35 Unethical Practices That Are Surprisingly A Thing In Some Schools, As Pointed Out By Folks Online
Now, school ought to be a place of learning where eager minds would try to soak in every bit of knowledge and experience they can before they hit the real world.
Alas, schools are also a place where certain decisions beg more questions than they could possibly answer and, in some cases, it has reached unethical levels.
People of Reddit have been listing unethical practices that schools do, and nobody is really batting an eye about it. The discussion generated nearly 11,000 comments with over 24,000 upvotes.
Bored Panda has collected the most upvoted responses to this question and compiled a list which you can find below. Vote and comment on the answers that you think are the biggest problems, and why not also share some of your observations in the comment section below!
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Harassing teenage girls for "dressing inappropriately" when a millimeter of their bra strap is showing (or some other bulls**t like that). Telling them it distracts the boys and invites unwanted attention.
When they actually get harassed (or worse) the school does nothing.
It also perpetuates the notion that girls are responsible for controlling boys’ behavior!
Lowering a school's funding if the SAT scores are low. If the scores are low, there should be more funding to help kids learn!
Bullied and harassed students having the same repercussions as their bully for defending themselves.
I've never understood this...even as adults...in our country if someone is trying to kill you and you defend yourself, you can be charged with assault...like what?!?!
How sports programs have way more money than any other programs at the school… because school is a business not education.
Sports are focused on FAR too much at the schools by me. Whenever I drive past there are ALWAYS notices about games and whatever. School should be focused on education, not sports
Awarding “perfect attendance.” Encouraging kids to go to school while sick is pretty unethical if you ask me.
firing lunchroom staff for serving food to poor students whose families can't afford to pay
We've got school lunches in primary and secondary schools here...which are free and for low income families. A few years back they also instituted breakfast.
Collective punishment; one or two pupils misbehave and the entire class gets punished for it.
When i was in 3rd grade this one kid had the nerve to start coughing in class because he was sick and ALL 20 OF US got in trouble because this one poor kid was sick. It was so messed up. Every time one person did something bad everyone else was punished too. I was a goody two shoes and never got in trouble but i was constantly missing recess and having to have silent lunch because one kid talked out of turn. I am still bitter about it years later.
This was how it was when I was at a military boarding school in the UK in the 70's - the thinking behind it was it was the collective responsibility of the (admittedly, small) classes to quash any insurrection / insubordination / misbehaviour, as, unless one owned up to the infraction, everyone was punished. This taught us all a few things, the main ones being 1) if you are caught, own up immediately 2). If you did it and you don't own up and all of us get punished, you will get a kicking from all of us, enough to hurt but not enough to mark your face or extremities (even then those injuries were written off as Rugby d***s) and 3rd and lastly, if you are going to break the rules and as it's not injuring anyone or too illegal (eg, going to see a girlfriend or going to a party etc ...) , let us all know and we will cover your a**e !! Lessons well learnt that have served me well over the intervening years .....
Sounds like an environment rife with black mail, probably the 4th thing you learned there 😂
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I *hate* this. Hate, hate, hate. This is how you f*ck up kids who are already high anxiety and depressed. I'm still in therapy because (in my own words) "I take everyone's faults and wrongs and make them my responsibility." How? How can you do that to a kid?
My first elementary school did this, when one kid would mess up we all were instructed to say "Thank you (name) for (doing whatever they did)." Humiliating and horrible.
Oh my gosh yes. The only case where this might maybe possibly be acceptable is if you don't know who misbehaved. It really just makes students hate each other and causes tension.
What was that ridiculous saying "Peter pays for Paul and Paul pays for all"....utter nonsense.
once when we had a substitute in 4th grade he punished the entire class for misbaving at the bathrooms after lunch...except me and another girl weren't there bc she was in a wheelchair so we went to a different bathroom and back to class separately. He said that meant us too. And when I asked him why bc we werent even there he said it was only to make it fair to the whole class. When I asked him how on earth it was fair to make the 2 of us write lines he didnt have an answer. I didnt write lines. Whats he gonna do? Tell the principle that the goody 2 shoes straight A student refused to write lines for something that happened she wasnt present for?? bitch please
The one time that happened to me was when the metalwork teacher said we couldn't leave because one tool hadn't been returned, even though most of us had a bus to catch. Guess where it was finally tracked down to? His tool belt. Wasn't sad when he retired the next year (although I didn't have to take metalwork again so I was already winning).
