I had a couple of junior high teachers who qualified as inappropriate (this was the mid to late '70s):
The first one was a math teacher who had a reputation among the girls of walking up and down the aisles and peering down their shirts. The girls all learned fast not to wear anything even the slightest bit low-cut in his class.
The second one…I forget what he taught, but he used to lend me books to read. I don’t remember what all of them were, but quite a few were by Harold Robbins (cheesy R-rated stuff–not porn by any means, but there were a lot of sexual scenes in them). I loved them and felt very subversive (oddly, I don’t remember making any effort to hide them from my parents, who didn’t police my reading very much). The teacher never did anything else, at least not to me–no inappropriate comments or suggestions–but looking back it seems pretty weird for a middle-aged male teacher to be giving that kind of reading material to an 11- or 12-year-old girl.
Going back a long way to the UK in the 1930s. My dad was talking in woodwork class. The teacher came up from behind and slammed his head into the desk so hard Dad broke a number of teeth.
I wanted to cry when I was told that story by my mum. Nothing was done about the teacher and Dad’s widowed mum couldn’t afford much dental treatment so Dad just had to put up with his wrecked teeth. This astounded me when I was told about it and still astounds me now.
Dad finally got his teeth fixed by an RAF dentist, who took most of them out so he wore dentures from an early age. I’ve noticed that he never smiled in photographs before the work was done. Poor Dad.
Really back in the day the only thing protecting a kid in school from a sadistic or bully teacher was ones family. If the teacher knew your family members would come down and go after them, they would treat you with respect. Teachers had no rules on them, only later would there be lawsuits.
Someone should show him the Mackenzie river that runs north to the Arctic. It is actually a pain because the source thaws much earlier than the mouth, resulting in major flooding every spring. Rivers in the northern hemisphere ought to be made to run NS.
But getting back to the OP. There was a gym teacher in my HS that, had I found him hanging on the edge of cliff by his fingers, I would have looked for a hammer. One year, I think it was 1952, I missed at least two weeks of school, a massive case of chicken pox (I was 15 and it is not good to get it that old). There was a rule that, while you could be excused from courses if you made up the work, you had to do extra gym after school. The extra was always the same: run around LaSalle, the small college next door. I imagine the course was well over a mile and I and another guy finished together long after the others. Mr. Snider said, sorry he had only participation card left and it was too far to walk to his office and get another, so one of us would have to repeat this exercise on another day. We flipped for it. Actually, I won the card, but I have never forgotten his cruelty. There was a rumor, never substantiated, that he had been a marine corps drill sergeant in WW II.
I had a college photography professor who would frequently talk openly in class about doing “Motel Commando” shoots. I found out–not to any surprise–that he was privately propositioning all of the ladies in the class to add to his collection. He single handedly managed to run off every single one of the ladies who started the course that semester.
In 9th grade I had a math teacher who was incompetent and a drunk…she drank beer off and on all day. I went to a college prep meeting and she approached me as I was standing in a group of my friends and said “Why are you here? You aren’t smart enough to go to college.”
Needless to say, I enjoyed it way too much when about 12 years later I came back with my PhD, visited her in class, and in front of her students, asked her if she had ever gotten smart enough to get her master’s degree.
My 10th grade biology teacher (1981 or so), when it came time to teach us about evolution, said, “I’m required to teach you this stuff, so I don’t want to get into any debates about evolution vs. creation. I don’t believe either one anyway.” (Which made me wonder what he did believe.) But he was a great teacher, and a good guy.
You think that’s bad - I caught chicken pox when I was 21. Mild case, fortunately, but I was working as a minimum-wage + commission shoe salesman at the time, and had to miss two weeks of work. That resulted in my having to move back in with my parents, because losing two weeks of work meant that I couldn’t pay the rent on my apartment.
Anyway, back on-topic …
8th grade math teacher. One of the popular girls in class showed up wearing a see-through blouse (with a bra underneath), and a number of the boys were making a big deal out of it. Mr. Hook overheard and wandered over. He said, “What’s the big deal? There’s nothing to see!” (The girl in question was not well-endowed, even by 13- 14-year-old standards.)
Junior HS vice principal: More a case of inaction. He was hanging out and chatting with a few of us male students in the cafeteria, when one of the 9th-grade girls (one who was well-endowed) walked past wearing a very snug T-shirt with two pictures of King Tut’s face/mask positioned exactly where you would expect, and the sentence, “DON’T TOUCH MY TUTS”. VP just laughed right along with the rest of us.
Probably everything. Our district still allowed some teachers to have the Lord’s Prayer posted in their classrooms as late as 1975.
Some of the more serious stuff was from some of the coaches. I was never really interested in the team sports but I was fairly good in gym. One of the PE teachers, also the wrestling coach, wanted to “teach me a lesson” so he put me on the mat and tried to pin me. I reversed it on him, he got mad, and slammed me into the wall. I came off with a bloody nose and grinning, A’s in gym for the rest of the year, and left totally alone. Not a bad deal all in all.
One time when I was in 6th grade for some reason I got it in my head to address my teacher about girls in the class (don’t get the wrong impression - I was very shy back then). I think I made some comment about which one I thought was prettiest and then asked him which one he thought was prettiest. He told me (in a somewhat subdued manner) and all I can remember thinking at the time is “Really?” 'cause I didn’t think that particular girl was anything special. I guess he knew better, though, 'cause the one he mentioned later became a cheerleader. Was it inappropriate for him to give his opinion on young (VERY young) women in his class when he was easily in his forties (if not his fifties) at the time? Possibly. And today maybe he’d get busted for that (although I would hope not - I still remember him as one of my favorite teachers all these years later). But at the time I thought nothing of it and I wouldn’t have dreamed of bringing it up to anybody “in authority.”
