Should I Have Ignored The School Caretaker Trying to Talk to Me? | AITA

Is ignoring a school caretaker's advances justified or rude? Check out this 17-year-old's dilemma with an older staff member's unwanted attention.

Damjan

Published in Interesting
23 Dec 2025

Should I Have Ignored The School Caretaker Trying to Talk to Me? | AITA

A 28-year-old student is dealing with a school caretaker who somehow always seems to be “just passing by,” and somehow always seems to want her attention. At first, she tried to keep things simple, but the more she crosses paths with him, the more her stomach drops.

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Here’s the messy part, he’s young, friendly, and constantly around campus, and she already has a reason to be on edge. Years ago during physical ed, she noticed him checking her out, and now he’s known among girls in her year for interacting with females while he’s working. When she’s already struggling to cover up in her super formal business-wear uniform, he catches her, asks if she’s okay, keeps trying to talk, then drops snarky comments like “something is definitely wrong with you,” and later tells her “smile it looks good on you.”

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Now she’s stuck wondering if he’s actually being nice, or if she’s right to dread him, and she might be the problem.

Original Post

17f We have a school caretaker/porter who looks like a cool guy in his late 20s. He’s everywhere as he’s constantly moving things and whilst he’s working I catch him trying to interact with females strictly.

I caught him checking me out a couple times when I was younger during physical ed so whenever he’s around I put my trench over my shoulders. I’m super self conscious of my body anyways as I’ve experienced sexual remarks in the past even though I cover up.

My uniform is business wear, it’s super formal because they are so strict so I’m often wearing office trousers to stay comfortable. Today I was walking and I saw him and embarrassingly enough I struggled to put my trench over my shoulders, obviously to cover up as first im pretty modest anyways and second this guy is notorious amongst some of the girls in my year group.

He caught me struggling and he asked me “are you okay you don’t look right” and I said yes obviously and then he asked me repeatedly trying to spark up a conversation. This might be bad but I just ignored him because I don’t know you?

As I was walking away he said out loud “something is definitely wrong with you”. Most definitely not in a concerned way but rather a snarky remark way.

I was already having a bad day so I wanted to burst into tears😂. I was on my way back to the school library and we crossed paths again, but this time he said “smile it looks good on you”.

LIKE NO I DONT WANT TO SMILE LET ME BE PISSED OFF WHY DO YOU CARE!!! I gave him a look because please stop bothering me, but now I’m starting to feel like he was being nice?