People Are Sharing The Worst Things Teachers Have Done To Them (2025)

Table of Contents

Redditor u/RedditTales2 recently asked the people of Reddit, "What is the worst thing a teacher has ever done to you?" Some of these stories take me right back to school, and not in a good way: 1. "In seventh grade, I wrote a book report I was very proud of. When I got my paper back, she'd written at the top, 'Are you sure you wrote this?' Forty-six years later, I'm still mad about it." 2. "I had a teacher tell me that she couldn't even give me an F because it would be too high of a grade for work I’ve done. At the time, it was my first week in the new school after I transferred, and I had a different level of knowledge about the subject." 3. "She told me I wasn’t smart enough to take college honors classes because I dropped her English class. (Mind you, I graduated with extra credits in English because it’s my favorite.) So, when I went to college, I took an honors English class and passed with 110% because I worked my ass off and did all extra credit even though I didn’t need it. I went back after that semester and went to her for 'advice' and pulled out my transcripts. I told her, 'I'm not a bad student. You're just a terrible teacher,' and I walked away." 4. "I cussed out a teacher at a strict young ladies' boarding school in the late '80s. The school had a cow barn with 12 cows, and if you acted up in class, you'd get detention, lines, the paddle...but the highest on the disciplinary ladder was 'dairy doo-dy.' You'd be sent to the cow barn at 5:30 and you'd be made to clean the barn with your bare hands. Honestly, I didn't take it as seriously as maybe I should have. I figured, 'It's 12 cows and the barn had just been cleaned half an hour ago, how bad could it be?' Answer: very, very bad. 🤮🤮 I did NOT make that mistake again." 5. "They lost my assignment and then blamed it on me." 6. "One time, my art teacher got mad at me for saying I had a couple Keith Harings at home when we were learning about him, and recommended suspension to the office for disrupting class. My mom had to come and show pictures of the prints." 7. "They humiliated me in front of the whole class because I was poor growing up. What is wrong with people? I was, like, 11." 8. "Knowing I was asthmatic, my third-grade teacher had me clean the chalk erasers by banging them together after school as a punishment." 9. "My teacher told me that I was too stupid to become a teacher — in the first grade." 10. "One teacher openly told me I would never amount to anything because I wasn’t ‘academic enough.’ I still think about it." 11. "Bullying and excluding me on a regular basis. It got to a point where he threatened to beat me up." 12. "As a teen, I was always bad at math. I failed it almost every time. A geometry teacher was tutoring me after school one day. She was doing her best to explain the math problem to me, but I just didn’t get the concept. She said to me, 'Why don’t you understand?' That wasn’t helpful at all. Funny thing is, now I’m an accountant and work with numbers for a living." 13. "I showed a teacher a drawing for advice, In the meantime, I told her it was for someone that usually appreciates the stuff I draw for him. She said that if he likes them, then he's a liar. I'm still pissed about it." 14. "I ran track. The basketball coach in eighth grade told me to my face that he 'hated me' for no reason. It's something that I never forgot." 15. "When I was a sophomore in high school, a boy we all knew took his own life. The next day, with several students clearly in shock and grief, our Spanish teacher went on this awful rant about how 'she hopes he got the attention he was wanting by doing this.' It was so tone-deaf. Several students, including myself, walked out." 16. "In kindergarten, my teacher thought I was sticking my tongue out at her — so she made me lick a wall for at least a half an hour. I just stood at the front of the class with my tongue on the wall — and I had no idea why, I just complied." 17. "My fourth-grade teacher ripped up my homework and threw it at me due to my handwriting. My mother went to the school, and he was reprimanded. Later on, he was the junior high football coach, and he held the previous grudge against me. I didn’t play again until high school. He became the varsity coach after I graduated, until he threw a helmet at the players during halftime." 18. "My fifth-grade teacher gave me a Blow Pop for getting a good score on a quiz during the first week of school. We were allowed to eat them in class. I opened mine and started on it, and then we had to go to an assembly. I was seated right near where the principal was speaking. He waited until I put the Blow Pop back in my mouth, and then came over, ripped it out of my mouth, threw it into the nearby trash can, and admonished me over the microphone and in front of the entire school for having candy in class, especially when I needed to be cutting back on sugar anyway (a jab about my weight, as I had just hit puberty and gained quite a bit over the summer). No one said anything then, and I silently cried through the rest of the assembly. Later, several teachers went to him and called him out for how he’d treated me, and he came and gave me a halfhearted apology for taking the lollipop the next day." 19. "I broke my arm in gym class. The teacher thought I was trying to get out of gym class and made me sit there for an hour. At the end, he refused to call my parents. I had a broken arm." And finally... 20. "I was in elementary school, and suddenly all my friends and classmates stopped talking to me for no obvious reason. It turned out the teacher told them to do so." Got your own horror stories? See you in the comments! References

Posted on Apr 26, 2025

"It was so tone-deaf. Several students, including myself, walked out."

by Larry FitzmauriceBuzzFeed Staff

Redditor u/RedditTales2 recently asked the people of Reddit, "What is the worst thing a teacher has ever done to you?" Some of these stories take me right back to school, and not in a good way:

1. "In seventh grade, I wrote a book report I was very proud of. When I got my paper back, she'd written at the top, 'Are you sure you wrote this?' Forty-six years later, I'm still mad about it."

—u/digitalgirlie

People Are Sharing The Worst Things Teachers Have Done To Them (2)

2. "I had a teacher tell me that she couldn't even give me an F because it would be too high of a grade for work I’ve done. At the time, it was my first week in the new school after I transferred, and I had a different level of knowledge about the subject."

