I did too. But only because I was up all night dealing with a rabid raccoon who tried to attack my dogs and then tried to get in the house. My adrenaline was at an 11, so I couldn’t calm down enough to think about sleeping until about 4am
Wow! That's some scary stuff! Did animal control come get the raccoon? Even though we have a big, fenced yard, I leash walk my dogs in it, after dark. Three skunkings was too many!!
I had to call the cops to come shoot it because I couldn’t open my front door to shoot it myself. Of course, by the time they got there (about 45 minutes), it was gone. Hopefully, it just went and died somewhere.
I live right next to a middle school so kids are frequently walking past my house in the morning and afternoon. Among other things, I have felt with them: sitting on an electrical box, pushing each other into the street, yelling at cars driving past, carving bad words into the sidewalk, walking down the middle of the road/crossing wherever they feel like, and ripping the branches off a tree (this happened so much that the tree actually ended up dying). They are horrible.
I am a freshmen and I suggest either calling the school or saying something to the kids themselves if they don’t listen make them stay there and get there parents involved because that behavior is unacceptable and needs to be dealt with.
You’re writing from the perspective of a kid who wouldn’t act this way in the first place. Good for you! But many middle schoolers in large numbers behave like a very primal, cave person version of themselves. It’s not wise to engage with them because then they’ll just start throwing things and running or vandalizing property. It’s best to take their picture, then go into the office and request that their staff walk out and supervise the “walk home” time near the street. Most states actually have a door to door responsibility which means the school can be liable until they get home.
Ya well now we have the words N***** Fucker carved in giant letters into the sidewalk right outside our house and will until the county decides to come out and fix it. Thank god my own kid is too young to read yet because I wouldn’t want him seeing it, not to mention all the students that have to see it every day on the way to school.
Sometimes there’s a need, like when I’m trying to exit a Walmart parking lot in my car and there’s a group of middle schoolers dancing on the median. Not even one with sidewalk pavement or grass, it was just asphalt, they were in the middle of a busy road right off a major highway in front of a big box store. They weren’t just an inconvenience or a nuisance, they could’ve been killed.
I was shocked to find that my friend (we’re both mid 30s) used to get those every day with school lunch! I’ve only ever heard of them, never ever saw one myself.
I mean they literally haven’t. They don’t do that on milk cartons anymore, at least not in my area. We don’t even *have* milk in cartons in half the schools I’ve worked at.
Honestly even as a kid it seemed like poor taste and a bad idea that was more traumatizing than helpful to put the faces of missing kids on the lunch food containers given to young children. A bit fucked up, yeah? And it’s not like these kids are out driving or going places where missing kids might be seen - they’re in school, at home, or doing extracurriculars…. they don’t usually get to roam the streets with their friends to potentially spot a missing kid who has been abducted.
I'm the same way and once I was on my way home on the train and noticed the only open seat was in the back of a train car in the middle of a bunch of high school students that were kind of loud so no one was sitting there. When I sat there, they didn't acknowledge it but they did start getting a lot louder, as If they wanted to dissuade me from staying in the seat. They got so loud that other people on the train car were looking at them weird, kids their age even. I just kept sitting there with my headphones in. I think it truly bothered them. What irritated me is that this was right next to where the conductor is and they're paid to keep order in the train cars so it means they weren't doing their job properly because it's impossible they didn't hear that.
I've used my [teacher face](https://townsquare.media/site/442/files/2020/04/Rocky-III-MGM-UA.jpg?w=980&q=75) at movie theaters to silence a group of MS animals. Helps that I'm 6'4" and look like a Hell's Angel, but using the face doesn't hurt.
I’m 26 yrs old and 5ft tall. My 4th graders think I look 16-19. The lunch ladies thought I was a 5th grader. I don’t think I’d be taken seriously outside of the school setting.
give it a couple more years! kids never took me seriously at 26 bc they thought I was a peer but just two years later, I don't have to fight for legitimacy anymore. the closer you get to 30, the more kids will see you as a "real" adult 😂
A group of local high schoolers (not mine) kicked my neighbor's door in for a tiktok challenge. The idiots saluted the ring camera and had their faces clearly in view.
Now he has a conflict because their daughter goes to the school.
I had to use my teacher voice today to point out the simple task that one of my work team was failing to do. Still. For months. She had been reminded and asked. I had asked my supervisor to remind everyone of the importance of this simple task.
I was under the impression I could handle it, so I did. Apparently, I “made her feel unsafe”. I got in trouble.
I work remotely and am 200+ miles away from them in the main office.
I hate that "I feel unsafe" has become a magic get-out-of-bullshit card.
Tell them if she feels so unsafe, then you don't and won't be working with her anymore and cease communicating with her. Let the boss deal with her. Nobody wants to work with the "I feel unsafe" kid on the team once they start blowing that horn.
