School drama is part of being a kid. Teachers work with kids every day so they see a lot of drama, too. Some of it is just the run of the mill gossip. But sometimes...it gets a little out of hand.
Here are all the best stories from teachers on Reddit who have experienced some crazy drama at school. Content has been edited for clarity.
Revenge And Pop Are Best Served Cold
“A high school junior got shot in the butt after getting caught trying to steal weed and money from a dealer’s house. The dealer wasn’t supposed to be home for a while, but got back early and caught the kid in his house. The kid freaked out and bolted out the back door, but the dealer had a weapon and was shooting to kill. The kid was lucky to just get shot in the butt.
Also, a freshman was getting bullied but the school I was at at the time wasn’t taking it seriously. This was an inner-city school, so it was pretty rough. The freshman’s mom was tired of the school not doing anything. So, she came to school at the time her kid had a class with the bully. The kid told mom what room they were in. The mom snuck in the school through the unlocked back door. She made it all the way to the third floor, waited for the bell to ring, and pegged the bully in the head with a full can of pop. The mom ended up getting arrested and had charges pressed by the school. I was out sick that day, but it happened a couple doors down from my classroom so I got to hear all about it when I got back”
He Just Wanted Her To Pay Attention
“Two girls in the back of my theatre classroom would not stop talking. One of them seemed upset, so I asked them to keep it down. It continued, so I told them more firmly to pay attention.
The upset girl promptly freaked out, said ‘WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO? I’M FREAKING PREGNANT!’ The entire class’s mouths dropped. I couldn’t think of anything to do but send her to the trauma counselor. Sure enough, yep – one of my sophomores had a baby the April before she became a high school junior.”
She Could Not Have Handled This Worse
“One of my male students left his phone unattended and unlocked around his girlfriend and she picked it up and started searching through it. What she found was his male ‘best friend’ explicitly texting, sending him nudes, and talking about how much he loved him. The boyfriend was texting back and being equally enthusiastic about being in love with him. The two of them had plans being together out in the open once they finished school and were in university.
She proceeded to screenshot and send all those texts and nudes to her boyfriend’s parents. Then she replaced his phone so he wouldn’t know. The boyfriend’s parents were very conservative. This kid went home to be blindsided thanks to her. Apparently, he had to basically flee the house because he was afraid of his father getting physical with him.
To follow up: Her boyfriend’s best friend/secret boyfriend came to school the next day. He lost it and started yelling at her. She called him disgusting and some other homophobic stuff. He got three or four good punches in before he was restrained, screaming his head off the whole time.”
The Principal Couldn’t Live This Down
“The principal’s daughter attended the school I’m a substitute at. One day a few years back, during a pep rally, she was caught hooking up with two students at the same time in the men’s locker room. The worst part is she was caught by him. Now all the students talk bad about him and ask how his daughter is doing when they get in trouble. I have never seen a principal have so much anger when talking to a student. He adds on days to suspensions if anyone makes any reference to it.
We also had a senior that was dating a 23-year-old, but he also had a side chick that attended school with him.
His main girl found out. She came and got in a fight with the side chick during school. I’ve never seen an adult walk onto a high school campus and pull some girl’s weave out. She got charged with felony assault on a minor.
Finally, we had a student bring a glock on campus. The school was shut down. He was trying to flex like a gangster. Well, he was arrested. The weapon ended up having two bodies on it. He was released three months later…because he snitched on the person that gave it to him.”
A Gray Area At The Very Least
“I found out that one of my male students slept with one of the teachers at the high school I worked at. The teacher had quit her job at the school and held a goodbye party for the students. She asked him to spend the night. I got a very graphic description from another student who had been peeping through the window. The kid was over 18 and she wasn’t his teacher anymore, so it wasn’t illegal. But she was his teacher until a week earlier so it was kinda disgusting.
Before you ask: yes, she was hot. But also twice his age.”
A Tragic Story Behind The “Serial Trouble-Maker”
“I pulled a serial trouble-maker out of the 8th-grade class to talk. Other teachers on my team were complaining that he’d been more aggressive than usual, and as the team leader, I wanted to chat before bringing in the administration. After a few minutes of asking how his life was going, he broke down a bit but tried to hide it with a defiant shrug.
‘I’m going to see my dad this weekend.’, he said.
‘Oh yeah? How long has it been?’ I recalled the kid’s dad was in prison.
