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<---- Moi,
Convicted: Stealing potassium from the chemistry lab cupboard.
Reason Caught: Shorts catching fire was a bit of a giveaway ;) (fortunately no scars - you've never seen a 9 year old take his pants off so quick though hehe).
Sentence: Really can't remember. I think the school were probably more worried about a potential negligence claim now I look back at it as an adult!
Got Away With: Welding a teachers bike to the top of the school flag-pole.
TJ
I got away with most of the stuff I did, like smoking during the breaks, etc. I also remember the first time I ever made a stand based on principles. I refused to take "THE BELT" from a decrepit old science teacher who wanted to punish me for not using the top line in my exercise book. Honestly! (This was not Victorian times incidentally, it was in 1961).
He referred me to the rector who told me that he would ensure that I lost my Sunday morning newspaper delivery job if I did not accept the punishment. This was the way these sad b's worked and I eventually had to succumb because I needed that job. The bad news was that the rector administered the punishment. You know what? I think they liked belting us in these days.
I broke the circle at one point and asked the classmate on the right to hold in their left hand a metal object. The other classmate on the right, at the broken point, held a similar metal object in their right hand. None of them suspected anything as the relatively thin wire attached to each metal object went into a small, insulated, home-made box of tricks.
On the top of the box was an unobtrusive push button.
There continued to be laughter and discussion as they were making fun of me suggesting such a stupid idea to form this circle.
At the point they were most unsuspecting, and before they broke hands, I pressed the button and watched as everyone in the circle jumped and shouted with the electric shock I sent around the circuit!
For some reason, the teacher did not see the funny side.
Caught - Squirting hydrochloric acid into a live electrical socket in chem class. Man...the 6 inch long blue flames that shot out of that socket were VERY cool looking. It's odd the teacher didn't think so....everyone else in class liked them.
Got away with - Senior year english class. Marked down in the grade book that I and my best friend had turned in our make-or-break the year thesis.
The teacher later pulled us aside and apologized to us because she couldn't find our papers even though she was sure we turned them in as it was marked in her grade book. So she asked us what we "thought" we would have made on them. ;)
Easiest B I ever made...of course my friend felt he would have made an A.
...priceless
Got away with, Grade 3 (Public School): Being a passive observer in a full-body strip show in a little-used stairwell.
- Was swinging a sports shoe from string in the air, slipped through a high partition into the next room and onto the desk of the headmistress.
- Convinced fellow convicts that throwing our class desks out of our second floor window and onto the school court yard was much faster than carrying them down the stairs in our class painting project, on the plus side this was the end of school projects and magically got us all new desks ;-)
- There were other incidents that cannot be discussed here.
Convicted - got caught using a can of Lysol and cigarette lighter to keep my roomate locked in a dormatory bathroom. (acts like a flamethrower...)
Got away with - taking every single roll of toilet paper in a dormatory (I used my laundry bag to gather up 100+ rolls) on a Friday night.
I've grown a lot since those days.
I think they liked belting us in these days.
Where I went to school the principal administered discipline with a paddle. Girls had to wear dresses in those days, so when girls got the paddle he put them over his knee, lifted up their skirts and paddled them. I never got the paddle but the guy sure creeped me out.
In those days he was an authority figure and called the school principle. If he acted the same way in today's environment in the U.S. he'd most likely be sued, arrested and called a registered sex offender. How times have changed. :)
Got caught:
* removed and randomly switched classroom door knobs/locks just prior to Christmas exams. No teacher thought to try their key in other doors...a locksmith rekeyed all the doors...I learned that an accomplice is a dangerous thing...we became unpaid bathroom janitors 2-hours after each school day for the rest of that year...
Had one, 6-1/2 foot, just over from Scotland, teacher who walked around the room walloping desks with his pointer and hauling pupils, up on to their toes, by their ears and shouting his displeasure spittle flying into their faces...
School taught me a great distaste for abuse along with the 3-Rs.
