Spending several hours every day at the same drab building filled with annoying kids of all ages isn’t as easy as one thinks it to be – though the odds are that once you reach adulthood, you won't be able to stop thinking back on all the wild things those years brought you.
Every school has a famous story. Perhaps a class clown managed to outdo themselves with one of their infamous pranks, or maybe some staff members were caught having a fling – whatever it is, pull your chair closer because you’re about to read some grand stories.
“What was ‘the incident’ at your high school?” – this online user turned to one of Reddit’s most interactive communities and asked its members to share their iconic school stories that have the potential to live on from generation to generation. The thread garnered nearly 12K views as well as 8.6K comments and wild tales.
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When I was a sophomore, it was known around campus that a specific set of lockers that was between the campus and football field was off-limits, because over summer break some kids blew the door off a locker with a dry ice bomb in a Propel bottle (shrapnel!).
Two years into my relationship with my (now) husband, he starts telling a very familiar story and I realized he was the fabled dry ice bomber my school had been talking about for the past 7 years.
One year as the senior prank all the auto shop students snuck car parts into the enclosed courtyard and apparently built a whole car inside it with no way to move it other then to disassemble it the way they put it together and move it out piece by piece
one of the prissy girls got pregnant. Oddly, it changed her for the better. She seemingly grew up over night. A lot of the students were weird around her, I remember, but I admired her for being so strong. I'm not normally a fan of teen pregnancies- I grew up in an area with a lot of that and have seen all the issues it causes- but she handled things beautifully. I hope you're doing well, Tamara!
There was a girl that got pregnant in my school, in our final year (so she'd likely have only just turned 16 and thus legal age of consent) she was so mature about it though, but heartbreakingly, she lost the baby. She'd had a name and everything picked out, it made many of us sad, even those who weren't exactly super close to her. She was so overjoyed to be having this kid that knowing she lost it and her bright smile was gone was just heartbreaking to so many of us. I hope she's doing well and has a wonderful family now.
Weird 15 year old girl turned out to actually be a 30 year old mental patient.
Teacher (female) got fired and went to court for sending a nude to a student (male). The thing was though it was the student who took her phone, found the nude in her gallery, and then sent it to himself. His mom found out about it somehow
When I was in the 9th grade, for some reason the morning announcements would include student deaths when they happened.
Every month for the entire school year, at least one Aboriginal [unalived themselves].
They eventually stopped announcing student deaths.
**Edit** This was in Ontario, Canada back in 2004-2005
Middle school, student find a nude pic of a teacher in a biker magazine. Copies went everywhere. She disappeared. Still feel bad for her.
Similar thing happened in my school, student found pics of a teacher on a *friend finding* website (when they were new, none of this Tinder stuff). Didn't see her for months.
Some upstanding football players stole our rival's mascot (a living bulldog), and staked it to the ground on our school's field. They forced it to defend itself from another dog, and it barely survived. One of the coaches helped. Nothing happened to them, and later, they graduated to beating a homeless man to death. Good dudes.
Three siblings won this past season of "The Voice". Its a small rural school with like 40 kids each grade
Somebody attempted to burn down the school but only half succeeded. They had to demolish the old part of the school where the fire was started and rebuild an entire new wing.
Bright side was we got the first 25 meter pool in the county.
Students went on strike after all extra-curricular activities were cancelled by faculty untill the return of stolen school property. The walk out lasted two days, involved at least 98% of students and made national news.
When I was a sophomore, a guy asked a girl to prom by getting on stage wearing a paintball vest with red paper rolled into tubes stuffed in it, to make it look like he had bombs strapped to his chest. He held a sign that said "______ I'm kind of the bomb, will you be my date to prom." She said yes, he was suspended and not allowed to go to prom, and she went with someone else lol
It made news, which was just amazing since this was a small town. He claimed the school was racist and that if he were white he wouldn't have gotten in trouble for it
This was about a year or two after I graduated, but the “cool” teacher got busted for having sexual relationships with two of his 16-year-old students. At least one of the girls was a player on the school softball team, which he coached. He was married with two small children at home, and his wife gave him the boot after that (as did the state board of education.) I don’t remember if he served any time in jail, but he did have to register as a sex offender and will never be allowed to teach again. (I think he’s a real estate agent now.)
