134Kviews
30 Unnecessarily Ableist Things Students Saw Teachers Do, As Shared By Twitter
Humanity has progressed quite a lot when it comes to human rights, respect, tolerance, and the like, but there is still a ways to go as inequality and discrimination is still a thing—quite a big one, actually. And the internet has become a bit of a platform for people to share such experiences.
Shira (@shirainspired) recently went to Twitter to ask people what was the most unnecessarily ableist thing a teacher ever did to them. For those unaware, ableism means discrimination and social prejudice against a person with a disability. This is usually based on the belief that typical abilities are superior.
Image credits: shiraisinspired
A good number of people responded to her, sharing some of the most heartbreaking experiences they ever had in school.Bored Panda has compiled a list of some of these responses, which you can find, vote and comment on below.
This post may include affiliate links.
Teachers should be encouraging this. If i have a student that is a fast learner and well ahead of the others i will ask him/her to help those that are behind. This helps me out and it gives the student a sense of pride that he/she is doing something good.
I would report that if it was me ( then I would probably chicken out tho)
You should of had a word with her after class and tell her how degrading it was her acting like that.
That’s horrid. But if they trigger your gag reflex, take revenge and throw up on her.
“Get the Cotton out of your ears” is a really old saying, I’d actually bet the teacher didn’t know or remember this kid had hearing aids.
People think that we can control our ADHD but we really can't help it!
That's just dumb! You are a amazing artist if you are careful and you draw neatly! Teachers should be proud if their students are so neat and draw like that!
Just because someone seems lazy doesn’t mean that there isn’t something else going on. It’s hard not to think somethings like this but that’s still no reason to publicly shame someone
why tf do teachers have such a problem with mental math it is an important skill to develop
In kindergarten everyone who sat next to me tried to copy my answers. Always (unless it was my friends)
I’m left handed and would be horrified if someone did this to me. It’s dumb how people will shame others based off of what hand they write with
same. i also bend my wrist a lot. doesn't work too well (i'm right-handed but hold my hand like i'm left handed) but it works alright for drawing and i can type good.
Load More Replies...
The quadrupod grasp (the one on the left) was shown to be just as efficient as the so-called "ideal" tripod grasp (the one on the right) in an experiment. Trying to change a kid's grasp past the age of 8 doesn't really work because it's a hardwired motor habit by then, and anyway the tripod is no guarantee of handwriting legibility.
I am SCREENSHOTTING this and sending it to my dad!!!!!!! Thank you thank you thank you!
Load More Replies...
I think they wanted the ring finger not on the pen???? idk but it's still stupid
Load More Replies...
same i got yelled at when first learning to write because I held the pencil wrong I still hold the pencil the wrong way my writing just messy when I hold it the proper way
edit im homeschooled now and don't get yelled at
Load More Replies...
I was taught to write holding it like the left picture but have always been more comfortable holding it like the right picture. I was forced to use a rubber attachment on my pencils to force me to hold it "correctly"... I also have to turn my paper nearly 90° to write in a straight line, comfortably.
I was taught that the hold on the left is the proper one (better precision), and the hold on the right is a lazy one that leads to bad penmanship and weird finger calluses. I use the hold on the right.
This! I'm a professional painter and illustrator and that never made any sense to me! I also hold paintbrushes the way that makes sense to my hand, not the way that made sense for teachers.
I start out with the right pic but switch to the left pic on occasion
I hold it like in the left picture too, and my drawings are still pretty good if i do say so myself. My brother thinks ghey're really good too.
Infuriating. I hold my pencil between my middle and ring finger, instead of between my pointer and middle finger like most people do. So glad no one ever tried to force me to change. Had a teacher notice it was different and ask me about it, and it was the first time I really noticed I did it different, but when I just remarked that was how I wrote, and then tried doing it the "normal" way and found it difficult, she was just like "huh, interesting. you do you." And that was that. My writing was always a little messy but legible, and it was much worse if I tried to write the "right" way, so thankfully no one tried to force me to change.
Very similar to my experience where I was suposed to hold my pen higher.
Everyone I know tries to make me hold it the " normal way " so that I can " write better " excuse me my handwriting looks like I wrote with my left hand while on steroids if I write like that so no, doesn't work like that.. I hold it with four fingers for a r e a s o n ✨
i have to rig an entire contraption with a ring splint and a rubber band to make my fingers look anything like the first picture, because i have ehlers-danlos. if i try to just hold a writing implement i hyperextend my index finger and my handwriting is TERRIBLE
She was right in a way. The way you were holding your pen makes it so that your hand gets tired faster, your handwriting is messier than it needs to be, and you can't keep up with taking notes by hand. ...///... Learning to hold a pen correctly and relax your hand would have made your life a whole lot easier. ...///... the ONLY thing she did wrong was not explain that to you.
Be very very glad you hold it the way you do. Holding a pen like the pic on the right puts so much tension in your hand, and you end up with cramped fingers before you finish writing a paragraph. I try to hold it more like on the left, but habit/muscle memory is strong and within a few words my fingers have curled up again.
I’ve tried everything too. Tried and failed to just get used to holding it like the right side picture. Tried those grips. I can’t do it. It’s bizarre and I feel like it’s the reason why people’s handwriting is always so ugly and terrible. The left side is the correct way.
The number of girls in an all girls secondary school who weren’t allowed to use the toilet in class, even when saying to the male teachers they were on their period and had to go. It’s embarrassing enough being a teenager and conscious of having a period in the first couple of times, but made 100x worse when you can’t go to the toilet and change! I had to go home once cos it went through my clothes :( one of the most embarrassing moments of my life
Obviously those parents failed to instill a sense of self-confidence in their child, teacher furthered that inadequacy by the insensitive handling.
As a poor handwriter myself, I can empathize. Although I seldom had to rewrite - that could have been hard to handle.
I had to stop reading at one point because I was getting flashbacks to my fifth grade teacher. I have ADHD, and am a generally disorganized person, so in my 504 plan it says I can bring home an extra set of books so I couldn’t forget anything. My teacher refused to let me do that, so when I brought my books home she wouldn’t give me another set and mocked me for asking for another set. (we had extra books I could have easily taken.) She was also hard core racist and made the only black kid in our class color a confederate flag.
The list of times teachers have been insensitive to my autism and noise sensetivity is a long one. Back in first grade I keep disrupting class because I was having panic attacks due to overstimulation because of all the noise. My teacher told me that because of that my friends didn't like me and even went so far as to ask one of my friends to control my behavior. In second grade, my teacher suggested that my mom make lots of noise at home (which was my safe space) so I could get used to it. Thankfully, Mom didn't comply. There was also an incident in fourth grade that, while I was not a part of, I was a witness to. This kid is a bit distracted in class so the teacher tells him he has to stay after school. Kid starts crying because he has a doctor's appointment that day that he can't miss. Teacher yells at him for crying, which only makes things worse, and we're all watching wide-eyed as he does this going "what the frick, man?" Teachers can be surprisingly abusive at times...
Students having to go through this is disgusting! Adults in those positions are supposed to care for children / teens, not make life more difficult for them. I hope they get a good dose of karma. And learn from their mistakes.
As a child I used to have UTI's a lot and when I had to pee, there was no waiting. I had a teacher that wouldn't let me go, and I wet my pants right in my chair. They called my dad for clean clothes and the teacher was acting like my Dad should be upset with me. I remember him asking to see her in the hallway. I don't know what was said, but from that time on I was allowed to use the bathroom anytime I wanted.
Whatever your dad said, I like it. You should have been able to go when you needed to.
Load More Replies...
Had a racist teacher who mocked kids who had problems with pronounciation by "copying" them. She also told me to go to recess with the "native" kids instead of my best friend, who happened to be indian. Those are just the two examples I remember. Of course she was also playing favorites in general. And I was not allowed to read books after I finished my work, even though I always did well. She even checked under my desk to make sure I wasn't hiding any books. So very boring for me, until she sat me in front of the bookshelf and I just read under the table and put the book back afterwards :P I wrote her a letter when the year ended (together with my parents) and she confronted me in front of the whole class. I guess she didn't expect them to back me up, but they did, and it was such a grear feeling to know that I wasn't the only one who was irritated by her open racism. She hasn't changed a bit, though, whenever I bump into her she switches to the other side of the street 🤷🏼♀️
I have a skin condition that causes my skin to have different darker color splotches and in junior high I got called to the counselors because a teacher reported me and said I wasn't showering. So the school counselor literally asked me if I showered. I cried my eyes out. Yes bitch I shower this is a genetic problem. Crushed me
In 7th grade my adhd levels were peaking, my eyesight was plummeting, and I asked the teacher if I could sit in the front of the class, he pulled his eyes back and cried, “aww little Asian can’t see?” Such a jackass....
Gym teacher called my mom in for a meeting to discuss how I was lazy and always made excuses to get out of class. I avoided the exercises because I was clumsy and I seemed to hurt myself doing anything. Dodgeball? Couldn't throw for s**t and getting hit by the ball would bring me to tears. Years later I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, so the normal pain anyone would get from a potential hockey ball to the face would be amplified on me. I was right to fear pain.
As someone autistic, I would doodle in class. Usually my teachers were not that bad when it came to me doodling (though you could see the eye twitches), BUT they were not fine if my doodles were cartoon or anime style. I had pages ripped from my notebooks, I had class work publicly torn up, I had shouted "lectures" in the open corridors from the art teachers about how cartoons are degrading what art is, I got detention for drawing a Pikachu. I giggle sometimes now because I have been doing paid art commissions of my "degrading cartoons" during lockdown.
I have a few issues, because of them I have a 504 in school, which means teachers aren't allowed to grade my handwriting. Back in fourth grade, I had teacher who made my classmates and I write a lot of notes and definitions. At the end of the day, we would take our journals to the front of class and the teacher would look at them. He would approve everyone else's notes, but when he looked at my journal he would say things like "You're being lazy" and "Your handwriting should not be that sloppy." On time, I was writing the most notes I'd ever done. My hand was aching by the time I was done. The teacher took one look at my notes and said "All of this needs to be rewritten." On top of that, he also wrote rude comments like "Your handwriting is terrible!" on my tests. My mother was furious when I brought home my first graded test with a comment on it. She spoke with the principal. It was fine though, due to an unrelated reason we moved away in the middle of the school year.
I currently have a teacher who likes to call peopel out and ridicule them in front of the class. I have severe EDS that had put me in a wheelchair (I can move my legs). I also have extremely embarrassing GI symptoms and my joints frequently dislocate at the slightest wrong movement. One week, I was have a flare and very very sick. I felt nauseous and I was having horrible stomach pain, but I had a test this week so I had to go. Of course I have this teachers class, and I twist wrong, dislocating my shoulder. I Yelp in pain and she pulls me into the front of the class saying "DO YOU THINK ITS OK TO BE DISRUPTIVE ON MY TIME?!" And as I protest, I'm injured, she has the audacity to point out I don't need my wheelchair because I can "move my legal
Students and children are not perfect, they do not no everything by instinct, and they are not adults either! I am absolutely disgusted
Not really an abelist story, but a story about an asshole of a teacher: My friend Max is nonbinary. We both live in Missouri. Max emailed all thier teachers asking them to change their name and pronouns. 5/7 actually changed their name, 2/7 changed their pronouns. But one teacher even went so far as to shame them in class calling them "broken" and that their gender was "just a trend". I admittedly was scared of this teacher, so I didn't say anything, but did follow Max when they ran out of class. We didn't say anything to each other, but just ate Taki's in the girls restroom for the rest of the hour. needless to say, adults can be mean.
First day of first grade. We were given a pencil, reader and math workbook, then told to organize our desks. I read the book and started the math workbook. The teacher was furious and made me stand in front of the class and say oink oink. How could a desk with only 3 things in it be messy? Organizing my desk was absurd. I was considered a problem, a reputation that stuck. We moved, suddenly I was considered smart and well behaved.