A kid in my class edited a teacher made PowerPoint and deleted a slide, and we all got extra homework. I went home told my dad, (who worked with computers) about this and he was furious. He pulled out the PowerPoint and opened the “Recent Changes” and we found out who the kid was. He emailed my teacher and told me that if this happened again to use “Recent Changes” to find out who it was. This is the teacher’s fault, if he didn’t want us to edit the PowerPoint he could have turned editing off.
The rest of the students will make sure to take care of the problem students later.
This happens in the military, all the time too. I even tried explaining to some command personnel, that collective punishment ONLY makes any sense when what was going on was a group effort AND all members of the group were responsible for one another's success and compliance. Punishing an entire military platoon because one member got in trouble with civilian authorities in a matter completely unrelated to anything to the military or the platoon is just extremely poor leadership.
I was a platoon sergeant in the Army. It's about efficiency. Having 30 guys beat the s**t out of one, is far more efficient than beating said guy 30 times.
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Often used as an incentive to make the good kids police the rowdy ones ('Hey x be good or we'll all get in trouble!'). Thing is, the same logic works really nicely (and less unfairly) in the opposite - collective reward. Help each other to (stay quiet/ be hardworking/finish a task) and you all win. Funny how quickly people will choose the dark side of the coin.
I’m the eldest child of five, and we were very poor so both of my parents worked, and when my siblings misbehaved they would be punished, but I was also punished, even though I was only 1-1\2 years older than my oldest brother. It was worth it to him to be punished in order to see me be punished as well
Very common. It's quite evil practice, I would say. Goal is to make the entire class hate the trouble makers.
Wow that’s a really brilliant move!! Gives one insight reading these disgusting SCHOOL situation, as to WHY so so so many students SNAP!!! An with every human over 1 or 2 years old Having a PHONE OR TABLET inch from there face—-while PARENTS doing same!!! NO HUMAN GROWTH, INTERACTION, LEARNING LOVE, COMMUNICATION—LIFE. WE ARE DEEPLY BROKEN! In any restaurant you will see a couple or family NEVER SPEAK TO EACH OTHER- faces buried in the dumbed down isolating piece of machine in ALL OF THE FACES!
I still remember one day in high school 20 years ago. We had a substitute teacher and one kid in class was being an ass and the rest of us were trying our best to ignore them. Our regular teacher came back the next day and lectured us all for the entire class period about how we should behave when there's a sub, and the even if it's only one person misbehaving that it's on us to get that person to behave through peer pressure. She told us to write an essay for our homework about why it was important to behave in class. I was so angry that I wrote an essay about how it's the teacher's responsibility to keep bad students in line and why it's wrong to punish an entire class when 90% of us are doing the right thing.
Because we don't want the kid with the behavior issue to feel badly about themselves 🙄 Somehow making the entire class hate them doesn't seem like a good idea either.
A kid in my class edited the PowerPoint and deleted a slide and we all got extra homework.
I experienced this in third grade, my teacher has a habit of punishing students a lot
There's a reason behind this. Most students don't care if the teacher gets mad at them. They'll take their punishment, roll their eyes and do it again tomorrow. Now when you implement collective punishment that changes. First time everyone is mad at the teacher. Second time everyone gets slightly annoyed at the misbehaving student. Third time the whole group turns against the misbehaving student and suddenly it's not so fun to misbehave anymore. Is it unfair? Yes. Is it effective? Also yes.
Too much homework. Let kids be kids. A little homework is good but god don't drown the kids in it.
I hear that...we used to have hours of homework. Sometimes I just want to relax and sleep.
Requiring you to purchase textbooks brand new from the college's bookstore because that's the only way to get the access code to complete the required assignments on the publishers website.