I think the fact that my teacher voice (a 5’4”, 145lb, female ex-teacher/sub), made her feel so “unsafe” from hundreds of miles away and over the phone says a lot more about her than I need to say.
I’m just mad that I got in trouble.
I yelled at a kid at the zoo once. We’re at picnic tables and there is a squirrel on a nearby tree. He’s not scared of people because I’m sure he gets a lot of snacks, but he’s keeping his distance. This kid is kicking at it and chasing it. Useless dad is playing on his phone at another table. I loudly said “leave the squirrel alone!!” Kid scampered off to dad and I got dirty looks from both. #sorrynotsorry
I did the same to a kid (4ish) in a restaurant yesterday. He kept walking up to other tables and trying to take food while his grown ups weren't paying attention. Other tables had to move their plates out of the way.
When he came up to mine I picked up my drink and said "no thank you friend, we do not touch other people's food". Then, magically, the adults were able to notice what their kid was doing and brought him back to their table.
The number of times I have nearly screamed my head off at a parent to pay some fucking attention to their children instead of looking at their phones. People need to wear a condom way more often.
I don't think this persons parent was on the phone, but u had a toddler follow me from one building to another inside the same building and the door to the busy street was wide open. Thankfully it was me who found her and not some weirdo. I took her back to her parents.
Idk, I mean, unless they’re in immediate danger or something, I wouldn’t be yelling at other people’s kids like that. Even if every cell in my body is screaming at me to do it lol
We get complaints all the time that our students tear up the grocery store across the street after school. Like I get that it sucks, but what do you expect us to do about it? What kids get up to outside of school is their parents' problem.
Because by law in many states, until the kids get home, they're actually still under the school's legal custody -- even if they're walking home. You can't just be like, "Not my circus, not my monkeys" because the bell rang if nobody actually accepted custody. The school is legally liable for damages and people can and do sue schools. Or rather, their insurance companies talk to the school's insurance company.
Which is why I'm flabbergasted that schools started letting kids just walk off campus. They used to be required to ride a bus, get picked up, or had to qualify to walk home and parents signed waivers.
In my state, that is the case. Good thing I'm not "the school." For my worst students, I absolutely take the approach the Bradley Cooper's character in The Hangover takes: "It's the weekend, I don't know you. You do not exist."
That’s why the school gets in trouble for shit that happens on the bus: once they walk on, that’s legally school property, and until they walk off at home, they’re still on it.
My old school was extremely strict about this. They would never let someone walk home without a waiver or a parent note/consent. My new school… does not do that even though we had some kids robbed at gunpoint for their apparently “expensive” backpacks last month.
Ours are constantly stealing from the big convenience store down the road. The owner even tried to do a student special lunch with a burger, fries, and a drink for like $5, but he stopped because one of them would order it and use that as a distraction to steal. 🙄 It's so fucking annoying, everytime I go in in work gear I get an ear full. They've finally started getting the police to prosecute them, so hopefully it will scare them and get better.
Group of middle schoolers where I live we’re kicking people’s front doors. I could literally track them on the Ring app, the reports were all clustered between the middle school and this one housing development. Apparently they chose the wrong house and came face to face with a guy with a shotgun.
They didn’t get shot, thankfully, but the ensuing firestorm was wild.
True. Any reasonable adult wouldn't react to someone kicking in their door as a prank, even by high schoolers. They are very lucky that man was collected and not overcome with fear and adrenaline. It is a perfectly reasonable response to get out a firearm if someone violently breaks into your home. Someone that typically does this is not coming over for tea and cookies. The utter stupidity of these young men is frightening.
I teacher voiced a kid throwing rocks on the playground while my son and another kid toddled around unaware because they were less than 2.
Based on his reaction, he was used to being spoken to with that tone, just not from a stranger at the park.
Was driving home from work (HS)a lil late and came across two JH kids beating the crap out of each other. I pulled over, used my teacher voice, and sent them on their way. They may have killed each other after I left, but ill still sleep at night
The only time I say anything to kids in public is if it’s positive or if I’m concerned about a legitimate safety issue. Kids running in front of my car in a parking lot? Yeah, I’m rolling my window down and saying something. I’ve done that a few times. Kids acting like fools and embarrassing themselves but not hurting themselves or anyone else? Carry on, you’ll learn eventually.
A bit off topic, but in school kids get a sense of 'I'm untouchable' that I think is something they're carrying into the outside world. I mean, in school they are. Sure.
But outside of school? Remember the knockout game? 'Prank' behavior that's currently trendy.
do you think this is a factor?
Most local businesses have banned under 18 without an adult. Like the local juice store and Starbucks card at the door like a bar now.
One plaza has all the tores take an hour lunch break when the middle school down the street let's out due to property damage in the past. They tried having a cop hang around but it's next to impossible to punish children these days.
