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People Break Down Their School's Most Unethical Practices

People Break Down Their School's Most Unethical Practices
Ivan Aleksic on Unsplash

Egregious acts and unethical practices have happened in schools since they first began.

Not too long ago, the news was filled with stories and commentary on Paris Hilton's YouTube documentary where she opened up about her time in the troubled teen industry.

In Canada, the Indigenous community is bringing home the lost native children that were discovered in unmarked graves in former residential schools. The same reckoning began in the U.S. in 2016.

Though we may not be seeing these extreme examples of unethical actions in public schools today, there are still grievances among our youth. We went to AskReddit to hear about the things we force our students to bear.


Redditor hugscar asked:

"What are unethical practices schools do?"

Some of these will shock you.

Zero tolerance policies.

"Bullied and harassed students having the same repercussions as their bully for defending themselves."- novato1995

"I remember when the zero tolerance policy started being applied to both/all parties, a behaviorist predicted an upswing of violence, plus an increase in violent intensity (from slaps to punches; from punches to stabbings; from stabbings to shootings)."

"If I am remembering right, that prediction is being found accurate."- liquidarc

Typography Number GIF by Kev Lavery Giphy

A lack of consequences.

"I had a bully in middle school grab and twist my thumb hard enough to snap tendon (or whatever is in your thumb. It's been a while) and nothing happened to him since he would have to sit out football if he was punished."- TheLaughingSage

"So for my school I have 2 things."

"They have a no pass list."

"You are only allowed to be out for 5 minutes at most, and no passes first or last 10 minutes of class, no exceptions."

"If you break these rules, or you're just a b*tch/troublemaker in class enough times, you get put on the no pass list for at LEAST a week, so you get 0 passes at ALL."

"It could be for that class for a week, it could be the whole day for the rest of the year.

"I'm sitting at home with a concussion and not at school right now because some kid physically assaulted me."

"She gave me a concussion, two bruises, a red star shaped mark on my head, and 3 different muscle tissue injuries."

"Her doing this has prevented me from performing in front of thousands of people this Friday."

"She has not been punished or talked to at all."

"They have said 'I think you and her just have conflicting ideas and she might have been triggered by things in class and you really don't know each other well'."

" When she came up behind me, grabbed my hair, and yanked me down to the ground by my hair."

"This is bullshit especially because she did this earlier in the year too, and if she does it one more time especially since she is still at school and has not been punished in the slightest, my parents are going to press charges."- cat_lover_21.

Chained fire escapes.

"Our assembly room/gymnasium had the fire escape doors chained shut, and the police department was aware of it."- snarlyelder.

Required textbooks.

"Requiring you to purchase textbooks brand new from the college's bookstore because that's the only way to get the access code to complete the required assignments on the publishers website."- austininlaw

Limiting access to water.

"Less severe but limiting kids access to water, I.e. you can’t have your drink bottle at the table."

"Which sucks when you live in Australia and at summer the temperature gets up to 36c and school is during all the hottest hours of the day."- TeamLarge7729

Scorching Music Video GIF Giphy

A "told you so" moment.

"I was a decently misbehaved third grader."

"Told my teacher I had a stomach ache and I needed to go to the nurse."

"I asked a number of times."

"She thought I was just trying to get out of individual reading time."

"My appendix burst on the bus ride home."

"I was never one to ask to go to the nurse."

"Just a hyperactive kid my teacher apparently had enough of."

"Denying medical attention to an 8 year old seems unethical."

"This is not a 'boy who cried wolf' story for all those saying 'I told ya so.'"- jurassicgrif

Bathroom access.

"Not allowing kids to use the restroom."

"As someone who was diagnosed with multiple reproductive issues at an early age, I had some pretty intense periods."

"And this rule made school even worse."

"Got the nickname 'Paint Bottle' because my school was infamous for denying the bathroom."

"they were closed to all students during a set time because of 'misuse') and I literally had no help from anyone at all. Never realized it was as bad for other people too."

- RebelRebelPebble

"Not being allowed to go the toilet."

"You gotta go, you know?"- Averyjackman.

Stay Out Fran Healy GIF by Travis Giphy

Invasion of privacy.

"This is probably very specific to my home country but period checks."

"I'm from Malaysia and yes sadly this is a thing and I've witnessed it firsthand. Mostly to make sure girls aren't lying about their periods just to get out of prayer activities."- roticanaidraws.

