At the time it may have felt like the most important thing in the world, but most adults probably look back at their school days with some degree of humor. Teachers going on power-trips on the most ridiculous things, dramatic stakes that were not really that important, rules, norms and behaviors that, in retrospect, are just funny.
Someone asked “What is the dumbest thing you got in trouble for at school?” and people shared their most hilarious stories. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section below.
#1
Not me but one of my best friends. Was drinking a Snapple at lunch and it slipped out of his hand and shattered. 100% an accident.
But the new vice principal lost her s**t and went off on him accusing him of throwing it as a weapon. He got suspended and his parents had to pull him out of school. He was shocked and crying (dude was NOT a trouble maker, one of the smartest kids in our class at that).
Until about two days later the vice principal checked the security tapes that obviously clearly showed him dropping it by accident. Lots of apologies but he was obviously more than upset. At graduation I heard him tell her to go f**k herself when she was shaking hands and handing out diplomas. Only time I heard him seriously swear. .
Image credits: zulutbs182
#2
I mooed when my grade 8 teacher called us cattle as we left the gym. Two detentions.
Image credits: Hectordoink
#3
Kid in my high school got suspended for drinking…with his parents…on vacation…in a country where he was doing it legally…again, WITH his parents. Came back from vacation with a picture of him drinking a beer with his folks at dinner. Teacher saw it, reported him. Boom, 5 day suspension. Explanation: “the rules of the school supersede those of the outside world.”.
Image credits: neddybemis
#4
Had a teacher who I really didn't get on with in secondary school, and I swear it got personal
I got detention for the following crimes:
*being last in the queue to collect a textbook
*taking my jumper off
*sitting in an alleged sarcastic manner
*getting full marks for homework (allegedly should have been near impossible to do)
*asking for homework not to be given for the next day as I was working that night.
Image credits: DonaldTrunt
#5
Public nudity. I was in a locked bathroom stall and I was peeing.
Image credits: I-am-not-a-robot1
#6
Blowing my nose. I had a horrible cold so I kept needing tissues and the teacher yelled at me and gave me a detention. So next day I stuffed my bra FULL and aggressively dug in there anytime I needed one.
Image credits: queenoforeos
#7
For drinking water in class without asking the teacher.
Image credits: anon
#8
I drank water from the fountain next to the classroom door. When the bell rang, I turned to walk in and my 7th grade English teacher slammed the door in my face. I stood around hella confused and knocked and I could hear her taking attendance. Mind you, I had already put my stuff inside. After she took attendance she let me in and told me she marked me tardy for not being inside when the bell rang. Asked her how I was late when she'd seen me walk by her desk and put stuff down and then turn to go to the water fountain, and instead of answering me she just wrote me up for ISS for "being rude." It was the first time I'd even been punished in school for anything.
To top it off, when I told my mother what happened amd being sent to in school suspension, she made me get in the car and drove back to the school. Turns out because of my sickle cell anemia and the need to stay extra hydrated, I'd had a standing note in my file from my pediatric specialist noting that I was to always have the ability to get water when I needed it. My mother verbally dressed down the Principal, VP, and that teacher for what seemed like forever.
#9
Literally got a 2hr after school detention for saying “what” bc I didn’t hear the teacher.
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#10
For responding “no” in elementary school when the teacher asked “are we all ready to move on the next step?”.
Image credits: Ok-Duty-6377
#11
Reading my own copy of Romeo and Juliet in the library while we were studying it instead of a school library copy.
Image credits: External-Day962
#12
Whispering “stop it” to a kid who kept throwing paper balls at me. I guess the sub thought I was a troublemaker because I was in the back of the room? I got sent to another class for the rest of the period to set an example.
Jokes on him, I was the “smart kid” and sending a big nerd out of the room doesn’t really send a useful message to the class.
Image credits: thatpearlgirl
#13
I was in the hospital for five days. When I came back, I was unable to keep up with all the work I missed and my high school expelled me.
Image credits: RockVonCleveland
#14
I threw a snowball...during a snowball fight...that the teachers started. It was my senior year of HS and I had recently committed to play baseball in college. The teacher who tried to give me detention said I should be smart enough to know not to partake in the fight because I threw too hard and someone would get hurt. (A) I had just lobbed the snowball up in the air and (B) WTF? He was quickly overruled by several other teachers.
