“I Was A Witch”: 30 Hilariously Absurd Reasons Kids Ended Up In The Principal’s Office
From lifelong friendships and first crushes to inspiring lessons and adventurous field trips, school is a place that holds countless memories we’ll never forget.
But not all of them are joyful.
Especially for these Redditors who, through no fault of their own, were sent to the principal’s office for the most absurd and unfair reasons. Some of these moments were so painful that they still sting today. Read their stories below, and let us know if you’ve ever faced anything similar.
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For getting beat up.
I kid you not, the principle once told me that if I don't fight, I won't get in trouble. I let this kid bully me and punch me repeatedly in the face, just to avoid getting in trouble. I was still sent to the principal's office, and then told by him that I was in a fight so I'm getting suspended, even though I didn't fight. From his point of view, by getting punched in the face, I'm involved in the fight.
I never trusted authorities again after that.
"Refusing to deny the existance of negative numbers."
I can't recall the exact details of the assignment, as it was several decades ago, but I got into a shouting match with my 1st grade teacher over an assignment where we had to arrange numbers to make new equations. We hadn't been taught negative numbers officially, but my dad had taught me how the worked while I was in preschool. (Even as a tiny kid, i was still a huge nerd.) I kept arranging the equations to give both positive and negative results, but the teacher only wanted positive answers and got mad at me for "doing it wrong" but she couldn't explain a "right way" to do things that made any sense, just basically told me I was cheating. I got sent to the pricipals office, explained the situation, and he was like, "yeah, I don't know why she's not letting you submit those answers. If you want, you can hang out here and read until that assignement is over. I'll talk to her after class." He did, and the teacher apologized to me the next day.
That principal was a good dude, and part of the reason I eventually ended up getting a teaching degree. The teacher, not so much.
oh my gosh, this happened to me too!!! I did this when I was in 5th grade I think, and we were not supposed to learn negative numbers until the 6th grade, so when I answered a problem with -6, one of the kids tried(and succeeded) at getting me scolded in front of the class because "you shouldn't know about those yet"
Oh 😡🙋🏼♀️.... Let me tell you why I got set to the principal's office in 7th grade...my shop teacher walked up to me and kissed my hand-then KISSED MY MOUTH. I slapped his face and he told me to go to the principal's office! This was in front of every single kid in that class!! The principal called my mom, I remember she was in that office within less than 10mins flat.Called that shop teacher down to the office and they told me to wait outside the office with the school secretary. I'm 50 years old and I can STILL hear my mother screaming/ripping them a new a*****e. I was moved to Home Ec Class. My mom made a police report-her boyfriend was a cop. Nothing else ever came of it. That teacher left the school at the end of the year.
In 6th grade, I cut a dime in half on a paper cutter, and was given a week of in school suspension for ‘making weapons’. The school was in DC, and the principal also called the secret service for ‘defacing money’.
An agent actually showed up! He spoke to me for all of 30 seconds, basically saying I’d have been smarter to use it at an ice cream truck, and half a dime is no use to anyone.
A science teacher who took a shine to me later told me that the agent spent half an hour with the principal, explaining that his call was stupid, an absolute waste of time, and not to do it again. Made that week in ISS go a little easier for me. .
Had a kid make a comment about my long hair and being a disgusting Indian. I turned and looked him dead in the eye and said Custer made a comment like that once. The teacher was trying so hard not to laugh but sent us both to the office.
Good comeback! Only the racist douchebag kid should've been sent to the office though.
For being a lesbian .
Got 3 days suspended too .
I was 7.
My mother went to the school and read them the riots act ,
I was back the following day.
( background story : me and my best friend had plan going to her grandads farm the weekend .
We often spend weekends in her house . Her dad was awesome . Her mom was a lovely lady .
So what really happened was she went to one of the cubicles to pee and I was washing my hands further down the toilet . We were talking about what to bring for the weekend, so I finished washing my hands and sat on the floor talking to her opposite to the cubicles, she had the door open as we often did chat away at her house .
The Math teacher walked in the bathroom and freaked out throw us both to the principal and home .
