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.
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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.
Yeah, back then (and still in some place) left handed people are considered monsters. It’s disgusting.
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My dad was forced to use his right hand, but even now he's still good with his left hand, but he calls himself ambisinister (two left hands) instead of ambidextrous (two right hands) to denote that he's equally bad with both hands. Not meant to call left handed bad btw, just to be the opposite
I was made to write right handed too, they thought they could discourage it (this was early nineties) and only gave up when I couldn't keep up. No ruler hitting at least, like they did with my grandmother and mother back in school. It took a long time to get pens and scissors for left handed people.
My brother was forced to do the same too, also in the 90's, UK. It was stopped when my parents went in to school about it.
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I got paddeled for writing with my left hand in kindergarten in Canada in the 1990s.
That was quite common in the past... Happened to my Granny in the 40's.
My mom came home from her first day in school with a swollen back and blue hand. She was hit with a ruler for writing with the side of the devil. This was a public school in Canada. Pop had a visit with the teacher and principal and made it clear to never touch one of his kids again.
This happened to my aunt too. It's because some old school, antiquated Christians believed that writing with your left hand means that you fell out of favor with God. Ironically enough, the strongest people in the Bible, like the warriors that went to help David, were left handed or ambidextrous.
Very common back then. My dad was also punished for the same thing.
I went to a religious school in the 1970s, and they 'trained' me to write with my right hand. I wasn't paddled, at least.
My great grandfather was smacked on the knuckles with a ruler when he was caught writing with his left hand when he was in elementary school his mom was pissed about it and got the teacher fired for abuse he came home with his knuckles bleeding
My dad was born in 1935. He was left handed and his teacher hit his hand with a ruler if he tried to write with it.
My uncle was forced to write with his right hand. They used to tie his left hand up. Weirdly I write left handed but loads of other things I do right handed.
Oklahoma is pretty terrible when you learn more about it and its 'educational system'
I'm the only left hander in my immediate family. I started school in around 1975, and I was forced to write with my right hand - until my mother found out, and read the head teacher the riot act.
My teacher used the wooden ruler with the metal edge every time I was caught using my left hand. I was ambidextrous and could use both hands at the same time back then. Also in a small Oklahoma town in the 50's.
Same thing for my left handed brother around 1960. The held him back a year in 1st grade.
My left handed brother was threatened with the cane for writing with 'The Devils Hand'. Till dad showed up at school.
My third grade teacher in 1960 took a ruler to the back of my left hand because I was left handed
My left hand was tied to the chair so I was forced to write with right. 1966
I had a Catholic friend ages ago that was made to write right handed because people that used their left hand were possessed by the devil.
My friend's grandma also had the same experience; she was left-handed but the teacher made her write with her right hand, so now shes ambidextrous
This happened to one of my uncles. He went to a Catholic school and the nuns tried to force him into being right handed, saying being left handed was a sign of the devil. Didn't work and that uncle is no longer with us. But I was told my grandparents were furious about it.
The same happened to my Mom in the same time in Hungary :( This procedure seems to have been used in all political systems.
My Mum was sent to the principal for nearly the same thing and we're in the UK. She did what the teacher asked which was to make sure she could see what she was writing, but mum being left handed wrote from the edge of the page towards the margin. Teacher thought she was being a smart ass. Grandad sorted in the end though!!
At school in argentina, my dad had his left hand tied to his back to make him learn how to write with their right hand (around the 60s). He has terrible handwrighting and does everything else with his left hand. His mom went through the same experience before him.
The nuns in my grade school tried to make me write with my right hand too. I’m so left handed!
My grandfather was the same, he wrote with his right hand and did everything else with his left.
My father started kindergarten in 1943. He, too, was forced to write with his right hand. He struggled with horrible handwriting for the rest of his life. In his 50s, he was diagnosed with dyslexia. He had a masters degree in theology, although he been called lazy by many of his elementary and high school teachers.
I was paddled for writing with my left hand in Canada in the late 1990s
I was forced as a left-hander to write right-handed. No wonder penmanship was always an issue for me.
Yeah. It was the same in Sweden. My grandma told me that they tied her left hand behind her back so she couldn't use it. But I always wonder now: those benches you in the US have in certain schools are only made for right handed people. How do a left handed one deal with that?
in poland my grandfather got in troulbe for something when he was 6 (year 1950) paddled , ran all the way home and never went back to that school
People think that we can control our ADHD but we really can't help it!