I have learning disabilities, the same ones as my son. He was diagnosed in fourth grade, I was 35. Writing without editing produces garble. Missing words, spelling mistakes etc. My son easily reads what I write inserting the missing words and understanding the misspelled words.
Load More Replies... According to his school work and standardized tests my son had above average math skills. He didn't "act" smart, so he never received an A on his report card, nor was considered for advanced math class. He begged me to get him a more difficult math class. At my insistence, the principle talked to my son, "You shouldn't parrot your mother" In anger, he said, "My mother wants me to be happy. Nothing else matters. I want to be in a more difficult math class. She is helping me get what I want. It has nothing to do with her." They were speechless and changed his math class. Of course he did well. Still no A's on his report card, the excuses were absurd. He is a civil engineer now.
I have ADHD, borderline and anxiety disorders, had them all my life. But litterally nobody ever thought that would mean I might struggle with some things or feeling uncomfortable because of something. Because nobody listened to me, I learned to answer every problem with extreme stubbornness and aggressiveness because it was the only way to make them listen and respect my needs. The only thing it lead to was making me prone to get anger outbursts when I get into problem situations, and I can't control it most of the time. It's awful - just because nobody wanted to listen. Not even my own parents.
One of the worst parts about having awful teachers like this is the fact that they get excused because they're adults with jobs. Like no matter how horrible they are there's always people that'll be like "Wellllllll...... they work so harrddd they're probably stresseedddddd" or "Don't be so disrespectful to your teacher they're the adult!" Like no Carole that doesn't excuse ableism!!
My mom tried to use the first justification once. My 7th grade special education teacher once started yelling at me because I was having a mental breakdown, and when I told my mom, she said "Maybe she was just stressed/having a bad day". Ironically, she didn't make the same excuses for me.
Load More Replies...
At age 6 I was afraid of being underwater and would refuse to put my head in the water in swimming pools etc. The swim teacher at my school first mocked me for this, then tried to "fix" it by putting her foot on my head and literally keeping me fully underwater like that. I have no idea how long, and dont actually remember this, but I do remember the therapy sessions that followed.. Im now 35 and still panic when water hits my face.
That sounds extremely traumatizing. I’m so sorry that happened to you.
Load More Replies... I had to stop reading!!! It HURTS MY HEART as a Mother and a Teacher to read these. I don't understand how you can teach and not CARE about your students, ALL YOUR STUDENTS!!! I hope that for every person here that had an experience like that, you had 5 positive experiences!!! Please know we are not all like that!! Even us older teachers!!!!
All these stories are terrible! It honestly sucks that so many people have experiences like this. I thought my teachers were okay until I realized recently that they constantly ignored my social anxiety (participation grades are the worst).
Gym teacher - 7th grade: Always watched the boys in the shower to make sure we were actually taking showers. I was successful at evading the showers for weeks. He catches me and forces me to take a shower. Sees the bruises and marks on my back and legs from where my abusive father beat me. Says NOTHING.
A lot of these are not just examples of unnecessary ableism, but also examples of misuse of power and psychological/emotional abuse. I find it especially horrible when the teacher is the abuser/bully, because he/she/they chose this profession and can negatively effect so many children or young adults through out the years. I think this a very serious problem that should not be taken lightly! Victims of psychological abuse can develop similar or worse (!) mental health problems than victims of sexual or physical abuse. Mental health problems like low self-esteem, ptsd, anxiety, depression or suicidal tendencies. I am really sorry for all the victims of these abusive teachers. This should have never happened and I hope they are all doing well now. Schools should be safe places for learning and developing skills and it should not matter if you have a physical/mental disability or a neurodiverse brain (the same goes for gender, partner preference, race, ethnicity, culture, etc).
I worked with a girl years ago when we were both freshman in college. She was going to school to be an elementary school teacher. She was from a small town (we live in the south) she said how she hoped she didn’t have any little “n word” in her class. Some people should not be teachers.
I once got my mouth sellotaped to my head for asking/testing a teacher.
There are teachers who choose their profession because they truly want to educate kids and make the world a better place. Unfortunately there are also teachers who want to coast and make their lives as easy as possible... who are also cruel and insensitive human beings. I'm sure we've all experienced one form of humiliation or another from a teacher who had no business in that profession. I had a fourth grade teacher who was curt and impatient with all the students. Just a mean, miserable person. One afternoon I started feeling really nauseous and knew I was going to throw up. I went to her desk to tell her, and she said something insulting and told me to sit down. I puked all over her desk. That'll show her!
This isn't ableist at all, these teachers are just straight up assholes.
i'm even more appreciative of my limited contact with the public school system now. there are the amazing teachers you hear about who spend money from their own inadequate paychecks to buy supplies for their students and will fight tooth and nail to take care of them, and then there are the teachers in this thread. i feel so bad for all of the kids with mental or physical issues, which is a LOT of kids. i was lucky enough to be in a magnet school for kindergarten and 1st, a private school for 2nd and 3rd, and then homeschooled after that point. i got my GED and started at community college at age 15, graduated about ten years later. i have enough issues (both mental and physical) that public high school could very well have killed me.
Our school had a tornado warning and we had to hurry to take shelter. I had a panic attack and started crying, and our school vice principal told me loudly to stop crying because I was scaring the other kids. I was in fourth grade at the time.
Mentioned a few bad ones already but this one always makes me smile. One time after walking in through the school entrance was called aside by the Deputy Head, who started ranting at my disregard for school rules for wearing make up. She DEMANDED I TAKE OFF MY MASCARA UP RIGHT NOW! and honestly, this was one of the most satisfying moments of my life. didn’t believe me when I said I wasn’t wearing any, get called a liar. She asks me again, this goes back and forth. Until I say I can assure you I am not wearing mascara, look - then rub my eyes and eyelashes and ta-da! No make up! The look on her face was priceless. No apology, she just mumbled “well don’t’ do it again” and stormed off. Very strange incident but very satisfying (:
Don't do it again? What do you mean don't do it again? Don't have eyelashes again? Or don't make your eyelashes look like they have mascara on them, even though you can't change you genetics? I have no idea what this teacher means.
Load More Replies...
This is evil. I have bad handwriting, and have been somewhat shamed for it, but this is insane. I can't imagine it. For any kid who can relate to this- ask your parents to homeschool and tell them your reasons. This is a ridiculous and I feel that at least half are white and grew up from the 40-60s when this was actually WAY more common. I did not believe we lived in a George-and-Harold world, but we do. I am terrified to see this, and all of these teachers need to get fired.
I only recently heard this term but looking back I realize that I did have a teacher who was ableist. I have Asperger's as well as social anxiety. Group games such as tag make me anxious. On more than one occasion my gym teacher put me in time out for not playing the game. Upon hearing about this my mom had my psychologist come talk to the teachers about my social anxiety. Even after that this teacher still didn't seem to get it. 🙄
Had a biology teacher make fun of me everytime we did dissection in class for wearing gloves. I finally said i wanted to talk to her in the hall and INFORMED her that formyldhyde (sorry bad at spelling it) was absorbed thru the skin. My mother taught in the biology dept of the local junior college. And had an english teacher that found a note i wrote (she was a horrible teacher even by moms standards) and read it out loud to everyone of her classes. It was my last class and everybody told me what she was doing. Another english teach refused to help me when i couldnt do somerhing she asked us to do claiming nobody else knew either. Everybody was half way thru the assignment asked my best friend ro help me then the teacher decided to shed help told her never mind i got someone to help. Yeah strqight to the principles office. I had a learning disability and adhd all in my records. The principle understood my issues and helped when he could. Home life was hell and achool was hell.
One other drama director who i had put all my work into right along side my bff (he was yr ahead) my senior wouldnt unlock the school doors to let me leave.for work and had to climb out the window. She told me i had to wait for a break. Umm 1 hr later. Nope. At then end of the year i didnt make the drama/choir banquet because i was working. Everybody told me the next monday that i had won an award, an award that was vkted on by my.peers. when i went to pick it up she told me if it had been her choice i wouldnt have gotten it. My high school was bad. Most of the teachers couldnt care less. Glad i got out of the town after graduation.
Load More Replies...
DOODLING, drawing or note taking: If you, as a teacher, are too ignorant to know that different people learn differently, and some of us need to keep our hands and/or eyes occupied while we listen and concentrate on what we're hearing, then you need better training or you need to find a new career.
This is why I went homeschooling. Haven't been bullied since, and I'm flourishing!
I was called careless and lazy for years when it came to reading and writing work. I wasn't diagnosed with dyslexia until my second attempt at university. I have been told that if it happened today it would be caught and there would be help, so at least I hope it's better now.
Every single one of these stories is absolutely heartbreaking and disgusting. As a public school teacher (for every grade from K-7th grade) for most of my adult life, I can't fathom how any of these horrific things could go without the teacher/adult in charge being sacked. It's obscene. I'm so sorry to all of these poor children for the abject horror of these experiences. This is NOT what teaching is. Ever.
I had numerous teachers accuse me of cheating due to I write differently all the time with a pen due to nerve damage in my hands. I also had a teacher not believe I needed glasses so I needed to sit in the front. Which was only reserved for the jocks who were on his basketball team. Even my mother tried calling no luck stuck in the back. He got so bad and said just do what you want I don't care so he eventually failed me for not being about to see the write board. We could not afford glasses at the time due to insurance restrictions.
My school best friend has adhd (undiagnosed then). She was brilliant but she would doodle in class and be a bit odd. When she was 8-10 (we were in different classes) the teacher sat her alone and told the other kids that she would punish them if they played with her. For two years she sat apart from others. She was bullied since then and never had friends until her 12s. I hope that this bich died alone and sad.
Back mid 70s my second grade teacher liked to take things from the kids an put them I. Her desk til end of year. I got a small gold locket with a diamond for Christmas an wore it to school. I touch it because I was tucking it back in my shirt an she told me to take it off. I cried an said "no call my mom!" She undid it an put it in her desk. I told my mom after school an the teacher lied and said I must have lost it. The principle came an forced her to unlock her desk. I stood there it. It wasn't there. But I saw the chain hanging from her pocket an elbowed my mom to look. They called her out for it. She was going to steal it along with other kids items to give to her kids at home. She got fired. The principle literally made her clean out her desk an pack in front of us. I just wanted my locket. I still have it.
Seriously? A teacher that thinks it is acceptable to steal a kid's things? I am glad that she got fired.
Load More Replies...
How and why some of these teachers got their jobs (and kept them) is beyond me.
My teacher didn't let me retake a test because, and I quote, "You shouldn't have rushed." I was really stressed and hungry and just wanted to finish so I could eat. I even explained that to her and that I could do better when I was calmer. She still was convinced I just rushed. She has been sarcastic and kind of rude to me before, so I except nothing better of her.
I had terrible pains in my joints and exercise made me exhaisted. I tried my best, but was constantly ridiculed by my PE teacher. He told I was lazy or not trying. During dance classes he made me clean the sport equipment room (part of his job). I was 15 and we had to take Cooper's test. While I slowly paced past him, he yelled at me I couldn't probably make it home by night, because I was slower than a tortoise. Later I was diagnoded with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, all my connective tissues are weak to a mutation in DNA. My muscles, joints, heart and lungs just don't work properly. I still sometimes think about going back there, to the PE class, and publicly shaming him for all those times he made me miserable.
One of my school juniors had migraine. The girl is literally crying with head ache and the principal refuses to send her back home. Thinks it's normal for the 7year old kid and she needs to live with it.
I once had a migraine when I was seven too. I didn't know it yet, but at least my teachers were nice about it. We didn't even know I was sick a all, and I didn't tell them I felt bad. Only when I threw up on my teachers desk did we know that I was actually sick. Good thing I got sent home.
Load More Replies...
My roll call teacher in Year 11 would tell me, in front of the rest of the class, that I needed a help and should go and see the school counselor. I also suffered anxiety (which I didn't know until years later) and would often feel sick in the mornings. I told the teacher and asked if I could sit outside to get some air. She followed me out of the classroom and said "you know, if you're feeling sick in the morning, there could be a good, old fashioned reason for that". I was 16 edited to add: not really abelist, I guess. I misunderstood the description. I thought we were just talking about asshole teachers
This is not about ableism, these are just horrible teachers who bully kids!