We're failing our students by passing them.

"Passing students that aren't ready for the next grade because they need to pad their passing rates to keep funding."

"It's setting the kids up for failure down the road."- VoijaRisa

Happy Back To School GIF by Jimmy Arca Giphy

Unattainable prerequisites.

"Making classes a graduation requirement then not letting kids take those classes because they’re full since everyone needs to take them."- intense_fingerguns.

Cost Cutting Measures

"More of a University thing but using students as unpaid labor, mostly grad students and 'interns'."

"Also my school used prison labor to make all the dorms and dorm furniture, said that Healthcare for student workers was 'too luxurious' (exact quote!) and canceled it, canceled all shift meals for student workers, and raised our tuition to pay for our president's massive pay increase and to redo the stupid stadium used for Olympic trials for literally no reason."

"Literally I think he's the highest paid uni president in the US by a long shot."

" I know he gets a 400,000 every single YEAR for just his housing."

"You get a cookie if you can guess what uni I went to lol."- 1kingdweebus2

Money Minimum Wage GIF by Creative Courage Giphy

Dress codes.

"No hats or hoods."

"iI don't know if this rule is in another school but it was back then when i was in elementary, but you weren't allowed to bring fast food food."- Slow-Revolution-9617.

No facial hair policies.

"One of my old high schools had mandatory shaving."

"All guys must be clean shaven every day."

"And in the principals office was the cheapest bag of bulk single blade razors you’d ever seen."

"Sometimes they forgot to tell us where the shaving cream was."

"I started shaving in junior high so afternoon classes were 50/50 if they’d make me go shave."- GingerMarquis.

The dreaded "D" word.

"After school detention."- Savings-Ad-9402.

Sad School GIF by Ludo Studio Giphy

You're all in trouble.

"Collective punishment."

"This is a literal war crime according to Geneva Convention, so if you hate the teacher the gave a collective punishment, you can literally sue them in the international court and if the teacher will be found guilty, they wouldn’t be able to pay fines and fees due to their salary being low and will probably be in prison."

"School uniforms are a violation of human rights too because according to UN convention on the rights of a child a child has freedom of expression."

"Many schools will say it’s a local rule for students to wear uniforms in their school, but international laws are ABOVE the local ones."- fedunya1.

Too much homework.

"Giving a heavy workload in middle school/early high school and saying that it teaches time management. "

"All it does is speedrun burnout."- MoonarLune.

Not meeting compliancy standards.

"Not accommodating for disabilities properly."

"I actually have a story for this."

"I’m not sure if it’s really a disability, but I am legally blind in my right eye."

"We were going to march in a parade in 7th grade."

"I was placed on the far left. "

"The reason why it was a problem is that I am blind in my right eye so I was not able to see people to my right without turning my head."

"We needed to face forward. It made it way harder to know where I needed to be."

"I tried talking to the band teacher about placing me on the right but he didn’t listen and kept me there despite my concerns."

"It made things a lot harder than it needed to be."- The_Fluffy_Riachu.

Children are often given little autonomy or rights when it comes to taking control of a situation.

During the pandemic, some parents are practicing giving their kids more "choices with limits" to bring about well-being for their kids.

Ultimately, the lesson here might be to believe our youth when they feel something isn't right.

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There is a level of devastation caused by being cheated on by a partner, especially if it's someone you trusted and have been with for a long time that people who haven't experienced it can't understand.

I've been lucky in that I've never been cheated on myself, but I've had friends who have gone through it. My college roommate told me it was the worst pain she's ever been in when she found out her boyfriend cheated on her, and she couldn't imagine anything worse.

It was indeed horrible. My confident, strong roommate was crying all the time and wondering why she wasn't good enough to keep her boyfriend's interest, even though that had nothing to with it.

Redditors agree that being cheated on is painful, but also are prepared to share things they think are emotionally more painful.

It all started when Redditor Darkterrariafort asked:

"What is something more emotionally painful than getting cheated on?"

Medical Helplessness

"Watching your most precious person die a painful and scary death and knowing there’s nothing you can do about it. F**k cancer."

– coastalliving40

"This. I watched my husband starve to death from gastroesophageal cancer."

"It was like watching a nightmare repeat of my dad all over again. 😞"

– NedsAtomicDB

Mama Who Bore Me

"Death of your child."

– NBA_Fan_76

"I truly cannot imagine a deeper pain."