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
Note: this post originally had 51 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
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.
She can go choke on a pencil.
make sure its nice n sharp
She sounds like a terrible person.
A relative of mine is a racist teacher who tries to make his little students, who don't know nothing, use the n-word for colored people. And then being happy as a devil as soon as the not knowing kids start using the n-word by themselves as they speak
Report this to the school board and police. You know about a child being called a nîgger and you’re doing nothing about it. You might as well call them that yourself then.
This is a public school? Can't see someone holding onto their job doing that.
What the what now?!?!?! 😰
W H A T
That would be my worst nightmare.
Reminds me of my German music teacher when I was in pre K. He excluded me from other groups of children just because I was asian. Then he kicked me out into the hallway for one class and another teacher came along and decided that the german teacher was a big fat git. I left the school after that incident and I went to another international german school in Dresden. I made lots of friends there, fortunately.
wow.
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.
Fire the bitch/bastard!
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.
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 🤷🏼♀️
Now she knows who's boss.
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
Vitiligo?
Kind of. It's called Tinea Versicolor. Can make spots ranging from white to pink to light brown
thats so dumb ??? if someone hasnt showered you would smell them too, just not what they look like
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....
OMFG
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.
Dodgeball was created by a sadistic a**hole.
that's why i like gaga. dodgeball, but no hitting above the knees.
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
Legs* Long story short, go to hell, teacher
Put her in a wheelchair, twist her arm till she screams! AHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA ok fine im dark but thats actually how i cope with mean people i imagine me torturing them in the worst possiible ways anyway i hope your teacher gets her socks superglued to her feet and has to go to bed with them on
YAS TEACHER DIE
@MistyCat I'm not a violent person but YES I'm all for giving her a taste of her own medicine
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.
Students and children are not perfect, they do not no everything by instinct, and they are not adults either! I am absolutely disgusted
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.
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.
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.
I'm sorry that sucks!! I've had a lot of bad teachers too, so I get you. They get to have those excuses but we don't? Stupid! I had a health teacher that was not very good at her job, she'd make errors in homework and tests that made the students fail, she'd plan meetings during class hours to skip them, and she didn't even give us a warning about the suicide prevention unit! Like usually for that subject our parents have to sign a permission slip for us to even go to the class, but nope! She went straight into it with no warning. I remember talking to my dad about how she'd do all that stuff and more and my dad shamed me for disrespecting my teacher. So yeah, I've been there with you on that. Teachers who don't think about their student's mental health problems are the worst. :(
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.
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).
This is a form of child abuse.
I used to get shamed for falling asleep in all of my classes. I'm narcoleptic.
A teacher in a town that I used to live in got fired for getting 6th graders to rob people in exchange for weed.
My elementary school teacher told the another teacher that I'am the ugliest kid that he ever met in front of me. I wanted to be a model when I was a kid. I lost my confidence. It took me 10years to recover, and start to dress up again
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.
...is that not illegal??
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.
That’s reasonable. They instructed you what to do and gave a valid reason why. It’s not like they called you names.
This not reasonable. They yelled at her in front of everybody, and she and other kids had a right to be scared. It is a tornado! A life threatening thing! You are aloud to be scared, and shouldn't be yelled at.
She could have taken me aside and talked to me more calmly at least
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.
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.
I want to strangle all those teachers, one by one and I know I won't regret it
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.
Well that was like 1976 or so. Teachers then just did stuff like that. Adults were taken more seriously than kids. But at least my mom dealt with her. And thank you for the reply.
I have lost faith in humanity
I have several really good stories for this :(
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.
I have tritanopia. When i was in school, my teacher didn't allow me to wear my (filter) glasses and gave me low grades b/c i couldn't figure out the colour codes. -_-
It's horrible that we allow our children to be raised by people who don't love them.
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
My high school gym teacher outright called me a liar when I told her that my doctor told me that I was not allowed to participate in gym class. The doctor was a friend of hers and he would never say anything like that. I have literally no cartilage in my knees...
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.
These are all very saddening, and I feel sorry for the individuals who had to deal with these burdens while simply doing their best to obtain an education.