I was engaged to my husband in high school, I had a guidance counselor tell me that if I got married right out of high school and didn't go to college I would have crippling debt, never be able to own a home, and my marriage won't last..well I'm 25 and at 21 I had my own home and land several vehicles paid for never went to college neither did my husband and I am in less debt than probably all of the kids who went to college I had a child at 22 and we are getting ready to purchase a business. Teachers can be so mean and for that I do not want my child so be exposed to something like that I will home school her as long as possible!
I was about 10 years old (35 years ago). I was with a school friend, Adam, outside someones house on their driveway talking up to them as they lent out of their bedroom window. Adam was talking up to him & kept taking steps backwards towards the road. A car came as he reached the curb & started to lose his balance. I grabbed him and pulled him way from the road just as the car went by. Then I noticed it was one of our very strict female teachers driving but thought nothing more of it. Next morning at primary school that teacher was giving the morning assembly to the whole school. She started by saying how she saw something completely abhorrent and sickening the previous day and told a story about how she saw a student of the school push someone else out into the road right in front of her. She then called my name and told me to come up to the front and gave me a bollocking in front of everyone & wouldn't accept my version of events. I cheered the day she died years later.
This whole article makes me sad. Deeply sad. I'm a child of the 70s, so I'm much older than the people sharing these stories. In grade school I had undiagnosed ADHD. It wasn't a thing back then and there certainly wasn't any kind of treatment. I was just lazy and stupid. I experienced incredible bullying by teachers. I had hoped things would have changed by now, that teachers were more aware and were better trained. After reading this it seems that nothing has changed. My heart breaks for all these kids and what they have to endure from adults who should know better.
In grade school we were taken to tje library to pick out a book. I picked "Ivanhoe" because I'd just finished "La Morte d'Arthur." My teacher made me put it back because it was "too advanced for my grade level"... Got even by spending the rest of the year turning in book reports on Michener novels. Was I bluffing? Only one way to find out.
I am borderline ADHD, and my sixth grade Social Studies teacher used to constantly single me out. When she retired, I sent her a card that read, "Stay sweet and kind!" with coconut chocolates, because I knew she hated them. Mind you...I was in sixth grade.
Some of these stories hit home I taught for 25 years and tried to wear the microphone for a student but she said I was too loud. I wasn’t allowed to do a lot of things in school because I was ADDHD and had PTSD. I made sure I did t treat my students the same way. My son is also ADHD and told one of his teachers she didn’t know what she was talking about. She called me. I asked what she had said and repeated you don’t know what your talking about but I will talk to my son about tact and diplomacy. She was teaching about the Philippines and we had lived there for 4 years.
My Kindergarten teacher almost never let me go to recess because I didn't finish my work in the time allotted so I had to do it during recess. My 3rd grade teacher wouldn't give me extra time to do my work because I was "lazy" so it was incomplete most of the time. In 4th grade I was diagnosed with ADD. I wasn't diagnosed before that because I didn't have "enough symptoms." Personally I think that meant that I wasn't annoying enough because I wasn't hyperactive. My 4th grade teacher was "amazed" at the difference when I was prescribed Ritalin.
Ahh makes me think of the one time I was finally starting to feel comfortable enough to stim in class and got yelled at because I was being disrespectful to the teacher (I was tapping the side of my head how the h**l is that disrespectful) and never stimmed in any class except two again.
Oof reminds me of my 2nd grade teacher for 2 things: 1) I always liked to doodle and still do as it helps me pay attention, so I would doodle all over my desk and then she would make me stay during recess and clean it. That one is pretty reasonable because yea. The 2nd one makes me mad tho: 2) So we always had play time in the class, and this one day I decided I wasn't really interested in playing and asked if I could do some math stuff instead. She told me no, then when I started crying, wouldn't let my friends WHOM SHE WANTED ME TO PLAY WITH near me to comfort me
Oh man, the s**t i had to endure... besides the bs for the adhd (undiagnosed till I was 32 because I wasn't the 'correct' sort of hyper), all of my teachers ignored and disbelieved my physical problems. My body has pretty gnarly structural issues and what my gym teachers made me do made everything so much worse. Even my doctors didn't believe me (oh you'll grow out of it!) Yeah, ill grow out of permanently dislocated kneecaps. Right... I want to punch them all in their stupid faces. It was so rare that anyone believed my pain. Some teachers were great, and understood that children are actual people with real bodies, and the rest should have chosen some other profession.
When I was 12, my class teacher mentioned to my Mom at a PTA meeting that she had to put me in the front row in class, as I couldn't seem to focus on the blackboard, she suggested that I have my eyes checked. I wore glasses for years after that. In my whole school life, I think there was only 1 teacher who was unreasonable. Btw, I was a polio victim, never got teased, mocked, or bullied.
Omg this reminds me of when I was in 3rd or 4th grade and my teacher yelled at me because i wasn't doing my homework. I wasn't doing my homework because i was having these spells after school which made me pass out and sleep for like 3 hours straight and the school didn't even have the idea to tell my teacher.
I could probably write an entire novel on my own experiences with ableist teachers, but one that definitely springs to mind is one of my elementary school teachers getting mad at me for making my snowman craft a "snow-owl". I thought it was cute and creative, but she made me alter it so it looked more like a snowman. The snow-owl looked a lot better, too.
My son got a tongue in cheek award for most circuits of the class room. I worked in the school so I asked her about it. She said during class my son would get up and walk around the room, but she said he always knows what is going on and answers questions correctly. Teachers had told us he always left a trail of debris and getting him to complete work was tough. Sometime it was just not turned in, he had it, he'd just not turn it in. I asked the teacher if she thought he had ADHD, she was very hesitant but said yes. We took him for evaluation and sure enough ADHD and anxiety. The teachers never want to tell families what they think since they have had problems with parents getting angry. One teacher said many parents don't see it so they don't believe them and think they are making it up. My thought was I don't have any other kids to compare him to the teachers take was more informed than mine.
This made me incredibly sad, because I can't believe that teacher, who we should be able to admire, can be so cruel. I remember my fourth grade teacher going ballistic because I always had to go to the bathroom right before or during the test. She thought I was going into the bathroom to cheat. However, it was a nervous condition I had. Before a test, my bowels would practically liquify with nervousness. One day I really had to go to the bathroom and my teacher wouldn't let me. Afraid that I was about to have an accident, I got up and went anyway. My mother was called and the teacher was very insulting. My mother got really angry and told her that if she ever stopped me from going to the girls' room again, there would be HUGE consequences. But why did it have to go that far?
All of these resonate so hard with me...I went to a Catholic school for elementary and middle school, so if it didn't happen to me, it happened to one of the other kids in the class. My favorite gym teacher, on the other hand, broke the pattern. I was a chunky kid, with as-yet-undiagnosed scoliosis (it turned out to be very severe, and I needed surgery). The gym assignment that day was basic exercise moves, including sit-ups with a partner holding our feet down, something that was impossible for me to do...but I tried anyway. The other kids mostly laughed at me, but this teacher made a point of announcing to the class, that not only was I being given an "A" for the assignment, I was being given the "A" because not only did I try my hardest, but when it was my turn to hold another girl's feet down, I cheered her on...showing sportsmanship. Not long after that, I was diagnosed, so I always wondered if that gym teacher gave my parents a heads-up.
My oldest daughter got kicked out of an American Government class in high school because the teacher was spouting inappropriate extremist views and she disagreed with him and cited examples. She was a straight-A student. The principal walks by and sees her sitting in the hallway and asks, "what's up". When she tells him, he walks her back into the classroom and hauls the teacher outside. It was great!
High school magazine and writing contest. I submitted 6 poems, 5 dealt with objectively contemplating suicide. Won 2nd prize. Not one single adult asked if I was ok. I was far from it.
Oh my god. Are you okay now? Idk how old you are but idfc, someone shoulda asked!!!!
Load More Replies... I had to stop reading and leaving comments because of what teachers were doing to students past and present. Some of my best friends are teachers. And I have worked in the school system as a counselor for years and moved on to private industry. I have seen teachers denigrate students over and over again. Especially if they have ADHD, ADD, need an IEP or 504 Plan. They don't feel such conditions exist, they don't feel the student needs medication or any type of special consideration. This only serves as a setback for the student. To those teachers, if you cannot have empathy or care for these students might I suggest you switch to another line of work which I know is not easy or just lighten up a little please. You are having an effect on this person's future.
It seems from these that teachers who can't deal with non typical kids because they take a bit more effort, or consideration, or preparation, shouldn't be teachers at all. Guess it's not part of teacher training, so it's just luck if you get an actual kind and considerate human being for a teacher
This probably won't be a popular comment but half of these have nothing to do with ableism...... As a disabled person it just doesn't feel like ableism is taken very seriously at all. Yes some of these are disgustingly ableist but others have nothing to do with any disability. Please don't water down a subject that is actually really serious!
I'm going to add one more comment. Had a great math teacher in 7th grade. In 8th grade, we did several sections. Got to square roots. Before calculators, we had to figure them out, looked a lot like long division. I did really well. We go on to the next section, and I am just not getting it. Teacher tries everything, but I just Don't get it. All these years later I can't even remember what it was. But great teacher gives me a list of numbers to take home and do square roots. He did this during the whole section, and kept making the numbers longer. By the time the numbers were too long to figure out, the section was done. He was another really good teacher. He could have just flunked me on that section, but instead gave me extra credit.
I had an algebra teacher, 9th grade, he puts an equation on the board, and I ask what it means. His reply: "it doesn't matter, just memorize it." Yes it does matter a great deal. 10th grade, geometry. All we did was proofs. The Entire year. Never knew there was actually more to geometry. And I could never understand hiw to do them. Managed to pass both classes, but only because they didn't want a failure on their records. Skip to freshman in college, and I take scuba diving. Every week we had math problems to work out. Nice equations having to do with dive times, depths, you know life and death. Every bit of the equation was explained. So me, horrible in math? Not really, never got a single one wrong. Wasn't me bad at msth. Was really bad teachers.
Every one of these teachers should have been fired during the first year.
Once upon a time, I had a teacher (lets call her a-head) at one point who called me out for "being bad at math". My scores on tests were 100%. She then MOCKED me for being dyslexic and ADHD wielder. She kept trying to get me in trouble. One of the nicer teachers (call her nicy) told her to back off and leave me alone. She didn't stop. "Nicy" took matters to the principle. Principle stopped her by suspending a-head. She NEVER mocked me AGAIN. The end of this story. Have a sweet day and may the burdens of the world be lifted from your shoulders.
My élémentary school teacher was very hard to me because she was best friends with my mom and didn't want anyone to think she was giving me special treatment because of that. So she did the exact opposite. One day I was crying again and she asked "why are you crying ? I should be the one crying for having a student like you !"...
After a presentation (admittedly a poorly prepared one) my French teacher asked me in front if the whole class if I had ever had speech therapy cause it sounded like I had a speech impediment. I almost developed a stutter after that because I felt so self conscious.
I have a friend who suffers from incontinence since she was born. Most teachers were aware of this, and generally gave her permission to use the bathroom any time, to change her ... let's call it special underwear. One thought "if she is wearing a diaper anyway, why would she need to change it outside of the regular breaks?", which she intentionally did to not meet too many other students who'd then make fun of her. Resulted in a major leakage during class - when something is full filling it further won't work -, that was so embarrassing to her she didn't even go to school for a whole week. Until then, she had somehow managed to avoid it being publicly known, afterwards, everyone knew. She, later on, didn't hide it anymore, but this was 2nd or 3rd grade - you're not that strong and aware and stuff at that age that you don't laugh at a "Baby still wearing nappies". Also - most of the ADHD posts I can relate to. A few I could have written word for word about myself.