I am guessing this is why the lockdown on teachers and rubber rooms, it was the teachers that brought it upon themselves! I recall posting terrible stories here on Straight Dope (reeking of racism, thoughtlessness, etc), and I got more!
My other thought is, I guess no bad teacher will want to admit their shortcomings. They just go on being bad teachers until they retire…
Here’s a trip down memory lane some minor some major:
My gym teacher. I was a nobody in middle school and I was out for two weeks with severe pneumonia. When I returned, she was like, “oh so you’re back.” not asking what happened to me or whatnot or if I had been in the hospital (I was). I am not sure if she even remember I was out. Guess since I was not the coolest…we had a hip-hop dance theme in gym and she had to teach us moves, then she pointed to the “cool kids” in the back (the blondes/cheerleaders) and claimed, “I guess they won’t have any trouble at all.” At the end of the year, someone scrolled “Ms.______is a b***ch” on the gym wall (out in words, I just sanitized it here) and I was like geez ya think?
On the opposite side into nerdom (guess I couldn’t win anywhere) my calculus teacher fawned over the best students. I was in the middle of the pack. When I had the cold, I asked if I could skip the class for today since my head was so stuffy (and I had never ever asked anything like that it was so bad), and he goes, “jeez I don’t care. Do whatever you want” And I was thinking, if I was so and so would he have treated me like that? "
This wasn’t a “bad teacher” story per se, but wanted to share what it was like pre-Columbine. I hear the schools are now lockdown during school hrs built with panic rooms (rumor?) and gun drills…I was in college and could only think of high school teachers who could give me recommendations for professional school. I simply walked into the high school one afternoon, and got desperate, the teachers I did like weren’t available, and one physics teacher that I did ok in was around during her off-period so I just walked into her classroom and waited for her to come in (since her student helpers were in the room and told me to wait) I stupidly had my recommendation fill-out page and told her hi, could you fill this out I was a student herelast year. She just looked at me and said, "can’t you see I’m busy?? Why don’t you wait for the chem teacher across the hall (who was not my chem teacher). " It was a year later and I don’t think she remembered me, but the shocking part was she didn’t even ask how I entered the school premises or whatnot. I was supposed to sign in and get a badge, but wasn’t aware so I just walked in…dangit I could have brought a gun and shot her or something! (hearing nowadays this high school is just not that lax anymore)
8th grade gym class. Mid 1980s. We were playing basketball that day, and me and one other kid arrived in the gym before anyone else. There were a handful of basketballs laying on the floor. The gym teacher told, “Go ahead and grab a few basketballs before the jungle bunnies get up here and take them all.”
30 years later, and I still regret not saying anything.
10th grade gym teacher (why are there so many stories featuring gym teachers?)
He was one of the classics. Most “classes” consisted of us running the track while he sat on the bleachers and smoked. (Faster, you pussies! <cough, hack>) Needlesss to say, we had little respect for him. He was a relatively young guy too. Lazy as hell though.
He also liked to pick on the non-jocks. One guy he teased mercilessly - we were not the nicest kids and even we thought it was over the top. This same kid was expelled a year later for knifing a guy in the hallway who was calling him gay. I’ve always thought that he was really wanting to stab the gym teacher…
The gym teacher also had a temper. Once, when we were lined up in rows for(if we were not running, we spent much time lining up in rows for some unknown reason), some kid behind me was talking. Mr. Gym teacher whipped his set of keys at him. Bad aim - he caught me on the leg and the keys cut me - enough that blood was running down my leg.
It didn’t actually hurt that much - I got out of line, and told him “I am going to the office. I imagine they will want to talk to you”. He didn’t get fired, but did tone down quite a lot after that - they must have read him the riot act.
Someone actually stole his gradebook near the end of term, and flushed all the pages down the toilet. He called us in one by one, and it was apparent that he had no clue what our names were. After nearly 10 months of teaching us. So we all got a “B”. He did not return the next year. We heard he left teaching as he was considered “unhireable” by the school district.
A few years later, a bunch of us ran into him at a bar - one of us went up to him and said “So, I see you’re still a fuckin’ loser” He got up rather meanacingly, and that’s when the other 7 of us got up. He sat down and looked intently into his beer. He left soon after.
I had a great 11th grade world history teacher, one of the best teachers I had at any level. So this is more in the category of “things that would never fly today.”
We were talking about German unification, and he was describing Otto von Bismarck’s “Iron and Blood” speech. I remember I had my nose buried in my notes, not looking up at all. Mr. H said “What did Bismarck mean by Iron and Blood? [slight pause] THIS!” Everyone looks up and he’s holding a Dreyse Needle Gun (an historic rifle) over his head.
Today, a SWAT team probably would have gotten involved.
Ninth grade in the East Bay of California. Last day of the school year, and I’m hanging around the main courtyard with people dressed up, throwing water balloons, paper confetti, etc. One teacher is dressed up as a hillbilly carrying around a .22 rifle, which is obviously fake, right?
BAM!
He’d shot a blank (I guess) straight in the air.
Absolute dead quiet. All eyes turn on hillbilly. He sneers & grins, like Clint Eastwood and walks on. Everybody laughs nervously, and quickly the party returns.
I’ve posted this elsewhere but until High School I was in a more rural-ish district and guns were something no one considered really odd. A lot of the families needing table meat, we were allowed to hunt on our way to and from school in the fall. During the day you checked your firearm in with the PE teacher and he locked it in the equipment room. The regular lunch lady would put anything you bagged in the freezer room. Never was there a hint of anyone being careless or threatening with any of it; it was just a matter of course. Something we considered normal.
Interesting. And of course today in most urban and suburban places this should not be allowed. Out of curiosity, where was this? Some place like, Lander, Wyoming (e.g.)? For some reason to me, Wyoming comes to mind.