Sure we go to school to learn reading, writing and arithmetic, but there’s also plenty of other things to learn while we’re there. Whether it’s minor infractions or major trouble, we’ve all broken or at least really bent a school rule here or there. People on Quora discuss that time they accidentally (or not) broke a school rule.
Comments have been edited for clarity. The source can be found at the end of the article.
I got detention for carrying a water bottle from one classroom to another.
I was a first period teachers aide my senior year of high school, and I often would miss school for gifted classroom events like public speaking competitions and academic game challenges at local colleges. It was a perk of being gifted and allowed me to escape my average, boring classroom experiences.
Wed gotten a new assistant principal, and he was gung-ho, man. He came from some crazy school in New York where kids would keep guns in their socks, pull students hoods around their heads and bash their faces in, and sneak spirits to school in translucent water bottles and drink during bathroom breaks.
I recognize that this is far more prevalent now and happens often, but at the time it was unlikely we were doing these things and we were a great group of students from a small school in a smaller town.
The day prior, I was at a public speaking competition. Id been out of school all day and missed whatever assemblies took place or announcements that had been made. I brought my bottle to my teachers aide position, as per usual, and no one said a peep to me. I graded papers, set up lessons, the whole nine yards. Bell rings to head to the next class, so I get up and start to walk next door when Im stopped in the hallway by the assistant principal himself, high and mighty, chest puffed out.
He starts to holler at me and whips out a pad, writing me detention right there in the hallway for God-only-knew what reason, at least in my eyes.
I only found out after reading my slip what the detention was for; the day prior, a day Id missed, he had put into effect a new rule that students were no longer allowed to carry water bottles because we were capable of sneaking white spirits into the school and passing it off as water. I was fuming, but I served my detention as it was and hated that principal until the day he got fired…for being a little too gung-ho and passing many more ridiculous rules that the school board was getting tired of keeping up with.
Katarina Clark-Bingham
I wore boxers to my school.
So it was a normal day and I was just enjoying my morning when I suddenly got a call from school that they need my signature for something.
God knows what was wrong with me, I jumped on my two wheeler and went to the school. Didnt care about my outfit! (Probably I was thinking that it would be a quick process, you know.)
So I went to the office where everyone was in their proper dress. I thought that this will be it, Ill sign and leave. Simple.
But no, not yet.
I was supposed to visit my class teacher who was in a lecture. Well things were about to get embarrassing. I had to walk all the way to the lecture. Students were looking at me like I was crazy.
Finally I reached the classroom. I asked her permission to enter. She gave me a weird look and called me to her desk. She *held* my boxers and asked me What is this?! in front of the whole freaking class full of kids.
I felt so harassed.
It felt like one of those dreams you have during your childhood when you find yourself without clothes in school. One of the dreams youd never want to come true.
Harman Batish
I have never been to detention. Thats not to say I havent gotten in trouble. You could even say that I was proven guilty and sentenced to 3 hours after school in detention.
8th grade, geography class. New Delhi, India.
We had a professor who, though very knowledgeable, was slightly odd and partially lacking in social ability. Needless to say, school is not a place you want to display weakness. He was constantly the butt of our jokes and kids never let an opportunity slip by to make fun of him.
His initials were P.K. Talli. For those of you who dont speak Hindi, his initials translate to a complete, coherent Hindi sentence. Something like the Futurama prank call for I.C. Wiener. My teacher’s name roughly translates to Ive been drinking so Im loaded.
Anyway, one glorious day, our esteemed Geography professor decides to collect our homework. I, being the epitome of lethargy at the time, chose not to indulge in the work. He approached my desk and asked me for my submission.
Me: Sorry sir, I was unable to finish it.
Professor: Ok, you will stay for detention after school today.
Shoot! I had never gotten detention before! Plus, my friends and I were going to go play football after school. I wasnt going to miss that…
Me *Trying my luck*: Sir, Im afraid today would not be possible. I am very busy.
Professor: Lets do it tomorrow then.
Me: Sorry sir, I am busy all week. I have a math test tomorrow and physics test day after.
Professor: OK! Then you will come see me on Monday and we will determine your punishment.
Me: I will not be able to meet you on Monday sir, I have an inter school cricket match.
Professor: Ok, then when are you free!??!
Me: I will get back to you Sir.
Professor: Dont forget!
I never forgot. But Id have been an idiot to be the first person to bring it up. I needed to know how far I could take this.
I never went to detention and for some reason, we never spoke about it again.
Advait Luthra
Accidentally? Yes and No.