It was me. I got my head stuck in a chair. Police and firemen had to stop third period from leaving or entering the class room. There’s also another one though, a girl was jealous of her cousins girlfriend and fought the girlfriend so she could be with her cousin.
Kid stole the whole bathroom. Sinks,doors,locks,hand dryers. He got caught ofc. But they never repaired it so the bathroom has no working sinks or doors. Got some videos I think
In elementary three sibling boys died with their dad in a plane crash and their mom opened a children’s center in their name with a game room, music studio, and a ceramic studio in their names. Jack, Will and Rob center! Sad and wholesome.
A few kids broke into the high school to steal test scores for the SAT just like that stoner movie lol. They got caught and expelled. One was my friends brother.
A popular sophomore girl drowned during a party in her own hot tub huffing dust off because it replaced the oxygen in her body I guess that pushed her under the surface and her parents found her when they came home the next morning, RIP Tenille.
What a great idea to honor her family that passed...sad though. RIP Tenille.
three of my school got a nationwide math test with 0 errors, one was a math genius, the other was equally gifted but on a broader perspective the third one was not so great in math i guess C or D tier, turns out both of them copied from the math kid, but it was so funny that there are these two plausible people and then there is the sports kid just having 0 errors in this exam too, which only 18 people nation wide had 0 errors on.
Impossible, that test is insane! My school has only had 2 kids who have don’t it in 59 years!
Someone just straight up punched the principal in the face. There was no argument, they just came across each other in the corridor and she punched him. Got expelled **fast**
This girl got accused of having fake boobs, so she pulled them out.
There were a multiple but here are a few.
-Some people that were in my grade made a cult around a science teacher. Nothing to crazy happened but they did have rituals and even made a subreddit about the guy. The teacher quit during COVID.
-The site we used, Schoology, got hacked…three times. It was the same hacker and on the last time we got hacked they made a post saying “IM BACK M***********S!”
Folks need to find better things to do with their time....go volunteer or something.
Early 1980s rural high school in Pennsylvania. A guy has two buddies stationed to hold the entrance doors open as he proceeds to ride his dirt bike in one door, down the hallway and out the other door.. It was a clean escape but not for long kids talk and everyone knew who did it.
My friend did that in the 80's too. Was it like a thing or something back then?
A few years ahead of me. A guy was huffing from a paper bag while smoking a cigarette and inhaled the flames. His friends tried helping, but there was nothing they could do
I wish these folks could realize what how bad this huffing thing is. So much knowledge out there now yet these things still happen. ☹
My entire school burnt down because some kids decided to play with fireworks. Took years to rebuild. This was a small village in Sweden.
I was at my grad ceremony and this one guy, while walking the stage, pulled his pants down and mooned everyone. Not exactly sure what happened to him but I heard he got suspended and got his diploma taken away from him.
Our entire class of over 600 kids was kicked out of a pep rally for having too much pep.
Chick not wearing a seatbelt offroading got ejected from the car and died. Big ol thing at the school.
Years ago some friends came up to visit. An ambulance went by and they decided to chase it. Another friends 16 year old brother, Josh, hopped in the car with them all pumped up to see what happened. It was a rolled jeep with 6 teens stuffed in it, off roading. Turns out it was a car-full of Josh's friends including his best friend David who ended passing away after several months from the head injury he received when the jeep rolled. Josh was never the same after that
During class my teacher and fellow student got into an argument over being tardy. The student got up, walked over to our teacher and punched him in the face.
The teacher was absent for more than 8 weeks bc of his mental health, caused by the incident. Student was kicked out of school obviously.
Never found out if he pressed any charges though
A car crashed and hit 10 people (they lived)
It burned. Twice.
