'[I told] her that I wasn't being suspended': Student stands up to Karen principal, proves her strict rules aren't in the handbook, gets suspension revoked

Author image for Ben Weiss
Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Oct 30, 2023 8:00 AM EDT

Who knew that sometimes being suspended isn't exactly a mandatory order? Personally, I was always too much of a "goodie two shoes" to test the waters, break the rules, and potentially get myself in trouble. As I've grown older, I have become less and less content with the various systems I have found myself trapped inside of, whether that be the system of higher education, the workforce, or the existential social system of what it means to be a human. In hindsight, a little part of me wishes I were more of a rebellious child, just so I could collect stories like this with repercussions that aren't actually that serious.

Add as a preferred
source on Google
Advertisement
  • 01
    Hand
    via Element5 Digital

  • This thread was posted to Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit by u/felipe387, a Brazilian student whose high school principal went around enforcing ridiculously strict policies about lateness that could result in expulsion. The particulars of the rules always seemed inconsistent and unclear, so OP put them to the test by procuring his parents' copy of the student handbook and ensuring that his principal was enforcing rules that had been distributed to students. Otherwise, how would students know what to follow if they aren't explicitly written down? When the time came for a mandatory meeting with the principal in which she threatened to suspend OP, he came prepared with the rules that had been written down in the student handbook.

    Keep scrolling below for the full story to see how the principal responded. For more content like this, check out this post about another student's malicious compliance.