Oh geez. These sound so much like my school experiences. I had very severe Tourette's in elementary school and was picked on a lot by bullies. They would mock me and physically assault me while the teacher's back was turned. Of course the teacher turned around as I was defending myself. The real icing on the cake was the Principal told my parents _I_ was at fault because my behavior "instigated the problems" with the other kids. Didn't help matters that by mid to late elementary I had become a shy withdrawn kid who was self-tormented by the tics and other problems. I was the bully's dream victim. Small wonder I have PTSD to this day from it.
Let's be really honest here. Most of these teachers are displaying forms of sadism and probably sexual sadism, they are getting off on power, control, humiliation, bullying, and abuse. We teach kids about stranger danger, never about the inappropriate behavior of adults who seek positions to be closer to children for their own deviant purposes.
This thread has really upset me. There are some truly horrible people working in the teaching profession: I am sure that they all have background issues which lead to them needing to humiliate and hurt children but I don't really care. These monsters should be in therapy not in classrooms 😡
I hate when this happens. Reminds me of the time when I was in 3rd grade, and my soccer coach forced us to call people that weren't good crap. We were third graders. And he was forcing third graders to be rude and mean to other third graders. And I'll say that I wasn't good...
Who weren't good at soccer. He would be plain out disgusting if we were told to do it to people in public.
Load More Replies... In the 80s my high school decided to allow teachers to search book bags. I caught a corn snake (for city folk, a corn snake is non-venemous, but looks and acts like a rattlesnake)... That was the first and last time my teacher decided to try embarrassing me by searching my bag in front of the class.
I've been a teacher for a few years now, and these just make me so sad. I'm definitely not the most perfect teacher by any means, but I at least try to care about my students.
I was horribly bullied by a group of students in grade 8, I told the teacher and she didn't believe me because the students were her 'precious' French immersion students, I hate that bitch to this day (is was 29 years ago)
My teacher would arrange a meeting. Change the time. Not tell me then report me saying she was concerned for my mental health as I missed the meeting. Oh, I'm a teacher with thirty years experience and never been late or absent for a meeting in my life either before or after this one line manager. Never experienced gaslighting until then.
I once had a high school teacher who was a nun holler at me in front of everyone for trying to surreptitiously go into my locker for a maxi pad on my way to the restroom. She was convinced I had drugs in there, even though she was acting like she snorted some herself.
Hey guys, comment with something great a teacher has done for you! People make bad decisions sometimes, but they also make great ones. Please share! Your blood pressure will go down.
My teacher once yelled at me in front of the whole class that animals didn't belong on the first page of my English textbook.. He even called me stupid, while my classmates just stare at him as if he was crazy. I drew a ''cover'' on the first page of EVERY textbook through my elementary and middle school.
I was in 7the grade art and I really loved to color and draw. Well we did some assignment and however we had to color it, I didn’t like the way it looked (I think it was taking crayons, unwrapping them and doing sideways rubs). Well I did it a different way and it looked really good!! Cue art teacher, who snags it out of my hands and yells in front of 30 other students “that’s not how it’s supposed to be done!” And she slams my art into the metal trash can. I’m utterly embarrassed and shocked. I stopped doing art after that. I’m 36 and now coming around to doodling and stuff but I feel like that really killed my love of art.
At parents evening when I was 7 my mum told the teacher I had been struggling in class because of problems at home which resulted in bed wetting, teacher chewed me out for wetting the bed the next day called me a cretin
A teacher got the idea to lock the classroom door when he got in. I was 15, and ran up tje stairs, just too see him give me a smirk and pull the door closed just as I reached it. I knocked, asked him to let me in. Got an answer I did not like. So I kicked in the bloody door and told him he was an idiot as I walked to my desk. I was already best in class, and knew he did not like me due to my parents religion. Never got any heat from the incident and got the higest possible grade (5 out of 5). Swedish Lappland, mid 80's.
I had a high school teacher who unintentionally embarrassed me. It was in creative writing class. We had to give an oral report on our interpretations of song lyrics. I got up to do mine and the popular kids group were talking and laughing. My teacher stood up and screamed at the class about making fun of people and stormed out of the classroom. I stayed standing at the front of the class for a bit and the kids told me they weren’t talking about me. I sat down. He came in and told me to finish my report.
To get political, I really think if teachers were paid high and would be respected by society, a lot fewer of these monsters were running around in schools.
You have no idea what you're talking about. The average teacher in my district earns 105K for 8 months of work. They retire on 6 figure pensions for life! They get tenured after 3 years and cannot be fired for being inept, lazy, or much else
Load More Replies...
Over the course of 11 grades, I had managed to get two teachers kicked out. One was lazy and sexist and didn't take the teacher role throughout my finals exam project, the other was abusive (which I'm gonna talk about). I had an English teacher in 7th grade who ended up hurting me and getting kicked out. It was her class, and one of the other kids passed me a note saying something like 'hey, {my name}'. I took it and gave it back with a '?'. When she passed it back, the teacher noticed and tried to snatch the note. I would have given it to her, but she's dug her nails into my hand and tried to take it forcefully within a second - way before I could process what's going on. She ended up leaving a wound with her nail that lasted for weeks. My mother had threatened to complain to newspaper agency (she had some good friends there). The teacher ended up being fired.
#3 & my son's event. when i was in 4th grade i had a city library card. it was marked with a "J" for juvenile, meaning it restricted the kind of books i could borrow. when i found out i couldn't borrow other books i mentioned it to my mom...who went down to the library, had a discussion w/librarian in regards to 'not locking up knowledge' & signed a permission letter to get me an unlimited card. mom was awesome! as for my son who was born w/craniofacial deformity, during school pics was hounded to smile which looked like a ridiculous grimace bc of deformity. after being badgered he told the person to take the f'ing pic; was sent to principal. i told her yes, he was wrong but the adult in the room was the photographer who shouldn't badger a kid. he didn't get suspended but i did make him write a letter of apology to the photographer. hey, being right for standing up for yourself doesn't give you the right to be abusive to them in doing so.
Drawing: when my daughter was in the fifth grade, her teacher forbid her to draw or doodle on any of the worksheets. As a very gifted child on the spectrum, she would finish her work quite early, and had not been given any activity or direction for what to do when she was finished. I sent in blank sheets of printer paper. I hand labeled them "Drawing Paper," with the day's date AND my signature. I instructed my daughter that it was always OK for her to draw if she was finished with her work, and that she should only use the paper I sent her or other blank paper, and not the papers that she gets for classwork. The first day of having my labeled paper, the teacher told her to stop drawing (she was drawing on the blank back, of course, not the front that I had "cluttered up" with my writing). She showed the teacher the other side, with my title in my signature. The teacher never bothered her again, and she quit drawing on her schoolwork!
I am a high school teacher, an English teacher. I work with high risk students, students who have struggled in school for years and are at risk for failing one or more classes, possibly not graduating from high school.
Load More Replies... 1) So, so many of these abuses happened to me, my parents or my daughter. 2) SOME of this horrible behavior has disappeared as incompetent teachers retire and improved education and screening is used for new teachers. 3) One of my major motivations for becoming a teacher is literally so that I can be different from the horrible "teachers" I personally have encountered, and the horrible people I know many of my students have had in their past.
These aren't examples of "ableism". However, they are examples of many other things... cruelty in particular.
this is ableism, its the favoring of people who don't have physical problems *or* mental problems, where each of these has at least one
Load More Replies...
It wasn't until I was an adult that I found out I was on the autism spectrum. The first second grade teacher thought students should be statues in class, and at the time, I would occasionally fidget, to where she said I needed Ritalin or something. In the end, my parents had me switch to another class, and from then on, nobody else complained about my "fidgeting." I also found out as an adult that I had dyscalculia which made high school algebra and geometry the hardest classes I took. The effort I put in to get a C- in those classes would have earned me an A in every other class I took in high school. The teacher I had for geometry didn't like those of us who struggled to understand the material, so I dreaded that particular class period.
When I was in 5th grade, I was horsing around outside during recess with a friend, and my shirt got torn. So I had a big hole in the front. It just so happened we had class photos that same day, and my teacher was furious. She basically yelled at me in front of the whole class saying I was a horrible kid, and that I would never amount to anything in my life, and that she hated teaching me. I just stood there shocked because I was one of the smarter students, and aside from having a big mouth, pretty well behaved. The experience made me question myself and had lasting trauma. Anyhow, I ended up becoming a teacher myself, and I went back to sub at the same elementary school while getting my credential. The teacher had retired a few years before, and all the other teachers said she was a total bitch and that they were glad she was gone.
Halfway through 5th grade my family moved. We were learning the states with geography and while I was taking the test, I spelled Missouri wrong. The teacher put me on a stool in front of the class and made me wear a cone on my head that had "dumb" written on it.
my teacher had me and some other people clean out someone else's desk for him as he wouldnt no matter how many times she asked him (she did so politely) to. we found moldy cream cheese and rotten orange peels. it was GROSS
This pisses me off reminding me of my own childhood. I am in Asia where conformity is something the system drilled into kids. I do not function like that. I asked questions to understand the concepts being thought rather than memorizing stuff. In hindsight, that could be why I was perceived as being difficult since the questions were beyond the syllabus but I needed clarity. There was no internet back then, but good thing older family members still have their (decades old) school books. A tad outdated sure, but I can go at my pace with no set path, which apparently isn't agreeable to the "syllabus". I slept in class most of the time after getting that routine down which is around the time I was 9 or 10. And, since I scored consistently in the 95 percentile, the teachers did not bother me because it made them look good. This went on until I got expelled for low attendance (years later when ditching seemed more fun) and had to take the state exams as an independent student.
I'll never forget my high school. The place was full of god awful teachers and a nightmare principal. I was having trouble staying awake in classes grade 8 and was passing out at my desks, soon after i developed strange painful large lumps down the r side of my neck. My biology teacher yelled and ridiculed me in class. Found out i had a severe case of mono and missed half the school year. On the rare days i felt awake and ok i begged to go to school and my mom let me. When I was finally better and back full time the principal called me to his office and screamed/swore at me saying "you think i wouldn't notice you skipping half the year and only showing the f*ck up when you felt like it you little b*tch!? I meekly replied I had been sick and my mom had sent a note explaining the situation. When he realized he didn't even apologize and told me he'd made a mistake and go back to my class
My sister had a stomach bug and my mom had written a note to her teacher so she could use the restroom when needed. Teacher wouldn't let he go and she ended up pooping her pants. Teacher then made her take off her underwear and put them in a ziploc bag. Put them on "display" on her desk until my mom made it to pick her up. My mom lost it and berated the teacher and the principle. On another note, I had a bone deformity in my feet that caused bad stress fractures just from walking. Doctors note to my gym teacher that I couldn't participate due to this, and she called me lazy and a b&*%h. I ended up slapping her after a particularly bad incident where she was up in my face screaming obscenities at me. Mom came to the rescue.
My (young) 9th grade algebra teacher pulled me into a book closet, closed the door and berated me for a really long time for not trying hard enough. That's what every teacher and my parents said. It was unthinkable (quite literally) that anyone in my family could have a learning disability. My 6th grade teacher was fond of saying "Light dawns on marble head" when I finally understood something and said, "oh!" That's supposed to be a teacher's greatest moment; they're called Aha Moments. He also called me Suzanny Bananny instead of by my actual name. So many instances. The art teacher crushing my work in his hands because I did it wrong was probably the worst.
There is no such thing as doing art wrong. Everybody does it differently, and it is still art. Here is one example: Just because comic book artists made art differently than Vincent Van Goh doesn't mean the comic book artist did it wrong.
Load More Replies...
