Now, school ought to be a place of learning where eager minds would try to soak in every bit of knowledge and experience they can before they hit the real world.
Alas, schools are also a place where certain decisions beg more questions than they could possibly answer and, in some cases, it has reached unethical levels.
People of Reddit have been listing unethical practices that schools do, and nobody is really batting an eye about it. The discussion generated nearly 11,000 comments with over 24,000 upvotes.
Bored Panda has collected the most upvoted responses to this question and compiled a list which you can find below. Vote and comment on the answers that you think are the biggest problems, and why not also share some of your observations in the comment section below!
More Info: Reddit
#1
Harassing teenage girls for “dressing inappropriately” when a millimeter of their bra strap is showing (or some other bulls**t like that). Telling them it distracts the boys and invites unwanted attention.
When they actually get harassed (or worse) the school does nothing.
Image source: _theatre_junkie, Brian Stacey
#2
Lowering a school’s funding if the SAT scores are low. If the scores are low, there should be more funding to help kids learn!
#3
Bullied and harassed students having the same repercussions as their bully for defending themselves.
Image source: novato1995, Eddie~S
#4
How sports programs have way more money than any other programs at the school… because school is a business not education.
Image source: smileymn, Lucy Gray
#5
Awarding “perfect attendance.” Encouraging kids to go to school while sick is pretty unethical if you ask me.
Image source: SentientOobleck, jdog90
#6
firing lunchroom staff for serving food to poor students whose families can’t afford to pay
Image source: Robert-L-Santangelo, Joe Wolf
#7
Collective punishment; one or two pupils misbehave and the entire class gets punished for it.
Image source: Mortlach78, Laurie SullivanFollow
#8
Too much homework. Let kids be kids. A little homework is good but god don’t drown the kids in it.
Image source: iknowthisischeesy, Catherine
#9
Requiring you to purchase textbooks brand new from the college’s bookstore because that’s the only way to get the access code to complete the required assignments on the publishers website.
Image source: austininlaw, Theresa Quagraine
#10
I was a decently misbehaved third grader. Told my teacher I had a stomach ache and I needed to go to the nurse. I asked a number of times. She thought I was just trying to get out of individual reading time. My appendix burst on the bus ride home.
I was never one to ask to go to the nurse. Just a hyperactive kid my teacher apparently had enough of. Denying medical attention to an 8 year old seems unethical. This is not a “boy who cried wolf” story for all those saying “I told ya so”.
Image source: jurassicgrif, Sherrel Stewart
#11
Bullied students are told to leave because it’s easier to kick out a quiet victim than a loud bully
Image source: TheNameless00, Bart Everson
#12
This is probably very specific to my home country but period checks
I’m from Malaysia and yes sadly this is a thing and I’ve witnessed it firsthand. Mostly to make sure girls aren’t lying about their periods just to get out of prayer activities.
Image source: roticanaidraws, menstruationstasse.net
#13
zero tolerance policies.
Oh that kid hit you for no reason? both suspended zero tolerance!
Image source: lemons_of_doubt, Jodi Mullen
#14
Less severe but limiting kids access to water, I.e. you can’t have your drink bottle at the table. Which sucks when you live in Australia and at summer the temperature gets up to 36c and school is during all the hottest hours of the day.
Image source: TeamLarge7729, Jason Woodhead
#15
Tormenting socially awkward /introverted students
Image source: weirdisgreat, Glen BledsoeFollow
#16
Passing students that aren’t ready for the next grade because they need to pad their passing rates to keep funding. It’s setting the kids up for failure down the road.
Image source: VoijaRisa, Michael Pollak
#17
Treating special needs kids subhumanly because they can’t speak up for themselves…then belittling/reprimanding the staff who do advocate for them.
Image source: Terriaki83, Theodore Daniels
#18
Giving preference to kids that parents donate money and fratranise with teachers/ headmasters.
Image source: hollaback5055, 401(K) 2012
#19
Our assembly room/gymnaisum had the fire escape doors chained shut, and the police department was aware of it.
Image source: snarlyelder, Steve Johnson
#20
C9Juice says:
7 am classes
S_thyrsoidea replied:
7am classes in complete disregard for what the science says about adolescent development and sleep schedule, and the effect of early classes on academic success.
Image source: C9Juice, Jacob Roeland
#21
Making hair part of the uniform and dictating what hair styles and colours students are allowed to have. Also letting girls wear short skirts in summer but not letting boys wear shorts. I’ve seen quite a few schools in the news where the boys have had to protest and wear skirts in the summer because they weren’t allowed shorts.
Image source: geoffs3310, Michael McCauslin
#22
Present opinions as facts.
Image source: Rowgarth, Allison Meier
#23
Not care about students’s mental health
Image source: Eka_silicon12, ttarasiuk
#24
Convincing kids that a 4-year institution after graduation is the best choice for everyone.
Image source: Sunshine_Unit, Neil Turner
#25
Keeping bad teachers in their positions. Not the same as a good teacher with poorly performing students with bad home life etc.
Image source: lets86, Sebastiaan ter Burg
#26
Humiliating and/or calling out students in front of the whole class
also saying things like “you’ll never pass my class/get into Harvard/get into college” to the entire class for some reason always with a stupid, arrogant smirk on their face… The first two are true stories, the first from my Honors Algebra II teacher to a class of 15/16-year-olds and the second from my HONORS SCHOOL to a class of 14/15-year-olds which was supposed to prepare me for that exact thing!! What makes the second even worse is that the person who said it was… wait for it… THE SCHOOL COUNSELOR!!!
Image source: snappingmyfeet, jdog90
#27
Only having one bathroom for open in a high school. There are 1000’s of kids.
#28
The pledge of allegiance, confiscating kid’s phones, withholding graduation ceremonies because they’ve labelled kids troublemakers, zero tolerance policies, ignoring and covering up bullying
Image source: Stunt-Driver, miniyo73
#29
Professors selling their own books for their class
Image source: Xetanees, Siyavula Education
#30
Over the top dresscode making girls feel like s**t because of it
Image source: ntabz23, . Ray in Manila
#31
Making kids sell magazines or whatever. Should be 100% illegal and I dunno what kind of parents stand for that bulls**t.
Image source: ace_urban, WordRidden
#32
Diagnosing kids who aren’t interested in the curriculum with ADHD. Still don’t understand how I get diagnosed with ADHD in elementary school just for it to magically disappear halfway through middle school, for it then to reappear freshman year of high school just to disappear again sophomore year.
Image source: E_SUN1
#33
Not letting kids take part in a test because their parents havent paid.
Image source: cyborgdog, Michelle TeGrootenhuis
#34
Put make up exams during lunch. I’m running on no food for the past 21 hours because I had to skip lunch to do a makeup exam. Thank god the school day is almost over
Side note, I exercise a lot so I generally eat a lot so this s**t is really annoying
Image source: Frost_Phoenix, Ishikawa Ken
#35
Selling 2x the number of parking passes than spots actually exist for, then imposing steep parking fines.
Image source: TigerTownTerror, SoulRider.222
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