% of US educators were physically assaulted in the year 2021.
Additionally, one-third of teachers said that they have experienced at least one instance of verbal abuse or threats of violence from pupils during the pandemic, according to a recent American Psychological Association survey.
#8
Some guy *jokingly* wrote "If I won't get a B for this I'm going on a rampage." on his english test. fast forward 15 minutes, a police response unit of twelve stormed the classroom and *f*****g* arrested the s**t out of him (without being brutal, but it still was quite frightening for deterrence reasons I guess).
Report
55points
#9
One ninth grader broke water on her field trip and one of the teachers had to help deliver the baby.
Report
55points
So, guys, on another note - do you have some fun scandals that happened in your school? Share them in the comments below!
#10
My high school had some fights that for some reason managed to make the local news, and the principal’s words about it were broadcasted as well. She was pissed, and talked loudly in a passive aggressive manner over the announcements the next morning, repeating our school’s mission statement over and over, ending the broadcast with “record THAT!”
“Record that” became a bit of a meme around the school after that, and the school seems to have lightened up about the situation since because the journalism team’s shirts have “RECORD THAT” written across the back.
Report
52points
#11
A year after I graduated HS, a woman was stabbed 40+ times with a pair of scissors while jogging on our track on a Sunday. One of the guys in that year’s senior class wound up hanging around the track over the following days, obsessively pestering investigators with questions and theories, so naturally some suspicion fell on him. When the woman’s description of her assailant (she survived!) matched him spot-on, he was arrested, and both the scissors used and his bloody clothes were found at his house. Dude was sentenced to 10+ years in prison.
End of story, right?
Wrong. Two years after the trial, the jailed kid is ordered released after his little brother, one year younger and a dead lookalike for his big bro, is popped for violent assault on a woman, and confesses to the stabbing during questioning. Turns out the older brother took the fall for him, falsely confessing so that he could keep his younger sib out of jail. Dude never told anyone, but did admit the lie after his younger brother’s arrest and confession.
I knew both kids when I was a student there. Both brothers were definitely thought to be weirdly intense, but their behavior was attributed to their military dad’s strict style of parenting, and not anything darker.
Report
52points
#12
We had two teachers arrested for secretly recording kids in separate incidents. Our wood shop teacher had a low angle camera on the floor pointing up towards the seats, and also would slide an iPad out from under his desk when girls would walk up to it. He let a student borrow his flash drive, who found the evidence.
Then our speech teacher was caught hiding a camera underneath the sink in one of the private bathrooms that special education used...
Report
50points
#13
A girl died in the pool during an event at the school, the swim teacher was blamed and was prosecuted. The girl who died was at my sister's class, both were 7 at the time. That happened over 10 years ago, but the parents haven't had another child since, she was their only kid.
Report
47points
#14
Well I don't know if this was a school-wide scandal, and it was years after I graduated but it's a scandal and a half. I went on holiday with my recently graduated brother (I graduated 6 years before him). He had noticed his friends had posted online that they were in that same city too, so we all met up. With this group of super young looking dudes (all around 18/19), there was an older looking woman I kind of recognised and I assumed it was an older sister. I spoke to her saying "hey, I know you from somewhere", and she says "yeah I teach at the school". It hit me that I'd seen her speech at my other brothers graduation 3 years before that. Then it hit me that she was holding hands and kissing this guy who looked about 15, and she was in her mid-30s, not to mention his ex-teacher (even though they only" hung out " before he graduated and then they were instantly official). What the actual f**k. Apparently they now live together and she still teaches there. Super weird.
Report
46points
#15
I went to a small Christian high school that also had a middle and elementary school on the grounds. The principal of the high school had a child that was in my grade. One day he comes over the intercom and announces that he's stepping down from his position. He then goes on to talk about how he and the female gym coach had been having an 'emotional affair' for the last few months. This announcement goes through every speaker in all three schools. I remember everyone in my class looking over at his daughter who had a look a complete surprise on her face. From what I gathered this was the first time she was hearing about all of this.
Shortly after the gym teacher also left her position, but the most interesting part? The gym teacher had no idea this was going on. She was just doing her job and thought she was friends with everyone. The principal read more into their relationship and decided to go to the church with it and they made this decision. The gym teacher left her job out of shame and had to spend a lot of time explaining to her husband what exactly was going on.
EDIT: Adding information that others have asked about. The gym teacher's husband took a little time to realize that there was no actual affair that went on. After that they rumors and gossip in the area got to be too much and he ended up getting a different job pretty far away and moved them both to start fresh.
The principal and his wife got a divorce within a day or so of the announcement. The wife got custody of all three kids, plus I think eventually their house and a fair amount of money. The former principal took a job selling either cars or furniture, I can't remember which, and pretty much faded from the radar. I don't think his eldest daughter had anything to do with him after all of that. I wanna say that she intentionally made sure he stayed away from her wedding.
40points
#16
Man I wish I wasn't so late to this party. Around 1998, someone took a dump in a toilet at my high school. This turd was (no joking) the circumference of a coke can, and the length of a size 13 shoe. It was so big that it couldn't be flushed. This s**t made it's way around the school quickly, and there was a line out the door to that bathroom for an hour at least before the facility caught wind. From what we heard, it took the janitor 4 flushes after breaking it down with a plunger. Fast forward a couple weeks to the real aftermath. Someone managed to take a picture of this turd and created a website dedicated to this mammoth s**t. The person that made the site was dumb enough to use his name on the site and the school threatened him with expulsion if he didn't take the site down. He said no. So he had to go in front of the school board to make his case about how it's his right to have a website dedicated to a massive s**t. This made the local news and made my junior year extremely funny.
Report
40points
#17
Remember that kid in high school a few years back in Dallas that got arrested for making a “bomb” at school? Then got to meet the president and all that stuff? Yeah that was my high school.
Report
39points
#18
A girl in my grade died of a brain tumour a week before the Year 12 formal. They buried her the day before the formal. It was f*****g horrific.
The scandal wasn't so much with the school as with the local hospital - the f*****s had told her the migraines she was suffering were just normal stress symptoms, so they didn't pick it up until just before she died. She passed while on the plane to a hospital in the nearest major city.
Less than a year later, a teacher also got brain cancer. Before that, the fittest and smartest man I've ever met. Like, crazy healthy. A few other students and teachers have had cancer in the years since, and it's not a big town, so it's a bit weird. There's a part of me that's surprised there hasn't been a scandal about a cancer cluster tbh.
Report
39points
#19
My high school districts's superintendent hired a relative who wasn't qualified for the job, increased the salary of administrators every year, used the district's credit card to buy meals, groceries, gas, personal electronics, and gift cards. When the state audit went through they said that the overpay of administrators and the personal spending cost the school district around 1.1 million dollars. Her husband was also an administrator. When she eventually got caught, she just retired and for some reason never faced federal charges. When she retired she had a $260,518 salary. My favorite part is that the state audit discovered that the district's credit card was used to purchase logging equipment the same month the superintendent's husband filed paperwork to open a timber company. Everyone knew there was corruption in the school district, but no audits or investigations happened until someone was threatened by the superintendent's husband on Facebook.
Report
38points
#20
Someone created a fake facebook profile for our principle. He was commenting realistically on teachers pages but the context never lined up "nice to see you last weekend Ms. Brown".
Then once he had everyone as friends, he started subtley roasting kids hahaha
(He accessed the account from the computer lab and was never caught.) He was my friends brother.
Report
38points