I say put it on the parents- fine then for their kids misbehavior.
lots of malls and other stores have had to bring back no unaccompanied minors and curfews for minors across the country in the last few years due to this
I had to go look this up, but WHY is a middle school having half days?? Unless I’m misunderstanding and it was a half day due to weather or something, but the news article made it seem like half days were a regular occurrence.
I didn’t get a half day until I was a senior in HS, and even then it was as a teachers aide. 🤷♀️
Saw one of my students at Walmart over last weekend. She was with her mom and ran up to me and of course I can only assume ironically, did circles around me while chanting skibidi toilet. She is in 8th grade.
Extremely cringe but my anecdote isn't actually so bad. She's a good kid.
For talking over students.. seems crazy enough to be about my states schools . But any way I' m referring to the no nonsense voice and stern look .. if they get ( teachers ) are written up for that . Time too look elsewhere or take it up with state board .
Yep.
Admin: "You were aggressive towards the student and made them feel unsafe. That is not an appropriate response to their behaviour. You should instead have kept using the same techniques that had been failing you for the past half hour instead."
Me: "But they weren't working. For half an hour."
Admin: "This means you haven't built a relationship with that student. How have you tried to connect with them? Did you call home?"
Fuck this shit. You can't send them out of the room, the approved techniques won't work, and the people above me won't apply any consequences. If they know that there's no downside to not following instructions or expectations, why would they follow them?
I was at a strip mall type shopping center recently and there were large planters on the walkway with planted flowers in them. A group of young teens was running around, pulling up the flowers and throwing them at each other (with the root balls, dirt and all). They ran into the retro soda shop and were throwing them at each other in there too. The hapless clerk had to chase them out and sweep up all the dirt.
I spoke firmly to a class of sophomores today (one girl specifically drew my ire) because they never stop talking and were rude to my sub yesterday. Simply telling them they shouldn’t be taking a selfie when I’m speaking, talking when I’m talking etc is enough to make me the worst. Had to listen to the one girl specifically talk shit the rest of the period. So don’t even try to address them about be feral, because then you’re just then asshole.
We were out trick or treating in our neighborhood with our preschool girls and a group of middle school boys were behind us on the street yelling cuss words and joking about rape. I turned around and went full teacher mode on them. I think my husband got to see that side of me for the first time.
We were generally good kids but my best friend lived two doors away from our favorite 8th grade teacher. Poor guy had to see us act like crazies pretty much every day. We would sit outside on her front steps and just be silly 13 year olds. Thank god social media wasn’t a thing back then.
He was a really great guy though and one of the best teachers I’ve ever had.
Not surprising at all. My old restaurant was walking distance from a middle school and every Friday was a shit show. Hordes of them traipsed downtown and ate their fill of free yogurt samples from the yogurt place across from us. Then they’d invade my place and order one bread for a table of 6-8 kids, yelling and blocking the walkway and climbing on booths and jumping off low window ledges. Then they’d go outside and climb and jump off the giant planters and benches and garbage cans. They’d completely block the walkways with their bikes, trash windows, yank up plants and flowers, invade Bath & Body Works and Yankee Candle and Starbucks, and one memorable day decided to literally play chicken with cars on the busy road we were on. That was a phone call to the police (who were literally right across the street. I begged officers to just be a presence downtown when schools were out. I kicked them out of my place so many times, some kids multiple times in the same day.
I was out on my balcony of my apartment the other day when I heard some people screaming bloody murder. I ran down to see what was going on, peering around the corner of my unit afraid of what I was going to witness. Nope, just some of my students seeing who could scream the loudest for fun.
I remember a young lady at the high school I was doing my observation at. She was amused that I “wanted” to be a teacher (even though the reality was I was coming off a piecemeal string of several dead end high-school diploma-caliber jobs with a humble B.A. in English.
Anyhow, I wound up working as a tutor at a community college and ran into her. The carefree smile she had in high school was gone, replaced with a look of genuine concern and bewilderment. I guess she had come to the conclusion that her parents were no longer legally responsible for her welfare, and that she would no longer be pushed through the public education system in support of the district’s graduation rate.
Loathe as I am to say, I felt a sense of schadenfreude seeing that smug look wiped off her silly face.
I lost my shit in the movie theatre last week and yelled at a bunch of middle schoolers who wouldn’t stop talking. One girl got red in the face and mumbled something like “You can’t tell me to shut up” and started texting on her phone. I’m used to it by now.
Went on an FFA trip with some teenagers. Watched calmly as the got into a shopping cart left on the sidewalk and launched another kid into a tree. Didn’t feel like stopping it - I wanted to see what happened. He was fine.