Him: ‘Five years.’ Another shrug. His body language said ‘no big deal’, but his eyes told another story.
Me: ‘Okay. What are you gonna talk to him about?’
Him: ‘My brother.’
Me: ‘Oh? I didn’t know you–‘
Him: ‘I’m gonna ask what he did to put my brother into a coma.’
Not gonna lie, I totally froze. ‘Your dad hurt him?’
‘Yeah. I wanna know what he hit him with,’ he said.
I honestly had no idea how to reply. I can’t hug a student, even if he would let me–which he wouldn’t. I started to say something about how he’s a strong kid, and I had high hopes for him, and if he needed anything, but he cut me off.
‘I need to use the bathroom. I…I got hairspray in my eyes this morning while I was getting ready. It really stings.’ He was fighting to keep emotion off his face, but it wasn’t some sweet, cathartic response to my platitudes. His eyes were holding back an epic rage–fury the likes of which I don’t think I’ll ever understand. I’m not much into stuff like telepathy, but I could feel his anger boiling over, even though he was still as a stone.
‘Okay,’ I said, ‘But if you want to talk–‘
He was down the hall before I finished.”
5th Grade Drama Isn’t What It Used To Be
“I’m a speech therapist in a public school. I went to get a fifth grader from class so I could screen him. I’d never met or seen this kid before, so I was expecting him to be a little reserved around me at first. I introduced myself and asked how his day was going. He told me his day was bad. Then launched immediately into this five-minute story.
‘So and so sent nudes to this kid. Then, she said I sent nudes but I didn’t mean to! I just got out of the shower and fell. My phone took and sent a picture! But this girl sent one back.’ Meanwhile, I’m furiously scribbling down every name he mentions so I can report it.”
A Mother And Son She’ll Never Forget
“Most of my stories are about the same family!
My favorite is that coming off of Thanksgiving weekend, a third grader filled me in on how mad his mom got at his dad; they were divorced. So together, the kid and his mom put fireworks in his car and lit in on fire. I told his mom in a ‘that’s funny’ kind of way at conferences a few weeks later. I was thinking it was just a funny kid story, but she said, ‘That jerk had it coming!’
Also, he told me once about how his older brother would share his gummy bears that made him feel funny and fruit punch that made him puke.
I had been forced to call CPS for numerous reasons over the course of the year. Finally, at the end of the year, the same mom texted me to ask if I wanted to buy any illegal substances from her.
It was such an exciting school year.”
This School Had A Big Secret
“While on teaching rounds, I worked at a school that had amazing teachers but seemed shady otherwise. Towards the end of the 9-week placement, we were mucking around in literature when one of my amazing students told me why it seemed so sketchy. Apparently, no one was supposed to know but:
It was an independent school. The previous school board had been fired after they embezzled $30 million from the school funds. They spent it on holidays and new cars and stuff. The school was unable to borrow from vendors. They did everything they could to hold onto their students. Instead of placing part of the school fees into a trust account to be returned if the student left the school, they channeled all the money into the debt. The teachers weren’t paid for five months. They only got paid once the school was taken over by administrators.
Unfortunately, the school went bankrupt, owing 15 million. It closed and the media had a field day with it. I believe a couple of other independent schools closed shortly after for the same reason. My amazing students were in year 12 when they had to find new schools, which was obviously really disruptive. Most students went to the same new school, which also hired a lot of the teachers from the bankrupt school.”
Kids Can Start The Craziest Rumors
“I saw two of my students very quietly gossiping in class. I realized what they were saying might be serious because it was distracting nearby students. By the time I walked over, I’ve got a group of five gossipers to attend to. I do the usual teacher thing: ‘I hope we’re talking about math over here.’
Their response: ‘Miss, if you get divorced what will your name be?’ I’m not married, never have been.
Turns out, in the rumor mill I married. Worse, I was also having an affair with another math teacher. We’d been seen chatting on playground duty more than once – it was scandalous!
At lunch, I shared this story in the staff room. His partner, who was also a teacher at the school, had been warned that I was out to steal her man just yesterday.
It turns out the kids can get pretty imaginative with the lives of teachers.”
An Interesting Twist
“Four frightened girls came to me because they claimed that someone had been threatening them with emails and messages. Apparently, this person seemed to know a lot about their families and what they do in school. He or she threatened to kill them if they hung out with this girl. We almost made a police report until a few teachers sat down and went through the details and realized that something was off.