—u/FlowOk2055

3. "She told me I wasn’t smart enough to take college honors classes because I dropped her English class. (Mind you, I graduated with extra credits in English because it’s my favorite.) So, when I went to college, I took an honors English class and passed with 110% because I worked my ass off and did all extra credit even though I didn’t need it. I went back after that semester and went to her for 'advice' and pulled out my transcripts. I told her, 'I'm not a bad student. You're just a terrible teacher,' and I walked away."

—u/ArtisticAccountant51

4. "I cussed out a teacher at a strict young ladies' boarding school in the late '80s. The school had a cow barn with 12 cows, and if you acted up in class, you'd get detention, lines, the paddle...but the highest on the disciplinary ladder was 'dairy doo-dy.' You'd be sent to the cow barn at 5:30 and you'd be made to clean the barn with your bare hands. Honestly, I didn't take it as seriously as maybe I should have. I figured, 'It's 12 cows and the barn had just been cleaned half an hour ago, how bad could it be?' Answer: very, very bad. 🤮🤮 I did NOT make that mistake again."

—u/test98125

People Are Sharing The Worst Things Teachers Have Done To Them (3)

5. "They lost my assignment and then blamed it on me."

—u/TrumpLovesEpstein4ev

6. "One time, my art teacher got mad at me for saying I had a couple Keith Harings at home when we were learning about him, and recommended suspension to the office for disrupting class. My mom had to come and show pictures of the prints."

—u/Sad-Opening-6531

People Are Sharing The Worst Things Teachers Have Done To Them (4)

7. "They humiliated me in front of the whole class because I was poor growing up. What is wrong with people? I was, like, 11."

—u/carsont5

8. "Knowing I was asthmatic, my third-grade teacher had me clean the chalk erasers by banging them together after school as a punishment."

—u/Comfortable-Figure17

People Are Sharing The Worst Things Teachers Have Done To Them (5)

9. "My teacher told me that I was too stupid to become a teacher — in the first grade."

—u/dogfoodlid123

10. "One teacher openly told me I would never amount to anything because I wasn’t ‘academic enough.’ I still think about it."

—u/Emmaa_06x

People Are Sharing The Worst Things Teachers Have Done To Them (6)

11. "Bullying and excluding me on a regular basis. It got to a point where he threatened to beat me up."

—u/PeddlerInWonderland

12. "As a teen, I was always bad at math. I failed it almost every time. A geometry teacher was tutoring me after school one day. She was doing her best to explain the math problem to me, but I just didn’t get the concept. She said to me, 'Why don’t you understand?' That wasn’t helpful at all. Funny thing is, now I’m an accountant and work with numbers for a living."

—u/Downtown_Dish6866

People Are Sharing The Worst Things Teachers Have Done To Them (7)

13. "I showed a teacher a drawing for advice, In the meantime, I told her it was for someone that usually appreciates the stuff I draw for him. She said that if he likes them, then he's a liar. I'm still pissed about it."

—u/Material-Complex-603

14. "I ran track. The basketball coach in eighth grade told me to my face that he 'hated me' for no reason. It's something that I never forgot."

—u/Jumpy_Engineering377

People Are Sharing The Worst Things Teachers Have Done To Them (8)

15. "When I was a sophomore in high school, a boy we all knew took his own life. The next day, with several students clearly in shock and grief, our Spanish teacher went on this awful rant about how 'she hopes he got the attention he was wanting by doing this.' It was so tone-deaf. Several students, including myself, walked out."

—u/0mondo

16. "In kindergarten, my teacher thought I was sticking my tongue out at her — so she made me lick a wall for at least a half an hour. I just stood at the front of the class with my tongue on the wall — and I had no idea why, I just complied."

—u/OkBiscotti4707

People Are Sharing The Worst Things Teachers Have Done To Them (9)

17. "My fourth-grade teacher ripped up my homework and threw it at me due to my handwriting. My mother went to the school, and he was reprimanded. Later on, he was the junior high football coach, and he held the previous grudge against me. I didn’t play again until high school. He became the varsity coach after I graduated, until he threw a helmet at the players during halftime."

—u/OneLeek37

People Are Sharing The Worst Things Teachers Have Done To Them (10)

18. "My fifth-grade teacher gave me a Blow Pop for getting a good score on a quiz during the first week of school. We were allowed to eat them in class. I opened mine and started on it, and then we had to go to an assembly. I was seated right near where the principal was speaking. He waited until I put the Blow Pop back in my mouth, and then came over, ripped it out of my mouth, threw it into the nearby trash can, and admonished me over the microphone and in front of the entire school for having candy in class, especially when I needed to be cutting back on sugar anyway (a jab about my weight, as I had just hit puberty and gained quite a bit over the summer). No one said anything then, and I silently cried through the rest of the assembly. Later, several teachers went to him and called him out for how he’d treated me, and he came and gave me a halfhearted apology for taking the lollipop the next day."

—u/smt004

19. "I broke my arm in gym class. The teacher thought I was trying to get out of gym class and made me sit there for an hour. At the end, he refused to call my parents. I had a broken arm."

—u/Miserable-Injury-376

And finally...

20. "I was in elementary school, and suddenly all my friends and classmates stopped talking to me for no obvious reason. It turned out the teacher told them to do so."

—u/InstructionSouth3589

Got your own horror stories? See you in the comments!

These entries were edited for length and clarity.