13-year-old gets on bitter teacher's nerves by checking out duplicate copies of library books and making her think they were stolen: 'It drove her crazy!'

Author image for Ben Weiss
Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
May 4, 2025 8:00 AM EDT

Some teachers have it out for their students for no legitimate reason. It's as if they decide on day one that this one person will be the cause of any and all problems in the classroom from that point forward, no matter what the circumstances are. Perhaps they heard something about this student from their teacher last year and had some proof that they are a troublemaker. Or perhaps they simply remind the teacher of a real troublemaker. Regardless, when these assumptions are made on the very first day of the school year, they can be hard to undo. It's like a bad first impression, but it wasn't even the student's fault.

In this instance, we have a seventh grader whose teacher showed nothing but disdain for them for no apparent reason. In fact, if anything, this student deserved an extra level of care and empathy, given that there were problems at home. Thankfully, this was the kind of clever student who would not let their teacher get away with unwarranted assumptions.

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    via Unsplash+ (Kateryna Hliznitsova)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • The author recounted how their teacher prohibited students from reading anything on her bookshelf during reading sessions, so this student decided it would be amusing to drive the teacher crazy by checking out duplicate copies of the same list of books from the library. That way, when the teacher made a scene in front of the whole classroom and accused the student of stealing her books, the student could prove her wrong. The funny part is that he pulled this off over and over again for weeks on end.

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    So, in 7th grade, I missed a lot of school due to medical issues. That being said, all of my teachers were understanding... Except one. I'm not going to lie, I don't actually remember her real name, so, we'll call her Ms. Bitter (MB), my 7th grade English teacher.
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    I'm sure most of you remember or are still having to do Accelerated Reading or AR. If not, basically, the school gave all students a test to see what reading level they are on, what book ranges they can read and how many points one would need to get to pass English.
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    They would tell you to check out books and each book had a point system on it. This was the amount of points you receive after finishing the book and then taking a 10 question quiz to make sure you read it. I always scored 12+ so I could read anything I wanted. Not the point, but-- moving on.
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    Well, every English class was required to allow students 30 minutes to read their AR books. They HAD to be AR books specifically. If it had no points, you couldn't read it during that time. block. They were also required to take the class to the library once a week to check out new books or take quizzes.
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    Being sick and absent so much, I didn't get to go to the library often. So, I was always having to go to the library before or after school to do my sh . I didn't have the best home life, so it was hard for me to go early or stay later. Well, many times I went to class, I
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    either didn't have a book or I had a book, but it wasn't an AR book. MB would go around and check every book every day to make sure we were doing what we were supposed to. If you didn't have it, she'd give you a warning... 3 warnings and you get detention.
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    Needless to say, this happened to me. I was furious because MB literally had a bookshelf full of AR books in her class that no one was allowed to read if we forgot our book or didn't have it
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    because reasons, like me. MB chastised me in front of the class and even scolded me for being absent too much. She made me cry more than once.
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    (Edit: I don't understand two things- 1. Why she hated me and 2. Why she wouldn't let anyone use her forsaken books on her bookshelf. Your guess is as good as mine.)
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    via Unsplash+ (Kateryna Hliznitsova)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 12
    After months of this, I decided to be petty because I was sick of her picking on me. At this point, she basically just expected me to not have my approved book. So, I went into her room one morning while she wasn't there, she
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    had bus duty, and wrote down about 5- 10 AR books on her personal bookshelf that she wouldn't let us use (again, still not sure why). Then I hid them behind all the other books. After that, I went to the library during that precious hour lunch period to start my revenge. I
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    checked out about 4 or 5 copies of the books on that shelf. I couldn't check out anymore than that. Next day, I come in and we get to the point of silent reading. Here we go. I
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    pull out one of the books I had duplicated and began to read. MB starts making her rounds to check the books. I was sitting there hoping so bad that she would do what I thought she'd do. She gets to me, I don't look at her and I can see in my peripheral
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    vision she is looking very hard at my book. Silently, I observed her walk directly over to her bookshelf and begin to look for, what I assume, was the book she thought I took so I wouldn't get in trouble again. I could see the anger in her face when she couldn't find it.
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    MB fast walks over to me and with her everlasting need to and embarrass me, she grabs my book, pretty forcibly and starts accusing me of taking a book without permission
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    and that I would be getting another warning and detention for "stealing from her." I just sat there calmly letting her finish. Then I said, "MB, that book is from the library. Not your bookshelf.
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    You are mistaken." She disagrees again and starts to head to her desk for the write up. I turn and I say, "Would you please look on the inside? It clearly shows where it belongs to the library with the checkout list and everything. Has my name right on it."
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    She did thinking she would get me for lying too. Well, I saw her face get bright red and slowly comes over to give it back. She didn't apologize or anything. In fact, I think it made her me more. I was vindicated, but
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    this wasn't enough for me. Day after day, I'd bring another duplicate book and each time she would stomp over to her shelf, not finding her copy, looking fury. Each time, I'd at me with 7
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    show her the library stamp when she'd approach to accuse again. This went on for about 2 weeks. I honestly think I made her feel crazy and SO irritated that she couldn't pin anything on me.
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    I also came in again one day, in the morning, and put all her books back in place as if they were there all along. I got my AR points by just reading the duplicate books and passed with an A.
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    I still don't know why she h much, but for about two weeks, enjoyed watching her crumble me so | everyday and not being able to punish me for sh. Not the most elaborate of petty revenges, but I loved it.
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    TL:DR My 7th grade teacher hated me, made my life miserable, so I made her think I was stealing her books every day by checking out duplicates of her personal copies. She could never get me in trouble and it drove her crazy not knowing where her books were, because I hid them, and if I was stealing. Passed with an A and a smile.
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  • 26
    martiztr. Actually Brilliant. It's sad that you had to get through that unpleasant experience, but she got exactly what she deserved. I hope she is still ashamed to this day.
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  • 27
    usumur Oh, she probably knew you had something to do with her missing books. The best part about this revenge is that she likely knew you were doing this deliberately and yet could never make a case against you since you weren't technically doing anything wrong (library book).
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    Great to hear that you managed to get both satisfaction from watching her fume and get an A for AR at the same time.
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  • 29
    kwbat12. As a librarian, I would absolutely participate in this small act of revenge on a teacher who won't let kids read books they have on their shelves. Also, the AR program is such a massive waste of time and student energy.
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class school students english revenge-stories petty revenge teacher petty entitled people karma Terrible Teacher entitled people
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