I wish I had more details on how it started, but wow that’s unlikely (maybe just the school was built in a way that made it more flammable though)
Humorous senior prank - our school had a courtyard in the middle only accessible from a couple of doors on the inside that were always locked. Some industrious young individuals removed then engine from a car (Volkswagen Beetle if I remember correctly) and managed to hoist the f**ker up and across the roof, and place it in the courtyard.
Too many. One was the fight between the football players and the coaches in the weight room. A couple of coaches got fired.
The popular boys made a march madness style bracket of the top 64 girls in my grade and posted it on their snapchats
This is terrible....and how Facebook basically started......go Facebook! /s
Four people were on Jerry Springer.
Someone kept throwing dead raccoons on the gravel pile in the middle of the parking lot.
Let’s see… gun found during sophomore lunch on Tuesday, stabbing on Monday, drug bust in girl’s bathroom last week Wednesday, metal detectors and half a dumpster of confiscated vape pens the week before… and, of course, the best week! Week of October 10th, on Monday the bus I take had a sub driver, who only stopped at the last stop on the route (it’s a 5mile route), Wednesday I’m going to tell separately, and Friday a kid was tackled, and, WHILE RESTRAINED and being cuffed, TASED right behind me at lunch. Edit: whoops, I forgot about the kid arrested for bringing a gun to school the week after that. Edit #2: and I completely forgot, my phone got stolen the third day of school. Shoutout to [censored, sorry safety first!] High School! We love ya! Can’t wait to get my last year over with!
And Wednesday… probably the worst hour of my entire life. We had F*****G SHOOTING ON CAMPUS, nobody told us a F*****G THING for an HOUR. We had to sit in a barricaded classroom, behind the teacher’s desk, for a f*****g HOUR, only knowing that someone was shot and we needed to be quiet. I thought I was going to F*****G DIE for an ENTIRE HOUR.
Load More Replies...Okay. It is November. School started in August. So far this school year: - someone punched the VP - someone got hit by a baseball bat and had three teeth knocked out - teachers and students are sick because there is mold that admin won’t fix despite fixing it immediately when it was in their building. - 2nd story bathroom has floor caving in - Teacher defended the south’s use of slaves - teacher is teaching AP classes despite not having any AP training at all - there’s one kid who never wears shoes on Fridays - some kid was just carrying a snake he found on the ground - probably a million other things I just can’t be bothered to remember frankly
The year I learned about forensic footwear. High school (1989), a bunch a senior students decided to vandalize a local grade school. Got caught when police matched the kids sneakers to prints left behind form them standing on desks. Was no gossip about the damage to the school or their punishment.
Two actually. We lost our Indian mascot and the squaw moniker for the ladies sports and a beloved principal was forced out at the behest of a local rich family who accused him of embezzlement of some sort
Both before I moved to my school: one of my friends got hit by a car driven by the former PE coach and a student recorded himself in a shooting range with a gun threatening to shoot up the school. Surprisingly the student was only suspended. Lastly is something that happened last week: the kid no one at my school likes punched the new kid in the face for the heck of it. All this in rural North Dakota
My senior year of high school (2004/5 in the US). Myspace was still pretty popular back then. The site was used to organize a massive food fight in the cafeteria in which the principal (whom no one liked) got beaned in the forehead with an apple core. Tables were flipped on their sides to create a barrier and chairs were used as shields and it became food fight war zone. It made the school paper and got Myspace blocked on all the school computers 🤣
Here are a few from my primary school When I was in Grade 4 there was this kid in Grade 6 with special needs. He only came to school a couple days a week and came for about a month in total. The school had to lock down multiple times because this kid got out of the classroom and was running wild around the school. He would get naked and run around the grounds, throw rocks at windows, and climb onto the roof and jump off. It was terrifying, but he was not around for long. On the last day of school before my little sister left, (not the end of the year, but we were starting at a new school) there was a kid swinging on his chair in her classroom. He fell back and hit his head on a book case, crakced it open, blood was everywhere, and he got a concussion. My sister fainted from the sight of blood and had to come home early.
Our science teacher, whom everyone loved and adored turned out to be the most vile of creatures. He was raping his ex wife, his then wife, molested his children, groomed a couple of students and was into b*********y too. The knowledge became public when he turned himself in to the police for his crimes. He was moved to the other end of the country to serve jail time.