I remember the problem of buying school books when we were poor. But actually some college books are only purchased by a few dozen people on that particular course, so would not be produced without those purchases. So SOME people purchasing the book is important. However you acquire the book should not be anything to do with the college though.
I was a decently misbehaved third grader. Told my teacher I had a stomach ache and I needed to go to the nurse. I asked a number of times. She thought I was just trying to get out of individual reading time. My appendix burst on the bus ride home.
I was never one to ask to go to the nurse. Just a hyperactive kid my teacher apparently had enough of. Denying medical attention to an 8 year old seems unethical. This is not a "boy who cried wolf" story for all those saying "I told ya so".
I remember one time in digital technology class I developed a splitting pain below my stomach. I think it was trapped gas in my bowels or something. Anyway, I asked my teacher if I could go to the nurse, but she told me no because class was "almost over" and that I have to wait until it was finished before I could go. Except that class was over in an hour, so I had to stay seated in my chair, in agony, for an hour. Did I mention that digital technology was my last class that day? So school was over by the time class ended and I couldn't stay behind because then I'd be late and I can't be late because my mum had to pick up my brothers from their schools as well so I never got to the nurse. And then there was that other time where I nearly fainted in the mandatory religion class and I did have to go to the nurse and while my friend was leaving my schoolbag in the nurse's office, she told me that the substitute teacher was pissed at me for missing class.
Bullied students are told to leave because it's easier to kick out a quiet victim than a loud bully
Or when they call the bully and say "bullied kid said you did X" and when they deny it they just leave it there...like thanks for now increasing the bullying that already existed.
This is probably very specific to my home country but period checks
I'm from Malaysia and yes sadly this is a thing and I've witnessed it firsthand. Mostly to make sure girls aren't lying about their periods just to get out of prayer activities.
zero tolerance policies.
Oh that kid hit you for no reason? both suspended zero tolerance!
Zero tolerance sometimes meant Zero Effort or Zero Intelligence.
Less severe but limiting kids access to water, I.e. you can’t have your drink bottle at the table. Which sucks when you live in Australia and at summer the temperature gets up to 36c and school is during all the hottest hours of the day.
Tormenting socially awkward /introverted students
I hinestly believe that some teachers enjoy making their kids suffer. I speak very fast and because of that i stutter if I read out loud. One of my teachers loved making me read all the time and kept smiling while some of the students laughted. Once i got so tired that i shut up and sat in the middle of a sentence and refused to ever read in her classes. Bitch
Passing students that aren't ready for the next grade because they need to pad their passing rates to keep funding. It's setting the kids up for failure down the road.
Treating special needs kids subhumanly because they can’t speak up for themselves…then belittling/reprimanding the staff who do advocate for them.
Giving preference to kids that parents donate money and fratranise with teachers/ headmasters.
I've seen this time and time again...the systems is way to broken.
Our assembly room/gymnaisum had the fire escape doors chained shut, and the police department was aware of it.
C9Juice says:
7 am classes
S_thyrsoidea replied:
7am classes in complete disregard for what the science says about adolescent development and sleep schedule, and the effect of early classes on academic success.
My school: you should sleep at least 9 hours a night Also my school: you must wake up at 6 in the morning
Making hair part of the uniform and dictating what hair styles and colours students are allowed to have. Also letting girls wear short skirts in summer but not letting boys wear shorts. I've seen quite a few schools in the news where the boys have had to protest and wear skirts in the summer because they weren't allowed shorts.
"Also letting girls wear short skirts in summer" while at the same time cry out loud in case of shoulder free top or barely visible bra strap, I presume.
Present opinions as facts.
I had a Social Studies asshole teacher/coach who told the class that if a girl is getting raped, she should relax and enjoy it. I got up and walked out. I spoke up, and nothing was done, since he was a coach. I was 14. The good old 70's.
Not care about students's mental health
Yup. I was really depressed at school and it was widely known. There was exactly one teacher who talked to me and tried to help. Everyone else just ignored me, obviously wasting away. I OD’d at school (like an idiot, I’d read that death would occur after 10-12 hours, so I did it at lunchtime thinking that 12 hours later I’d be in bed -, not realising symptoms would kick in a lot sooner than that) and literally started sliding off my desk during maths a few hours later. The teacher ignored it, until the guy sitting next to me suggested he should take me to the nurse because I didn’t look well…
Convincing kids that a 4-year institution after graduation is the best choice for everyone.
