Incompetent high school music teacher continually berates students, faces malicious compliance at class party: 'Every day at least 2-3 students would leave class in tears'

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Ally Perry • Writer and Editor
Jul 31, 2024 4:00 PM EDT

There is no denying that the kind of teachers that you have are what can make or break the high school experience. It's a vulnerable time of your life when you are expected to learn a lot, and having to listen to some random adult who seems to hate you can be enough to push someone over the edge. 

This is exactly what one high school music class was faced with when they found themselves up against a teacher who did not seem to have their best interests at heart. Faced with ludicrously difficult tests and frequent scoldings, they eventually managed to get their revenge when the supposed educator tried to bend the rules for their end-of-year party. 

When the tale was posted to r/MaliciousCompliance, Redditors universally applauded how the students had conducted themselves and even had a couple of nightmare teacher tales of their own. Surely, nobody who works in a school wants to be the story that students tell with a shudder?

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    Cheezburger Image 10381449984
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    Teacher wouldn't listen, so the entire class complied and he got fired
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    TLDR at bottom This happened in the early 2000's in my junior year of high school. The district had just built the 3rd high school in our city and most of the teachers were new. The band director was one of those new hires. He was qualified for the job, but had zero people skills and was extremely abrasive towards students. He had previously taught university, and could not wrap his head around the fact that high school students are not college level music majors who live in practice rooms and w
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    His normal behavior consisted of berating students for not knowing university level curriculum, talking down to everyone about how he can't understand why they were so incompetent, and stopping rehearsals to go on long tangents about things that had NOTHING to do with music. Every day at least 2-3 students would leave class in tears. We complained to the higher ups and they repeatedly brushed is off. He made students HATE attending his music classes, and many dropped band and orchestra as a resu
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    One of the classes he taught was supposed to be "intro to music theory". For those who don't know music, this would be a class that should typically teach things like different types of chords, the definition of music symbols, the logic behind key changes etc... At the first class of the year there were about 25 kids enrolled. Most of these were music and drama kids who wanted to be teachers or performers in the arts one day. On the first day he handed us a quiz because he wanted to see how much
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    "Really? I thought this was an advanced class" The next class period there were maybe 15 kids enrolled. He did the same thing: ask us to perform something we can't even understand, and then berated us for not being prepared. At every class he would say "I thought you all were musicians, this is supposed to be an advanced class!" By the end of the second week, there were 6 students left enrolled in this class, including myself. He softened up slightly to those of us who stayed, and seemed to thin
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    So when it comes to the final exam for his theory class, he decides that he wants to give it to us early, so that on the day the final is supposed to be scheduled, we can have a class party instead. Of the 6 of us left, 4 of us have the same period after his class together as well. That class was AP English, and we were prepping for the AP test. We had no problem with a class party in music right before the AP prep exam, so we didn't complain. The day comes of our music final exam and after we f
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    His solution was to tell us that after the start of class on our final class day, he would be going to IHOP, and if we wanted to join him, that was our choice, but if we didn't we would have to stay in the classroom and not bring attention to the next that there was no class and no teacher.
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    Without talking about it to each other, the 6 of us saw an opportunity to finally get the admins attention to the complete disregard this teacher had for rules and policies. We made sure to inform our English teacher that we might be late to class on the day of the final, due to a class field trip for music theory. She was irritated and reminded us that this final was very important and that she would not give us extra time if we came in late. We told her that we understood, and gave her details
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    front office to complain that 4 of her best students were missing and that she was fairly certain we weren't even on campus. The admins had checked attendance and seen that we were all marked present that morning, and they had searched the entire school looking for our class. The 4 of us walked into our English final to a livid teacher. We knew she at us, but couldn't punish us beyond saying we had the same remaining time as the rest of the class (since we had been with a teacher in our absence)
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    The band teacher had a "private" reprimand that was so loud the entire school could hear it. He was confused as to why the administration was upset that he took minor children off campus without permission or notice, without proper school transportation, or even a good reason. He stayed with his usual attitude, but this time towards the admins: "why are you guys so incompetent about this, they are old enough to drive, what's the problem?" The English teacher (who I actually adore, and was one of
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    He was fired later that day. Many of the students had a gleeful but confused reaction, since the 6 of us weren't talking to anyone about it. All most people knew was that this tyrant of a teacher was gone. We didn't spread the story very much of how it happened because we still feared being reprimanded for our involvement, since he technically have us a choice to go with him or stay, but I always smiled when people gossiped about what the final straw was that got him fired. TLDR: teacher told us
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    IWantTheLastSlice When I was a sophomore in HS, I had an English teacher who was just like this guy. Nothing as dramatic as the OP story but definitely acted like he was teaching an advanced literature class at Harvard instead of an intro class. One specific funny thing I do remember: We were reading sections of some book out loud and he criticized one student for clearly saying the word "forehead", as in a person's forehead. He insisted it was pronounced like "forid", even after the whole class
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    figgypie This is one of the biggest reasons why I hate bad teachers. They can and completely derail a student's dreams. the joy out of things
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    prankerjoker You all banded together for a well orchestrated malicious compliance.
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    aralanya What is it with middle and high school music teachers? Either they are the sweetest and just want to get kids to love music or they are egotistical maniacs with personality disorders. My horrible high school orchestra teacher finally got fired the year after I graduated - after another TEACHER complained about inappropriate behavior. Of course the adult gets believed over the numerous student complaints... including complaints about the time he showed up for an extra-curricular practice
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    mcflame13 If I was one of the parents for the kids that he was verbally abusing. And I found out that the administration did not do anything. I would have went straight to the superintendent of the school district and threatened to go to the media with it if they still refused to do anything.
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    Conscious-Homework-8 I had a teacher, well substitute, that this reminds me of. Our original teacher left for family reasons, he was brought in to take over for the year. He thought in Germany as a professor, and so we was qualified enough to teach German 1. While me never did anything crazy, he just clashed a lot with several students who didn't really care and didn't want to learn. He couldn't quite get how to treat Highschoolers and that you don't treat them like college students. Over Christ
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    royalhawk345 I've never seen it, but I choose to believe that this is the plot of Whiplash.
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    SpiritTalker As a music person who now works in higher ed (not teaching, tho), I LOVE this story! My kids got a new hs band teacher last year and everyone hates him, too, but for different reasons (honestly Idt the guy is that bad, just very inexperienced and socially awkward).
    via SpiritTalker

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class fired students malicious compliance music teacher revenge petty revenge teacher Party high school reddit thread Reddit Terrible Teacher
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