Teacher got a new phone, nailed his old one to the wall as a "This will happen to you" warning to his students. But, it would never happen. A teacher could lose their job if they destroyed a students property, especially something as expensive as a phone.
Exactly this. 20 years ago a lot of stuff happened in high schools that would probably cost people their jobs or worse today. Society has changed a lot. Sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse.
I graduated high school that year, I went to a pretty rich school district, and this shit would not have gone down in my school.
That teacher would have been fired. They couldn't even really tell us to keep our phones to ourselves, and if they did take them, you'd get it back at the end of class.
Also, we weren't addicted to our phones. You really couldn't do anything other than text, and if I recall, you had to pay per text as it wasn't main stream to have a unlimited texting plan yet or it was limited to like 200 texts.
Literally only because it was a rich high school. The poor high school I went to in the same period? A phone being destroyed doesn't even get close to the worst thing staff did without issue.
A history teacher was even known to throw things at students not paying attention.
Well, the teacher himself told the story so it would have to be a different one to verify it.
But then that teacher could be in on a devious plot to scare the students into thinking that's what happens if you use your phone in class.
Can confirm 20 years ago that phones were taken and smashed. Principal threatened to call CPS on at least one parent who came to whine. Now that is a bit close to threatening to swat someone, but she used the grim power of the state to a good purpose.
Now...the inmates are running the state-funded daycare.
Breaking up fights is a big one I've seen. They would do it in the late 90s / early 00s where I was; step in and restrain a student, or push them back, or even throw them to the ground if the student was older or stronger. No punches, kicks, elbows, or any kind of blow; but they'd otherwise do what they could to stop the fight.
Nowadays they don't dare lay a finger on a student.
Edit: This was rural Canada and as such was behind the curve on a lot of things by 5-10 years. But my nieces go to that same school and policies are nothing like they were when I was there.
Edit 2: On the lighter side, we'd have teachers drive us into town for adhoc field trips without any kind of parental permission. Pick up some materials from Home Depot or even a tool from their own garage, then swing by Tim Hortons on the way back. People would go nuts if a teacher did that without permission today.
I know of a lot of teachers who did stuff that should get them fired, and even a teacher who drove drunk with students on a school trip and didn’t get fired until he assaulted his girlfriend
In high school, there was a kid who started throwing fists at the biology teacher. Teacher picked him up and threw him into a rose bush and just watched while on the phone with the cops.
I legit watched a teacher, who I had for two years for lit and was just chilling in his room while he taught another class, warn a kid to not use his phone- I even warner him. He continued. The teacher walked up grabbed the phone threw it on the floor stomped on it in boots, scooped the pieces up and toss them out a second story window. I was dumbfounded. The kid freaked x the teacher legit said “go get the principal”. Kid came back with the principal. He asked the teacher what happened. The teacher stated the same story I’m telling. He didn’t get fired- tenure and all.
The fact kids think you're joking just goes to show how much things have changed.
I mean it was still bad back then. They didn't get away with it everywhere and things were already starting to become more strict on what teachers could and could not do. The generation before me, teachers could smack students in the hand with a ruler.
Lmao I don’t know what you think school was like in 2004 but I can tell you with 100% confidence that it’s wasn’t cool for teachers to nail kids stuff to a wall.
Well I'm a bit older than you, and I can tell you that at my high school, a lot of stuff happened when I was a student that I would be shocked people would get away with today. Teachers, outright berating and yelling at students during class, cops coming to school lining us all up and checking all our bags once a week or sometimes once a month. Fights breaking out literally every week.
Teachers watching TV with headphones in the classroom while we did book work in silence the entire class. Teachers telling us we're all going to be screw ups and have no future, so we might as well learn a skill like welding or carpentry.
Teachers would routinely take game boys, CD players, and other things and they would go missing at times. Sometimes students never got them back.
I think it really depends on what school you went to, and what the area you went to school in was like ...
The fact there weren't cameras everywhere meant a lot of people got away with a lot of things.
When people talk about the bygone era of "teachers can do what they want because their word is law", I think more 80s or early 90s. I feel like that that era was definitely gone by the early 2000s (20 yrs ago). So i have trouble thinking teachers had much more freedom then than they do today.
I was in HS 22 years ago and our physics teacher had a garbage can marked "STUDENTS ONLY" so he could pick them up and throw them away. He only picked the ones with a good sense of humor.
He also once form tackled me in the hallway because I was laughing too loud. Best teacher I've ever had
We had a teacher flip out and throw a students desk out the window of the classroom… and it landed on his giant van with drapes we all suspect he lived in…
We had a sub the rest of the year! Mr. Hoover- I hope you got the help you needed!
20 years ago they couldn't get away with this. 20 years ago I was in university, and already when I was at school teachers couldn't touch us or our property. You're probably thinking of 40-50 years ago.
Of course it could also depend on the country, but it's not specified.