Image credits: HoopOnPoop
#15
OOooohhh i will take the cake with this one.
So i got in trouble, and got a weeks worth detention because, and here it comes....
Because i didn't talk back to a teacher while another student was. They where going at eachothers throats while i sat there quietly trying to not garther any attention. Afterwards he called me a sneaky bastard (best translation i could think off). And the other guy didn't get in any trouble.
Now i can hear you asking what did i do for him to mad at me? Because i didn't speak up. That's why i got a weeks worth of detention...
Image credits: poobboob
#16
Playing Magic the Gathering at the lunch table. The teachers thought it was “gambling”.
Image credits: undrtke316
#17
We were practicing for our year six graduation and the teacher asked if everyone understood where they were meant to stand. I said no, because, well, I didn't understand. I got lunch time detention for being "purposely insubordinate".
#18
Yawning.
To be fair, I sound like a Whoose (whale/moose), and this was in study hall. I get yawn streaks that can last 10+ yawns in a row. I can’t really stop it, and the teacher wouldn’t let anyone leave the room for the period.
Reading the word yawn, hearing someone yawn, someone says yawn, or just thinking about yawning makes me yawn. I can’t escape it.
If a serial killer was chasing me and got tired, I’d be dead in minutes because they’d find me wherever I was hiding.
People look at me like I’m crazy; this cryptid howl out of a tiny girl, louder than you’d think capable from such a small lung capacity.
I wish I was joking. I can’t even count how many times someone’s gotten mad, told me to shut up, all because of several very loud bellowing yawns in quick succession.
I’ve been yawning even as I type this. It’s hard to see the keyboard when all you can do is yawn.
I can’t even use voice to text, it would come out as gfidnrjtjddnfndirejgdbej.
Btw, this is all true and even my kids yell at me to shut up ?.
#19
Telling a teacher he was giving me a headache because he was just yelling while teaching.
Image credits: Shawty43
#20
The clothes I wore didn't meet their standards. I went to a school where at least 80% were rich kids, and my parents broke their budget to pay for our tuition, so we didn't have the money to buy the right clothes.
I had my older sisters' cast offs, and I did manage to sew some clothes for myself, even though I just figured it out on my own, so I wasn't very good at it. They couldn't even afford to buy me the material or patterns to sew more clothes. It was really embarrassing!
#21
Out of nowhere in 11th grade, I got pulled out of class by the principal and was told that “they knew I hacked the school’s firewall.” They said some kind of proxy had been run off of my student login and was accessing…..
Facebook. I was being threatened with expulsion because someone had bypassed the firewall to go on Facebook.
Long story short, I ended up asking the librarian for help, and she was able to see that all of the logins came from a classroom that I had never been in.
Some people in the programming class (there was only one) randomly started getting into other peoples’ student logins and loading something from a flash drive to bypass the firewall, and yep, go on Facebook.
She stood up for me to the principal, and I was off the hook. I never heard if the people who’d actually done it were caught.
Years later, that principal saw me at the grocery store and tried to come up and be buddy buddy with me. I told him to f**k off and walked away. Legit the only time I’ve ever been mean to a school employee, but that was beyond ridiculous. Certain grudges are worth holding.
#22
Filling up my water bottle at a water fountain. It was in between classes when every student was walking from one class to the next. If i remember correct i was given detention or possibly even suspension.
#23
I got in trouble for calling my dad after school to organize a pickup. We were not supposed to use our phones on site, no exceptions. My dad was pretty pissed that he had to park and come to the principal’s office.
Image credits: anon
#24
My kindergarten teacher sent me for a timeout (that reason was legitimate) and placed me in the art supply closet for it. Got in more trouble for playing with the art supplies but my defense is your honor what was she expecting?
#25
I got kicked out of 6th grade English class for trying to woo a girl by quietly reading lines to her from a paperback copy of The Hobbit. .
Image credits: Playful_Dot_537
#26
I kid you not, I got in trouble for LITERALLY HAVING A SEIZURE
They banned me from all football games because I “traumatized the students” by having a grand mal. Also nobody was around ?? It was after the game when almost everyone left, I stayed behind to meet up w a friend.
But the VP walked by during my seizure and I s**t you not she tried to yell at me right then and there (I’ve been told) but the paramedics told her to leave.
Anyway. I was banned from all future games, not allowed to participate in any extracurricular for the rest of the year, and for three days detention.
