What was THE INCIDENT at your secondary school?

[NoviceNewMN]

Inspired by a thread on another website that I randomly came across throught google.

Every school has some sort of 'infamous incident' that passed into the annals of school infamy and was the sole topic of gossip for months if not years.

What was yours?

Mine was the head teacher had an affair with another teacher. Both were married. It all became public on the last day of term and neither of them came back the following term. Just disappeared. No one talked about anything else for a long time.

@NorthbyNorthwest22

Very worrying how most of these stories involve male teachers and female pupils. Mine is just that! Early 90s and a new young (mid 20s) art teacher started at my school. I was in my 5th year at that point. Rumours started a few weeks later that a girl a year younger was spending alot of time in his classroom at break times and lunch times. A friend of my younger sisters said they would go into the art storage room and close the door. We thought it was funny at the time! A few months later the girl suddenly left the school and no one knew why.

Didnt think any more about it till 17 years later and i was the manager of a company that took on a new employee that i vaguely knew. Several years younger but had lived near me growing up. Long story short she was married but currently getting a divorce from said art teacher because he had to move school again because of accusations of inappropriate behaviour. When i asked how they met she said at school!! She was 14 when he first started flirting with her. He had to leave that school because her parents had come home early from a night out to find them both in the bath! She was 15.

Second story was one of my friends during our last year of school got pregnant. She hid it from everyone apart from a group of about 6 of us but i think most other girls in the year knew. She hid it right up till the very end until the PE teacher caught sight of her getting changed and had an absolute fit! She was taken straight to hospital and was at that point 39 weeks. She had a little boy a few days later. See her occasionally, shes still with the same guy. Married with 2 other children

I'm quite shocked that the male teacher in my post was never disciplined or something over it. Funnily enough a neighbour was a teacher at the school (not whilst I was there) and mentioned a teacher was frowned upon for similar but not sure if anything was done. This was in 80s. This teacher and another male teacher were in a band. I think the other male teacher didn't try anything on but the other male teacher certainly did. I still recall him making suggestive comments to me using a banana in an art class but because he was a 'cool teacher' no one bothered to complain and I was shy anyway. Perverted twat.

A 15 year old girl I knew (who was very saintly in behaviour, almost prudish and quite judgmental really, she wondered why I didn't go to church on Sundays (we were both Anglican)) was in the convent I went to - she got pregnant by her singing master (not employed by the convent) and had to leave under a huge cloud and didn't return. She had the baby as far as I know but was a very talented singer.

@MrsPnut, I was at your school then, ‘Mad Angus’ was his nickname

@Rosejasmine I was trying to remember other incidents at school but my memory is dreadful.
There was something about the roof and graffiti.

@Gonnagetgoing It was a different time and adults often just looked the other way.
My husband went to a catholic boys school run by christian brothers. The sexual and physical abuse that went on there for decades is unbelievable! Luckily my husband was never sexually abused as paedophiles target victims carefully but he was often hit on the rear with a bat called the bottom slayer! A cricket bat that was used to spank boys, they could then sign said bat after!

A book was written about the abuse called Tell the truth and shame the devil.

Very worrying how most of these stories involve male teachers and female pupils.

Yes and it's a sign that attitudes have changed to see it for what it was. In the 90s teenage girls were seen as fair game. Now people see the power plays involved in these relationships.

@MrsPnut I don’t remember anything about the roof… but I remember a certain terrifying French teacher who supposedly was a member of the NF (not sure this was true), and another teacher who had some nasty rumours about him and scout trips. Ooh and
Geography teachers and 6th formers at The Drovers 6th form discos…

Our biology teacher was sacked for having child pornography on his home computer, and ultimately arrested of course.
He was a creepy, awful man.
Our head teacher was also sacked for stealing all the money that the school raised for various charities.

A few years before I started secondary school but the girl was my friend's sister. She got incredibly drunk at a party, slept with 4 different boys and got pregnant.
Didn't tell her parents until she was six months gone and her nan asked why she was putting on weight.
She had the baby but never found out who the dad was. Think she had a breakdown as she used to attack my friend after she had the baby.
This was in the 80s so it was a different time.

Can't remember how old she was but I think about 14.

A kid died during PE lesson. Sudden heart failure. - and in the school I went to as a child (might be the same school?)
The RE teacher used to wear a university-type gown, and in his room was a grand piano. He'd jump off the piano shouting 'Batman' and the gown would flap...

The school I worked in had the usual affair - male marriedDeputy head and young female single teachere. Found out getting it on in the attics. Young femaled teacher left (ofc ) Marries teacher's wife also worked there, and seemed to get most ofthe blame - not getting enouigh at home, not ffocusedenough on husband's career, that sort of thing (in 2017!)

@TulipsTwoLips

Someone drove a car through the downstairs corridor of our school on the last day of term. Not really gossip as everyone knew who it was etc, but talked about for a long time. They weren’t allowed back to sit their exams

@TulipsTwoLips

Was this a certain school on the south coast?