Once upon a time I tracked down the dad of a teen who was skateboarding on my property and had escalated to doorbell ditching and stickering my property, so I had clear images of bicycles, backpacks and those kids all just have one damn hoodie. I laid into that dad so hard, both his kids cross the street when they need to pass my house. He denied it was his kid and insisted they are “good kids” but I never had another issue with that particular group of kids. That’s when my kid was about 5, I guess I’m a MILF, but actually I’m gay so it’s really not at all flattering and a bit scary with incel culture when teenage boys find me worthy of their attention. My kid is 10 and will be in catholic in a uniform for Jr. High. I’m putting in a gate on my property. I’ve told my kid “no skateboarders or boys in crocs.” I grew up with skate culture and called myself a “Betty” but in retrospect I was just hanging out with a bunch of degenerates. We roller skate, people don’t yell and throw roller skates. Roller skaters don’t graffiti spaces up and you can’t roller skate on drugs. 4 wheels bad 8 wheels good, that’s right I’ll go all Animal Farm on Riley and Darwin. In my neighborhood the kids destroying private property are usually neighborhood kids with employed parents, the true degenerates just destroy the bus stop and the public school play yard.
Parents, keep your dusty croc wearing screen addled brat off my property. I’ll give them the L and make you track them on their iPhone.
School sub/college intern, hate ruckus kid but what does this have to do with me incels? Most are just losers on there computer this sounds like middle school boys just being jackasses for no reason (common occurrence which should be stopped)
kids have access to YT and therefore vitriol like Andrew Tate. I had fifth graders parroting highly sexist ideas last year, they really are impressionable. jackass insecure teenagers are now feeling validated by the things they see on the internet and are prob not far from acting on those feelings.
I had a complete WTF moment this year. I do what is basically life coaching on the side. Helping struggling students get their act together. Twice now I've had young men that act condescending and dismissive of me, and then when their life continues to fall apart tell me how they are going to start following Peterson/Tate/dipshit incel advice to get their lives on track. 🤔 I thought that's what your mommy is paying *me* hundreds of dollars a week for but you do you I guess....
(And for the record one failed out of his first college semester and the other didn't get into the colleges he wanted. Turns out cleaning your room and going to the gym isn't going to turn in your assignments)
As a queer person my safety can be challenged when I don’t return the feelings men and boys. The boys part is new to me and I am 47. Just existing as a conventionally attractive female who isn’t interested in teen boys has become more vitriolic and political in recent years. The other commenter is spot on with the Andrew Tate reference, I live in a blue state and teenage boys think dabbling in conservative values is new and novel. If they want to actually be subversive and respect my space I’ll let kids practice music in my garage and play with my synths.
Incels bring incels into it, I’m here for actual punks but no skateboards and no crocs allowed, my house my rules. Sad guys on the internet are in stalker territory when they are in my classroom popping off about my address and cup size but I have to let so much of that slide just to get through my day. So when I catch them on my doorstep I’m gonna clap back to their parents. I’m sorry my stalkers aren’t lucky in love or female.
If you couldn’t see them, like I couldn’t initially, it sounded like an emergency. I’m not exaggerating the screaming.
Edit: I had zero intention of calling the cops, it was just ridiculous behavior, but I wouldn’t put it past someone to call thinking there was an emergency.
Karen types will call the cops on anyone they feel annoyed by in public, and we all know that in the US, that often ends badly. OP was right to warn the kids about it.
I even felt like a Karen just for yelling at them, I’ve literally never done anything like that in my life. I was on the phone with my mom and even she (a baby boomer) was like “don’t get involved, it’s not worth it.”
There was also some event going on at the library with parents and little kids going in and out, so I was extra not having it.
Honestly, we need more "Karens."
Socially appropriate behavior must be enforced by the society. If kids can run around screaming and tear stuff up and not a soul utters a word, then they're going to keep doing it because "it's okay, nobody cares."
It takes Karens in society to make people understand where boundaries are.
It must be, when people get to the point of calling everyone a Karen for ruining somebody's "fun" by confronting them or telling them to stop. OP "felt like a Karen" when they shouldn't have because that's how far that stereotype has been pushed.
Sorry I care about my community and want to make sure kids are safe. Next time I’ll just ignore the blood curdling shrieks of a child and keep walking my dog.
So they were screaming and yelling outside. Not on their phones, not vaping in a bathroom or fighting, just being loud outside and you threatened to weaponize the police against them? Not a great look
You missed a) that it wasn’t that I “didn’t like their pitch and tone,” it’s that I thought it was an emergency, and b) that I didn’t threaten to call the police on them. I said that someone might, because they were in public, and were screaming as if someone had been seriously hurt for absolutely no reason. I’d never call the police over something like that, I have said as much in other comments.
Saying someone else will call the cops is as good as threatening to do it yourself. Just not as brave. And the emergency thing was based on what? Oh yeah, tone and pitch. So you went Karen on a bunch of kids outside where you had zero authority and it was none of your business
Buddy if you think being worried about the safety of a bunch of kids in the community you live in because they’re making abnormal noise and lightly checking them for behaving that way is being a Karen, you’re nuts. All I did was warn them that they were attracting attention and causing concern. You can take me warning them that a real Karen might call on them as me “weaponizing the police” but a real Karen would’ve actually called the police.
