The 80s were a magical time. Cyndi Lauper, The Police, and The Cure were at their peaks, and we were blessed with classic films like The Breakfast Club, Back to the Future, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Ghostbusters. Today, we love to relive the nostalgia through watching Stranger Things and blasting ‘Running Up That Hill’ while biking through our childhood neighborhoods. But while we tend to recall all of the wonderful things about the 80s, we often forget that it was a completely different time, particularly in the way that children were treated.
One curious Reddit user recently sparked a conversation by posing the question, “80s/90s Kids: What’s something a school teacher did to you that would not fly today?” Hundreds of people who attended school during the 80s and 90s started spilling their wildest and most shocking stories about teachers doing things that would definitely get them fired, and maybe even arrested, today. So whether you think the younger generations are snowflakes or you’re thankful that your kids won’t be subjected to being smacked with rulers in school, we hope you can get a kick out of these crazy stories from school days. They may not paint teachers in the best light, but thankfully, times have definitely changed since then.
Be sure to upvote the stories you find most shocking or that bring you back to your school days, and then feel free to let us know any wild stories you have from being in class back in the day. Keep reading to also find an interview with 80s enthusiast and co-host of the podcast Stuck in the 80s, Steve Spears. Then if you’d like to further your studies about school, you can check out another Bored Panda article featuring anecdotes from teachers’ perspectives right here.
#1
Not a teacher, but school one. If you read enough books during the year in elementary school you got to have a sleepover in the library. Like we brought sleeping bags and slept on the floor. In the morning they had griddles out and we made pancakes. I know, total nerds, but it was my favorite elementary school memory.
Image source: 7askingforafriend
#2
My 3rd-grade teacher had the whole class camp in her backyard after the last day of school. She took us to see the original TMNT movie in the theater, then we stayed up late telling ghost stories. One of my absolute fondest memories.
Image source: Cambot1138, RODNAE Productions
#3
My history teacher had a set of pillories in his room. Misbehave? Your head and hands went in and the top board clamped over. No pain or anything. Just had to stand there and feel the shame. Awesome guy and it was an interesting and educational punishment. Rather than sit in the principals office you had to stay in class and learn about colonial punishments.
I’m assuming todays parents would try and kill him with sticks over that.
Image source: NightEmber79, Dimitris Kamaras
#4
6th grade teacher Ms. Sullivan would take 3 kids every Friday to McDonald’s for lunch. She was cool as hell. Smoked during the drive and everything.
Image source: SigP365SAS, William F. Yurasko
#5
When I was in first grade for the last day of school my first grade teacher took us to her farm. She gave us a ride on the back of her tractor, root beer floats and even gave us all a pair of binoculars. Honestly those days were the happiest of my life
Image source: WinterWizard9497
#6
I had a high school Spanish teacher tell me after class one day that she wouldn’t say anything if I sucker punched this one annoying bully in the class that she also hated.
Image source: jonahvsthewhale, cottonbro
#7
7th grade science class, the teacher walked around with a beaker full of mercury and told us to stick a finger in it to feel how dense it was. Then he gave us each our own penny-size drop of mercury to play with at our desks, so we could see how it moved. I’m sure we were poisoned that day.
Nowadays if a thermometer breaks they clear the school.
Image source: weirdkid71, wikipedia.org
#8
One of the kindest, most well-liked teachers in my high school was a gay man named Mr. McCreary. One day after school,he walked by a group of us, and the health teacher/wrestling coach says “there goes Mr. McQUEERy!!!” Even back then, we all just kind of looked at him blankly.
Image source: Plug_5, Nicola Barts
#9
A lot of people are posting bad stuff, so let me share a good one.
In 9th grade, in 1984, I had a class analyzing lyrics in pop music. Students brought in records by Led Zep and John Cougar and we’d discuss what they meant. Seriously a life-changing class.
It makes me sad that younger students in America are so caught up in the rat race that they never had experiences like that.
Image source: AdventureSphere
#10
So my mom was… maybe not the most observant. I love her to pieces but…. Yeah. When I was ten, the neighbor’s dog bit me, like grabbed and shook my hand, really bad. I went home and told my mom, who was like ‘oh, it’s fine, let’s clean up those puncture wounds, no big deal. Don’t tell Dad’ (my dad was a cop and a mandated reporter – we literally just didn’t want the dog to be in trouble it had never happened before and that poor baby was so sorry. Turned out he had an ear infection and when I went to scratch his head like I’d done a million times before, and it hurt him. The neighbor forgot to tell me his ear hurt it wasn’t his fault at all.)
The next day was Monday, and I tried to tell mom that my hand was bad- really bad. She said I still had to go to school, and man. When Mrs. Messenger, my fifth grade teacher saw me, she flipped her s**t. She was so upset she was gonna call my mom and give her what for and on and on, and I was like “oh s**t, I’m in big trouble now!” She marched me down to the office and I sat near the school secretary while she went in to the principal’s office and rained all manner of holy hellfire and brimstone on my mom’s head. Screamed bloody murder at her. She came and picked me up and took me to get an X-Ray. I had six broken bones in my hand. Oops.
Can’t even see a teacher raising their voice in an email nowadays. That lady saved my pitching hand.
Edit: punctuation because I’m a**l retentive.
Image source: MamaBella
#11
I told my biology teacher that I wasn’t feeling too well, he said that I didn’t look sick, and as punishment made me stand in the corner until I fainted.