Thing is we didn’t even know why we were there.
My mom and her dad were summoned.
Oh the b******t .
My mother absolutely ate them alive .
(My mother was a lecturer she taught Sex and Psychology. )
So .. ye.
A kid in my 1st/2nd grade class said she was feeling sick and asked to go to the bathroom; the teacher lost her s**t and told her no after reading the riot act. The kid proceeded to vomit all over...everything, got sent out to the bathroom and eventually made her way to the principal's office once she stopped, erm, *dripping*. A hell of a bad day for a 7-year-old.
This was one of many awful things that teacher did to elementary school students who lacked the finesse and language skills to persuade their parents that she really, truly was the devil. My parents didn't believe me about her until I was in my 20s. Hers is the only axe I keep around for grinding.
If Miss Ehlert is still alive, I hope it's because her next of kin refuse to pull the plug despite terminal pain and suffering.
I remember having this happen in middle school. Was feeling wrecked, and asked teacher to go to nurse. She said, “only two more periods, you’ll make it.” Minutes later she called my green face to the board to solve a problem. I proceeded to projectile vomit in front of the class. One of my buddies said it arced in the air, hung, and then came crashing down all at once.
I got interested in the Salem witch trials when I was about 11, and as a fast reader who hyper-fixates, I had checked several books out of the library on the topic to read. I kept these books on my desk and carried them around while doing my research. One of the other kids in my class went crying to the principal that I was a witch, so I got called into the principal's office to explain my choice of reading. Thankfully the principal took one look at my books, saw that they were all non-fiction/history, and pretty much laughed me out of the office. (For context, this was the early 90s, so the Satanic panic was still going fairly strong.).
this was like when I got obsessed with the titanic when I was 9 lol
While all the other little good girls and boys did reports on Australia and the gross national product of Nigeria, I was doing ones on the Bubonic plague, and the elephant man, and Wicca. Never got called into the office though.
It was and went on for some years. Rock music was a big target. I think Judas Priest were taken to court for alleged subliminal messages in their music encouraging suicide.
Load More Replies...The only part of studying Dracula when I was 13 that I liked was learning about Vlad the Impaler. It fascinated me, but scared/grossed out my friends
16 in highschool, vice principal dragged me to the office for literally holding my boyfriend's hand during lunch time. It was a public school, not even religious, and I had never heard a rule against hand holding in my life. She was making me late for class after lunch while she was calling my mum at work and I knew she was in for it lmao. My mother is a nightmare and did NOT appreciate being bothered at work and having me out of class for something she's seen me do 100 times with my long term boyfriend. VP got yelled at (my mum is very scary) and told never to call her at work again. I knew that's exactly what would happen lol and I hope the righteous teenage smirk I gave her walking out of that office still haunts her to this day.
High School - eating an apple in the hallway before homeroom. the VP wanted me to throw it out and i refused because i didn't want to waste food. got detention. was released as soon as the busses left. had to find a ride home.
at lunch i found the worst looking, bruised, mushy apple i could find and brought it to detention with me. left it on her desk.
Monday morning suspended for partcipating in an impromptu school walk out about the dress code on a Friday. Was sent home.
Only I was at home with my dad and was ill on that Friday.
Dad's start hours were later, he had a written complaint letter from the principal's office as did all those who walked out and was reading it as I opened the door after being sent home.
He asked me about it. Blindsided, The walkout was news to me.
Wow! to hear the Principal's reaction on the phone with my dad dressing him down for externally suspended me without evidence would have been awesome.
On my end my dad was my hero.
My dad told me I could go back to school right after. Instead I got to stay home and watch TV until the siblings came home.
Next day I was called in to the office again, for an apology from the principal.
Until I graduated he never called me in his office again.
Dad remained my hero until he the day he died.
I once got sent to the principal's office for wearing mismatched socks. Apparently, it was a 'distraction.'
But wait...didn't you explain you have another "pair" just like it at home?