That VP and I go wayyyy back she hates me and it’s mutual ?.
#27
Drawing a hamster smoking a cigarette.
Image credits: Paintguin
#28
There's this local festival every year in spring in my town. My 9th grade girlfriend and I spent all weekend outside at this festival that year. She got a bad sunburn. The following Monday morning we were in the Commons area of the school hanging with friends before class started. I was standing there blowing in her sunburnt shoulders. Harmless. A teacher walked around the corner and saw me and took us both to the vice principal's office and had us wrote up for public display of affection. He said I was standing there kissing on her neck and feeling her up. Me, her, and 2 of my friends told the vice principal what was happening and she acted like she understood and dismissed us both. No write up or anything. About an hour or so later we got called back to the office at separate times. She got off with nothing and I was given 2 days of asr (3 hours detention after school).
Also not me but a friend of mine got a 1 hour dentition after school one time for saying "poopy in my pants" lol.
#29
I dropped out due to ableism and mistreatment by staff. I was gossiped about by the assistant principal when she thought I was gone, my English teacher was verbally abusive, and the school psychologist refused to evaluate me for autism because a non-mental health professional, some random staff member, said I made eye contact. Then, my parents were blamed for not knowing about resources we were never informed about and we’d been seeking help for…Oh, I don’t know, A DECADE. I had mental breakdowns all the time at school and have been invalidated for my severe anxiety since I was around 8. Rather than helping me, I was constantly scolded even though I did nothing that should get me in trouble. I was made to feel wrong for my mere existence for the majority of my days in school and rather than helping with the 504 plan or IEP, they basically labeled me an enigma and forced me to fend for myself. Since dropping out, my dreams have come true. I’m a professional musician now and I’m a lot happier too.
#30
I was always in trouble because my pants were "too tight."
Look, I had a 25 inch waist and a big a*s - the only way those f*****s were staying up was if they werw tight across my a*s.
#31
I got in trouble for wearing a light sweater. Dress code said sweaters were exempt from being tucked in. They said it wasn’t thick enough to be a sweater and ended up changing the rules because of me.
A friend of mine got sent to the principal’s office for tossing a paper ball in the trash. It’s not like he tossed it over anyone either, and he made the shot. Luckily the principal realized how dumb the teacher was.
#32
So when we were learning about the holocaust, we split into groups with fill in the blank sheets where we had to listen to videos for the sentences on the sheet and fill in the missing words.
On one of the videos, we kept having to rewind it because the sentence was a list of items, and the guy in the video honest to god mumbles the last word so quickly we cannot hear what he said.
After rewinding for the fifth time we started laughing because all we needed was the final answer and the guy says complete jibberish.
The teacher thought we were laughing about the subject matter and would not listen to what we were trying to explain to her. We sat in the hallway the rest of the period.
That was 15 years ago and I still don't know what the final word was.
#33
5th grade. Teacher hated me because I questioned her so much. I literally had gotten 100% on every single test we took so far that year. Realistically I should have been moved ahead a grade. Anyway, three missing assignments in a week was considered a detention. She had a requirement that every single test had to be signed by a parent regardless of the score. I had forgotten to do this one day, so I had three tests that were all 100%, unsigned, and she gave me a detention for it.
#34
In third grade I was paddled for drawing 3 'w's (with rounded bottoms) and showing them to a few folks saying they were butts.
In 4th grade we were having a lesson that introduced the concept of bartering. I turned to a girl and asked something along the lines of what would people do back in the day when they needed personal items like condoms. I'm not sure of her response, if she even gave one. She did, however, go home and tell her parents. The next day I was questioned on saying condoms and was once again paddled.
I received an amazing education from that school system overall but, jesus christ, growing up in the bible belt(southern, USA) is f*****g stupid sometimes.
#35
I got kicked out of the school computer lab for trying to make a game.
I’m now a professional game developer.
#36
Not doing one small assignment when they had already loaded me down with work.
My grandpa was hospitalized during his battle with cancer (he lived to die of old age many years later). I had been at the hospital until it had become necessary to take me home so I could go to bed. As it is, I didn't get in bed until 10:30; I had managed to get the rest of it done while at the school, between one free moment and the next. The majority of it was for this subject.
I just missed this one. I had no inclination to stay up until 11:00 and finish it. I thought they'd understand, but this incident was when I realized I had "Officer Kirk" for an assistant principal. He gleefully paddled me. I managed to backhandedly insult him on the way out. I survived him.