In a Uni course for 3D Animation, one class is drawing for animation. Mentioned to the class facilitator that I may have trouble doing drawing exercises due to chronic anxiety..his response was “We all have a cross to bear.” Yeah thanks mate, like I chose to have this disorder..a$$h*le
My 8th grade art teacher crushed the painted but unfired clay bowl I'd worked on all week (and was really proud of) because I did it wrong.
one of my teachers were very ableist i had adhd she took my pencil away for doodling. i had anxiety when i mixed up words and paused while reading my presentation she said i as being a holdup and immature
This...All of this,and having lived through the nightmare my spouse and I had to endure, is why we homeschooled our ASD/ADHD kid. We weren't going to let our sweet, kind hearted kid be bullied ( by other students and teachers both) put down, embarrassed, humiliated, or beaten like we were. Public schools are horrible for anyone that doesn't "fit in" , and protects the ones who make it hell. And they wonder why kids opt out of life.
Back in kindergarten (yes, I remember that far), I felt sick and told the teacher. She did not believe me. I looked positively green, but nobody believed me. I threw up during recess and another kid told the teacher I was using leaves to wipe my mouth and the woman came over to yell at me. My first experience with racism and it has only been worse ever since.
my sister had to change classes bc her teacher threatened her with an F because she refused to sing Christmas carols. We're Jewish. I had issues with this every year (you don't have to sing but you do have to stand there in front of everyone so you should probably sing or at least lipsync) 6th graders at my school are allowed to go to the bathroom even if someone else is in there, but everyone ignores that rule. My 3rd grade social studies teacher hated all the kids that weren't Armenian. She also called me "sweetheart" and when I politely asked her not to call me that, she yelled at me. I have a whole other list of things wrong with that teacher... And of course, despite the fact that I need to be in my seat ready to take notes in my next class in 3 minutes, I can't be dismissed because the bell doesn't dismiss me, you do.
I'm Hindu. When my choir teacher asked me to sing a hymn for class, I refused and she looked at me and said, "Okay, that's fine" and left me alone. We need more teachers like this.
Load More Replies...
I have an accommodation that allows me extra time on standardized tests and also allows me to go into a different room with the other accommodation kids. I was out sick one day and missed a day of testing and when I came in for the second day, I wasn't allowed to go into the accommodations room so I ended up not being able to focus. It didn't help that every ten minutes the aid who was helping out my teacher kept coming over and asking if I was okay.
These teachers aren’t “ableist”—they’re just plain ok’ sociopaths. Some sound like psychopaths. How any of them managed to get hired, let alone keep their jobs is beyond me.
You apparently don’t know what ableism is, seeing as you just exhibited it right in this comment. :X People with psychosis or sociopathy are not inherently bad people. Do not blame people’s bad behaviors on mental illness.
Load More Replies... 
ADHD isn’t a disease. It’s a disability that’s growing more understood so more people can be diagnosed. I was recently tested for it myself (still waiting on the results).
Load More Replies...
Thanks Maria for your thoughtful answer. In my case, state law required teachers and health care providers to report possible child abuse. I didn't know who to turn to at the time and was too embarrassed and ashamed of myself to call the police, so the gym teacher was added to the list of adults I couldn't trust. It kept school from being a safe place for me. I didn't have many safe places back then. The abuse stopped when my father walked out a year or so later.
Load More Replies... I had to stop reading at one point because I was getting flashbacks to my fifth grade teacher. I have ADHD, and am a generally disorganized person, so in my 504 plan it says I can bring home an extra set of books so I couldn’t forget anything. My teacher refused to let me do that, so when I brought my books home she wouldn’t give me another set and mocked me for asking for another set. (we had extra books I could have easily taken.) She was also hard core racist and made the only black kid in our class color a confederate flag.
The list of times teachers have been insensitive to my autism and noise sensetivity is a long one. Back in first grade I keep disrupting class because I was having panic attacks due to overstimulation because of all the noise. My teacher told me that because of that my friends didn't like me and even went so far as to ask one of my friends to control my behavior. In second grade, my teacher suggested that my mom make lots of noise at home (which was my safe space) so I could get used to it. Thankfully, Mom didn't comply. There was also an incident in fourth grade that, while I was not a part of, I was a witness to. This kid is a bit distracted in class so the teacher tells him he has to stay after school. Kid starts crying because he has a doctor's appointment that day that he can't miss. Teacher yells at him for crying, which only makes things worse, and we're all watching wide-eyed as he does this going "what the frick, man?" Teachers can be surprisingly abusive at times...
Students having to go through this is disgusting! Adults in those positions are supposed to care for children / teens, not make life more difficult for them. I hope they get a good dose of karma. And learn from their mistakes.
As a child I used to have UTI's a lot and when I had to pee, there was no waiting. I had a teacher that wouldn't let me go, and I wet my pants right in my chair. They called my dad for clean clothes and the teacher was acting like my Dad should be upset with me. I remember him asking to see her in the hallway. I don't know what was said, but from that time on I was allowed to use the bathroom anytime I wanted.
Whatever your dad said, I like it. You should have been able to go when you needed to.
Load More Replies... Had a racist teacher who mocked kids who had problems with pronounciation by "copying" them. She also told me to go to recess with the "native" kids instead of my best friend, who happened to be indian. Those are just the two examples I remember. Of course she was also playing favorites in general. And I was not allowed to read books after I finished my work, even though I always did well. She even checked under my desk to make sure I wasn't hiding any books. So very boring for me, until she sat me in front of the bookshelf and I just read under the table and put the book back afterwards :P I wrote her a letter when the year ended (together with my parents) and she confronted me in front of the whole class. I guess she didn't expect them to back me up, but they did, and it was such a grear feeling to know that I wasn't the only one who was irritated by her open racism. She hasn't changed a bit, though, whenever I bump into her she switches to the other side of the street 🤷🏼♀️
I have a skin condition that causes my skin to have different darker color splotches and in junior high I got called to the counselors because a teacher reported me and said I wasn't showering. So the school counselor literally asked me if I showered. I cried my eyes out. Yes bitch I shower this is a genetic problem. Crushed me
In 7th grade my adhd levels were peaking, my eyesight was plummeting, and I asked the teacher if I could sit in the front of the class, he pulled his eyes back and cried, “aww little Asian can’t see?” Such a jackass....
Gym teacher called my mom in for a meeting to discuss how I was lazy and always made excuses to get out of class. I avoided the exercises because I was clumsy and I seemed to hurt myself doing anything. Dodgeball? Couldn't throw for s**t and getting hit by the ball would bring me to tears. Years later I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, so the normal pain anyone would get from a potential hockey ball to the face would be amplified on me. I was right to fear pain.
As someone autistic, I would doodle in class. Usually my teachers were not that bad when it came to me doodling (though you could see the eye twitches), BUT they were not fine if my doodles were cartoon or anime style. I had pages ripped from my notebooks, I had class work publicly torn up, I had shouted "lectures" in the open corridors from the art teachers about how cartoons are degrading what art is, I got detention for drawing a Pikachu. I giggle sometimes now because I have been doing paid art commissions of my "degrading cartoons" during lockdown.
I have a few issues, because of them I have a 504 in school, which means teachers aren't allowed to grade my handwriting. Back in fourth grade, I had teacher who made my classmates and I write a lot of notes and definitions. At the end of the day, we would take our journals to the front of class and the teacher would look at them. He would approve everyone else's notes, but when he looked at my journal he would say things like "You're being lazy" and "Your handwriting should not be that sloppy." On time, I was writing the most notes I'd ever done. My hand was aching by the time I was done. The teacher took one look at my notes and said "All of this needs to be rewritten." On top of that, he also wrote rude comments like "Your handwriting is terrible!" on my tests. My mother was furious when I brought home my first graded test with a comment on it. She spoke with the principal. It was fine though, due to an unrelated reason we moved away in the middle of the school year.
I currently have a teacher who likes to call peopel out and ridicule them in front of the class. I have severe EDS that had put me in a wheelchair (I can move my legs). I also have extremely embarrassing GI symptoms and my joints frequently dislocate at the slightest wrong movement. One week, I was have a flare and very very sick. I felt nauseous and I was having horrible stomach pain, but I had a test this week so I had to go. Of course I have this teachers class, and I twist wrong, dislocating my shoulder. I Yelp in pain and she pulls me into the front of the class saying "DO YOU THINK ITS OK TO BE DISRUPTIVE ON MY TIME?!" And as I protest, I'm injured, she has the audacity to point out I don't need my wheelchair because I can "move my legal
Students and children are not perfect, they do not no everything by instinct, and they are not adults either! I am absolutely disgusted
Not really an abelist story, but a story about an asshole of a teacher: My friend Max is nonbinary. We both live in Missouri. Max emailed all thier teachers asking them to change their name and pronouns. 5/7 actually changed their name, 2/7 changed their pronouns. But one teacher even went so far as to shame them in class calling them "broken" and that their gender was "just a trend". I admittedly was scared of this teacher, so I didn't say anything, but did follow Max when they ran out of class. We didn't say anything to each other, but just ate Taki's in the girls restroom for the rest of the hour. needless to say, adults can be mean.
First day of first grade. We were given a pencil, reader and math workbook, then told to organize our desks. I read the book and started the math workbook. The teacher was furious and made me stand in front of the class and say oink oink. How could a desk with only 3 things in it be messy? Organizing my desk was absurd. I was considered a problem, a reputation that stuck. We moved, suddenly I was considered smart and well behaved.
I have learning disabilities, the same ones as my son. He was diagnosed in fourth grade, I was 35. Writing without editing produces garble. Missing words, spelling mistakes etc. My son easily reads what I write inserting the missing words and understanding the misspelled words.
Load More Replies... According to his school work and standardized tests my son had above average math skills. He didn't "act" smart, so he never received an A on his report card, nor was considered for advanced math class. He begged me to get him a more difficult math class. At my insistence, the principle talked to my son, "You shouldn't parrot your mother" In anger, he said, "My mother wants me to be happy. Nothing else matters. I want to be in a more difficult math class. She is helping me get what I want. It has nothing to do with her." They were speechless and changed his math class. Of course he did well. Still no A's on his report card, the excuses were absurd. He is a civil engineer now.
I have ADHD, borderline and anxiety disorders, had them all my life. But litterally nobody ever thought that would mean I might struggle with some things or feeling uncomfortable because of something. Because nobody listened to me, I learned to answer every problem with extreme stubbornness and aggressiveness because it was the only way to make them listen and respect my needs. The only thing it lead to was making me prone to get anger outbursts when I get into problem situations, and I can't control it most of the time. It's awful - just because nobody wanted to listen. Not even my own parents.
One of the worst parts about having awful teachers like this is the fact that they get excused because they're adults with jobs. Like no matter how horrible they are there's always people that'll be like "Wellllllll...... they work so harrddd they're probably stresseedddddd" or "Don't be so disrespectful to your teacher they're the adult!" Like no Carole that doesn't excuse ableism!!
My mom tried to use the first justification once. My 7th grade special education teacher once started yelling at me because I was having a mental breakdown, and when I told my mom, she said "Maybe she was just stressed/having a bad day". Ironically, she didn't make the same excuses for me.
Load More Replies... At age 6 I was afraid of being underwater and would refuse to put my head in the water in swimming pools etc. The swim teacher at my school first mocked me for this, then tried to "fix" it by putting her foot on my head and literally keeping me fully underwater like that. I have no idea how long, and dont actually remember this, but I do remember the therapy sessions that followed.. Im now 35 and still panic when water hits my face.
That sounds extremely traumatizing. I’m so sorry that happened to you.
Load More Replies... I had to stop reading!!! It HURTS MY HEART as a Mother and a Teacher to read these. I don't understand how you can teach and not CARE about your students, ALL YOUR STUDENTS!!! I hope that for every person here that had an experience like that, you had 5 positive experiences!!! Please know we are not all like that!! Even us older teachers!!!!
All these stories are terrible! It honestly sucks that so many people have experiences like this. I thought my teachers were okay until I realized recently that they constantly ignored my social anxiety (participation grades are the worst).
Gym teacher - 7th grade: Always watched the boys in the shower to make sure we were actually taking showers. I was successful at evading the showers for weeks. He catches me and forces me to take a shower. Sees the bruises and marks on my back and legs from where my abusive father beat me. Says NOTHING.