[corpun.com...]
Having gone to school in Scotland myself until the age of nine, I too have memories of the strap but luckily received it just the once.
As for worst thing done? Hmm, that would have to be the time in junior school (aged 10) when I proudly showed classmates how my found-in-the-street cigarette lighter worked. Being in art class at the time I thought the best way to try it out was by lighting a small corner of the newspaper that covered all the desks. Whoosh!
Syzygy
I rigged my sculpture with a large air pocket in the center, which caused it to explode in the kiln. Completely destroyed almost every other project in the kiln that weekend (a few were salvageable, but none escaped unscathed). The art teacher blamed herself for not allowing the clay to dry out long enough before going into the kiln.
The area I grew up in was a London overspill area very working class and rough as a stokers bum however there were some very exclusive parts and we went to school with some of those kids.
Now to their eternal shame they all in their own ways looked down us and some of the remarks were quite cutting and unkind. One kid (a right barstool) in particular was exceptionally cruel to a girl about her clothing, having natural knight like instincts I defended her honour.
Although I doubt she ever knew.
This miscreant liked to practice, on a Wednesday lunch time, doing long jumps in the sand pits, one pit in particular was marked off as his.
I watched him practice one week and worked out that he landed in roughly the same area, that day I tampered with the locks on a school door so I could open it from outside.
went back teh following Tuesday and removed a fire extinguisher, which (can you guess?) I buried in the sand pit just where he would land.
Following day I was walking past talking to his best mate, having forgotten (in 12 hours) what id done the night before when a god almighty scream went up.
He'd landed directly on the thing.
I wish I hadnt done it to this day.
[edited by: Essex_boy at 7:52 pm (utc) on Aug. 24, 2006]
Got away with picking locks on lockers and putting them on different lockers :)
I must have launched 100+ balls, that begot pancakes of variously size and colour, that became permanently attached to charts, light fixtures, ceiling tiles, and other teaching aids before my prank was revealed.
Then one day I fired off a really big ball of clay and watched it stick to the glass face of the classroom wall clock. It hit with a loud sort of "sssmock" sound and, upon seeing the result, the whole class fell into one of those infectious laughing binges, where one person giggles and everyone starts laughing again. It went on for about 5 minutes before the art teacher caught on.
Fortunately for me no one ratted me out, including the class tattle tale (Miss goody-two-shoes?) who had a bit of a crush on me at the time, so she kept my secret.
'twas a time of mostly innocent vandalism.
[edited by: Webwork at 9:13 pm (utc) on Aug. 24, 2006]
But I do have a story for those of you that have a conscience and may be bearing guilt over these antics - it may even be redeeming for you.
There was one period of time in Junior High (now called "middle school") where a group of us picked on this girl, nothing serous or harmful but just schoolyard stuff, like the topic - pulling hair, crude comments, note-passing. It went on for a very long time, with the girl winding up in tears almost every day, with no real reason for our attacks. Sometimes group ostracization is a sick form of belonging. Anyway the story goes, if a gang picks on you, single out the biggest bully and pop them squarely in the nose, the rest will fall like dominoes.
Well I was hardly the biggest bully, but for whatever reason, Cari singled me out. I can't remember what I did - it was probably something stupid like throwing a book out the window or something - during one of these hazings while I wasn't looking she came up behind me and lam-basted me on the top of the head with a dictionary, one of those big 10 pound classroom editions, to which only a Unix manual can compare.
I came close to being a paraplegic that day. I saw stars for five minutes, literally felt the bones in my neck crackle, my head actually went limp for a few minutes and I felt needles and pins along both arms, but being young and resilient I survived. The class thought it was a riot. Immediately following the vice-principle came in, and three of us where hustled off by the ears for three gigantic swats each. The VP was also the gym coach, they weren't little taps.
This incident has always plagued me. Even though she got the best of me it laid on my conscience for 30 years. How cruel children are, and what it costs those of us with a soft conscience . . . .