I think Boomers were the last generation to not be required by society to have a college degree in order to get a job!
Keeping bad teachers in their positions. Not the same as a good teacher with poorly performing students with bad home life etc.
People talk about students being able to grade and review teachers as a joke but it would actually be a great idea (especially if it can be done anonymously)
Humiliating and/or calling out students in front of the whole class
also saying things like "you'll never pass my class/get into Harvard/get into college" to the entire class for some reason always with a stupid, arrogant smirk on their face... The first two are true stories, the first from my Honors Algebra II teacher to a class of 15/16-year-olds and the second from my HONORS SCHOOL to a class of 14/15-year-olds which was supposed to prepare me for that exact thing!! What makes the second even worse is that the person who said it was... wait for it... THE SCHOOL COUNSELOR!!!
School counselors are actually just stuck up baboons who expect bullies to obey you by telling them to stop. WTF?
Only having one bathroom for open in a high school. There are 1000’s of kids.
The pledge of allegiance, confiscating kid's phones, withholding graduation ceremonies because they've labelled kids troublemakers, zero tolerance policies, ignoring and covering up bullying
Ripping off a Kids insulin pump and yanking out the IV line because you are too stupid to see it isn’t a phone
Professors selling their own books for their class
For us it's textbooks that have "amendments" every year. Like, why should I trust you if you keep making mistakes. lol
Over the top dresscode making girls feel like s**t because of it
Dress codes that are really different for boys and girls make no sense
Making kids sell magazines or whatever. Should be 100% illegal and I dunno what kind of parents stand for that bulls**t.
Diagnosing kids who aren't interested in the curriculum with ADHD. Still don't understand how I get diagnosed with ADHD in elementary school just for it to magically disappear halfway through middle school, for it then to reappear freshman year of high school just to disappear again sophomore year.
And then kids who actually have ADHD get told they're faking it. Misdiagnosis doesn't benefit anyone.
Not letting kids take part in a test because their parents havent paid.
Put make up exams during lunch. I’m running on no food for the past 21 hours because I had to skip lunch to do a makeup exam. Thank god the school day is almost over
Side note, I exercise a lot so I generally eat a lot so this s**t is really annoying
Selling 2x the number of parking passes than spots actually exist for, then imposing steep parking fines.
Yeah, that sucks.I guess they have to discourage students driving on campus somehow.
Note: this post originally had 40 images. It’s been shortened to the top 35 images based on user votes.
How about NASTY lunches? I know some kids who only eat school lunch (it's free here) and eat hardly any of it bc it is sooo bad and then end up hungry the rest of the day.
The funding of schools should be a massive priority, and it should be a massive vote winner for politicians. It isn't and it doesn't, and it completely baffles me. Why would you not pump a sponge like brain with everything you can. Maybe that kid becomes an engineer who solves a massive problem, a scientist who cures the common cold. I just don't know why you wouldn't throw everything at educating kids. School should be free, school lunches should be free, teachers shouldn't have to buy supplies (and they should get paid well), school trips should be free, there should be no fundraisers.... The US defense budget is $715 billion... There's about 50m kids in school. That's $14,300 per student. Imagine what they could do with that.
Maybe if kids were educated they wouldn't make the same mistakes the adults keep making as they actually learned history adequately.
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I had a teacher who would verbally abuse kids. One time he showed us an animated porn thingy. Everyone told the teachers, no one believed us. Until some kids got video proof and he was finally fired.
Being a nerd in school, I didn't friends up until seventh grade so I was really quiet and stumbled over words. The biggest bullies always end up being teachers, I only had a handful that took my anxiety issues seriously and eased me into talking in front of the class. The other teachers would punish kids with issues like me and it's absolutely NOT right. A child, even a teen, should not be punished because they're nervous, scared, have impairments, etc. It makes me wonder if any of those teachers were ever kids and not some kind of robot.