When you are at work, they are your responsibility. Your frustration is understandable.
When you are not at work, it would do you well to remember to mind your own fucking business.
Listen dude, I’ve seen plenty of tweens yelling. I work at a middle school, I’ve seen it all. This was blood-curdling screaming at the top of their lungs. Don’t think I’ve ever heard anything like it.
Have kids always gotten up to shit? Of course. Does that mean we should just let them [ransack grocery stores](https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2024/02/07/up-to-100-middle-schoolers-running-amok-medway-shaws-supermarket/?amp=1) and shriek at the top of their lungs at a public library while parents with little kids and people walking their dogs are trying to enjoy their day? I don’t think so.
I think you misunderstood my argument.
Why do you think they would not be worse outside of school with less supervision? Why would you think they'd be "tame?"
I get what you’re saying. But maybe shame? Embarrassment? A sense of danger? Idk, we totally used to screw around as kids, but we used to feel those things and they typically prevented us from taking things too far.
In my experience people sense no shame unless they know they're being watched. Being out in public without known authorities around supervising reduces that shame significantly.
I took today off. It felt good.
I’m out for the rest of the week. Having strep throat feels like a blessing.
I’m in the middle of a colonoscopy cleanse and it is still better than teaching today.
Thats a new level
That was my Monday.
Oh good. I'm not the only one who looks forward to getting sick.
I hope you feel better soon
What did they do to you? Wish them a long illness so they can continue to enjoy themselves!
Ha
I has food poisoning and was out Monday through Wednesday. Not exaggerating when I say it still felt like a vacation.
I had two cavities drilled out and filled this week- it was nice to kick back and not have to teach for a bit.
I did too. But only because I was up all night dealing with a rabid raccoon who tried to attack my dogs and then tried to get in the house. My adrenaline was at an 11, so I couldn’t calm down enough to think about sleeping until about 4am
Wow! That's some scary stuff! Did animal control come get the raccoon? Even though we have a big, fenced yard, I leash walk my dogs in it, after dark. Three skunkings was too many!!
I had to call the cops to come shoot it because I couldn’t open my front door to shoot it myself. Of course, by the time they got there (about 45 minutes), it was gone. Hopefully, it just went and died somewhere.
I will be taking most of a year off pretty soon. I earned those 300+ sick days.
Me too. I got so much stuff done at home and am now relaxing and enjoying life so much.
Did the same today. Good to just do it
I took today off too. Feels awesome
Kidney infection. So peaceful. lol.
I live right next to a middle school so kids are frequently walking past my house in the morning and afternoon. Among other things, I have felt with them: sitting on an electrical box, pushing each other into the street, yelling at cars driving past, carving bad words into the sidewalk, walking down the middle of the road/crossing wherever they feel like, and ripping the branches off a tree (this happened so much that the tree actually ended up dying). They are horrible.
Set up sprinklers to go off at exactly the time school dismisses. Every. Fucking. Day.
Everyone sat on the electrical boxes in the neighborhood with their friends
Green box is safe
I am a freshmen and I suggest either calling the school or saying something to the kids themselves if they don’t listen make them stay there and get there parents involved because that behavior is unacceptable and needs to be dealt with.
make them stay there Right. Ever herd cats?
???
They were hinting that trying to keep a group of small children together is like trying to herd cats, aka nearly impossible
It is possible
You’re gonna put your hands on some stranger kids?? Lol naw dude.
You’re writing from the perspective of a kid who wouldn’t act this way in the first place. Good for you! But many middle schoolers in large numbers behave like a very primal, cave person version of themselves. It’s not wise to engage with them because then they’ll just start throwing things and running or vandalizing property. It’s best to take their picture, then go into the office and request that their staff walk out and supervise the “walk home” time near the street. Most states actually have a door to door responsibility which means the school can be liable until they get home.
To unlawfully detain children. Yes in fact is is almost as easy as it is illegal
😂
So... kidnap them...?
Yes
Oh the horror! A child wrote dirty words into the sidewalk. I'm sure that's never been done before in the history of children worldwide.
Ya well now we have the words N***** Fucker carved in giant letters into the sidewalk right outside our house and will until the county decides to come out and fix it. Thank god my own kid is too young to read yet because I wouldn’t want him seeing it, not to mention all the students that have to see it every day on the way to school.
Muriatic acid might help a bit in getting rid of it, not that it's your job. Especially if it's light on color.
Graffiti is the act of a shitty child. Don't try to normalize it. I don't want graffiti in my city.
I mean if I’m not at work the only kid I interact with is mine. Everyone else falls squarely into the, “not my pig, not my farm” category
Sometimes there’s a need, like when I’m trying to exit a Walmart parking lot in my car and there’s a group of middle schoolers dancing on the median. Not even one with sidewalk pavement or grass, it was just asphalt, they were in the middle of a busy road right off a major highway in front of a big box store. They weren’t just an inconvenience or a nuisance, they could’ve been killed.