Image source: AustrianReaper, Pavel Danilyuk
#12
My elementary school principal would pull loose teeth. You could go to his office, have him pull your loose tooth and he would give you a lollipop.
Image source: snowfuckerforreal, RODNAE Productions
#13
I had an awesome teacher who would send one of us to the shop (just a minute’s walk away) with enough money to get ice creams for everybody whenever it was hot and she didn’t feel like teaching.
#14
It was in the early early 80s (maybe even late 70s) and my aunt didn’t know her right from her left. She was in middle school back then I believe and her teacher was yelling at her and at one point he painted her face, arms and clothes red on one side and blue on the other and told her “that way you’ll know which is which”. She still didn’t know which side was left and which was right, she just knew one side was blue and the other red… She got home that evening and next thing I know my grandfather was beating the teacher’s a$$ in front of his wife.
Image source: jewishpocahontas, Phil Hearing
#15
When I was in first grade, I asked to use the bathroom during recess. My teacher said no, I just had lunch and could’ve used it then (when I didn’t have to go). So I pooped my pants behind a tree and had to go through the embarrassing aftermath during nap time.
Image source: theSandwichSister, Lucas Metz
#16
6th grade 2001: she saw me having a panic attack during class. (I didn’t know what was happening because it was the start of my anxiety disorder.) Instead of asking me if I was okay, she called me out in front of the class, told everyone to look at me, and said “act like that if you want me to fail you.”
She was a b***h.
Image source: Ivedonethattoo, Mikhail Nilov
#17
It was my first grade. I shook the ruler in my hand, and teacher took my ruler and hit me with it causing my nose bleeding. Few years later I found out that she also had been working as a school psychologist.
Image source: Arkhidexx, Christian Kaindl
#18
Elementary school was particularly traumatizing.
One of my teachers refused to let one of my class mates use the bathroom. A bathroom that was in the same room as us. He ended up pissing his pants and I’ll never forget watching it puddle off the chair because of how much he’d been holding it. Instead of sending him to the office to get new clothes, she made him take his pants off inside of the bathroom to hang off a tree outside…he was forced to wait in that bathroom for hours.
All the students saw it and you can probably guess how they reacted toward him.
This same teacher refused to let me get medical help for my migraines that I started to have around age 11. She told me I was lying/faking it, and it got so bad that I was forced to switch teachers. It got so bad that I was terrified to ask for help, and passed out in class.
Needless to say, of course she taught for another few years before finally getting fired.
F**k you, Mrs. Alexander.
Image source: DirtyAngelToes
#19
My Math teacher in H.S was very handsy. A hand on the shoulder; or a bit lower. Patting thighs of students who’d be asked to come sit next to him at his desk under the guise of helping them with their schoolwork. Inappropriately long gazes given to the girls.
Every single female student was extremely uncomfortable in his class but he was universally described as ‘harmless’. He wasn’t.
Image source: Flicksterea, Tra Nguyen
#20
I had a teacher bring me up to the front of my 5th grade class to show everyone how “slovenly” I had dressed. I was one of five kids and wore thrift stores clothes. I wish I could show her how successful I have become and that I now dress much better than she did.
Image source: zabrakwith, Kamran Ch
#21
English teacher in high school used to cuss kids out for being noisy in class and if that didn’t work, he’d throw the blackboard eraser at us. I wasn’t on the receiving end of the eraser. That chalk would leave marks on kid’s backs for the rest of the day so everyone knew who pissed off Mr Charvet.
Image source: Roscoe_cracks_corn, Nenad Stojkovic
#22
Seventh grade teach threw a chair at a student. Kid wouldn’t stop calling her the N word. He stopped saying it after that day.
Image source: Frosted_underscore
#23
My first grade teacher: Mrs. Smith.
If she thought your desk was too messy she’d flip it over and dump out all of the contents in the middle of the classroom and then make you pick them up while everyone watched you.
We were six years old.
Image source: Heretic_Red, Frans van Heerden
#24
Electrocuted the entire class as a demonstration of high resistance circuits
Image source: Item_Successful, Filter Forge
#25
I remember in 5th grade, we’d go to the classroom next door with the other teacher for Science class. When we started the section on evolution she started the whole thing off with a speech about how she was being compelled to teach this to us by law, but that she personally believes that it isn’t true and that we were made by God.
To her credit, she went on to teach evolution to us.
Image source: mjzim9022
#26
My middle school teacher confiscated my lunch after catching me trying to eat some of it during class and then he ate it in front of everyone and sent me to lunch with nothing. My mom cried when I told her what happened and complained to the school but nothing happened to him
Image source: csh213, ready made
#27
One of my English teachers smoked a joint in his car every day during his planning period. Same guy had a hall pass that was a sandwich board reading “I am missing out on a valuable educational experience because I have to tinkle.” He also called me a sarcastic little s**t, which again, I totally deserved.
Image source: Arg3nt, Craig Adderley
#28
My fifth grade gym teacher made me do pushups in front of the class. I was overweight, so I couldn’t do any. Then she’d say “this is what happens if you eat too much food.” There were other, even heavier kids in class, but she never chose them for this activity; just me.
Image source: LowBarometer, Mikhail Nilov
#29
My elementary school teacher used to say to kids “you’re cruising for a bruising” and once washed out my friend Jermaine’s mouth out with soap. This was circa 1987
Image source: chefboyardeejr, Sincerely Media
#30
While talking about slavery went down the rows and pointed out specific people in class whose ancestors would have been either slaves or slave owners based on their last name and / or skin color.
Image source: tfbillc, Yan Krukov
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