Someone Took a picture of a teacher bending down, someone else punched a window (and it broke), people would vape in the bathrooms , someone else laughed at the fact someone’s grad dad died, also I’m pretty sure this one guy was a neo nazi (he carried around Mine Kampf, and apparently brought a Nazi uniform too….)
A few years after I graduated the principal stole money from the student store and was forced to resign.
There was this 'cool' teacher. Eeeeveryone loved him, and I mean everyone. Students, teachers, custodians, everyones favorite. Then his wife died suddenly. It was really sad, he obviously seemed heartbroken. We had an assembly at school and everything, every class made special cards, all of the faculty went to the funeral. Then, a few months later, he was arrested. Apparently, he killed his wife in a fit of rage over her uncontrollable spending habits. They had a lot of debt, and when he came home one day, he found out she bought some artsy statuette. He bashed her head in with the thing and then threw her of the stairs to make it look like an accident
Also, same school but a lighter story. My mentor was f*****g the hot teacher in the broomcloset, when her husband (worked on boats) was away
Load More Replies...It all started with a Barbie head… that fateful day. A couple of kids found it in the lost and found, and made a cult with the head and the hand sign from Despicable Me… they tromped around the school in a hoard chanting, and jumped on the little kids playground. It broke. We had a VERY angry announcement (whole grade) from the vp. It was hilarious 🤣
In May 2003 (year before my grad), our student body president died in a car crash, driven by a drunk friend. The very next day, a girl in our class succumbed to cancer, only weeks after forementioned student body president organized a Balding-For-Dollars benefit for her. She also happened to be a teacher's daughter. In 2005, a year after I graduated, a younger friend of mine dropped dead in phys. ed. Most likely an undiagnosed heart disorder.
Someone also put a pipe bomb into the mens restroom. Turned out to be modeling clay and silver painted PVC. Derailed the whole school day. Students kept calling in fake threats for the rest of the week, so classes would be canceled again.
My high school had Senior Lunch, and allowed seniors to take a full hour for lunch off campus. Two weeks into the school year 4 kids from my Science class were drag racing back to school when the driver lost control of their vehicle and crashed into a telephone pole, shearing the car in half. Three died on impact, and the fourth didn’t return to school until about midway through second term. Senior lunch was banned for the rest of the year, and no one complained.
At my middle school two different kids started a fire. In seventh the stereotypical "quiet kid" started a fire. The poor kid got suspended, threatened to k!ll himself, and never ended up coming back. Eighth grade, we had to do some dumb water currents experiment for science. My lab partner pulls out a lighter, and straight up lights the textbook on fire and throws it in the water. Then he coughs and says "smokyyyy" and my teacher is all like "it shouldn't be. Did you hear it up too much? Maybe it's steam, Chris." And he pulls up the textbook and it's all ashy and burned. The teacher actually kept it a secret from the principal because he was a straight A student and promised it wouldn't happen again. In seventh grade this kid pulled the sprinklers. There was water everywhere. In eighth grade I brought a squirrel into the classroom and my classmate posted it on snap without my consent. In ninth grade at a football game, the coaches got in a fistfight. Police got involved.
In fifth grade one of my classmates was walking to school and got hit by a truck. My dad (who taught 5th grade at my school) was looking on local news sites and saw the headline that a 10 year old was hit by a car and killed near our elementary school. He then told his coworkers (our teachers) this at lunch and my teacher (the sweetest, kindest, most amazing woman) was almost crying the whole day. Our class knew something was up all day but didn't know what happened until the next day when they brought in a bunch of counselors and told us
Someone set a soap dispenser on fire, a kid stabbed himself in the lung with a switchblade, a kid threw a couch at someone, science building and culinary flooded, and the chicken was lemonhead yellow.
vice principal basically ignored my report that a girl had been harassing my bf and had been threatening to fight me. Me (a freshman) and a senior teamed up and both ordered 50 of everything off of the pizza hut and dominoes menu. Dominoes refused to go through with my order, but the senior was successful. We weren't caught, but all senior boys were called in and interrogated.
kid slammed a piece of cardstock(maybe even construction paper!)onto the ground,and it made the loudest noise i had ever heard.it was downstairs too,where most of the 7th graders are!