I'll always remember the time I took the Madagascar CD to school to exchange it for the Ice Age CD with a friend in 9th grade. The CDs didn't have covers, and when the principal caught us exchanging them, he assumed the worst and called our parents to school. But then, when the principal opened the CD on his desktop, it was playing Madagascar! My parents were annoyed for being called to school for no reason, and the principal had to apologize. This all happened in India, and it was quite an unforgettable experience!
Someone ought to tell the principal that he should have just Moved It Moved It past the issue when it came to the exchange XP
I was sexually assaulted in the mudroom by grade 8 boys when I was in grade 6. When I told the principal, he admonished me for saying such horrible things about such nice boys.
I was an avid reader, and he told me to stop making up stories like the ones I read in books. He wanted me to take him to our school library (as if that’s the only library) and show him which book I got my story from. I gave up.
I switched schools two weeks later when I told my mom I wanted to die. But I didn’t tell her about the assault because I thought she’d do the same thing as my principal. I was a good kid, but my parents always took the teachers’ side because they were also teachers and I was a kid.
Having a low blood sugar in class. I know I know how dare me.
I was knocked unconscious by someone who felt that I didn’t deserve to be on the lacrosse team. After being checked out by the school nurse, I and my mother were told that I was being suspended even though “the other boy said that he did it completely and fully without provocation and he admitted as such”
Back in junior high one of my classmates passed out while sitting outside on the bench during lunchtime.
One of her friends stayed with her in the office till the other girls mom came to get her, so the friend was 10-15 minutes late to class.
Teacher asked her why she was late and she told her what happened.
I'll never forget that old bat's response:" Why? You're not her mother"
I was late to class in middle school helping a friend with a much sillier problem than this (changing back into street clothes after swimming class, tried to put her skinny jeans on over her sneakers, got her feet stuck)... and the teacher just gave me a pass. What is wrong with people?
Running to a trusted teacher's room when a girl was chasing me with a freaking shiv. wtf, he literally said, well, you should've gone to the gym coach (it happened in the locker room after pe). I asked him what the hell did he think I was going to do, stop and consider who to go to first? I was about to be stabbed, you idiot. I actually said those exact words, this memory is so strong it's like it happened yesterday. He just stood there slack jawed and then, without saying anything else, said "Ok, go back to class." What a dimwit.
Spent all of lunch recess in the bathroom because I had a nasty bout of diarrhea.
Was told I should have asked permission before going back inside first.
He later apologized.
I hugged a friend who was away for over a month, with enthusiasm. My teacher claimed I was assaulting him so I was forced by the principal to write apology letters to my friend and the teacher. I refused and my parents had to get involved.
There has to be an archaic term that we can recycle and rebrand for a law to keep these people out of the profession. Something like being judged to be Profoundly Dim and therefore prohibited from working in education . Or to be found to be a Petit Empereur or something similar, a power tripping bully of children.
Not a kid but senior year with end in sight my buddies and I just started doing more and more stupid s**t. Got bet I wouldn’t show up in a borrowed gf’s black bra and white shirt. Had to wear it all day and around fourth period teach sent me to the principal. He just started laughing and said to take it off and was going to confiscate said bra. It got weird when I couldn’t unhook it myself and he almost lunged to help. We both decided I should go do it in private lol.
They served dinner rolls in the cafeteria at lunch. About 4th grade a teacher sent me to the principals office for sticking my finger in my roll. Not throwing it at anyone. Just sitting there bored and playing with my food. I got 5 licks from the principal. Even at the time I thought this is ridiculous. Still do. This was back in the days when if you got in trouble at school you didn’t dare tell your parents and you hoped they didn’t find out because you’d just get in more trouble at home.
Wearing a green bow in my hair. Apparently, it didn't appropriately compliment my blue jumper.
Story time! I had water bottles at the top of my locker that were half filled… with water just old forgot they were up there. The art teacher who was a menace was monitoring the hall that day (just to make sure kids are going to class after lunch) I noticed her standing really close to my locker but did not think anything of it.