A lot of these are not just examples of unnecessary ableism, but also examples of misuse of power and psychological/emotional abuse. I find it especially horrible when the teacher is the abuser/bully, because he/she/they chose this profession and can negatively effect so many children or young adults through out the years. I think this a very serious problem that should not be taken lightly! Victims of psychological abuse can develop similar or worse (!) mental health problems than victims of sexual or physical abuse. Mental health problems like low self-esteem, ptsd, anxiety, depression or suicidal tendencies. I am really sorry for all the victims of these abusive teachers. This should have never happened and I hope they are all doing well now. Schools should be safe places for learning and developing skills and it should not matter if you have a physical/mental disability or a neurodiverse brain (the same goes for gender, partner preference, race, ethnicity, culture, etc).
I worked with a girl years ago when we were both freshman in college. She was going to school to be an elementary school teacher. She was from a small town (we live in the south) she said how she hoped she didn’t have any little “n word” in her class. Some people should not be teachers.
I once got my mouth sellotaped to my head for asking/testing a teacher.
There are teachers who choose their profession because they truly want to educate kids and make the world a better place. Unfortunately there are also teachers who want to coast and make their lives as easy as possible... who are also cruel and insensitive human beings. I'm sure we've all experienced one form of humiliation or another from a teacher who had no business in that profession. I had a fourth grade teacher who was curt and impatient with all the students. Just a mean, miserable person. One afternoon I started feeling really nauseous and knew I was going to throw up. I went to her desk to tell her, and she said something insulting and told me to sit down. I puked all over her desk. That'll show her!
This isn't ableist at all, these teachers are just straight up assholes.
i'm even more appreciative of my limited contact with the public school system now. there are the amazing teachers you hear about who spend money from their own inadequate paychecks to buy supplies for their students and will fight tooth and nail to take care of them, and then there are the teachers in this thread. i feel so bad for all of the kids with mental or physical issues, which is a LOT of kids. i was lucky enough to be in a magnet school for kindergarten and 1st, a private school for 2nd and 3rd, and then homeschooled after that point. i got my GED and started at community college at age 15, graduated about ten years later. i have enough issues (both mental and physical) that public high school could very well have killed me.
Our school had a tornado warning and we had to hurry to take shelter. I had a panic attack and started crying, and our school vice principal told me loudly to stop crying because I was scaring the other kids. I was in fourth grade at the time.
Mentioned a few bad ones already but this one always makes me smile. One time after walking in through the school entrance was called aside by the Deputy Head, who started ranting at my disregard for school rules for wearing make up. She DEMANDED I TAKE OFF MY MASCARA UP RIGHT NOW! and honestly, this was one of the most satisfying moments of my life. didn’t believe me when I said I wasn’t wearing any, get called a liar. She asks me again, this goes back and forth. Until I say I can assure you I am not wearing mascara, look - then rub my eyes and eyelashes and ta-da! No make up! The look on her face was priceless. No apology, she just mumbled “well don’t’ do it again” and stormed off. Very strange incident but very satisfying (:
Don't do it again? What do you mean don't do it again? Don't have eyelashes again? Or don't make your eyelashes look like they have mascara on them, even though you can't change you genetics? I have no idea what this teacher means.
Load More Replies... This is evil. I have bad handwriting, and have been somewhat shamed for it, but this is insane. I can't imagine it. For any kid who can relate to this- ask your parents to homeschool and tell them your reasons. This is a ridiculous and I feel that at least half are white and grew up from the 40-60s when this was actually WAY more common. I did not believe we lived in a George-and-Harold world, but we do. I am terrified to see this, and all of these teachers need to get fired.
I only recently heard this term but looking back I realize that I did have a teacher who was ableist. I have Asperger's as well as social anxiety. Group games such as tag make me anxious. On more than one occasion my gym teacher put me in time out for not playing the game. Upon hearing about this my mom had my psychologist come talk to the teachers about my social anxiety. Even after that this teacher still didn't seem to get it. 🙄
Had a biology teacher make fun of me everytime we did dissection in class for wearing gloves. I finally said i wanted to talk to her in the hall and INFORMED her that formyldhyde (sorry bad at spelling it) was absorbed thru the skin. My mother taught in the biology dept of the local junior college. And had an english teacher that found a note i wrote (she was a horrible teacher even by moms standards) and read it out loud to everyone of her classes. It was my last class and everybody told me what she was doing. Another english teach refused to help me when i couldnt do somerhing she asked us to do claiming nobody else knew either. Everybody was half way thru the assignment asked my best friend ro help me then the teacher decided to shed help told her never mind i got someone to help. Yeah strqight to the principles office. I had a learning disability and adhd all in my records. The principle understood my issues and helped when he could. Home life was hell and achool was hell.
One other drama director who i had put all my work into right along side my bff (he was yr ahead) my senior wouldnt unlock the school doors to let me leave.for work and had to climb out the window. She told me i had to wait for a break. Umm 1 hr later. Nope. At then end of the year i didnt make the drama/choir banquet because i was working. Everybody told me the next monday that i had won an award, an award that was vkted on by my.peers. when i went to pick it up she told me if it had been her choice i wouldnt have gotten it. My high school was bad. Most of the teachers couldnt care less. Glad i got out of the town after graduation.
Load More Replies... DOODLING, drawing or note taking: If you, as a teacher, are too ignorant to know that different people learn differently, and some of us need to keep our hands and/or eyes occupied while we listen and concentrate on what we're hearing, then you need better training or you need to find a new career.
This is why I went homeschooling. Haven't been bullied since, and I'm flourishing!
I was called careless and lazy for years when it came to reading and writing work. I wasn't diagnosed with dyslexia until my second attempt at university. I have been told that if it happened today it would be caught and there would be help, so at least I hope it's better now.
Every single one of these stories is absolutely heartbreaking and disgusting. As a public school teacher (for every grade from K-7th grade) for most of my adult life, I can't fathom how any of these horrific things could go without the teacher/adult in charge being sacked. It's obscene. I'm so sorry to all of these poor children for the abject horror of these experiences. This is NOT what teaching is. Ever.
I had numerous teachers accuse me of cheating due to I write differently all the time with a pen due to nerve damage in my hands. I also had a teacher not believe I needed glasses so I needed to sit in the front. Which was only reserved for the jocks who were on his basketball team. Even my mother tried calling no luck stuck in the back. He got so bad and said just do what you want I don't care so he eventually failed me for not being about to see the write board. We could not afford glasses at the time due to insurance restrictions.
My school best friend has adhd (undiagnosed then). She was brilliant but she would doodle in class and be a bit odd. When she was 8-10 (we were in different classes) the teacher sat her alone and told the other kids that she would punish them if they played with her. For two years she sat apart from others. She was bullied since then and never had friends until her 12s. I hope that this bich died alone and sad.
Back mid 70s my second grade teacher liked to take things from the kids an put them I. Her desk til end of year. I got a small gold locket with a diamond for Christmas an wore it to school. I touch it because I was tucking it back in my shirt an she told me to take it off. I cried an said "no call my mom!" She undid it an put it in her desk. I told my mom after school an the teacher lied and said I must have lost it. The principle came an forced her to unlock her desk. I stood there it. It wasn't there. But I saw the chain hanging from her pocket an elbowed my mom to look. They called her out for it. She was going to steal it along with other kids items to give to her kids at home. She got fired. The principle literally made her clean out her desk an pack in front of us. I just wanted my locket. I still have it.
Seriously? A teacher that thinks it is acceptable to steal a kid's things? I am glad that she got fired.
Load More Replies... How and why some of these teachers got their jobs (and kept them) is beyond me.
My teacher didn't let me retake a test because, and I quote, "You shouldn't have rushed." I was really stressed and hungry and just wanted to finish so I could eat. I even explained that to her and that I could do better when I was calmer. She still was convinced I just rushed. She has been sarcastic and kind of rude to me before, so I except nothing better of her.
I had terrible pains in my joints and exercise made me exhaisted. I tried my best, but was constantly ridiculed by my PE teacher. He told I was lazy or not trying. During dance classes he made me clean the sport equipment room (part of his job). I was 15 and we had to take Cooper's test. While I slowly paced past him, he yelled at me I couldn't probably make it home by night, because I was slower than a tortoise. Later I was diagnoded with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, all my connective tissues are weak to a mutation in DNA. My muscles, joints, heart and lungs just don't work properly. I still sometimes think about going back there, to the PE class, and publicly shaming him for all those times he made me miserable.
One of my school juniors had migraine. The girl is literally crying with head ache and the principal refuses to send her back home. Thinks it's normal for the 7year old kid and she needs to live with it.
I once had a migraine when I was seven too. I didn't know it yet, but at least my teachers were nice about it. We didn't even know I was sick a all, and I didn't tell them I felt bad. Only when I threw up on my teachers desk did we know that I was actually sick. Good thing I got sent home.
Load More Replies... My roll call teacher in Year 11 would tell me, in front of the rest of the class, that I needed a help and should go and see the school counselor. I also suffered anxiety (which I didn't know until years later) and would often feel sick in the mornings. I told the teacher and asked if I could sit outside to get some air. She followed me out of the classroom and said "you know, if you're feeling sick in the morning, there could be a good, old fashioned reason for that". I was 16 edited to add: not really abelist, I guess. I misunderstood the description. I thought we were just talking about asshole teachers
This is not about ableism, these are just horrible teachers who bully kids!
I was engaged to my husband in high school, I had a guidance counselor tell me that if I got married right out of high school and didn't go to college I would have crippling debt, never be able to own a home, and my marriage won't last..well I'm 25 and at 21 I had my own home and land several vehicles paid for never went to college neither did my husband and I am in less debt than probably all of the kids who went to college I had a child at 22 and we are getting ready to purchase a business. Teachers can be so mean and for that I do not want my child so be exposed to something like that I will home school her as long as possible!
I was about 10 years old (35 years ago). I was with a school friend, Adam, outside someones house on their driveway talking up to them as they lent out of their bedroom window. Adam was talking up to him & kept taking steps backwards towards the road. A car came as he reached the curb & started to lose his balance. I grabbed him and pulled him way from the road just as the car went by. Then I noticed it was one of our very strict female teachers driving but thought nothing more of it. Next morning at primary school that teacher was giving the morning assembly to the whole school. She started by saying how she saw something completely abhorrent and sickening the previous day and told a story about how she saw a student of the school push someone else out into the road right in front of her. She then called my name and told me to come up to the front and gave me a bollocking in front of everyone & wouldn't accept my version of events. I cheered the day she died years later.
This whole article makes me sad. Deeply sad. I'm a child of the 70s, so I'm much older than the people sharing these stories. In grade school I had undiagnosed ADHD. It wasn't a thing back then and there certainly wasn't any kind of treatment. I was just lazy and stupid. I experienced incredible bullying by teachers. I had hoped things would have changed by now, that teachers were more aware and were better trained. After reading this it seems that nothing has changed. My heart breaks for all these kids and what they have to endure from adults who should know better.
In grade school we were taken to tje library to pick out a book. I picked "Ivanhoe" because I'd just finished "La Morte d'Arthur." My teacher made me put it back because it was "too advanced for my grade level"... Got even by spending the rest of the year turning in book reports on Michener novels. Was I bluffing? Only one way to find out.
I am borderline ADHD, and my sixth grade Social Studies teacher used to constantly single me out. When she retired, I sent her a card that read, "Stay sweet and kind!" with coconut chocolates, because I knew she hated them. Mind you...I was in sixth grade.
Some of these stories hit home I taught for 25 years and tried to wear the microphone for a student but she said I was too loud. I wasn’t allowed to do a lot of things in school because I was ADDHD and had PTSD. I made sure I did t treat my students the same way. My son is also ADHD and told one of his teachers she didn’t know what she was talking about. She called me. I asked what she had said and repeated you don’t know what your talking about but I will talk to my son about tact and diplomacy. She was teaching about the Philippines and we had lived there for 4 years.