Let’s see… gun found during sophomore lunch on Tuesday, stabbing on Monday, drug bust in girl’s bathroom last week Wednesday, metal detectors and half a dumpster of confiscated vape pens the week before… and, of course, the best week! Week of October 10th, on Monday the bus I take had a sub driver, who only stopped at the last stop on the route (it’s a 5mile route), Wednesday I’m going to tell separately, and Friday a kid was tackled, and, WHILE RESTRAINED and being cuffed, TASED right behind me at lunch. Edit: whoops, I forgot about the kid arrested for bringing a gun to school the week after that. Edit #2: and I completely forgot, my phone got stolen the third day of school. Shoutout to [censored, sorry safety first!] High School! We love ya! Can’t wait to get my last year over with!
And Wednesday… probably the worst hour of my entire life. We had F*****G SHOOTING ON CAMPUS, nobody told us a F*****G THING for an HOUR. We had to sit in a barricaded classroom, behind the teacher’s desk, for a f*****g HOUR, only knowing that someone was shot and we needed to be quiet. I thought I was going to F*****G DIE for an ENTIRE HOUR.
Load More Replies...Okay. It is November. School started in August. So far this school year: - someone punched the VP - someone got hit by a baseball bat and had three teeth knocked out - teachers and students are sick because there is mold that admin won’t fix despite fixing it immediately when it was in their building. - 2nd story bathroom has floor caving in - Teacher defended the south’s use of slaves - teacher is teaching AP classes despite not having any AP training at all - there’s one kid who never wears shoes on Fridays - some kid was just carrying a snake he found on the ground - probably a million other things I just can’t be bothered to remember frankly
The year I learned about forensic footwear. High school (1989), a bunch a senior students decided to vandalize a local grade school. Got caught when police matched the kids sneakers to prints left behind form them standing on desks. Was no gossip about the damage to the school or their punishment.
Two actually. We lost our Indian mascot and the squaw moniker for the ladies sports and a beloved principal was forced out at the behest of a local rich family who accused him of embezzlement of some sort
Both before I moved to my school: one of my friends got hit by a car driven by the former PE coach and a student recorded himself in a shooting range with a gun threatening to shoot up the school. Surprisingly the student was only suspended. Lastly is something that happened last week: the kid no one at my school likes punched the new kid in the face for the heck of it. All this in rural North Dakota
My senior year of high school (2004/5 in the US). Myspace was still pretty popular back then. The site was used to organize a massive food fight in the cafeteria in which the principal (whom no one liked) got beaned in the forehead with an apple core. Tables were flipped on their sides to create a barrier and chairs were used as shields and it became food fight war zone. It made the school paper and got Myspace blocked on all the school computers 🤣
Here are a few from my primary school When I was in Grade 4 there was this kid in Grade 6 with special needs. He only came to school a couple days a week and came for about a month in total. The school had to lock down multiple times because this kid got out of the classroom and was running wild around the school. He would get naked and run around the grounds, throw rocks at windows, and climb onto the roof and jump off. It was terrifying, but he was not around for long. On the last day of school before my little sister left, (not the end of the year, but we were starting at a new school) there was a kid swinging on his chair in her classroom. He fell back and hit his head on a book case, crakced it open, blood was everywhere, and he got a concussion. My sister fainted from the sight of blood and had to come home early.
Our science teacher, whom everyone loved and adored turned out to be the most vile of creatures. He was raping his ex wife, his then wife, molested his children, groomed a couple of students and was into b*********y too. The knowledge became public when he turned himself in to the police for his crimes. He was moved to the other end of the country to serve jail time.
Someone Took a picture of a teacher bending down, someone else punched a window (and it broke), people would vape in the bathrooms , someone else laughed at the fact someone’s grad dad died, also I’m pretty sure this one guy was a neo nazi (he carried around Mine Kampf, and apparently brought a Nazi uniform too….)