So I go to English class, and within 15 mins I look up bc my principal is calling me to come with him. Talk about wtf embarrassing moment.. so I walk with him down to his office, he sits me down and tells me I’ve been accused of having alcohol in my locker. I literally freaked tf out, I was in 7th grade who the hell would tell my principal that. I was a good kid too. I asked him if my mom was pranking me, he chuckled and walked me down to my locker. We opened my locker up, he looked confused and pointed to the bottles of water at the top - grabbed them opened them up, sniffed them and just kinda stood there like (?) okay, sorry for your time, and walked me back to class. I’m like an in trouble? He’s like no, you’re good I will call your parents, still not explaining anything to me. I went back to English and I sat and figured it out… my b***h a*s art teacher who hated all children told my principal this BS! oof my mom was livid but something to laugh at years later.
I knew a guy who regularly brought alcohol to school. His home life was difficult. He is doing well now.
My friend broke his wrist (like obviously broken) on the playground and I ran inside to help the teacher find an icepack. It took at least 5 minutes before I lost my patience and ran inside because around a year earlier I came across one while cleaning the principals office (that was deserved tho). Because kids weren’t allowed to go inside during recess (while I helped both the teacher and my friend), I had to stay at the principals office and had detention for a week….
In 4th or 5th grade two guys in my class fought and one slammed a desk on the other one’s hand while he was on the floor. His hand turned purple. This happened when there wasn’t a teacher in the classroom. I was friends with both of them so I decided to take the injured one to the teacher’s lounge to seek help. While making our way there we got stopped by a teacher in the hallway and got scolded for loitering and skipping class. Then when we reached the lounge, while a teacher attended to my friend, some other random teacher in the room (who I’ve never seen before) kept nagging at me asking if he’s my boyfriend…
I wanted to do stand up comedy for the talent show at my high school and the principal requested that I came to her office and perform my act in front of her and her alone. She was not amused and said I couldn't participate in the talent show.
This one doesn't really count as you weren't sent there to be reprimanded.
Smoking in the girls room after school. I'm a male, was 18 at the time and also had an after school job. Just happened that a girl with the same name as me was the culprit and our asst. Principal was a dumbass.
I got sent to the principal's office for a paddling that was meant for my identical twin brother. There were embarrassed apologies made the next day.
Got sent for bringing a pet rock to class. thought it would be a cool show and tell... principal didn’t see the genius i guess.
Being part of a group on the blacktop where one kid pulled the strings of my friend’s hoodie and tied it in a knot around my friend’s face. Think like Kenny from SP.
Me and another friend were trying to untie the knot but couldn’t. Teachers saw and escorted all of us (me, my best friend, the other kid and friend) through the halls of the school towards the principal’s office while my friend still had the hood tied shut. They said it was a form of bullying and my best friend, the other kid and I got lunch detention for the week.
We all (including the adults) didn’t realize we could just pull the sweatshirt over my friend’s head like you would normally do to take it off.
This was back in middle school.
I got detention for "computer hacking" in the 90s because I guessed the teacher's password on the school network.
It wasn't my fault that every user's password was the teacher's initials plus the name of the school.
akces. The password that made me a computer criminal...
My hair touched my collar.
WTF this is why I have short hair. I TOLD YOU THERE WAS A VALID REASON JOE!!!
At the very British-inspired international school I went to, when we were done with an assignment in class, we were supposed to sit with our hands on our heads until everyone else was done. I was a ridiculously fast reader and completely incapable of sitting still with nothing to do (I was also five years old), so I got sent to the principal's office almost every day. My parents just gave up trying to discuss this with the school in the end.
3rd grade… Wrote a swear word with pretzels on the lunch table and showed my friend. We laughed.
Somebody else sitting at the table told on us.
We didnt get to have recess for the rest of the week!
I got sent to the principal for "liberating" all the classroom pets during recess. My defense was that the hamsters looked stressed and needed a break. Apparently, the chaos of chasing down hamsters and fish didn’t count as relaxing to the teachers.
Getting caught doodling in class instead of paying attention.
For putting a letter in his mail box asking to remove our maths teacher and give a new one.
