'We don't get paid enoigh for this': Teacher stories of unhinged students bringing in weird and unexpected school materials

Author image for Giuliana Tiscioni
Giuliana Tiscioni • Writer
Sep 7, 2026 7:15 PM EDT

Sometimes kids can be really weird, and teachers find themselves dealing with a lot of awkward situations.

Now that it's the moment to go back to school, all parents, kids, and teachers have a lot of mixed feelings. Parents are surely relieved to have a few hours a day to be alone and have some time for themselves without needing to entertain the kids. The kids must be thrilled to see their friends again, and at the same time a bit bummed to have to actually go to class every day. Teachers, in the meantime, probably want to curl up and cry for a little while. 

We're not saying that good teachers don't love their job; they most certainly do! You need to have a real calling to do this job properly and be the kind of teacher that everybody loves and makes the children actually learn something. But we can't deny that teachers are often overworked and underpaid. They take care of our kids for at least 6 hours a day, and they make sure they go back home safe and sound while learning new things. They are indispensable for society. This is exactly why they sometimes find themselves dealing with the most unexpected and unhinged situations. Kids are not always as well adjusted to society's rules as to know what is normal to do or say, and teachers just have to deal with it in the best way they can. They sure get some good anecdotes after that, but there's no denying that more than once they probably just stood there, dumbfounded, wondering: "Why did I choose this career, again?" 

These stories are not the exception. Here, different teachers told about moments when their students showed up to class with weird things inside their backpacks. Nothing was exactly illegal, but how or why did these kids have those objects with them? Are their parent blind or something? Their pets, random animals they found on the street, objects stolen from their parents, and even a rotisserie chicken are some of the things these teachers found in their students' backpacks. Reading this is a great way to get our laughs up and get back to class in a good mood! 

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    via Vitaly Gariev for Unsplash+

    A tired teacher after a long day.

    Model portrayal.

  • Teachers and school personels, what was the most unhinged yet still legal things you found inside student's backpack?

    for me, it was 12 pieces of coat hangers from an 8th grader
    via Relative_Avocado_171
  • Ambitious_Silver_345 4th grade- An empty cottage cheese tub filled with snails. The student kept asking to go to the bathroom but
    via Ambitious_Silver_345
  • instead would go out to where her backpack was hanging to check on/feed the snails! So funny!
    via Ambitious_Silver_345
  • life-is-satire A gorilla mask that covered the entire front and back of your head. The parent expected us to put it on so her kid would smile on picture day.
    via life-is-satire
  • Infinite Aerie_504 I read a story about a kid who brought a toaster in his backpack and got caught making kids toast at lunch. Very wholesome but still had it taken away.
    via Infinite_Aerie_504
  • khak_attack I had a girl (~2nd grade?) who kept compulsively smelling her Bath and Body Works hand sanitizer. So I
    via khak_attack
  • took it away and she pulled out another one lol. The next day, same thing happened, so I took that one away, and she pulled out A WHOLE HANDFUL from her bag LOL.
    via khak_attack
  • Took the handful away, and she pulled more out of her pockets haha. She had at least 9 on her person, plus the 21 had from the day before.
    via khak_attack
  • CoffeelcedBlack When I was 10 I put my cat in my backpack and no one discovered it until you just heard.....meow?
    via CoffeeIcedBlack
  • Cheezburger Image 10661582336
    via Ben Wogl for Unsplash+

    Cat in a backpack.

    Image for illustrative purposes.

  • LCteach A snake he found on his way to school
    via LCteach
  • SanPadrigo A first grader brought in their grandpa's dentures- they wanted to stick them in the mouth of one of the class jack-o-lanterns.
    via SanPadrigo
  • AriAir 1994 A cricket kept in a Tupperware. We released it.
    via AriAir1994
  • GredAndForgee His pet hamster.
    via GredAndForgee
  • AggressiveSherbetty Gopher tortoise. Although they're endangered to I guess maybe that was illegal. He as a third grader and trying to give it to his teacher who loved turtles
    via AggressiveSherbetty
  • fortogden A partially eaten rotisserie chicken, unwrapped, that the student was sneaking chunks of during class.
    via fortogden
  • Cheezburger Image 10661582848
    via Sven Lippmann for Unsplash+

    Rotisserie chicken. 

    Stock photography for depiction only.

  • crescentwrangler Plastic easter egg filled with rollie pollies
    via crescentwrangler
  • Character-Avocado-73 A wolf spider housed in a pencil case and a carburetor. 2 different students in middle school. We released the spider.
    via Character-Avocado-73
  • racheljaneypants An entire cabbage that had been there for roughly a month.
    via racheljaneypants

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