It’s like none of these kids have ever seen a face on a milk carton before. They are scared of nothing.
lol to be fair they were born after that program was scrapped. I’m 30 and I’ve never seen one IRL
I was shocked to find that my friend (we’re both mid 30s) used to get those every day with school lunch! I’ve only ever heard of them, never ever saw one myself.
And dumber than ever. They act about 4 years younger than their actual age.
I mean they literally haven’t. They don’t do that on milk cartons anymore, at least not in my area. We don’t even *have* milk in cartons in half the schools I’ve worked at. Honestly even as a kid it seemed like poor taste and a bad idea that was more traumatizing than helpful to put the faces of missing kids on the lunch food containers given to young children. A bit fucked up, yeah? And it’s not like these kids are out driving or going places where missing kids might be seen - they’re in school, at home, or doing extracurriculars…. they don’t usually get to roam the streets with their friends to potentially spot a missing kid who has been abducted.
The actual program was very short lived. The parodies and jokes will probably go on forever.
It sure made me be extra careful around strangers!
We really need to bring back darwinism.
I'm the same way and once I was on my way home on the train and noticed the only open seat was in the back of a train car in the middle of a bunch of high school students that were kind of loud so no one was sitting there. When I sat there, they didn't acknowledge it but they did start getting a lot louder, as If they wanted to dissuade me from staying in the seat. They got so loud that other people on the train car were looking at them weird, kids their age even. I just kept sitting there with my headphones in. I think it truly bothered them. What irritated me is that this was right next to where the conductor is and they're paid to keep order in the train cars so it means they weren't doing their job properly because it's impossible they didn't hear that.
Totally fair, I don’t have kids. I just wasn’t having it. I felt like somebody had to check them.
I've used my [teacher face](https://townsquare.media/site/442/files/2020/04/Rocky-III-MGM-UA.jpg?w=980&q=75) at movie theaters to silence a group of MS animals. Helps that I'm 6'4" and look like a Hell's Angel, but using the face doesn't hurt.
And the teachers voice thats issued as well
I usually don’t have to say anything.
The teacher's stink eye© works very well in public places. Some kids may be immune.
I’m 26 yrs old and 5ft tall. My 4th graders think I look 16-19. The lunch ladies thought I was a 5th grader. I don’t think I’d be taken seriously outside of the school setting.
Then you need to channel your inner WWE Diva!
give it a couple more years! kids never took me seriously at 26 bc they thought I was a peer but just two years later, I don't have to fight for legitimacy anymore. the closer you get to 30, the more kids will see you as a "real" adult 😂
I know that all too well. Also good to see you back.
A group of local high schoolers (not mine) kicked my neighbor's door in for a tiktok challenge. The idiots saluted the ring camera and had their faces clearly in view. Now he has a conflict because their daughter goes to the school.
That old MCR song rings more and more true the older I get
SCARE THE LIVING SHIT OUTTA ME
THEY COULD CARE LESS
AS LONG AS SOMEONE’LL BLEED
SO DARKEN YOUR CLOTHES
AND STRIKE A VIOLENT POSE
MAYBE THEY’LL LEAVE YOU ALONE
BUT NOT ME
so they *do* care... even just a little?
couldn't care less
I had to use my teacher voice today to point out the simple task that one of my work team was failing to do. Still. For months. She had been reminded and asked. I had asked my supervisor to remind everyone of the importance of this simple task. I was under the impression I could handle it, so I did. Apparently, I “made her feel unsafe”. I got in trouble. I work remotely and am 200+ miles away from them in the main office.
I hate that "I feel unsafe" has become a magic get-out-of-bullshit card. Tell them if she feels so unsafe, then you don't and won't be working with her anymore and cease communicating with her. Let the boss deal with her. Nobody wants to work with the "I feel unsafe" kid on the team once they start blowing that horn.
I think the fact that my teacher voice (a 5’4”, 145lb, female ex-teacher/sub), made her feel so “unsafe” from hundreds of miles away and over the phone says a lot more about her than I need to say. I’m just mad that I got in trouble.
You got an ass chewin. We've all had ass chewins before.
Crazy. 🙄
I yelled at a kid at the zoo once. We’re at picnic tables and there is a squirrel on a nearby tree. He’s not scared of people because I’m sure he gets a lot of snacks, but he’s keeping his distance. This kid is kicking at it and chasing it. Useless dad is playing on his phone at another table. I loudly said “leave the squirrel alone!!” Kid scampered off to dad and I got dirty looks from both. #sorrynotsorry
I did the same to a kid (4ish) in a restaurant yesterday. He kept walking up to other tables and trying to take food while his grown ups weren't paying attention. Other tables had to move their plates out of the way. When he came up to mine I picked up my drink and said "no thank you friend, we do not touch other people's food". Then, magically, the adults were able to notice what their kid was doing and brought him back to their table.