Allegedly cheating on basic math because I didn't need to show my work. Not my fault that fractions were not that difficult for me. Sorry, everyone else in my class is an idiot.
For falling asleep in a class. It was a class that just happened to be taught by the director.
Substitute teacher mispronounced my last name. I simply replied with correct pronounciation of my last name. He said "huh", so I repeated it. He then starred at me for like 3 seconds and then told me to go to the office lol.
unfortunately I've got a few wack school stories from Australia, so it's just the whole letting people who shouldn't be around kids teach issue
Load More Replies...My husband, let's call him Matt, when he was in 16 or 17 years old & in high school, gave the middle finger to a friend. It wasn't serious, the friend didn't take it seriously, they did it all the time. But this time, a teacher saw and got mad because he thought it was inappropriate for a school setting. I suppose that's debatable, but anyway the real problem came when the teacher assigned him detention and Matt didn't go. He thought the whole thing was so dumb & beneath him. He wasn't even in this guy's class. So they brought Matt in to the principal's office to make him apologize to the teacher. He refused. Brought his parents in. Still no. They thought it was pretty silly, too. They asked his dad "what if somebody gave someone else the middle finger where you work?" That got a laugh, his dad trains cadets and sees much worse. (1/2)
Eventually they sent Matt to the school counsellor. Counsellor came back with a diagnosis of Oppositional Defiant Disorder or something like that, basically means he has trouble with anybody who tries to assert authority without having earned it. Like if Matt respects you because you are good at what you do, he has no issue with your being above him in a hierarchy and listening to your rules. But if you come out of nowhere and try to rule him out of fear, he will oppose you to the last. So Matt got to pick his teachers for the last year of high school. Never had to talk to teacher-who'd-reprimanded him again. I'd say he won that exchange lol. (2/2)
Load More Replies...I've got a good one. In grade 2 the teacher's nephew was in my class and he would act like a prick all the time. Bothering girls, throwing things, bullying, generally being a douchebag. For some reason the teacher would blame me for EVERYTHING! I kept getting in trouble while she gaslighted to the principal and vice-principal. I really didn't understand and my home life was highly abusive, so I just said sorry and cried. It kept up for months until one day my mom came to pick me up from school and was waiting outside the door. She saw and heard Michael being a prick and saw Mrs Bishop turn to me and blame me for what he was doing for a solid 10 minutes. Mom barged into the classroom and called her out, then went down to the principal's office and yelled at him for a while. Afterwards, Mrs Bitchup didn't pick on me anymore.
I went to the principal's office for kicking my friend's older brother in the shin while wearing ice skates... Totally on me. Kids are not smart.
I've probably shared this before, but at age 15 my husband was not only sent to the head teacher, but also suspended from a school he didn't actually attend. He'd bunked off from his own school and gone to (a different school) with his mate instead. Got caught up in some shenanigans, and they all got suspended.
I don't think I was sent to the principal (or here head teacher)'s office, but I vividly remember being told off in the playground by my history teacher for... I still have no idea. She didn't say what I had supposedly done, just accused me of *something* and asked if it was just bravado on my part. 9 year old me didn't even know what bravado was. I was so confused
don't remember why I was in there, we were just talking about something innocuous I'm pretty sure, but my HS main principal gave me a biscuit once. but she also told my brother off once because it was cold and starting to rain, so he put a different jacket on that he had in his bag. it was after school at this point, and we were up the block, not outside it! she was mad it wasn't the school issue jacket! we went to a public school!! so funny. then again, St Hell tried so hard to be a private school it was rather sad. senior school principal was another can of (bad, unhelpful, didn't care about his students) worms though
at least in hs they were sooomewhat professional? primary school had an extremely obvious clique/inner circle and the principal cheated on his wife with the vice principal. same brother, his grade 3 teacher threw a chair at him and scissors at his friends (seperate incidents) because of their unmedicated ADHD. she was in the clique though! so no reprimand from the principal there! and then she taught me 3 years later. still as batty as ever. she's probably dead now but I wonder if she ever got got for her insanity
Load More Replies...Punishing kids for 1) Acting like kids 2) Being assaulted or otherwise bullied 3) Being sick 4) Trying to help another kid 5) Showing affection to a friend or partner. Lordy.