Along comes the Internet, and a very interesting site that is responsible for a great deal of Internet spam, but also reuniting school buddies. I go through my graduating class list and guess who's name I see.
I believe there are no true coincidences and that things happen for a reason. I took the lead, contacted Cari, and in an email poured out the most gracious apology you can imagine. I didn't expect a reply.
I was surprised by the reply I DID get. Yes she did remember me, but not for the reasons I contacted her, there were much greater monsters in her life at that time. The bottom line was that like most things in school, although it seemed horrible at the time, when you grow up it's not that bad. If anything, she said, the things she endured made her stronger. She was touched by my effort and was compelled to consider the mean things **SHE** had done in her life, and ended her email by saying she was off to write some apologies of her own.
So the moral, if there is one, is that in reality you can probably let your past misdeeds fade into memory, everyone is probably getting along just fine, and it's most likely only your chidish ego that tugs at your conscience, whispering that you actually influenced someone's life with your childhood antics. But still . . .
There is no statute of limitation on your deeds. You can bury them, forget them, ignore them, but there's no greater redemption than paying your dues, it is a most liberating act.
vivalasvegas I once changed my grades to higher ones. I got caught and came close to being expelled.
Whilst at secondary school ..I had a two year affair with a gorgeous female chemistry lab assistant ( for those old enough to remember ...she looked a lot like Julie Christie ;-))..no-one caught on ..or if they did they made no waves ..I was a pupil ..nearing sixteen when we became involved ..was'nt my first time nor hers ..
No regrets ..her neither ( we met again years later ) ..it wasnt like she was a teacher ..just a girl a few years older than I was that was paid to set up experiments for us ..
Couple of years before that was found making "nitro" ( the kind that goes bang ) in chemistry class free time ..the teach' asked if I was making what he thought I was making and when I said what it was ..they evacuated the science block ( I was making solid fuel rockets with mates at the weekend anyway so cordite and nitro were no big deal ..but it was probabaly dumb given the possibilities of someone jogging my hand in a crowded class situation ..didn't get expelled ..did catch some serious "words" though ) ..
many more ..I suppose most of us do ;-)
more serious ...
nastiest thing I ever saw at school..
some pscho whose name I forget was caught placing knives that he stole from the school canteen buried ..blade uppermost in the ground behind the touchlines on the school rugby pitches ..( we had two rugby pitches and two football pitches and a full size cricket pitch , tennis courts , running track etc .."up market shire grammar school" but we still had our share of psycho's though ) he was found out when someone made a try and got one through the leg ..him and his two sidekicks were expelled and handed over to the police ..lucky no one died ..
most times ..the rest of us ..we just did dumb , harmless stuff ..mostly horizontal ..involving the girls school in another part of town ..and recreational chemistry ..frequently both ..
lot of my schoolmates went on to be members of UK parliament etc ..( not this current lot ..on all sides )..we could / can actually speak recognisable English ..unlike.. "y' know " "I mean" ( used to punctuate every five words )..and we can pronounce words with a "T" at the end and words which end in "ing" without saying "ink" ) ..micro rant over ..
personally ..I did so many more scandalous things at art school ( that definately can't be posted in public fora here ;-)) ..all that went on before ..at secondary school was just tame ..
but always no animals were harmed or involved ..and all the ladies were willing and happy ..
Sentence: Well .. my aunt was good friends with the principal so the incedent was forgotten after a lot of laughter.
Got Away With: Dropping sulfur stink bombs in the highschool hallways over a period of two weeks.
I got the strap for it
LOL. We also called it the strap (or "the belt") in Scotland.
tossed his weiner on my plate
Is that kind of language permitted? ;)
TJ says most of the best "juicy" ones are coming in via sticky mail and should be posted
You betcha - I don't think I'll have to buy a single drink in Vegas with all the blackmail material I've got in my inbox!