#37
Saying the word “hell” in class.
Image credits: GrimeyScorpioDuffman
#38
Coughing. In seventh grade we went through a stretch where we weren’t allowed to make any noise in the cafeteria after we were done eating. If you sneezed, coughed, or sniffed you were sick and shouldn’t be there at all. I coughed and was given a choice of swats or detention. Took the detention because the swats would’ve come from the gym teacher. F**k you Mr. Cross.
#39
Putting on a temporary tattoo.
#40
Wearing a hoodie. Teacher said warmth made kids (I was 15) too sleepy.
#41
I got a referral (not good) for not doing my homework in english, so I placed it into my one folder. I went to my next class, history.
I had the homework for that class, but it wasn't very good.. anyway, teacher comes around to inspect all of our work, and I realize my referral is in plain view. I was embarrassed, so I slid it behind some other papers so no one would see.
My teacher saw me hide it, got mad, and gave me another referral for attempting to hide important documents from her.
#42
I once got in trouble for climbing onto the roof of the girls dorms. I was into parkour as a kid and thought it looked like a good climb. This all was legitimate reasons for me to get into trouble. however the teacher who caught me knew my mom (who was also a teacher at the school) and knew she wouldn't really care about me climbing about after school, even onto the girls dorms. So she told my mom that I tried to bribe her to get out of trouble which I never did. My mom however called her out on her BS saying that she knows I love money too much to bribe someone.
#43
I am deaf in one ear and have major ADHD. It has got me in trouble more times then I can count in school.
Biggest one I can remember was Grade 11 Advanced English, I was originally seated in the back corner of the class. After a few weeks the teacher got pissed and made me sit in the very front of class. Actually within a few feet of her desk as she thought I was ignoring her on purpose.
So I moved there and just worked my butt off all year.
We got assigned a novel and I read the entire book that night as I could devour books in hours.
Next day I asked the teacher for all the questions for the entire book as I had finished the book. She was furious as apparently she had explained to everyone we would do a chapter a week and I just simply didn't hear her.
So I had to wait an entire semester to finish the book.
It was a really horrible time for me.
#44
Pop rocks. I ate some right before a pop quiz and they were going off in my mouth when the room fell silent. The kids around me started laughing and they told on me lol. He failed me on the test and I had to sit outside the class the remaining hour. I just enjoyed my pop rocks.
#45
(5th grade maybe) Needing to use the bathroom. Teacher absolutely refused to let me go. I'm sitting there squirming and shaking and in pain because I can't hold it. Finally said to hell with it and ran out the room because I wasn't going to p**s myself. After class she gave me a scolding about not listening and a bunch of other BS. Probably wanted to give me a write up or something but knew my parents would lay into her for denying a bathroom break.
#46
Balling up my sandwich bag after lunch and popping it. I got hit. I lived next door to the school, asked to use the bathroom, but ran home and told my mom the teacher beat me. (She hit me with a wooden paddle). My mom beat her a*s. It was glorious.
#47
One time my friend bought me a “tig ol bitties” shirt and I wore it. It was baggy and not revealing but because of the words they made me take it off. I told the principal I didn’t have another shirt except the spaghetti strap I had on underneath. He told me that was fine lol. So, they opted for me to wear a spaghetti strap that my tits were practically hanging out of, over a shirt with a silly phrase.
#48
Nothing.
I was called to the principals office with my best friend and the principal said something like, “I know what you too were doing at lunch time. I got the reports. That is unacceptable.. yadda yadda yadda.” We were at the mall next door eating pizza the whole time. Not sure what her deal was.
#49
I was thrown out of class and given a detention for getting picked on.
A persistent s**t kid kept kicking my desk whenever the idiotic math teacher turned his back to write on the blackboard. I told the kid several times to stop without causing a further scene.
#50
Had a teacher who really didn't like me (fair, I was always late with my homework). Well, in class one day and hand in the stuff for that day but not the stuff I'd gotten an extension for (extension was due that day). Well class goes as usual, but the next day I get told to come in early to see my house master, usually a sign you're in deep s**t, not the sort of thing not having your homework does.