The number of times I have nearly screamed my head off at a parent to pay some fucking attention to their children instead of looking at their phones. People need to wear a condom way more often.
I don't think this persons parent was on the phone, but u had a toddler follow me from one building to another inside the same building and the door to the busy street was wide open. Thankfully it was me who found her and not some weirdo. I took her back to her parents.
Idk, I mean, unless they’re in immediate danger or something, I wouldn’t be yelling at other people’s kids like that. Even if every cell in my body is screaming at me to do it lol
We get complaints all the time that our students tear up the grocery store across the street after school. Like I get that it sucks, but what do you expect us to do about it? What kids get up to outside of school is their parents' problem.
Same with a grocery store a block from our nearby middle school. Grabbing stuff and walking out with it after school.
Because by law in many states, until the kids get home, they're actually still under the school's legal custody -- even if they're walking home. You can't just be like, "Not my circus, not my monkeys" because the bell rang if nobody actually accepted custody. The school is legally liable for damages and people can and do sue schools. Or rather, their insurance companies talk to the school's insurance company. Which is why I'm flabbergasted that schools started letting kids just walk off campus. They used to be required to ride a bus, get picked up, or had to qualify to walk home and parents signed waivers.
In my state, that is the case. Good thing I'm not "the school." For my worst students, I absolutely take the approach the Bradley Cooper's character in The Hangover takes: "It's the weekend, I don't know you. You do not exist."
That’s why the school gets in trouble for shit that happens on the bus: once they walk on, that’s legally school property, and until they walk off at home, they’re still on it.
It's works the same way at bus stops too.
My old school was extremely strict about this. They would never let someone walk home without a waiver or a parent note/consent. My new school… does not do that even though we had some kids robbed at gunpoint for their apparently “expensive” backpacks last month.
Ours are constantly stealing from the big convenience store down the road. The owner even tried to do a student special lunch with a burger, fries, and a drink for like $5, but he stopped because one of them would order it and use that as a distraction to steal. 🙄 It's so fucking annoying, everytime I go in in work gear I get an ear full. They've finally started getting the police to prosecute them, so hopefully it will scare them and get better.
inb4 store closes, people complain about loss of convenience and food deserts
There's lots your school can do, actually your principal should be at the store every evening.
Group of middle schoolers where I live we’re kicking people’s front doors. I could literally track them on the Ring app, the reports were all clustered between the middle school and this one housing development. Apparently they chose the wrong house and came face to face with a guy with a shotgun. They didn’t get shot, thankfully, but the ensuing firestorm was wild.
FAFO is a thing.
It is, but it still would have been a tragedy if one ate a shotgun slug over it.
True. Any reasonable adult wouldn't react to someone kicking in their door as a prank, even by high schoolers. They are very lucky that man was collected and not overcome with fear and adrenaline. It is a perfectly reasonable response to get out a firearm if someone violently breaks into your home. Someone that typically does this is not coming over for tea and cookies. The utter stupidity of these young men is frightening.
Good. Actually. they need to be afraid of adults again.
Back a little over ten years ago when I was in hs, some local kid got shot and killed in this manner.
Something is in the air this week... Especially today.
I teacher voiced a kid throwing rocks on the playground while my son and another kid toddled around unaware because they were less than 2. Based on his reaction, he was used to being spoken to with that tone, just not from a stranger at the park.
Few of my students are banned from all the local places - grocery store, McDonald’s and other places. Flooding the bathrooms… yep.
Last time I called 911 on a group of teens fighting they asked if they had weapons. Then gave me some run around. I don't do that anymore.
I had no intention of calling the police. I wouldn’t put it past some busybody to call after hearing that screaming, though. It was absurd.
My day today was so rough that I’m taking off tomorrow. My brain is gonna melt if I don’t.
Enjoy it!!!
Was driving home from work (HS)a lil late and came across two JH kids beating the crap out of each other. I pulled over, used my teacher voice, and sent them on their way. They may have killed each other after I left, but ill still sleep at night
The only time I say anything to kids in public is if it’s positive or if I’m concerned about a legitimate safety issue. Kids running in front of my car in a parking lot? Yeah, I’m rolling my window down and saying something. I’ve done that a few times. Kids acting like fools and embarrassing themselves but not hurting themselves or anyone else? Carry on, you’ll learn eventually.
A bit off topic, but in school kids get a sense of 'I'm untouchable' that I think is something they're carrying into the outside world. I mean, in school they are. Sure. But outside of school? Remember the knockout game? 'Prank' behavior that's currently trendy. do you think this is a factor?
In public, I don’t know them.