– theawkwardmermaid

"Your child being serious injured by your ex, and custody court keeps forcing the kid into contact with their abuser."

"You spend years of your life dealing with court homework where you recount every excruciating detail of your own abuse at the hands of this person, in addition to the crimes against your child."

"It costs you about $100,000 in legal fees, and you still aren't able to protect your child. It keeps going on indefinitely, and perversely, your ex tries to send you to jail because the child runs away from them."

– JadeGrapes

"Being responsible for your childs death directly."

– Kanulie

"My father passed very suddenly and unexpectedly two summers ago. It was the deepest, unimaginable despair that it was almost like a dream. Being walked to the little room at the hospital where they let you know he didn’t make it on the ambulance ride was surreal and up to that point the worst moment in my life."

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"She wasn’t pinned-and actually didn’t have a scratch on her. EMT checked her out and I went to the hospital because I had ripped the top part of my thigh off trying to lift the ATV."

"The whole thing was eye-opening in the worst way possible. Because, I could never, ever, ever, ever imagine losing my daughter- especially to my own fault. What if she had been hurt or died that day? I would be living in my own constant hell. I didn’t think there could be worst pain that when I lost my dad, but now I know there is. Just the thought alone of losing my daughter brings tears to my eyes."

"Life is really rough sometimes. But it gets better."

– BoredMillennialMommy

Going Down

"Seeing a loved one go on a downward spiral and you can do nothing to stop it."

– New_me_old_self

"Extension of your comment: Seeing a close one(wronged by their protectors) going down the spiral."

"You tried to help them a lot but they dragged you down with them and left you not just empty but drained."

– Sullen_Wretch

So Hard

"Suicide bereavement."

"I lost my best friend in 2022. Found him. Everyday is a struggle to not be in my grief."

"I’d take 100 heartbreaks, 100 nights of going to bed hungry, and 100 punches right to the face just to have him back."

– KatastropheKraut

"It does. I got wasted and said far too much about myself once. One of my friends verbally smacked the f**k out of me, got me to see that people do care about me and that my relationships aren't all just superficial, really just hit my sorry a** over and over again with the idea that I'm deserving of love not because other people get something out of being with me but because I am a human being, and it slowly does get better."

"It stopped me, I was going to kill myself in two months on new year's."

"When I can't live for myself, I live for other people, even when I start doubting other people actually like me, I still don't do it or hurt myself at all, because there's always, no matter what I feel in the moment, a chance that they do truly just care about me."

"If I end myself now then I give so many other people survivor's guilt, I leave all the people I care about wondering for the rest of their lives how it all could've been different if they had just tried a little bit harder to help me. I won't elaborate now but I feel a similar sort of regret when it comes to a number of aspects of my own life. I could never leave someone with something so unfathomably more painful than that."

– pissandsh*tlord

Sounds Awful

"Mental instability. It's cruel because it's your own mind killing you, you can't run or hide and it's long-winded. I couldn't say a single event has been more emotionally stressful than what's happening."

– Country-Road--

"It’s like you’re dead in your twenties but haven’t been buried til you’re 65."

– Gmr33

Tragedy You Never Get Over

"Having your mother pass away in your arms."

– Repulsive_Cricket923

"Something similar happened to me when i was 4. My parents sent me over to get babysat by my grandmother and she sat on a chair and passed as i was sitting on the floor playing with my toys. I only thought she was sleeping at the time, but later learned the truth as i never saw her again."

– Lucidnuts

Just Done

"As far as relationships go, being abandoned by your former partner is pretty damn painful."

– heyitsvonage

"Mine did this to me after 2.5 years and it was f**king devastating, it took years to get over. He acted as though everything was fine, I was his everything, we were actively planning how we would elope after I finished my degree that term, and BOOM NO DO-OVERS YA DONE."

"It was immediately what came to my mind when I saw this post."

– paprikashi

My Work

"When someone steals your research, hands it in first, gets the high distinction, then everything you submit is plagiarizing that a**hat."

– StaunchMeerkat

"This is two steps worse than, "hey can you put my name on your paper too.""

– karmagod13000

Rather Be Cheated On

"When the person stays with you but they secretly still yearn for that other person (even if no cheating occurs)."

– Deleted User

I actually didn't think there was anything worse than being cheated on after watching my friends go through it.

I stand corrected.

Do you have any stories to share? Let us know in the comments below.

If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.

To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/

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