My kid is in kindergarten and we're already dealing with a class bully. I spoke to the teacher and apparently this girl pesters multiple classmates: hitting, scratching, biting, etc. One time she tried to kiss my son. We're in a freaking pandemic! Teach your kid to keep their slobber to themselves. And the response? Every parent got a message from the teacher reminding us that the kids need to keep their hands to themselves. But we all know the reason behind that message. Makes me wonder about the girl's home life.
“One bad apple ruins the whole bunch”/ collective punishment. My elementary school did this and I bet they were hoping we would forget. It was not just no recess it was you must walk these laps for recess/exercise punishment. I brought it up back then but no one will take a 9 year old seriously. They legit said that it was so “The good kids would pressure the bad ones to be better.” Like … that’s called bullying and isn’t that your job? Tbh my high school does this too with our lunches.
Almost all of these examples seem to occur only in the States. I work at a school and we don't have to deal with most of these problems.
They wonder why the obesity rates are so high. And give you 30 minutes for lunch; including the time it takes to walk to the cafeteria and to your next class, and the time taken to stand in line to get your food. Teaching kids to wolf down their meal as quickly as possible will get you overweight adults.
A bunch of these are just reality. Like you need to be prepared for reality.
If you're at a private, paid, or a religious school then some of these things are expected. And no one's forcing you to go.
How about NASTY lunches? I know some kids who only eat school lunch (it's free here) and eat hardly any of it bc it is sooo bad and then end up hungry the rest of the day.
The funding of schools should be a massive priority, and it should be a massive vote winner for politicians. It isn't and it doesn't, and it completely baffles me. Why would you not pump a sponge like brain with everything you can. Maybe that kid becomes an engineer who solves a massive problem, a scientist who cures the common cold. I just don't know why you wouldn't throw everything at educating kids. School should be free, school lunches should be free, teachers shouldn't have to buy supplies (and they should get paid well), school trips should be free, there should be no fundraisers.... The US defense budget is $715 billion... There's about 50m kids in school. That's $14,300 per student. Imagine what they could do with that.
Maybe if kids were educated they wouldn't make the same mistakes the adults keep making as they actually learned history adequately.
Load More Replies... I had a teacher who would verbally abuse kids. One time he showed us an animated porn thingy. Everyone told the teachers, no one believed us. Until some kids got video proof and he was finally fired.
Being a nerd in school, I didn't friends up until seventh grade so I was really quiet and stumbled over words. The biggest bullies always end up being teachers, I only had a handful that took my anxiety issues seriously and eased me into talking in front of the class. The other teachers would punish kids with issues like me and it's absolutely NOT right. A child, even a teen, should not be punished because they're nervous, scared, have impairments, etc. It makes me wonder if any of those teachers were ever kids and not some kind of robot.
My kid is in kindergarten and we're already dealing with a class bully. I spoke to the teacher and apparently this girl pesters multiple classmates: hitting, scratching, biting, etc. One time she tried to kiss my son. We're in a freaking pandemic! Teach your kid to keep their slobber to themselves. And the response? Every parent got a message from the teacher reminding us that the kids need to keep their hands to themselves. But we all know the reason behind that message. Makes me wonder about the girl's home life.
“One bad apple ruins the whole bunch”/ collective punishment. My elementary school did this and I bet they were hoping we would forget. It was not just no recess it was you must walk these laps for recess/exercise punishment. I brought it up back then but no one will take a 9 year old seriously. They legit said that it was so “The good kids would pressure the bad ones to be better.” Like … that’s called bullying and isn’t that your job? Tbh my high school does this too with our lunches.
Almost all of these examples seem to occur only in the States. I work at a school and we don't have to deal with most of these problems.
They wonder why the obesity rates are so high. And give you 30 minutes for lunch; including the time it takes to walk to the cafeteria and to your next class, and the time taken to stand in line to get your food. Teaching kids to wolf down their meal as quickly as possible will get you overweight adults.
A bunch of these are just reality. Like you need to be prepared for reality.
If you're at a private, paid, or a religious school then some of these things are expected. And no one's forcing you to go.