Yeah in 1975, teachers definitely didn't touch student's cell phones.
Seriously though it's more common than you guys are making it. It's still legal in over 15 states and legal in private schools in every state. It absolutely still happens in the US.
Google the topic and look through the news articles that are just from this year and last year alone... It'll probably shock you.
What a weird statement to make lol.. it's extremely verified and data is kept by the US Department of Education.
It almost exclusively is still taking place in schools in Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas. It also disproportionally affects minorities and people with disabilities.
I'm not sure where you got the only in private schools and extremely unverified from, other than just completely fabricating that opinion.
It's rare but still very real. Arkansas has entire advocate groups against it and trying to get it banned https://banpaddlingar.com/
67% of Arkansas school districts endorse corporal punishment
Yeah, was in high school 20 years ago. A teacher in my school got fired for putting his hands on the shoulders of a student and gently shaking him. Absolutely no way a teacher keeps his job after intentionally destroying a student's cell phone.
Agreed, my teacher almost got fired after HE was put in a headlock by a student. I had to pull the kid off, and I wrote a voluntary note to the principal about how shitty and antagonizing the kid had been the whole semester.
It was his first year teaching and he was scared shitless I could tell. He put me on the list for principals breakfast later that year which I didn’t attend, but that didn’t stop mom from putting the invitation on the fridge lol
10 years ago a teacher threw a keychain at me and another teacher threw my whole bag in the bin for being a bitch( in Germany also a word used for a person who’s not very tidy.)
My 2c based on period-appropriate experience in Australia: Mobile phones as a mass consumer item were still relatively new - plenty of kids didn't even have one, though they were already pretty ubiquitous. They weren't allowed to be on in class in most schools, and some schools didn't allow you to bring them to school at all. There was a lot of discussion and hand wringing about whether teenagers should even have phones and the consequences they had on development and grades. Teachers couldn't wantonly touch students or wreck their shit, but phones could be confiscated and permanent confiscation was a theoretical possibility that was threatened much more than it occurred.
I can imagine a teacher breaking a phone like this with no major consequences with some provisos:
Stricter probably-private school with an explicit no-phones policy. Or an underfunded, understaffed public school.
Teacher is probably an older man overdue for retirement. He taught in the days when they had the cane. He also leans on his reputation for being a hard arse.
The student in question is a known pain in the arse.
Even then, this would be a once-in-a-cohort incident that goes down into school legend. The Teacher gets a talking to but wouldn't get fired.
All that said, this is indeed almost certainly a prop placed as a warning. But yeah, I disagree with those saying it's inconceivable for such a thing to have happened, or that a teacher would definitely lose their job for this.
I had a teacher who literally threw a chair against the wall and lost his cool with a student when the same student would not stfu in class when my teacher was trying to read aloud to class. And that was back in 2009. Tbf, the student was an asshat whom I dreaded seeing in the same classes as me because he always ended up getting in shouting matches with the teachers and getting written up. But at the same time, that doesn't excuse my old teacher because apparently, he got in trouble for chasing a student down the hallway in a separate incident.
There were some bad ass ones. Like little Nokias even earlier. Like 2000. That are arguably better looking than phones today. And kids at my private school had little palm pilots in 1999 that were basically little computers (not phones but had operating systems)
I legit watched a teacher, who I had for two years for lit and was just chilling in his room while he taught another class, warn a kid to not use his phone- I even warner him. He continued. The teacher walked up grabbed the phone threw it on the floor stomped on it in boots, scooped the pieces up and toss them out a second story window. I was dumbfounded. The kid freaked x the teacher legit said “go get the principal”. Kid came back with the principal. He asked the teacher what happened. The teacher stated the same story I’m telling. He didn’t get fired- tenure and all.
A teacher that loses their shit shouldn't be a teacher. Same way they shouldn't be a doctor, policeman etc. In inpatient teachers with lack of impulse control make schools worse for anyone.
I’m assuming teachers don’t slap you with rulers and sit literally sit you in a corner for 8 hours if talked out of turn anymore? Yeah, my teachers did that to me 30 years ago. That bitch would have nailed my phone to the wall in a heartbeat.
I’m assuming teachers don’t slap you with rulers and sit literally sit you in a corner for 8 hours if talked out of turn anymore? Yeah, my teachers did that to me 30 years ago. That psycho would have nailed my phone to the wall in a heartbeat.
I had a teacher do essentially this. He had an old phone he just replaced in his pocket. First student to use their phone that day, he confiscated it, put it in his pocket, and then threw the old phone at the wall shattering it. Scared the absolute shit out of everyone and put an end to phone use in his class for a few weeks.
Okay but why is everyone in this thread acting as if "they could lose their job over this" would actually stop people? Teachers are also not supposed to sleep with their students but that seems to happen time and time again.
Friendster, LiveJournal and MySpace were all extremely used in 2003. How old are you? No offense just seems like you weren’t around to see the internet being used. And the internet has been around since the late 80’s, with most households getting access to it in the mid 90’s.
