Recently, there has been a thread floating around twitter where adults are sharing their worst memories from elementary school and it is always so interesting to me to read those. I thought I would share mine here (hopefully you can't read the bitterness in my tone, this story still upsets me to this day)!
When I was in fifth grade, my teacher had taken a week off to help her son through surgery, so we had a substitute teacher- which is the best news for any ten year old! On his third or fourth day in our classroom, our substitute allowed the whole class to take a bathroom break, all twenty of us lined up outside the bathroom doors. As my classmates finished up their business, they all returned to the classroom, leaving five people left in line waiting there turn. Of course, I was one of five people, along with my best friend Maggie and three boys; Colton, Braden, and Gabe. Just about the time I was walking back to class Maggie stopped me, "Do you know what would be so funny" she asked, "If we got Gabe, Colton, and Braden to go into the girls bathroom!"
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It would be funny, I thought right as Maggie was walking towards them giving them a "triple dog dare," and we all know you cant say no to that!
The deal was that the boys would run into the girls room after it had cleared, touch the sink, and come back out. This quest would make them live in infamy, they thought, so of course they all participated. We all returned to class giggling at each other, thinking we wouldn't get caught.
However, we were wrong. About twenty five minutes after the incident, all five of us were called down to the office and lectured heavily, about how inappropriate our actions were. We all had to call our parents from the principal's office and tell them what we had done. I was the last of five to get to the phone and everyone else's parents had scolded them, so when it was finally my turn to dial my mom's number I was terrified, specially since I was disturbing her at work. She answered the phone, I told her what had happened, and waited anxiously for her to yell at me. Instead of yelling, I just heard an explosion of laughter over the phone, and I heard her tell me that I'm not in trouble and that its a stupid reason to get sent to the office- which looking back in time, I totally agree with.
While I don't know how much trouble my classmates got in with their parents, I knew we would all be in trouble with the school. Our principal, Mrs. Quinton, suspended us for a half day and had our parents all come pick us up from school. As an additional punishment, the five of us had to do community service, helping with minor repairs around the school.
The worst punishment of all, however, was the fact that my leading role in the fifth grade play was taken away from me and given to the girl in my class who told on us to the teacher for the whole bathroom ordeal. To this day, I am still upset that I did not get to play that role!
Luckily, this half day suspension did not stay on my permanent record and I did not get a bad reputation within the school. However, looking back at this incident from the perspective of a future educator, I don't necessarily agree with the school's disciplinary actions against me. I didn't understand (and still don't quite understand) how the boys' actions were my responsibility. Though yes, I laughed and encouraged them, they were ultimately in charge of themselves, which is not something that was considered by school personnel. I know it is silly to be upset about something that happened twelve years ago, I just really wish I could have kept my role in the school play!
This image of an elementary school classroom comes from Emory Maiden on Flickr
When I was in fifth grade, my teacher had taken a week off to help her son through surgery, so we had a substitute teacher- which is the best news for any ten year old! On his third or fourth day in our classroom, our substitute allowed the whole class to take a bathroom break, all twenty of us lined up outside the bathroom doors. As my classmates finished up their business, they all returned to the classroom, leaving five people left in line waiting there turn. Of course, I was one of five people, along with my best friend Maggie and three boys; Colton, Braden, and Gabe. Just about the time I was walking back to class Maggie stopped me, "Do you know what would be so funny" she asked, "If we got Gabe, Colton, and Braden to go into the girls bathroom!"
\
It would be funny, I thought right as Maggie was walking towards them giving them a "triple dog dare," and we all know you cant say no to that!
The deal was that the boys would run into the girls room after it had cleared, touch the sink, and come back out. This quest would make them live in infamy, they thought, so of course they all participated. We all returned to class giggling at each other, thinking we wouldn't get caught.
However, we were wrong. About twenty five minutes after the incident, all five of us were called down to the office and lectured heavily, about how inappropriate our actions were. We all had to call our parents from the principal's office and tell them what we had done. I was the last of five to get to the phone and everyone else's parents had scolded them, so when it was finally my turn to dial my mom's number I was terrified, specially since I was disturbing her at work. She answered the phone, I told her what had happened, and waited anxiously for her to yell at me. Instead of yelling, I just heard an explosion of laughter over the phone, and I heard her tell me that I'm not in trouble and that its a stupid reason to get sent to the office- which looking back in time, I totally agree with.
While I don't know how much trouble my classmates got in with their parents, I knew we would all be in trouble with the school. Our principal, Mrs. Quinton, suspended us for a half day and had our parents all come pick us up from school. As an additional punishment, the five of us had to do community service, helping with minor repairs around the school.
The worst punishment of all, however, was the fact that my leading role in the fifth grade play was taken away from me and given to the girl in my class who told on us to the teacher for the whole bathroom ordeal. To this day, I am still upset that I did not get to play that role!
Luckily, this half day suspension did not stay on my permanent record and I did not get a bad reputation within the school. However, looking back at this incident from the perspective of a future educator, I don't necessarily agree with the school's disciplinary actions against me. I didn't understand (and still don't quite understand) how the boys' actions were my responsibility. Though yes, I laughed and encouraged them, they were ultimately in charge of themselves, which is not something that was considered by school personnel. I know it is silly to be upset about something that happened twelve years ago, I just really wish I could have kept my role in the school play!
This image of an elementary school classroom comes from Emory Maiden on Flickr
Hi Lindsey. I agree with you there, the guys are in charge of their own actions and a suspension seems way too much for something like that. And I don't think it's silly to still be upset when thinking back on that. I know I would be. That sounds so frustrating to lose a role to the little tattle tale (even to me who would not want to have a role).
ReplyDeleteLindsey,
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love that you shared your personal experience from fifth grade! I seriously remember so many things from that year of school. I think that my worst experience was when I brought an old cell phone to school because I thought that I was cool and ended up getting it taken away and my mom had to sign a paper for me to get it back. The things that we do when we are kids!
Lindsey,
ReplyDeleteThis story is great. There are so many ridiculous stories from elementary school. My story was that a classmate asked me to how to spell "you're" because we had learned about "your" and "you're" that day. I wrote "you're" on a little slip of paper. He then took the slip and wrote "pretty" after that. He handed the slip to a girl in our class. She read it and started crying! The teacher got involved, and I ended up crying in the hallway because she told me that what I had done was inappropriate. Elementary school was WILD, and I'm glad other people have similarly ridiculous stories.