Ever punished at school for something you didn't do?

[stelladoug98]

I was told off in assembly in front of the entire school for supposedly talking when I absolutely wasn't. They wanted me to stand up for the rest of assembly but I just walked out instead. I wasn't going to take that injustice.

yes the one I remember is when I was about 6 (so nearly 50 years ago) it was the last day of term and we were being made to clean the classroom. This involved using damp cloths to clean out trays and tables. Someone hadn’t wrung out their cloth so there was a tray with a little puddle of water. The teacher asked who had done it and someone said my name. There were four girls in the class who had my name yet for some reason the teacher chose me to scream at. I think I denied it but she wasn’t listening so I probably froze. And even now it annoys me. I deserved all the times I was ever told off (and in the 70s we were punished with lines in break time!) apart from that time and it still annoys me.

I remember being sent to Yr1 for the afternoon (from Yr6) as the teacher didnt want "deal with your nonsense today" after painting water was spilt.

My nonsense was saying be careful while the child who actually caused trouble was allowed to stay.

I have ADHD. That teacher didnt like that.

Not quite the same, and inspired by memories on another thread, but back when I was about 12 or 13 I was in the front row of the class and doubtless staring into space, and the teacher threw a board rubber at me and it hit me on the side of the head! One of those heavy wooden ones. I hadn't seen It coming, and it hurt!

I was in a meeting at work and the boss noticed someone not paying attention and so he said "...blah, blah, what do you think, James?" and embarrassed James that way. So why on earth didn't that teacher do something like that? Bastard.

Yes. A teacher came and pulled me out of assembly for misbehaving. It wasn’t me, it was a child with a variation of my name sitting in front of me. I’m still angry about it nearly 50 years later.

Its also a large part of why I made sure to give my child a unique name.

Good to see you’ve gotten over it

Yes, was a prefect at primary and helped at parents evening. One of the parents drew a face on the blackboard and I got blamed for it by the teacher the next day. I wouldn’t say boo to a goose at that age so no way would I have ever dared do that. The injustice still annoys me now as she never believed me when I said I didn’t do it. Ha ha.

That happened to me once too. I was always in trouble like that, I think it was partly because I wasn't one of the rich or popular kids.

I was nearly always branded the ringleader in pranks etc.

But I was once accused of something so horrible and random that I had no physical ability nor motive to have possibly done. That was awful. I literally left the school over it as I was already a bereaved child feeling isolated. I couldn't cope with horrible false accusations on top of it all.

That brought back memories. I’d forgotten that teachers used to throw board rubbers and chalk at people. Luckily it didn’t happen to me but I think a teacher slapped me with a ruler once for talking. I was talking but the punishment wasn’t fair.

Yes twice. Once at primary for talking I wasn't and was made to stand up. And once at secondary for breaking something of someone else's i absolutely did not.

I only had one detention and it was a class detention due to a couple of kids messing around.

Yes! and I still smart over it now. We'd had lessons on how to use the school library. It was in the 70's so no computers. You had to look the up book you wanted up in file boxes. We were warned that leaving them open would make them tip. Anyway, found myself in the library with the school bully and a few others. She left the file box open and it did tip. Cards went everywhere. She told the teacher it was me, and bullied the other girls into saying my coat had caught it (When I wasn't anywhere near it.) Despite being in the schoool for years and never having been in trouble they sided with the bully. They continuosly pulled me out of class and would interrogate me and try and get me to confess. I refused because I didn't do it. In the end my mum had to have a word and they backed off but punished me for it for the rest of the time there. No violyn lessons, no trip to Stubbington, etc.

No, it always was me.

Loads of times. Talking when I wasn’t. Work is like that as well sometimes 😁. My dd got a negative behaviour point for not returning to class when she was asked to take some students somewhere and I told her she’ll have to suck it up lol

First day at secondary school. I smiled at a fellow new pupil in a friendly way, as a hello. I got shouted at and punished for laughing at her when I did no such thing.

Oh yeah and once a girl threw food at this big girl two years older and it started a food fight. Myself and another lad had to clean up the dinner hall every day for a week and the girl told the older girl it was me so she was ‘after’ me for weeks

Not so much something I didn’t do but something I didn’t understand.

Grabbing my coat at break time I noticed someone had left their plimsoles on the benches in the coat room. I spent break trying to find which bag they belonged to, so I could put them back.

I got an absolute bollocking and lost my break time for the week, my mum was called in to see the headteacher. It was all such a fuss about nothing, but made me realise at a young age that no good deed goes unpunished.

Not so much something I didn’t do but something I didn’t understand.

Grabbing my coat at break time I noticed someone had left their plimsoles on the benches in the coat room. I spent break trying to find which bag they belonged to, so I could put them back.

I got an absolute bollocking and lost my break time for the week, my mum was called in to see the headteacher. It was all such a fuss about nothing, but made me realise at a young age that no good deed goes unpunished.

I remember a teacher assuming I had done something the other girl with my first name had done. She told me off in front of the class. Answering back was rare back then in the schools I went to so when I protested in a shocked way she checked with the "victim" who confirmed it was the other girl with my name.

Not punished exactly but my English teacher corrected my correct use of the word “grisly” ( to describe a death) to “grizzly” and I lost a bit of respect for her after that.

Got my one and only detention in a science lesson for copying. I absolutely did not copy anyone. Still raging at the injustice and the stain on my reputation 30 years later.

I did do this... but it was utterly ridiculous how I was treated.

In the early 90s, I was on school holidays and I absolutely loved writing stories.i was about 6/7. I decided to use a school book for English to write a story about a little girl who lived in a cottage.i returned to school and the teacher was that furious I had used two pages to write this story and screamed at me on front of all the other children and yelled wait til mr Richardson hears about this. She was that angry she dragged me to the head teachers office where he screamed at me also, went through my book pointing at the normal school work saying good, good, good BUT WHAT THE HELL IS THIS....THIS IS TERRIBLE HOLLIE, WHAT ARE YOU PLAYING AT....THIS IS JUST DIABOLICAL....at full volume. My parents were called in and I think i was that scared I wet myself ... looking back it was major over reaction and the pair of them were clearly nuts. Why couldnt they just have said Hollie next time use a note book at home for your stories and ripped the two pages out and start my lesson. You would have thought i drenched the entire classroom and students in red paint!!!

I once accidentally dropped my spoon into the slop bucket at school (we had to scrape leftovers if anything hadn’t been eaten).

Sent to the headmaster for it! Still traumatised and remember it clearly. Some of our Dinner ladies were horrible. Another forced me eat some gristly meat which completely put me off for life!

*Voilin Sorry to late to edit. Also wanted to say the punishment I had was to be looked in the library after school on my own by the PE teacher until I had rearranged all the cards i the correct order back in the file box. I'm so sorry to read of others that were unjustly punished. Still smarts doesn't it?

God I just remembered something. Over 50 years ago at my Prep school that was run by 2 old ladies ( they were probably about 40🤣). I got called into a room and told to admit something I’d done that was very mean but I didn't have a clue what I was meant to have done. I can’t remember exactly what happened but apparently I’d been mean/ bullied a girl with cerebral palsy. (I hadn’t..). After a while of sitting there and refusing to admit it they decided they were wrong but tried to blame me saying that I was usually naughty so wasn’t surprising I was blamed…
I don’t think it was ever mentioned to my parents - in fact I might ask them to see if they remember!