A few years after I graduated the principal stole money from the student store and was forced to resign.
There was this 'cool' teacher. Eeeeveryone loved him, and I mean everyone. Students, teachers, custodians, everyones favorite. Then his wife died suddenly. It was really sad, he obviously seemed heartbroken. We had an assembly at school and everything, every class made special cards, all of the faculty went to the funeral. Then, a few months later, he was arrested. Apparently, he killed his wife in a fit of rage over her uncontrollable spending habits. They had a lot of debt, and when he came home one day, he found out she bought some artsy statuette. He bashed her head in with the thing and then threw her of the stairs to make it look like an accident
Also, same school but a lighter story. My mentor was f*****g the hot teacher in the broomcloset, when her husband (worked on boats) was away
Load More Replies...It all started with a Barbie head… that fateful day. A couple of kids found it in the lost and found, and made a cult with the head and the hand sign from Despicable Me… they tromped around the school in a hoard chanting, and jumped on the little kids playground. It broke. We had a VERY angry announcement (whole grade) from the vp. It was hilarious 🤣
In May 2003 (year before my grad), our student body president died in a car crash, driven by a drunk friend. The very next day, a girl in our class succumbed to cancer, only weeks after forementioned student body president organized a Balding-For-Dollars benefit for her. She also happened to be a teacher's daughter. In 2005, a year after I graduated, a younger friend of mine dropped dead in phys. ed. Most likely an undiagnosed heart disorder.
Someone also put a pipe bomb into the mens restroom. Turned out to be modeling clay and silver painted PVC. Derailed the whole school day. Students kept calling in fake threats for the rest of the week, so classes would be canceled again.
My high school had Senior Lunch, and allowed seniors to take a full hour for lunch off campus. Two weeks into the school year 4 kids from my Science class were drag racing back to school when the driver lost control of their vehicle and crashed into a telephone pole, shearing the car in half. Three died on impact, and the fourth didn’t return to school until about midway through second term. Senior lunch was banned for the rest of the year, and no one complained.
At my middle school two different kids started a fire. In seventh the stereotypical "quiet kid" started a fire. The poor kid got suspended, threatened to k!ll himself, and never ended up coming back. Eighth grade, we had to do some dumb water currents experiment for science. My lab partner pulls out a lighter, and straight up lights the textbook on fire and throws it in the water. Then he coughs and says "smokyyyy" and my teacher is all like "it shouldn't be. Did you hear it up too much? Maybe it's steam, Chris." And he pulls up the textbook and it's all ashy and burned. The teacher actually kept it a secret from the principal because he was a straight A student and promised it wouldn't happen again. In seventh grade this kid pulled the sprinklers. There was water everywhere. In eighth grade I brought a squirrel into the classroom and my classmate posted it on snap without my consent. In ninth grade at a football game, the coaches got in a fistfight. Police got involved.
In fifth grade one of my classmates was walking to school and got hit by a truck. My dad (who taught 5th grade at my school) was looking on local news sites and saw the headline that a 10 year old was hit by a car and killed near our elementary school. He then told his coworkers (our teachers) this at lunch and my teacher (the sweetest, kindest, most amazing woman) was almost crying the whole day. Our class knew something was up all day but didn't know what happened until the next day when they brought in a bunch of counselors and told us
Someone set a soap dispenser on fire, a kid stabbed himself in the lung with a switchblade, a kid threw a couch at someone, science building and culinary flooded, and the chicken was lemonhead yellow.
vice principal basically ignored my report that a girl had been harassing my bf and had been threatening to fight me. Me (a freshman) and a senior teamed up and both ordered 50 of everything off of the pizza hut and dominoes menu. Dominoes refused to go through with my order, but the senior was successful. We weren't caught, but all senior boys were called in and interrogated.
kid slammed a piece of cardstock(maybe even construction paper!)onto the ground,and it made the loudest noise i had ever heard.it was downstairs too,where most of the 7th graders are!