So I turn up at like 7am to see her (hated me too - no real reason) and the original teacher is in the office with her. He says I skipped class that day, I say no I didn't I've got the notes and the handouts to prove it. His argument was "Well I'd decided that if you didn't hand in the work that day I'd put you on report, and I didn't so you mustn't have been there". After 10 minutes of back and forth, showing the notes etc. they finally concede that *maybe* there was a mistake (he'd been so surprised by me handing something in that he forgot) and I wasn't going to get detention for it.
Then have to engage in a 10 minute argument that my house master wants me spending every free period in the library supervised by the librarian studying. I have to point out that classes that can get pretty loud there and distracting, and I have access to the "cadet room" as a senior cadet (cadets is kind of like scouts but with a military spin, the room was where we had meetings and kept all the uniforms etc.) and the room was silent and easy to focus in. Plus it's unfair to punish me for something that never happened.
So basically I had to get up at 5am to get to school to get scolded for something I didn't do, which even when they conceded it may not have happened they still tried to punish me.
#51
I once got detention for going to the bathroom. For the first half of the year, my teacher just let us leave, but the day I was out, she apparently gave everyone passes they had to use.
I didn't have them, so when she asked me for one, and I said I didn't have them, she told me I couldn't go. I went anyway, and when I came back, she gave me those passes and 20 minute detention. I cleaned up her room after school.
#52
I said “Jesus Christ” and got a detention in high school. Yay private school….
#53
I got detention because the teacher told us not to speak. Then a guy came into class late and the teacher ignored him, so he asked me what we were supposed to be doing and I whispered back to him. She started shouting so I told her that I was explaining the work and she just said it doesn't matter I have detention.
#54
A bunch of idiots went into the bathroom at the same time and locked the door behind them during the ACT test break (Arizona requires all juniors to take the ACT). They were suspected of cheating on the test. I was also accused of cheating. I was not in that bathroom.
It was actually a surprise to most of the teachers that I was held there. My mom threatened to sue the school over it. I graduated in my junior year and my mom pulled my sister out of that school.
#55
I got suspended for misgendering someone. Even if it was rude I never met the person in my life. They could have been nicer and just corrected me but no they started freaking out and cursing at me and guess who gets in trouble, me.
#56
Kid in my class (mixed first grade and second, I was first he was second) told me to stomp as hard as I could on his foot, and he wouldn’t feel a thing. We were standing in line to go out for recess. So I (being a easily influenced 7 or so year old) did.
And then the teacher noticed and thought I was bullying the kid. So I got sent to the principals office and even though I tried to explain the circumstances, I still had to stay in from recess and write something (I don’t remember what) to the kid and the principal or teacher or smthn.
#57
Getting in a fight where the kid jumped my brother.
#58
Hitting my friend that I did not hit and she also agreed that I did not hit her lol.
#59
Went to the bathroom, dude stole my eraser, I asked for it back, and when he wasn't looking, I took it back, then he went and complained, principal's office and parents called for that.
#60
My sister was in grade 5 and I was in 2nd. Same school. She "married" me to my boyfriend and they wanted to suspend her and also said we couldn't talk to each other at school anymore. My mom was pissed and straightened them out.
#61
Got jumped by 3 guys in jr. High, punched one and ran to the office.
I got suspended.
#62
Typo on a computing class, accidentally typed "s**t key".
#63
Not wearing socks to gym class! My parents just laughed.
#64
Having a hole in my jeans.
#65
Onetime I wore a shirt that showed my stomach so they made me pull up my shorts so it would cover my belly, then I got in trouble cause my shorts were to short smh.
#66
6th grade on the bus after school, before it started even going anywhere, I went up to my twin brother and pretended to kiss him and he backed off but it was all a joke. because in 6th grade I acted all gay n stuff. I got a major referral, cps called on me, and a person who had to follow me and watch me for most of the year. Thank god that principle was fired.
#67
For going to Bulbapedia, a Pokèmon wiki, in science class. I still don't get that one.
#68
3 days of ISS for reading during math time in 6th grade. Guess what I did for 3 days straight in ISS.
#69
I got sent to the office in middle school for eating a lollipop the DAY AFTER Halloween!!
I literally called out my teacher like, ‘B***h! You can’t expect kids to come back after HALLOWEEN without candy!!’
And then this other time, (maybe it was that same year too) the principal had me removed from the talent show for working on my comedy routine for like 5 minutes during a STUDY PERIOD!! I mean, I know I had other work to do but COME ON!! ??.