I was too cool in high school. I got good grades but socializing was my priority. The cafeteria was near the front entrance of the school, inside a glass box-like room, filled with tables and chairs. There were three entrances, one corresponding to the lunch line and the other two on different sides of the room, which the doors stay closed unless someone is entering/exiting.
I’m sitting with my friends, who are also too cool, and I decide to show them my pepper spray, which my parents had purchased for my protection (had the need arisen).
Well, I decided I was going to spray a little bit onto the ground, under the table, just because. Reasons unknown. I immediately notice the radioactive orange color of the pepper spray on the ground. Then it hits me. These pepper particles enter my airway and I’ve got full-on whooping cough. I catch my breath, moving away from the table as I notice an epidemic of coughing and evacuation—from the table I was sitting at, one by one, all the way to the dear women serving lunch.
Rushing out of the gas chamber I created, coughing, laughing and crying, I realize I’m still holding the evidence! As waves of innocent victims spill out of the small entrances, I walk around the corner to an unsuspecting trash can and dispose of this can of catastrophe. I grew worried as the school police officer got involved, but administration as a whole seemed baffled. I think everyone was. Thankfully, my friends had no interest in snitching.
In reference to the above, I didn’t accidentally spray pepper spray, I accidentally caused a huge reaction that I was ill prepared for.
Katie Bug
Mobile phones were not allowed to be brought to school, whatsoever your excuse may be (and is still on the rule board).
We prefects had to go check all the classes, bags and clothes of students for mobile phones. If caught, the principal would take it, write the name of the student and class in the mobile with permanent marker (yeah, I know, that hurts), which would be returned only on the last day of the academic year.
One of our hockey coaches noticed this about me and caught me red handed one day. They not only confiscated all the mobiles, they also made me carry all the mobiles in my blazer for 2 whole weeks.
Reshmaa Armad
YES, and I am kind of proud of it too.
I was a belligerent kid. Also, I was very particular of what was morally right and wrong. Once our school organised a science fair. After the fair was over, we were asked to contribute some amount to the school, because apparently our school went a little over the board with the expenditure.
I did not contribute any money because I remained firm that one should spend according to his capability, and the school is not setting a good example in front of kids by asking for money.
My class teacher couldnt handle my argument and sent me to the headmistress.
I went inside her room, and she shouted at me, you have money to spend on your outings, your clothes and other leisurely indulgences, but you cant give 20 bucks to your own school?
She should not have said that.
I went a little closer to her, looked in her eyes and said, I will not give the money, do whatever you want to do, do whatever you can do.
I did not wait for her to say anything, came back sat in my class, completely unaware that I could be suspended/punished.
None of the students had to give any money after that incident.
Somya Aggarwal
Oh yep.
When I was in kindergarten, I didnt know any real curse words. None.
For some reason I liked holding my middle finger up. I dont know why. Anyway, I apparently did it to my teacher and she was shocked. Her eyes were almost bulging out, it was horrifying.
All the kids around me gasped in disbelief.
The teacher almost fainted. The atmosphere was very tense and surreal. She decided to call my parents in pure anger. It was such an awkward conversation with my teacher, when my parents came.
Teacher: Do you know what your son has done?
Parents: *already getting angry* No…
Teacher: He pointed his middle finger at me?
Parents: *Horrified*
Me: Whats so bad about a middle finger?
Teacher: What, do you not know what it means?
Me: Yes, its my middle finger…
And then there was a painful awkward silence.
Kim Ryokshin
It was the middle of winter.
Normally, my high school allowed everyone to walk on the outdoor sidewalks to get to class, but if we were having particularly stormy or icy weather, they would declare it a closed campus, which meant that everyone had to stay indoors. It made getting to class on time a pain, but there would probably be some nasty parental complaints if someones kid got injured because he slipped and fell on the ice, because this is America and its not altogether improbable that one kids stupidity could lead to a lawsuit.
Anyway, this happened to be one of those closed-campus days. The school even threw in a few extra threats this time around for the students who went outside, and they placed security guards at all of the doors.
Well, some of the doors.
By the middle of the day, it didnt seem too bad outside, so it crossed my mind that the school might have lifted the closed-campus regulation. When I left my Biology class, there werent any security guards next to the door I usually used, and—lo and behold—it was unlocked, so my fairly reasonable conclusion was that we were now allowed outside. No one made any attempt to stop my as I slipped out and proceeded to follow my usual route to Statistics.
Before long, I started to notice that there werent a lot of other people outside. Oh, well, I thought. Maybe we still arent allowed out here. But by then, it was too late, so I had to accept my fate. I wasnt too upset. Whats the worst that can happen? Theyre not going to lock us out here.