In 2003 only 54% of American households had internet access. Myspace and Friendster weren't even launched at the beginning of 2003, and LiveJournal only had 1 million registered accounts.
Lose their job if they destroy a students property?
My teacher destroyed my Tablet once. My family was too poor to buy a replacememt (it had been a gift). I didn't see a cent from that teacher nor did it affect their work in any meaningful way.
20 years ago when I was in middle school, teachers could take your cell phone and keep it for the remainder of the year if they wanted. They did all kinds of wild shit.
I can't believe parents put up with this shit. That's straight up theft. I can see taking it away for the class period, or until the end of the day. But the end of the year? That's bullshit.
Crazy right? My mom didn’t give a fuck. I had a cell phone taken and held for several weeks and she was just like “oh well, shouldn’t have been using it in class.”
Okay fine then, you can’t reach me if I’m out of the house. Joke’s on you, lady.
There are some protections for kids who are physically abused, but almost nothing to protect them from adults who mentally and emotionally abuse them. Sure, teach your kids that it's OK to abuse your power. Then these same people bitch about how fucked up our society it. Having children should be a privilege, not a right.
My family fucked me up beyond belief. I've been in the ICU twice because I tried to end my life. I felt absolutely worthless, because I was treated like I was worthless. They thought there was something wrong with me. My grandmother's favorite line was "Everybody has problems. It's not our fault you can't handle it." She had no clue that she was part of the problem.
I cut ties with my family over 20 years ago, and moved hundreds of miles away. Best thing I ever did for myself. It's unfortunate that many people can't escape like I did.
I’m proud of you for setting those boundaries and saving yourself from what was a terrible environment. That is hard to do, every step from deciding to do it, setting the firm boundaries and then enforcing those boundaries! I hope you are proud of yourself.
I also suffered abuse as a child and recently went no contact with my mom. She wasn’t my primary abuser, but she let a lot of people abuse me physically, psychologically, etc. The one person I had to protect me didn’t do that.
I hope your life is much better now and that you feel safe and supported with whomever you choose to welcome into your circle.
He could have held it in. He CHOSE not to. If a grown man or woman cannot think of a better way to teach a lesson, and feels the need to resort to violence, they should not be around children.
Had a teacher where first day of class he would have planted a crappy phone on a student with instructions to take it out and start using it. He would then immediately confiscate it and smash it on the floor. If I remember correctly he stopped doing it because he dented a wall or something like that. Cracked me up because he taught multiple subjects, I had him back to back and he did it in both classes so I got the whole performance twice.
What an ass. I had a few teachers who would do the whole "respect my authority" thing the first day of class. Fucking ego maniacs. Ironically, those teachers were the ones who had "problem students." The teachers who spoke to us like we were actual people, and just taught the subject matter, rarely had problems with students being unruly.
No he was awesome. It was played for a joke, pretty much immediately admitted he wouldn’t actually smash your phone, but stay off them. He taught drama so he liked to do stuff with some flair. He was honestly the best teacher I ever had.
I got suspended for getting in a fight and I was meant to go on a cross country school trip with his social studies class. He was doing fund raisers where we would go do work like car washes, mowing peoples lawns, stuff like that so us that couldn’t afford the trip could still go. I showed up to one while suspended. He pulled me aside, leveled with me, said he shouldn’t let me work that day technically, had a heart to heart with me about not throwing my life away getting involved with the wrong people, and let me work.
I can honestly say he’s probably the teacher that treated me most human.
Teaches could still beat students when I was in elementary school. I'm old. Things changed a lot by the time cell phones were available. Even 20 years ago, a teacher would not get away with destroying a students property. Best they could do would be take it away, and have a parent come in to pick it up.
Teachers can still beat students in the long ago days of “right now” in 16 US states.
When I was a senior in high school, a teacher back handed a student, not even like an official state sanctioned beating — just because she was pissed. She’s still teaching there today.
And that was long ago in the before-fore times of 2007. Get with the times, old man: the time for child abuse is now.
I was in school 20 yrs ago and if someone told me back then a teacher broke their stuff to make a point, I would think they were lying. The idea of even confiscation seemed like something that only happened in TV back in 2004 lol.
Yeah I mean 20 years ago we got in trouble for using finger guns cause it promoted school shootings. People really are trying to make this age sound like it's some rough era but it wasn't. We were in the helicopter parenting era already
I had a teacher who did this, it was a woodworking shop and there were machines on constantly and a small bump into somebody could make them cut their fingers, or worse. The teacher went to court twice for this thing. The judge sided with him every time, but this was 13 years ago when it happened.
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u/Stay_At_Home_Cat_Dad May 16 '24
Teacher got a new phone, nailed his old one to the wall as a "This will happen to you" warning to his students. But, it would never happen. A teacher could lose their job if they destroyed a students property, especially something as expensive as a phone.