I got two answers for this.
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When I was in grade school, the teachers would get mad and fuss at me for reading books during recess time. Because I wasn’t playing with the other kids. But those kids told me they didn’t like me and they didn’t wanna play with me because they thought I was too weird. So why should I want to or have to play with the other kids if they didn’t wanna play with me? Also I was sitting on the steps reading my Junie B. Jones book or Babysitters Club book or Judy Moody book and eating my cookies, minding my business, how was that bothering you any?
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In my sophomore year of high school I took a Ceramics/Sculpting art class, and it was the last day of school before fall holiday break. And rhe project we were currently working on was making tumbler cups that can be used to hold desk supplies like pencils, markers, pens, highlighters, etc. I guess i didn’t wrap my project up as well ad i thought the day before because half the clay of my project was dried up before I was finished. I asked the teacher what I should do, she said that I could ask the girl at the table in front of mine for some clay, because she was prepping a new bag of clay. So when I went to ask the girl, she said “Of course, but can you give me about 10 minutes?” And I said “okay, I can wait”. Whilst I was waiting, I pulled out my school laptop, checked to see if I had any new important emails and made sure I turned in all my finished assignments into Google Classroom so my teachers could grade them during break. 15 or so minutes later, I asked the girl again if I could get some clay now. But I just asked her from my table since hers was not far from mine. The teacher called me to her desk and said to me “We do not yell across the classroom! You can prep your own clay.” I didn’t even yell, I thought to myself. The girl was literally less than ten feet in front of me. But out loud, I responded “That’s fine, but can I at least get an apron or smock first please? I don’t wanna get my clothes dirty”. And for some unbeknownst reason that made my teacher even more angry with me. “You have been very disrespectful all day today! Pack up your bags, I’m calling your vice principal”. And I was sentenced to all day in school suspension.
But what about you? What’s the silliest or dumbest reason you got in trouble for in school?
I’ve told this story before and I’ll tell it again.
4th grade Teacher of the Year winner and current sitting member of the school board Mrs. S. had a strict rule when lining up after recess:
“Straight line, no talking, no touching.”
The bell would ring, and we’d all run to our respective, numbered spots on the playground, in a straight line, without talking, and certainly not touching, one another. Then, Mrs. S. would walk out to us, and we’d recite the line:
“Straight line, no talking, no touching.”
And she’d lead us inside.
One day, returning from recess, the kid in front of me, Joe, was crying while standing on his number. Foolishly, I set my hand on his shoulder, and asked, “Are you alright?” Mrs. S. arrived just in time to rectify the situation. I watched as she strode up to me, staring daggers into my soul, and I yanked my hand off of my fellow student’s shoulder, but the damage was done. Towering over me, inches away, she shouts to the class, “Class, what is the rule?”
“Straight line, no talking, no touching.”
“Papalonian, what is the last part?”
“No touching.”
“No… Touching.”
I received my first and only citation for the rest of my elementary school years. Ever thankful will I be for learning the lesson that empathy (towards someone I didn’t even like) shall never be tolerated when the rules forbid it.
People that remember that rules are important yet completely forgot WHY they are important