Except, thats exactly what they did. When I reached the door on the other end, the security guards inside were standing right in front of it, and it was locked. I knocked, but they refused to open it.
At one point, a student came over and tried to let me in, but I could scarcely get my foot through the door before one of the security guards shouted NO! and slammed it shut. They then blocked the door completely so that no students, whether inside or outside, could get through.
At that point, I started to freak out. I was scared and upset. I was going to be late to class, which was extremely rare, and I seriously thought that the school was going to write me up.
I walked all the way to the door on the other end of the building, and luckily, there were no security guards there, so I managed to get in and get to class. Nothing bad happened as a result of my mistake (I think I even managed to make it to Statistics just before the bell), but there were definitely a few tears involved.
Maybe I was being defiant. I absolutely despised the closed-campus rule, so maybe I just wanted to believe that it had been lifted. But I think a large part of the adventure was due to an innocent mistake on my part, as well as the schools stupidity of putting security guards at some doors while leaving the others completely unguarded and unlocked.
Emily Michele
Yes.
Twice, because one-time stupidity wasnt cutting it.
1. I hid a bunch of boys in the girls bathroom.
2. I leaked an exam paper.
It is imperative that I remind you both these actions were completely accidental. I am a good girl otherwise. No, seriously. I am. I am. I am.
So #1: In school, I was a house captain. They probably thought I was a nice kid who could be trusted to inspire others to follow the rules. (Say hello to irony).
So this one day, somewhere near Christmas, when the entire school was buzzing in the festive mood and preparing for the Annual day/Christmas party, four boys decided to skip a few classes.
They were loitering around the corridors, peeking around the corners, treading carefully to avoid any teachers lest risk punishment. As I write this, I can imagine their glee.
Anyway. After a few minutes of enjoying their hard-earned freedom, they spotted the schools principal doing her rounds. She was scouting for students missing classes.
But before she could lay her eyes on them, I found them on my way out of the restroom.
There wasnt much time. In that moment of intense panic, without using words, only with their eyes, I could see them literally begging me to save their sorry butts.
I dont know why, but by instinct I jerked my head in the direction of the girls bathroom and beckoned them to run inside and hide. And guess what? They did!
Voila. House Captain saves the day!
Now for number 2, the leaked exam paper…
This was during my bachelors. My college was located just off of the highway in the middle of literally nowhere. To put things in perspective, wed often walk ten minutes on a rural sort of raw-road from the bus stop to just get to the colleges entrance.
Right at the mouth of this road was the worlds richest xerox shop. It was a dingy store, to be honest. The type that could not house two people in the store at a given time, literally that small. But it was the richest because between the huge hospital and the medical college, that store was the only thing available within a ten-mile radius to make copies of documents.
One evening, just a day before a certain examination, I went to get copies of the study-notes my friend had prepared for the whole class. You may ask why did I go to the Xerox store. Why not someone else. Well, thats because I was the class monitor (You may face-palm).
It so happens, examination season is a busy season for Mr. Xerox-man. His shop was soaked in papers. He gave me my copies and I dutifully distributed them to my classmates and went home. When I got home and opened my bunch of notes, to my shock and surprise I saw a stray copy of the question paper for the next day stapled somewhere at the end.
Now, I dont know how it got there but my Sherlock-Holmes skills told me that maybe the peon of the college was sent there by the teacher to get things ready for the exam next day and through a blissful mistake (and the busy season and the dingy store) a copy was left behind and it made its way to me.
I told myself Its Gods gift. Dont waste it.
No. Im kidding. I was freaking scared. Almost sweating. This was waaaayyy out of my league of mischief. This was plain wrong. So, like any good-girl would, I quickly called my best friend and told her what had happened.
After a looong discussion that included careful consideration of pros and cons of revealing or not revealing the truth, she convinced me to keep my cake-hole shut. She was of the opinion that no one would buy my 2-cent worth story and Id be in deep trouble.
Her only request (demand?) – I should tell her the questions on the paper. So, I did. Because, frankly, I did not want to benefit from it at all. I was feeling really guilty. Giving it to others felt like the least I could do.
I dont know if she ever gave the questions to the rest of the class.
I do remember the next day, right before exams, feeling extremely edgy and nervous. It felt like each teacher passing by was looking at me with skeptical eyes (they werent but guilt does weird things to your mind).
I must tell you though, I did not score very well on that particular exam even though I had all the questions on hand. In fact, among all other subjects, this was the lowest. I dont know why.
Anyway, I never spoke of that day again… until just now right here on Quora.
Not terribly proud of it.
Phew. I feel ten pounds lighter now.
Shreya Thacke
Points edited for clarity.