My Kindergarten teacher almost never let me go to recess because I didn't finish my work in the time allotted so I had to do it during recess. My 3rd grade teacher wouldn't give me extra time to do my work because I was "lazy" so it was incomplete most of the time. In 4th grade I was diagnosed with ADD. I wasn't diagnosed before that because I didn't have "enough symptoms." Personally I think that meant that I wasn't annoying enough because I wasn't hyperactive. My 4th grade teacher was "amazed" at the difference when I was prescribed Ritalin.
Ahh makes me think of the one time I was finally starting to feel comfortable enough to stim in class and got yelled at because I was being disrespectful to the teacher (I was tapping the side of my head how the h**l is that disrespectful) and never stimmed in any class except two again.
Oof reminds me of my 2nd grade teacher for 2 things: 1) I always liked to doodle and still do as it helps me pay attention, so I would doodle all over my desk and then she would make me stay during recess and clean it. That one is pretty reasonable because yea. The 2nd one makes me mad tho: 2) So we always had play time in the class, and this one day I decided I wasn't really interested in playing and asked if I could do some math stuff instead. She told me no, then when I started crying, wouldn't let my friends WHOM SHE WANTED ME TO PLAY WITH near me to comfort me
Oh man, the s**t i had to endure... besides the bs for the adhd (undiagnosed till I was 32 because I wasn't the 'correct' sort of hyper), all of my teachers ignored and disbelieved my physical problems. My body has pretty gnarly structural issues and what my gym teachers made me do made everything so much worse. Even my doctors didn't believe me (oh you'll grow out of it!) Yeah, ill grow out of permanently dislocated kneecaps. Right... I want to punch them all in their stupid faces. It was so rare that anyone believed my pain. Some teachers were great, and understood that children are actual people with real bodies, and the rest should have chosen some other profession.
When I was 12, my class teacher mentioned to my Mom at a PTA meeting that she had to put me in the front row in class, as I couldn't seem to focus on the blackboard, she suggested that I have my eyes checked. I wore glasses for years after that. In my whole school life, I think there was only 1 teacher who was unreasonable. Btw, I was a polio victim, never got teased, mocked, or bullied.
Omg this reminds me of when I was in 3rd or 4th grade and my teacher yelled at me because i wasn't doing my homework. I wasn't doing my homework because i was having these spells after school which made me pass out and sleep for like 3 hours straight and the school didn't even have the idea to tell my teacher.
I could probably write an entire novel on my own experiences with ableist teachers, but one that definitely springs to mind is one of my elementary school teachers getting mad at me for making my snowman craft a "snow-owl". I thought it was cute and creative, but she made me alter it so it looked more like a snowman. The snow-owl looked a lot better, too.
My son got a tongue in cheek award for most circuits of the class room. I worked in the school so I asked her about it. She said during class my son would get up and walk around the room, but she said he always knows what is going on and answers questions correctly. Teachers had told us he always left a trail of debris and getting him to complete work was tough. Sometime it was just not turned in, he had it, he'd just not turn it in. I asked the teacher if she thought he had ADHD, she was very hesitant but said yes. We took him for evaluation and sure enough ADHD and anxiety. The teachers never want to tell families what they think since they have had problems with parents getting angry. One teacher said many parents don't see it so they don't believe them and think they are making it up. My thought was I don't have any other kids to compare him to the teachers take was more informed than mine.
This made me incredibly sad, because I can't believe that teacher, who we should be able to admire, can be so cruel. I remember my fourth grade teacher going ballistic because I always had to go to the bathroom right before or during the test. She thought I was going into the bathroom to cheat. However, it was a nervous condition I had. Before a test, my bowels would practically liquify with nervousness. One day I really had to go to the bathroom and my teacher wouldn't let me. Afraid that I was about to have an accident, I got up and went anyway. My mother was called and the teacher was very insulting. My mother got really angry and told her that if she ever stopped me from going to the girls' room again, there would be HUGE consequences. But why did it have to go that far?
All of these resonate so hard with me...I went to a Catholic school for elementary and middle school, so if it didn't happen to me, it happened to one of the other kids in the class. My favorite gym teacher, on the other hand, broke the pattern. I was a chunky kid, with as-yet-undiagnosed scoliosis (it turned out to be very severe, and I needed surgery). The gym assignment that day was basic exercise moves, including sit-ups with a partner holding our feet down, something that was impossible for me to do...but I tried anyway. The other kids mostly laughed at me, but this teacher made a point of announcing to the class, that not only was I being given an "A" for the assignment, I was being given the "A" because not only did I try my hardest, but when it was my turn to hold another girl's feet down, I cheered her on...showing sportsmanship. Not long after that, I was diagnosed, so I always wondered if that gym teacher gave my parents a heads-up.
My oldest daughter got kicked out of an American Government class in high school because the teacher was spouting inappropriate extremist views and she disagreed with him and cited examples. She was a straight-A student. The principal walks by and sees her sitting in the hallway and asks, "what's up". When she tells him, he walks her back into the classroom and hauls the teacher outside. It was great!
High school magazine and writing contest. I submitted 6 poems, 5 dealt with objectively contemplating suicide. Won 2nd prize. Not one single adult asked if I was ok. I was far from it.
Oh my god. Are you okay now? Idk how old you are but idfc, someone shoulda asked!!!!
Load More Replies... I had to stop reading and leaving comments because of what teachers were doing to students past and present. Some of my best friends are teachers. And I have worked in the school system as a counselor for years and moved on to private industry. I have seen teachers denigrate students over and over again. Especially if they have ADHD, ADD, need an IEP or 504 Plan. They don't feel such conditions exist, they don't feel the student needs medication or any type of special consideration. This only serves as a setback for the student. To those teachers, if you cannot have empathy or care for these students might I suggest you switch to another line of work which I know is not easy or just lighten up a little please. You are having an effect on this person's future.
It seems from these that teachers who can't deal with non typical kids because they take a bit more effort, or consideration, or preparation, shouldn't be teachers at all. Guess it's not part of teacher training, so it's just luck if you get an actual kind and considerate human being for a teacher
This probably won't be a popular comment but half of these have nothing to do with ableism...... As a disabled person it just doesn't feel like ableism is taken very seriously at all. Yes some of these are disgustingly ableist but others have nothing to do with any disability. Please don't water down a subject that is actually really serious!
I'm going to add one more comment. Had a great math teacher in 7th grade. In 8th grade, we did several sections. Got to square roots. Before calculators, we had to figure them out, looked a lot like long division. I did really well. We go on to the next section, and I am just not getting it. Teacher tries everything, but I just Don't get it. All these years later I can't even remember what it was. But great teacher gives me a list of numbers to take home and do square roots. He did this during the whole section, and kept making the numbers longer. By the time the numbers were too long to figure out, the section was done. He was another really good teacher. He could have just flunked me on that section, but instead gave me extra credit.
I had an algebra teacher, 9th grade, he puts an equation on the board, and I ask what it means. His reply: "it doesn't matter, just memorize it." Yes it does matter a great deal. 10th grade, geometry. All we did was proofs. The Entire year. Never knew there was actually more to geometry. And I could never understand hiw to do them. Managed to pass both classes, but only because they didn't want a failure on their records. Skip to freshman in college, and I take scuba diving. Every week we had math problems to work out. Nice equations having to do with dive times, depths, you know life and death. Every bit of the equation was explained. So me, horrible in math? Not really, never got a single one wrong. Wasn't me bad at msth. Was really bad teachers.
Every one of these teachers should have been fired during the first year.
Once upon a time, I had a teacher (lets call her a-head) at one point who called me out for "being bad at math". My scores on tests were 100%. She then MOCKED me for being dyslexic and ADHD wielder. She kept trying to get me in trouble. One of the nicer teachers (call her nicy) told her to back off and leave me alone. She didn't stop. "Nicy" took matters to the principle. Principle stopped her by suspending a-head. She NEVER mocked me AGAIN. The end of this story. Have a sweet day and may the burdens of the world be lifted from your shoulders.
My élémentary school teacher was very hard to me because she was best friends with my mom and didn't want anyone to think she was giving me special treatment because of that. So she did the exact opposite. One day I was crying again and she asked "why are you crying ? I should be the one crying for having a student like you !"...
After a presentation (admittedly a poorly prepared one) my French teacher asked me in front if the whole class if I had ever had speech therapy cause it sounded like I had a speech impediment. I almost developed a stutter after that because I felt so self conscious.
I have a friend who suffers from incontinence since she was born. Most teachers were aware of this, and generally gave her permission to use the bathroom any time, to change her ... let's call it special underwear. One thought "if she is wearing a diaper anyway, why would she need to change it outside of the regular breaks?", which she intentionally did to not meet too many other students who'd then make fun of her. Resulted in a major leakage during class - when something is full filling it further won't work -, that was so embarrassing to her she didn't even go to school for a whole week. Until then, she had somehow managed to avoid it being publicly known, afterwards, everyone knew. She, later on, didn't hide it anymore, but this was 2nd or 3rd grade - you're not that strong and aware and stuff at that age that you don't laugh at a "Baby still wearing nappies". Also - most of the ADHD posts I can relate to. A few I could have written word for word about myself.
Oh geez. These sound so much like my school experiences. I had very severe Tourette's in elementary school and was picked on a lot by bullies. They would mock me and physically assault me while the teacher's back was turned. Of course the teacher turned around as I was defending myself. The real icing on the cake was the Principal told my parents _I_ was at fault because my behavior "instigated the problems" with the other kids. Didn't help matters that by mid to late elementary I had become a shy withdrawn kid who was self-tormented by the tics and other problems. I was the bully's dream victim. Small wonder I have PTSD to this day from it.
Let's be really honest here. Most of these teachers are displaying forms of sadism and probably sexual sadism, they are getting off on power, control, humiliation, bullying, and abuse. We teach kids about stranger danger, never about the inappropriate behavior of adults who seek positions to be closer to children for their own deviant purposes.
This thread has really upset me. There are some truly horrible people working in the teaching profession: I am sure that they all have background issues which lead to them needing to humiliate and hurt children but I don't really care. These monsters should be in therapy not in classrooms 😡
I hate when this happens. Reminds me of the time when I was in 3rd grade, and my soccer coach forced us to call people that weren't good crap. We were third graders. And he was forcing third graders to be rude and mean to other third graders. And I'll say that I wasn't good...
Who weren't good at soccer. He would be plain out disgusting if we were told to do it to people in public.
Load More Replies... In the 80s my high school decided to allow teachers to search book bags. I caught a corn snake (for city folk, a corn snake is non-venemous, but looks and acts like a rattlesnake)... That was the first and last time my teacher decided to try embarrassing me by searching my bag in front of the class.
I've been a teacher for a few years now, and these just make me so sad. I'm definitely not the most perfect teacher by any means, but I at least try to care about my students.
I was horribly bullied by a group of students in grade 8, I told the teacher and she didn't believe me because the students were her 'precious' French immersion students, I hate that bitch to this day (is was 29 years ago)
My teacher would arrange a meeting. Change the time. Not tell me then report me saying she was concerned for my mental health as I missed the meeting. Oh, I'm a teacher with thirty years experience and never been late or absent for a meeting in my life either before or after this one line manager. Never experienced gaslighting until then.
I once had a high school teacher who was a nun holler at me in front of everyone for trying to surreptitiously go into my locker for a maxi pad on my way to the restroom. She was convinced I had drugs in there, even though she was acting like she snorted some herself.
Hey guys, comment with something great a teacher has done for you! People make bad decisions sometimes, but they also make great ones. Please share! Your blood pressure will go down.
My teacher once yelled at me in front of the whole class that animals didn't belong on the first page of my English textbook.. He even called me stupid, while my classmates just stare at him as if he was crazy. I drew a ''cover'' on the first page of EVERY textbook through my elementary and middle school.
