‘I started barking like a dog’: Student witnesses classmate bark at her friend, principal asks her to reenact the incident, cue malicious compliance

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Dec 27, 2023 2:00 PM EST

This strict principal clearly did not realize what he was asking. Haven't we all had a fantasy of telling off a teacher or, even more impressively, a high school principal? Well, let's take those fantasies up a notch. Imagine barking in the face of your high school principal as loudly and as raucously as you possibly could.

That's what this student managed to pull off without retaliation or consequences. She shared her side of the story via this thread on Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit, in which she explained witnessing an incident where one student barked at another. Apparently, the conflict escalated and OP was called into the principal's office to recount what she saw. The principal got frustrated with OP for being unspecific about what she meant when she said the student barked. Perhaps he assumed OP meant a synonym for yelling. However, OP took the opportunity to reenact the barking, interrupting several classes in the process and showing the principal exactly what went down. 

Keep scrolling below for the full play-by-play. When you're done, here's another post about impressive senior pranks.

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  • 01
    "How I ended up barking as loudly as I could in the middle of the principal's office"
    via Kyo Azuma
  • 02
    r/r/MaliciousCompliance Posted by u/Aggressive_Flamingo 2 hours ago How I ended up barking as loudly as I could in the middle of the principal's office LOC
    via u/Aggressive_FIamingo
  • 03
    This story randomly popped into my head. Not the most extreme example of MC, but it's a goofy little story some people might find funny. Also apologies for the length, brevity isn't my strong suit.
    via u/Aggressive_FIamingo
  • 04
    I had a core group of friends in high school, but like a lot of people our friend group had peripheral friends who would occasionally hang out with us. Abby was one of these peripheral friends. I never liked her, she got into a lot of trouble and she was always really mean to me. We didn't have much interaction unless she needed something (usually homework help or lunch money).
    via u/Aggressive_FIamingo
  • 05
    My friends and I usually ate lunch at a quiet stairwell that only a few people would walk up and down during the lunch period. Abby usually didn't join us, but on this particular day she did.
    via u/Aggressive_FIamingo
  • 06
    Near the end of lunch, a group of 3 girls walked down the stairs. I was talking to another friend at the time so I missed what one of the girls said to Abby, but Abby responded by barking like a dog. The girl then turned around, said "did you REALLY just do that to me?", and Abby barked once again.
    via u/Aggressive_FIamingo
  • 07
    The girls turned around and stormed off, muttering to themselves. At that point the bell rang and I went to class. This seemed like such a non-thing to me at the time I completely forgot about it after it happened.
    via u/Aggressive_FIamingo
  • 08
    Cut to the next day, I'm in the middle of class when the principal's secretary comes into my classroom. "Is /u/Aggressive Flamingo here? Mr. Potter needs to see her in his office." Now, I was a good kid, never got in trouble, never got a single detention, never skipped a single class. So when I was called to the principal's office, that started a bunch of chattering among my classmates. Even my teacher, as I was leaving asked, "what did you do?!" Humiliating.
    via u/Aggressive_FIamingo
  • 09
    I go into Mr. Potter's office. He was an intimidating guy. Former college football player, always wore sunglasses, looked like he could your head off with his bare hands. Everyone was terrified of this guy. I sat down across from his desk, he confirmed my name, then he said, "I understand you witnessed a confrontation between Abby Johnson and Christina Smith yesterday?"
    via u/Aggressive_FIamingo
  • 10
    I said, "I know who Abby Johnson is, and I saw her yesterday, but I'm not sure who Christina Smith is." He already seemed annoyed. "Apparently there was some sort of confrontation between Abby and Christina and two of her friends in the west hall during lunch yesterday."
    via u/Aggressive_FIamingo
  • 11
    I suddenly remember what happened. "Oooh yeah, I did see that. I don't think I'd describe it as much of a confrontation though." Him: "They ended up getting into a physical altercation. You don't think that's a confrontation?"
    via u/Aggressive_FIamingo
  • 12
    Me:"Oh, I didn't realize a fight happened. I just saw them exchange a few words, the bell rang, and they went in separate directions. I went to class as soon as the bell rang and didn't see anything beyond that." Him: "Ok, well what did you see?"
    via u/Aggressive_FIamingo
  • 13
    I proceed to describe what I mentioned above, including the barking. I believe I said, "and then Abby barked at Christina." Mr. Potter looked confused. "Could you be more specific, what did she bark at her?"
    via u/Aggressive_FIamingo
  • 14
    Now, for the non-native English speakers who might not know this (this could also be a regional thing, I don't know), "barking" is a word that can mean the sound a dog makes, but it can also just be a synonym for yelling. However, as nervous as I was in this moment, I completely forgot about the second meaning of it, which is what he was clearly thinking I was saying. So I responded, "you know, she was BARKING at her."
    via u/Aggressive_FIamingo
  • 15
    He was clearly very annoyed at this point, his voice kept getting louder. "I NEED you to be more SPECIFIC. HOW WAS SHE BARKING?" Me: "You...you know. Like a dog?" Him: "I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT. BE. MORE. SPECIFIC. TELL ME EXACTLY WHAT SHE SAID."
    via u/Aggressive_FIamingo
  • 16
    We can all see where this is going. Now, my high school was in a 250 year old building with a lot of winding echo-y hallways. If your sneaker so much as squeaked on the floor in the main hall, you could hear it in a classroom down the hall and around the corner. Mr. Potter's office was in the main entryway, center of this hallway, and the door was open since classes were in session and no one was walking the halls.
    via u/Aggressive_FIamingo
  • 17
    At this point I was annoyed. I was dragged out of class, embarrassed publicly, and now I was being yelled at for doing nothing wrong? Ok, let me demonstrate the barking, Mr. Potter.
    via u/Aggressive_FIamingo
  • 18
    And bark I did. I started barking like a dog as loudly as I could. Mr. Potter jumped back in his chair little and started going, "ok, ok, get it." I kept going, I had to give him the full picture, right? The woman working at the front office across the hall jogged over to see what was going on. But I kept going.
    via u/Aggressive_FIamingo
  • 19
    Finally Mr. Potter cut me off. "OK! You were clearly meaning literally barking. My apologies. You can go back to class." He wrote me a note and I, very amused by myself, went back to my classroom.
    via u/Aggressive_FIamingo
  • 20
    At lunch that day, while I was waiting to get food, I heard a random person behind me talking about the weird barking they heard while they were in class that morning. Apparently it brought their entire class to a halt for a few seconds.
    via u/Aggressive_FIamingo
  • 21
    prankerjoker 2 hr. ago You should have told him you had no dog in this fight.
    via u/Aggressive_FIamingo
  • 22
    EntertainerCapital36. 2 hr. ago Far as you can recall, did those two end up in some physical altercation anyway?
    via u/Aggressive_FIamingo
  • 23
    Aggressive_Flamingo OP - 2 hr. ago Oh yeah, the fight definitely did happen. Apparently Abby and Christina ended up running into each other on the way to class, started arguing, and then starting fighting. They both got suspended, I can't remember for how long or anything.
    via u/Aggressive_FIamingo
  • 24
    Agitated_Basket7778. 2 hr. ago I love you!
    via u/Aggressive_FIamingo

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FAIL students malicious compliance principal malicious-compliance-reddit teacher high school reddit thread Reddit malicious compliance reddit funny
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