After much investigation, it turns out that the one who’s been threatening them was one of the four girls all along.”
A Sad Day In The Lunchroom
“I volunteer at my son’s school as a ‘dad image’ for students without dads/ unkind dads/ dads who are always gone.
I read to them, play with them, teach English lessons, etc.
On my first day, a little girl asked confused, ‘Are you a dad?!’ I’ve only just turned 30 and look very young. I told her yes.
The boy next to her said, ‘You’re a cool dad, very cool, my dad is mean and hurts me.’ It was during lunchtime, too. I was trying to be upbeat and get the kids to eat. But, that was just…sad. I didn’t know what to say.”
A Grand Gesture Gone Wrong
“By far the most awkward moment in my teaching career was when my seventh graders had to work in groups to make societies as a pre-reading activity for Lord of the Flies. In one class, there’s a boy named Sam. In the other, a girl named Maddy. Now, Sam and Maddy are dating. So, Sam’s group decides to build their whole island nation around Maddy’s life, image, hobbies, etc. The lakes are named after her dogs, the main crops are her favorite foods, the president is called the Masident, everything you can possibly think of is Maddy.
Maddyland ends up being voted as the class favorite, which means it’ll be our sample case for the rest of the unit. Here’s where the drama kicks in. The day of the official presentation of Maddyland, Sam walks into class much quieter than usual.
Much quieter. I don’t want to ask, but I need to know what happened. So, I’m sitting there at my desk listening. Everyone’s whispering about it.
Maddy dumped Sam.
I’m horrified. We have a giant poster dedicated to this girl and he’s going to be presenting it in about five minutes even though she just crushed his pre-teen heart. His presentation was definitely not the best, but I couldn’t help but give him an A.
They got back together and broke back up at least three times before we finished the novel.”
This Principal Is Not Your Pal
“In my first assignment at an inner-city high school, I had a very nasty principal. He was from a law enforcement background, had very little experience or knowledge of educational practices, and it showed. As a result, I think it made him very insecure around his teachers. He frequently snapped at us, literally yelled at us in front of our students and screamed at us in faculty meetings. He was insanely unprofessional and the students and teachers hated him.
One day a student told me our principal was losing his home. I responded, ‘Haha, okay,’ and he said, ‘Seriously, it’s in the paper.’ Sure enough, there was some kind of public notice in the newspaper that our principal’s expensive home was being foreclosed on. A few teachers quietly gossiped about it but we all acted none the wiser.
Later that week, there was a fight in the cafeteria during lunch. The principal and the school cop came to break it up. The principal grabbed the perpetrator by his collar, yelling in front of everyone, ‘I’m starting the process to expel you, NOW!’
The kid snapped back, ‘Like your broke butt has any power; you can’t even pay the note on your house!'”
The Math Teacher Has The Hot Gossip
“I had a math teacher that was really cool. He was like 26 or something and mad chill. At the time, it was well known around the school that two language teachers who each had their own spouses would meet in the parking lot during lunch to hook up. Every student knew.
When other teachers heard students talking about this ‘rumor,’ they shut kids up and told them not to say such things. But, my math teacher would join us and make comments about how it’s crazy that two teachers were sleeping together. He also joked about how he would never bang her because she was old. The male language teacher was a young dude and the lady was like 45. My math teacher would contribute to the drama whenever he saw the two teachers in the hallway and outside.
There were days when he saw them get into one car at around 12 when we had his class. He would be looking out the window at the start of the class and say stuff like, ‘Oh my god, look! They’re about to do it again!’ He would joke around like, ‘That’s the third time today,’ and scream out the window, ‘Hey! There are children watching!’
We were on like the fifth floor so it was obviously a joke. But, my math teacher was having a blast always contributing to all that drama. He was an awesome teacher, too.”
His 15 Minutes Of Fame Were Over Quick
“I was a teacher’s assistant in a high school classroom for a few weeks while I was in college to be a teacher. I ended up hearing a rumor about how our teacher was on Jeopardy. Apparently, he did really well and won a few days. All the kids talked about it, loved it, loved him, and thought he was really smart. I took the guy’s name and did some research, turned out he was on Wheel of Fortune and did horrible. The guy was a complete jerk to me so I torrented his episode, burned it to a disc, and I gave it to this kid who didn’t seem too popular.
Never know what happened, I hope the kid at least was popular for a few days.”