I was in 7the grade art and I really loved to color and draw. Well we did some assignment and however we had to color it, I didn’t like the way it looked (I think it was taking crayons, unwrapping them and doing sideways rubs). Well I did it a different way and it looked really good!! Cue art teacher, who snags it out of my hands and yells in front of 30 other students “that’s not how it’s supposed to be done!” And she slams my art into the metal trash can. I’m utterly embarrassed and shocked. I stopped doing art after that. I’m 36 and now coming around to doodling and stuff but I feel like that really killed my love of art.
At parents evening when I was 7 my mum told the teacher I had been struggling in class because of problems at home which resulted in bed wetting, teacher chewed me out for wetting the bed the next day called me a cretin
A teacher got the idea to lock the classroom door when he got in. I was 15, and ran up tje stairs, just too see him give me a smirk and pull the door closed just as I reached it. I knocked, asked him to let me in. Got an answer I did not like. So I kicked in the bloody door and told him he was an idiot as I walked to my desk. I was already best in class, and knew he did not like me due to my parents religion. Never got any heat from the incident and got the higest possible grade (5 out of 5). Swedish Lappland, mid 80's.
I had a high school teacher who unintentionally embarrassed me. It was in creative writing class. We had to give an oral report on our interpretations of song lyrics. I got up to do mine and the popular kids group were talking and laughing. My teacher stood up and screamed at the class about making fun of people and stormed out of the classroom. I stayed standing at the front of the class for a bit and the kids told me they weren’t talking about me. I sat down. He came in and told me to finish my report.
To get political, I really think if teachers were paid high and would be respected by society, a lot fewer of these monsters were running around in schools.
You have no idea what you're talking about. The average teacher in my district earns 105K for 8 months of work. They retire on 6 figure pensions for life! They get tenured after 3 years and cannot be fired for being inept, lazy, or much else
Load More Replies... Over the course of 11 grades, I had managed to get two teachers kicked out. One was lazy and sexist and didn't take the teacher role throughout my finals exam project, the other was abusive (which I'm gonna talk about). I had an English teacher in 7th grade who ended up hurting me and getting kicked out. It was her class, and one of the other kids passed me a note saying something like 'hey, {my name}'. I took it and gave it back with a '?'. When she passed it back, the teacher noticed and tried to snatch the note. I would have given it to her, but she's dug her nails into my hand and tried to take it forcefully within a second - way before I could process what's going on. She ended up leaving a wound with her nail that lasted for weeks. My mother had threatened to complain to newspaper agency (she had some good friends there). The teacher ended up being fired.
#3 & my son's event. when i was in 4th grade i had a city library card. it was marked with a "J" for juvenile, meaning it restricted the kind of books i could borrow. when i found out i couldn't borrow other books i mentioned it to my mom...who went down to the library, had a discussion w/librarian in regards to 'not locking up knowledge' & signed a permission letter to get me an unlimited card. mom was awesome! as for my son who was born w/craniofacial deformity, during school pics was hounded to smile which looked like a ridiculous grimace bc of deformity. after being badgered he told the person to take the f'ing pic; was sent to principal. i told her yes, he was wrong but the adult in the room was the photographer who shouldn't badger a kid. he didn't get suspended but i did make him write a letter of apology to the photographer. hey, being right for standing up for yourself doesn't give you the right to be abusive to them in doing so.
Drawing: when my daughter was in the fifth grade, her teacher forbid her to draw or doodle on any of the worksheets. As a very gifted child on the spectrum, she would finish her work quite early, and had not been given any activity or direction for what to do when she was finished. I sent in blank sheets of printer paper. I hand labeled them "Drawing Paper," with the day's date AND my signature. I instructed my daughter that it was always OK for her to draw if she was finished with her work, and that she should only use the paper I sent her or other blank paper, and not the papers that she gets for classwork. The first day of having my labeled paper, the teacher told her to stop drawing (she was drawing on the blank back, of course, not the front that I had "cluttered up" with my writing). She showed the teacher the other side, with my title in my signature. The teacher never bothered her again, and she quit drawing on her schoolwork!
I am a high school teacher, an English teacher. I work with high risk students, students who have struggled in school for years and are at risk for failing one or more classes, possibly not graduating from high school.
Load More Replies... 1) So, so many of these abuses happened to me, my parents or my daughter. 2) SOME of this horrible behavior has disappeared as incompetent teachers retire and improved education and screening is used for new teachers. 3) One of my major motivations for becoming a teacher is literally so that I can be different from the horrible "teachers" I personally have encountered, and the horrible people I know many of my students have had in their past.
These aren't examples of "ableism". However, they are examples of many other things... cruelty in particular.
this is ableism, its the favoring of people who don't have physical problems *or* mental problems, where each of these has at least one
Load More Replies... It wasn't until I was an adult that I found out I was on the autism spectrum. The first second grade teacher thought students should be statues in class, and at the time, I would occasionally fidget, to where she said I needed Ritalin or something. In the end, my parents had me switch to another class, and from then on, nobody else complained about my "fidgeting." I also found out as an adult that I had dyscalculia which made high school algebra and geometry the hardest classes I took. The effort I put in to get a C- in those classes would have earned me an A in every other class I took in high school. The teacher I had for geometry didn't like those of us who struggled to understand the material, so I dreaded that particular class period.
When I was in 5th grade, I was horsing around outside during recess with a friend, and my shirt got torn. So I had a big hole in the front. It just so happened we had class photos that same day, and my teacher was furious. She basically yelled at me in front of the whole class saying I was a horrible kid, and that I would never amount to anything in my life, and that she hated teaching me. I just stood there shocked because I was one of the smarter students, and aside from having a big mouth, pretty well behaved. The experience made me question myself and had lasting trauma. Anyhow, I ended up becoming a teacher myself, and I went back to sub at the same elementary school while getting my credential. The teacher had retired a few years before, and all the other teachers said she was a total bitch and that they were glad she was gone.
Halfway through 5th grade my family moved. We were learning the states with geography and while I was taking the test, I spelled Missouri wrong. The teacher put me on a stool in front of the class and made me wear a cone on my head that had "dumb" written on it.
my teacher had me and some other people clean out someone else's desk for him as he wouldnt no matter how many times she asked him (she did so politely) to. we found moldy cream cheese and rotten orange peels. it was GROSS
This pisses me off reminding me of my own childhood. I am in Asia where conformity is something the system drilled into kids. I do not function like that. I asked questions to understand the concepts being thought rather than memorizing stuff. In hindsight, that could be why I was perceived as being difficult since the questions were beyond the syllabus but I needed clarity. There was no internet back then, but good thing older family members still have their (decades old) school books. A tad outdated sure, but I can go at my pace with no set path, which apparently isn't agreeable to the "syllabus". I slept in class most of the time after getting that routine down which is around the time I was 9 or 10. And, since I scored consistently in the 95 percentile, the teachers did not bother me because it made them look good. This went on until I got expelled for low attendance (years later when ditching seemed more fun) and had to take the state exams as an independent student.
I'll never forget my high school. The place was full of god awful teachers and a nightmare principal. I was having trouble staying awake in classes grade 8 and was passing out at my desks, soon after i developed strange painful large lumps down the r side of my neck. My biology teacher yelled and ridiculed me in class. Found out i had a severe case of mono and missed half the school year. On the rare days i felt awake and ok i begged to go to school and my mom let me. When I was finally better and back full time the principal called me to his office and screamed/swore at me saying "you think i wouldn't notice you skipping half the year and only showing the f*ck up when you felt like it you little b*tch!? I meekly replied I had been sick and my mom had sent a note explaining the situation. When he realized he didn't even apologize and told me he'd made a mistake and go back to my class
My sister had a stomach bug and my mom had written a note to her teacher so she could use the restroom when needed. Teacher wouldn't let he go and she ended up pooping her pants. Teacher then made her take off her underwear and put them in a ziploc bag. Put them on "display" on her desk until my mom made it to pick her up. My mom lost it and berated the teacher and the principle. On another note, I had a bone deformity in my feet that caused bad stress fractures just from walking. Doctors note to my gym teacher that I couldn't participate due to this, and she called me lazy and a b&*%h. I ended up slapping her after a particularly bad incident where she was up in my face screaming obscenities at me. Mom came to the rescue.
My (young) 9th grade algebra teacher pulled me into a book closet, closed the door and berated me for a really long time for not trying hard enough. That's what every teacher and my parents said. It was unthinkable (quite literally) that anyone in my family could have a learning disability. My 6th grade teacher was fond of saying "Light dawns on marble head" when I finally understood something and said, "oh!" That's supposed to be a teacher's greatest moment; they're called Aha Moments. He also called me Suzanny Bananny instead of by my actual name. So many instances. The art teacher crushing my work in his hands because I did it wrong was probably the worst.
There is no such thing as doing art wrong. Everybody does it differently, and it is still art. Here is one example: Just because comic book artists made art differently than Vincent Van Goh doesn't mean the comic book artist did it wrong.
Load More Replies... In a Uni course for 3D Animation, one class is drawing for animation. Mentioned to the class facilitator that I may have trouble doing drawing exercises due to chronic anxiety..his response was “We all have a cross to bear.” Yeah thanks mate, like I chose to have this disorder..a$$h*le
My 8th grade art teacher crushed the painted but unfired clay bowl I'd worked on all week (and was really proud of) because I did it wrong.
one of my teachers were very ableist i had adhd she took my pencil away for doodling. i had anxiety when i mixed up words and paused while reading my presentation she said i as being a holdup and immature
This...All of this,and having lived through the nightmare my spouse and I had to endure, is why we homeschooled our ASD/ADHD kid. We weren't going to let our sweet, kind hearted kid be bullied ( by other students and teachers both) put down, embarrassed, humiliated, or beaten like we were. Public schools are horrible for anyone that doesn't "fit in" , and protects the ones who make it hell. And they wonder why kids opt out of life.
Back in kindergarten (yes, I remember that far), I felt sick and told the teacher. She did not believe me. I looked positively green, but nobody believed me. I threw up during recess and another kid told the teacher I was using leaves to wipe my mouth and the woman came over to yell at me. My first experience with racism and it has only been worse ever since.
my sister had to change classes bc her teacher threatened her with an F because she refused to sing Christmas carols. We're Jewish. I had issues with this every year (you don't have to sing but you do have to stand there in front of everyone so you should probably sing or at least lipsync) 6th graders at my school are allowed to go to the bathroom even if someone else is in there, but everyone ignores that rule. My 3rd grade social studies teacher hated all the kids that weren't Armenian. She also called me "sweetheart" and when I politely asked her not to call me that, she yelled at me. I have a whole other list of things wrong with that teacher... And of course, despite the fact that I need to be in my seat ready to take notes in my next class in 3 minutes, I can't be dismissed because the bell doesn't dismiss me, you do.
I'm Hindu. When my choir teacher asked me to sing a hymn for class, I refused and she looked at me and said, "Okay, that's fine" and left me alone. We need more teachers like this.
Load More Replies... I have an accommodation that allows me extra time on standardized tests and also allows me to go into a different room with the other accommodation kids. I was out sick one day and missed a day of testing and when I came in for the second day, I wasn't allowed to go into the accommodations room so I ended up not being able to focus. It didn't help that every ten minutes the aid who was helping out my teacher kept coming over and asking if I was okay.
These teachers aren’t “ableist”—they’re just plain ok’ sociopaths. Some sound like psychopaths. How any of them managed to get hired, let alone keep their jobs is beyond me.
You apparently don’t know what ableism is, seeing as you just exhibited it right in this comment. :X People with psychosis or sociopathy are not inherently bad people. Do not blame people’s bad behaviors on mental illness.
Load More Replies... ADHD isn’t a disease. It’s a disability that’s growing more understood so more people can be diagnosed. I was recently tested for it myself (still waiting on the results).
Load More Replies... Thanks Maria for your thoughtful answer. In my case, state law required teachers and health care providers to report possible child abuse. I didn't know who to turn to at the time and was too embarrassed and ashamed of myself to call the police, so the gym teacher was added to the list of adults I couldn't trust. It kept school from being a safe place for me. I didn't have many safe places back then. The abuse stopped when my father walked out a year or so later.
Load More Replies...