People Speak About The Stupidest Reasons They Got In Trouble In School

We've all pulled some stupid stunts in school, and if you've never visited the principal's office, it's as if you never went to school. However, one thing that hurts more than being sent to the principal's office is when you are punished for something you didn't do.

You, your friends, and the whole world may think that you are not guilty, but it doesn't matter because your teacher doesn't like you. At least something good came out of it.

It prepared us for real life after school, taught us to handle injustice, and made us better people. Just look at the beautiful world we have created…

1. Zero tolerance

“For ‘fighting.’

The school bully sucker-punched me, and I didn’t retaliate. It was even caught on tape. The zero tolerance policy is one of the stupidest things ever.”

2. "I dismiss you, not the bell"

“In middle school, the bell to send us home didn’t go off on time. We were all standing by the door waiting to leave when all the other classrooms started leaving to go home.

The hallways were filled, and teachers were saying goodbye to students, so my classroom started to leave too. I was one of the first ones out, but apparently our teacher caught the last half of the class and made them sit down to tell her everyone who walked out the door because ‘I dismiss you, not the bell.’

So all of us who left like the rest of the school got detention.”

3. Yeah, I would find that more annoying.

“For using my asthma medication in class. I was told to keep my inhaler in the office and to use it only there. I was told it was ‘distracting.’

Know what else is distracting? The sounds of someone gasping for air and having to be removed from class.”

4. Ms. Helm

“I tripped on a loose tile and bumped into a teacher, causing her to spill her coffee on herself. I apologized and showed her the tile.

She went on for months about how I did it on purpose. She even got the principal and my parents involved. For the rest of the year, she told me I couldn’t come back to her class unless I apologized for doing it on purpose.

I never went back to her class. Though I initially apologized for the incident, I never once apologized for doing it ‘on purpose.’ Screw you, Ms. Helm.”

5. Shopping list.

“I got in trouble for ‘cheating’ on one of my math exams. The teacher found a piece of paper in my pencil case. I got sent to the principal’s office.

When the principal asked me what I wanted to say in my defense, I simply told him to take a look at the note. It turned out to be a shopping list. I was allowed to retake the exam the following week.”

6. Do not poke the wasp nest.

“Someone once poked a wasp nest in the school forest, and the whole swarm came out upon the school. The entire school sat in detention for an hour. Understandable if you don’t know who did it, but that’s not the problem.

We were sitting in detention because the principal’s son got stung. As it eventually turned out, it was actually his fault the swarm came down on us. I have cursed his name since the day I found out.”

7. It's how they are dressed. Using that logic, we should punish kids if they have pictures of people wearing coats or similar. I am not sure about crocs, though… That should be punishable.

“I checked out a book on African tribes from the library in the fourth grade.

I told the teacher about how the book had topless women in it, thinking I was helping, but she confiscated the book and had me suspended from school.”

8. Be more respectful to stupid people.

“I was sent to the principal in sixth grade for arguing with my teacher when she insisted that Hitler was a communist.

The principal literally did a facepalm, but then pulled himself together and lectured me on being more respectful.”

9. What if she was a lesbian?

“I got in trouble for hugging a male friend in the hallway in middle school. We saw each other in the hall and were like ‘hey!’ quick hug (it was like 1 second) in front of a teacher’s door, which was open.

She called us into her class to yell at us in front of her class. She said hugging between boys and girls is inappropriate. I asked if it’d be inappropriate if I were hugging a girl, and she said no.

Then I asked if it’d be inappropriate if I were a lesbian, and she yelled at me again.”

10. Bad behavior.

“I once got in trouble for reading Stephen King. They said, ‘You’re reading dark books; it’s the reason your behavior is bad.’”

11. Very confusing.

“In 1993, the Flaming Lips song ‘She Don’t Use Jelly’ came out. I was in third grade and really liked that song. I started singing it with my friends during a double-handed jump roping session.

‘She don’t use jeeeelllly orrrr any of theeeseee… she uses Vaaassssseeline.’ Boom. Written up. Three-day suspension for saying sexually suggestive things. I had NO idea that was meant sexually.

Worse still, no one would explain why that song was sexually suggestive. It was very confusing.”

12. Bullying.

“In seventh grade English class, a classmate looked pretty sad, so I asked her how she was doing. No malicious intent, just wondering what was making her so upset, but she started sobbing. I apologized and moved on.

Later that day, I was pulled from a different class by a math teacher I’d never met before, who yelled at me in the hallway, making snide remarks about my parents and their parenting capacity.

She made me sit in front of the principal’s office to ‘wait for the principal to talk to me’ for four hours, long after the school day had ended.

When the principal finally did show up, he had no idea why I was sitting there. Middle school me was too shy to make a fuss about it, but in hindsight, I should’ve made a complaint against her. To this day, the girl that I supposedly ‘bullied’ has no idea why the math teacher flipped out at me.”

13. Fist bump

“Grad school.

As in, a full-grown adult. One of my patients was a chill guy. We had one of those relaxed relationships. He would fist bump me after treatment was completed. The dean of academic affairs did not like that.

I got a 45-minute lecture on the doctor-patient relationship and how dare I violate that trust with a fist bump.”

14. No idea what it means.

“For saying my school picture sucked. I had no idea ‘sucked’ was considered a bad word until I was put in detention for it.”