unfortunately I've got a few wack school stories from Australia, so it's just the whole letting people who shouldn't be around kids teach issue
Load More Replies...My husband, let's call him Matt, when he was in 16 or 17 years old & in high school, gave the middle finger to a friend. It wasn't serious, the friend didn't take it seriously, they did it all the time. But this time, a teacher saw and got mad because he thought it was inappropriate for a school setting. I suppose that's debatable, but anyway the real problem came when the teacher assigned him detention and Matt didn't go. He thought the whole thing was so dumb & beneath him. He wasn't even in this guy's class. So they brought Matt in to the principal's office to make him apologize to the teacher. He refused. Brought his parents in. Still no. They thought it was pretty silly, too. They asked his dad "what if somebody gave someone else the middle finger where you work?" That got a laugh, his dad trains cadets and sees much worse. (1/2)
Eventually they sent Matt to the school counsellor. Counsellor came back with a diagnosis of Oppositional Defiant Disorder or something like that, basically means he has trouble with anybody who tries to assert authority without having earned it. Like if Matt respects you because you are good at what you do, he has no issue with your being above him in a hierarchy and listening to your rules. But if you come out of nowhere and try to rule him out of fear, he will oppose you to the last. So Matt got to pick his teachers for the last year of high school. Never had to talk to teacher-who'd-reprimanded him again. I'd say he won that exchange lol. (2/2)
Load More Replies...I've got a good one. In grade 2 the teacher's nephew was in my class and he would act like a prick all the time. Bothering girls, throwing things, bullying, generally being a douchebag. For some reason the teacher would blame me for EVERYTHING! I kept getting in trouble while she gaslighted to the principal and vice-principal. I really didn't understand and my home life was highly abusive, so I just said sorry and cried. It kept up for months until one day my mom came to pick me up from school and was waiting outside the door. She saw and heard Michael being a prick and saw Mrs Bishop turn to me and blame me for what he was doing for a solid 10 minutes. Mom barged into the classroom and called her out, then went down to the principal's office and yelled at him for a while. Afterwards, Mrs Bitchup didn't pick on me anymore.
I went to the principal's office for kicking my friend's older brother in the shin while wearing ice skates... Totally on me. Kids are not smart.
I've probably shared this before, but at age 15 my husband was not only sent to the head teacher, but also suspended from a school he didn't actually attend. He'd bunked off from his own school and gone to (a different school) with his mate instead. Got caught up in some shenanigans, and they all got suspended.
I don't think I was sent to the principal (or here head teacher)'s office, but I vividly remember being told off in the playground by my history teacher for... I still have no idea. She didn't say what I had supposedly done, just accused me of *something* and asked if it was just bravado on my part. 9 year old me didn't even know what bravado was. I was so confused
don't remember why I was in there, we were just talking about something innocuous I'm pretty sure, but my HS main principal gave me a biscuit once. but she also told my brother off once because it was cold and starting to rain, so he put a different jacket on that he had in his bag. it was after school at this point, and we were up the block, not outside it! she was mad it wasn't the school issue jacket! we went to a public school!! so funny. then again, St Hell tried so hard to be a private school it was rather sad. senior school principal was another can of (bad, unhelpful, didn't care about his students) worms though
at least in hs they were sooomewhat professional? primary school had an extremely obvious clique/inner circle and the principal cheated on his wife with the vice principal. same brother, his grade 3 teacher threw a chair at him and scissors at his friends (seperate incidents) because of their unmedicated ADHD. she was in the clique though! so no reprimand from the principal there! and then she taught me 3 years later. still as batty as ever. she's probably dead now but I wonder if she ever got got for her insanity
Load More Replies...Punishing kids for 1) Acting like kids 2) Being assaulted or otherwise bullied 3) Being sick 4) Trying to help another kid 5) Showing affection to a friend or partner. Lordy.