Our head girl married the French teacher. Bear in mind that she was 18 and he was 24 and nobody thought it was slightly odd. The engagement was announced in assembly and everyone wished them well. It was an all girls school and quite a few of us had dates with our male teachers. It was a different era

What?! I know previous decades involved a lot of looking the other way, cover ups and keeping jobs in what now seem impossible circumstances, I can't imagine a time when staff-pupil dating would be seen as normal and an engagement announced in assembly as a happy event! Was she still a pupil at the time of the engagement? Are you talking about the 1940s? Surely not more recent than that!

Also we had a maths teacher who dressed as a farmer for non uniform day then told his class he was going home for a golden shower

My primary school headteacher was arrested and charged with historic child abuse, after I left. It wasn’t anything he’d done in our school apparently.
Classmate took an overdose during one of our lessons. I made an excuse to leave and went and got another teacher to extract her and take her to hospital. Luckily that lovely teacher believed me immediately.
I got in loads of trouble with the deputy head for not having called the girl out on her behaviour in front of the class. Even at 15 I recognised that she was vulnerable and didn’t want to draw attention to her publicly. I hated that deputy head with a passion after that. My classmate recovered well but I often wonder how she turned out in life.

In the early 80s, I went to a very small, private Girls' school. There was once an assembly about the pupils kissing each other "hello" in the morning. They had noticed there was far too much of it going on, and we were "in danger of all becoming lesbians" through this behaviour. We were told we could only kiss hello on a Monday, or first day back after a holiday - it apparently wasn't necessary at other times. It seems very nothing now, but at the time it was a HUGE deal, and "kissing-gate" is still spoken about among former-pupils today, not least because Mrs X (who took the assembly) was found to be having and affair with Mrs Y (another teacher at the school)

Some of the pupils overturned one of the teacher's canoe on a residential trip, and said teacher almost drowned. He never returned to the school after his ordeal, not surprisingly. I didn't go on the trip and as far as I was aware at the time, he'd just left with no explanation. This didn't seem unusual to me, as our school wasn't the best back then, and I just assumed he'd moved on to a better school. The kids on the trip had all been told to never, ever talk about it in school or anywhere else again, so quite a few people, including myself had no idea what had happened at the time. I only found out a few years ago when one of the then pupils involved, told me all about it. As far as I know, they all got told off and at worse, put on report or some old crap, but no one was expelled as far as I could make out from what I was told. If that's the case, which I heavily suspect it was, it's absolutely shocking seeing as they almost killed the poor guy! And then the school told the kids to never to talk about it ever again...
The teacher involved was a lovely fella too. I often wonder what must have happened to him, and if he may have suffered PTSD or depression as a result of what was done to him. It's really sad.. This happened in the early 90s.

There was one from just before I started that even I didn’t believe and I’m really gullible. Supposedly a year nine boy had an orgy with three of the language teachers 🙄 🙄

Anyway, one that I actually witnessed was when we were in assembly and a load of boys ran in with water pistols, cans of silly string etc. They then ran onto the stage, sprayed the head teacher before mooning! 😬

Closest I can think of is that time a science experiment filled the classroom with sulfuric acid gas. No-one was hurt but we all had to run out while the teacher opened the windows before following.

Oh, and the idiots who decided to do the flour and egg the school thing when their study leave started. When they still had to come back to sit their GCSEs. Not. Clever.

[quote NorthbyNorthwest22]@Gonnagetgoing It was a different time and adults often just looked the other way.
My husband went to a catholic boys school run by christian brothers. The sexual and physical abuse that went on there for decades is unbelievable! Luckily my husband was never sexually abused as paedophiles target victims carefully but he was often hit on the rear with a bat called the bottom slayer! A cricket bat that was used to spank boys, they could then sign said bat after!

A book was written about the abuse called Tell the truth and shame the devil.[/quote]
I know it was a different time and adults often just looked the other way!

This male schoolteacher I knew - I'm guessing he was in his 30s/40s then - I only know his surname but by god I hope something nasty happened to him.

On the back of this thread I researched my DB's catholic boys college - not run by Christian brothers but run by monks (Brothers). A few of the brothers sexually abused the boys including whilst beating them and they were never convicted or reported of anything. One male teacher was apparently imprisoned for sexual abuse yet there was talk of 'what a nice teacher he was'.

The minimising and denial is disgusting though on some forums and in general.

There was one strange thing which happened in our girls school - one girl must've been 14/15 copied another attractive teacher (who was our form mistress) - think hairstyle, glasses, style of clothes etc everything, she must've had a crush on her. The girl was older than us but other girls commented on it as it was peculiar.

Sadly, the lovely F, who was an absolute whizz at hockey, had her first period during a sports lesson. My school had zero interest in girls' health and equal amounts of empathy for girls on their periods.

I took her to the office where, at eleven, she was scolded for not having any sanitary towels with her. Neither of us was old enough to understand why the school secretary was so unkind (and frankly, I still don't).

There was 'no bullying' at that school, which meant that when I was 'being bullied' by three other, older girls, I wasn't 'being bullied', it was a 'disagreement'. There were handshakes all around at the behest of the deputy head.

I hated that school. The head died not long after I left and it eventually had such a bad reputation that it was closed down and is now a housing estate. I went on to a school governor to make sure that no child under my watch ever had such a vile and humiliating experience at the hands of people who should know better.

The lovely F left and went to another school where her hockey prowess was noted. She ended up playing for the county.