  • 02
    Font - The day i became my classmate's advocate. м ос The school i went had a "student's code" which was the rules the students should follow and the consequences for failing to do so, basically an lawbook. So here in the brazil its not usual for you to have the educational parts of school life separated, like one place for high school, another for kindergarten and so on, usually theres just one place that has it all.
    via u/felipe387
  • 03
    Font - The school that i went had a nasty high school coordinator, she overlooked all the teachers that dealt with the high school students, and she usually used the code for her advantage. I was about 15 years old at the time and got so mad about about it that i looked for my moms copy of the code, all parents received one at enrollment, fount it and read it all, every rule and penalty, asked my mom for it and she gave it to me, from that day it never left my bag.
    via u/felipe387
  • 04
    Font - So through the span of a year a lot of classmates got late to school, more than 15 minutes, and the penalty for that was that if you got late to class 3 times you would receive a written warning, 3 of those got you suspended from class for a day and 3 suspensions got you kicked from school. Because of that, at the first day of classes next year the high school coordinator went around all the classrooms to announce that everytime someone arrived late,
    via u/felipe387
  • 05
    Font - they would receive a warning. So if you got there late 9 times you were kicked out. I didnt say anything at that moment but after some months i got late to class for the third time, they took me to her office and she told me that i wouldnt be attending class that day since it was my third time late i was being suspended for the day.
    via u/felipe387
  • 06
    Font - Enter malicious compliance, i open my bag, pull out my copy of the code and tell her that i wasnt suspended becaus thats not whats written in the code and when i was enrolled at the school my parents agreed to the code's rules not her's. She got really mad, said my copy was outdated and that she was going to check her's, i just waited and not long after the found her copy brought it over, read it silently and her anger melted away, she became a puppy and old to go to class. Some hours aft
    via u/felipe387
  • 07
    Font - Any_Weird_8686 - 19 hr. ago Well at least she admitted it. Although I do find it somewhat strange that she seems to have sincerely believed that this was in fact in the written code.
    via u/felipe387
  • 08
    Font - Dear-Ad9314 19 hr. ago . Respect to you and your co-ordinator in this case. To you for being prepared, aware and on top of the situation. And to her for being reasonable, taking it on the chin, and fixing the issue when she discovered she was wrong. Love it.
    via u/felipe387
  • 09
    Font - unknownpoltroon 17 hr. ago Yeah, she actually listened, admitted she was wrong, and fixed what she did? Great.
    via u/felipe387
  • 10
    Font - CoderJoe1 20 hr. ago You broke her. 4 Vote Reply Share
    via u/felipe387
  • 11
    Rectangle - avir48 19 hr. ago It sounds like she became more reasonable. Not malicious compliance but seemingly a good outcome.
    via u/felipe387
  • 12
    Font - kiwimuz 19 hr. ago Don't they just hate it when you use their actual rules against them.
    via u/felipe387
  • 13
    Font - Aesient 5 hr. ago edited 5 hr. ago I caught out my old high school a few years after leaving. I was a "goodie-two- shoes" in school, one detention in 6 years etc. So I knew the school rules and had been around enough of the "bad kids" to know how things operated in reality.
    via u/felipe387
  • 14
    Font - A few years after I left school one of my younger brothers was having issues (he was being bullied by students and some staff) and one incident resulted in him being suspended for a week while our parents were away (family member in ICU who then passed away while our parents were visiting).
    via u/felipe387
  • 15
    Font - The conditions to return to school included a meeting with him, our parents and some staff. I fought to get on the meeting too, arguing that I was the one who had been responsible for him at the time of the suspension and had been ensuring he did the work that had been sent home. Plus something just didn't feel right about the whole thing (apart from the principal being a massive ass who was at least a little
    via u/felipe387
  • 16
    Font - So we go to the meeting and I get warned to "keep your shut unless you absolutely have to mouth correct something". We spend about 15 minutes with the principal bad- mouthing my brother and ending in " and he didn't even do all the work that was sent home!"
    via u/felipe387
  • 17
    Font - That was my cue. And from my parents suddenly pale faces they knew it. I told the principal and the staff present that I had taken responsibility for ensuring my brother did the work sent home (it was sent via another sibling in a way that was VERY relevant, and I grilled that sibling every afternoon ensuring they had collected all the work and returned all the work), and that it was returned to the school as soon as possible. So asked that they retrieve the "suspension work book".
    via u/felipe387
  • 18
    Font - The teachers suddenly looked uncomfortable/confused as to why I was insisting that the official book that kept track of work that was sent to, and returned from, suspended students needed to be checked. They had just told us that brother had been ignoring certain teachers work, so why did we need to see the records?
    via u/felipe387
  • 19
    Font - You see this book required teachers to fill out what work was being assigned (ABC class - worksheet xyz/pages 285-302 of textbook zyx) and sign it. When the work was collected that person had to sign that they were taking it. Work bought in had to be signed in by the person returning it. Then had to be signed as being collected by the teacher. This was all overseen by the office staff. So each piece of work had to have 4 signatures total. And it was a heavy, bound, hardcover A4 or bigger
    via u/felipe387
  • 20
    Font - The principal slammed out of the room, got the book, threw it on the table, snarled "my teachers don't lie" before looking at the records and quietly muttering a curse before quickly ending the meeting.
    via u/felipe387
  • 21
    Font - Yeah, when only 4 of 7 teachers had sent work home to my brother, and one of those was a worksheet that required a fully equipped lab (we had contacted that teacher to point out the issue and they were fine with it just being ignored) it's probably not a good idea for the 3 teachers who DIDN'T send work to jump up and down claiming brother never did any work for their classes while suspended.
    via u/felipe387
  • 22
    Font - That was the end of the school calling home about my siblings claiming they were causing trouble
    via u/felipe387
  • 23
    Font - Substantial_Tap9674 17 hr. ago The difference between being late 3 times gets you suspended and being warned for being late three times gets you suspended is a subtle difference even in English. I wouldn't swear to it in Portuguese or similar
    via u/felipe387
  • 24
    Rectangle - justaman_097 17 hr. ago Well played! Not many students would read the rules so thoroughly as to know them better than the administrators.
    via u/felipe387

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

detention school students malicious compliance principal malicious-compliance-reddit teacher School of FAIL reddit thread late Reddit
Scroll Down For The Next Article