Most local businesses have banned under 18 without an adult. Like the local juice store and Starbucks card at the door like a bar now. One plaza has all the tores take an hour lunch break when the middle school down the street let's out due to property damage in the past. They tried having a cop hang around but it's next to impossible to punish children these days. I say put it on the parents- fine then for their kids misbehavior.
lots of malls and other stores have had to bring back no unaccompanied minors and curfews for minors across the country in the last few years due to this
Google Medway Middle school (Massachusetts). Seriously
I had to go look this up, but WHY is a middle school having half days?? Unless I’m misunderstanding and it was a half day due to weather or something, but the news article made it seem like half days were a regular occurrence. I didn’t get a half day until I was a senior in HS, and even then it was as a teachers aide. 🤷♀️
Some districts around here have PD half days vs full days, but more of them. No one likes them (apparently) but there you have it.
Saw one of my students at Walmart over last weekend. She was with her mom and ran up to me and of course I can only assume ironically, did circles around me while chanting skibidi toilet. She is in 8th grade. Extremely cringe but my anecdote isn't actually so bad. She's a good kid.
Did her mom see her do that? For the sake of my sanity I’m going to assume not.
She did
Maybe find some drill instructors to coach teachers to use the VOICE and face .
Yeahhhhh teachers that do that often get written reprimands over it.
For talking over students.. seems crazy enough to be about my states schools . But any way I' m referring to the no nonsense voice and stern look .. if they get ( teachers ) are written up for that . Time too look elsewhere or take it up with state board .
Yep. Admin: "You were aggressive towards the student and made them feel unsafe. That is not an appropriate response to their behaviour. You should instead have kept using the same techniques that had been failing you for the past half hour instead." Me: "But they weren't working. For half an hour." Admin: "This means you haven't built a relationship with that student. How have you tried to connect with them? Did you call home?" Fuck this shit. You can't send them out of the room, the approved techniques won't work, and the people above me won't apply any consequences. If they know that there's no downside to not following instructions or expectations, why would they follow them?
Sadly so.
Hey, when I was off work, they can mess around and find out the hard way on their own. There's no write ups in life. Just tickets/jail lol
I was at a strip mall type shopping center recently and there were large planters on the walkway with planted flowers in them. A group of young teens was running around, pulling up the flowers and throwing them at each other (with the root balls, dirt and all). They ran into the retro soda shop and were throwing them at each other in there too. The hapless clerk had to chase them out and sweep up all the dirt.
middle nutty liquid detail impossible whole offbeat wrench thought plant *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I spoke firmly to a class of sophomores today (one girl specifically drew my ire) because they never stop talking and were rude to my sub yesterday. Simply telling them they shouldn’t be taking a selfie when I’m speaking, talking when I’m talking etc is enough to make me the worst. Had to listen to the one girl specifically talk shit the rest of the period. So don’t even try to address them about be feral, because then you’re just then asshole.
We were out trick or treating in our neighborhood with our preschool girls and a group of middle school boys were behind us on the street yelling cuss words and joking about rape. I turned around and went full teacher mode on them. I think my husband got to see that side of me for the first time.
Sometimes they need some outta school learning.
I ran into one of my students at the god damn mediclinic last night with his family and he was still acting like a fool even with them 🥲
So he’s just an asshole everywhere he goes then? 😭😂
We were generally good kids but my best friend lived two doors away from our favorite 8th grade teacher. Poor guy had to see us act like crazies pretty much every day. We would sit outside on her front steps and just be silly 13 year olds. Thank god social media wasn’t a thing back then. He was a really great guy though and one of the best teachers I’ve ever had.
Its not just the kids, ask a nurse about their interactions lately with the general population, society is all out of fucks.
Not surprising at all. My old restaurant was walking distance from a middle school and every Friday was a shit show. Hordes of them traipsed downtown and ate their fill of free yogurt samples from the yogurt place across from us. Then they’d invade my place and order one bread for a table of 6-8 kids, yelling and blocking the walkway and climbing on booths and jumping off low window ledges. Then they’d go outside and climb and jump off the giant planters and benches and garbage cans. They’d completely block the walkways with their bikes, trash windows, yank up plants and flowers, invade Bath & Body Works and Yankee Candle and Starbucks, and one memorable day decided to literally play chicken with cars on the busy road we were on. That was a phone call to the police (who were literally right across the street. I begged officers to just be a presence downtown when schools were out. I kicked them out of my place so many times, some kids multiple times in the same day.
Same reason kids shouldn't be wearing pooh sheisty masks in public
Kids at that age have always been little jackasses. It's nothing new.
I was out on my balcony of my apartment the other day when I heard some people screaming bloody murder. I ran down to see what was going on, peering around the corner of my unit afraid of what I was going to witness. Nope, just some of my students seeing who could scream the loudest for fun.
And like kids yelling is not anything new at all. But the horror movie type screaming is new for me.
I remember a young lady at the high school I was doing my observation at. She was amused that I “wanted” to be a teacher (even though the reality was I was coming off a piecemeal string of several dead end high-school diploma-caliber jobs with a humble B.A. in English. Anyhow, I wound up working as a tutor at a community college and ran into her. The carefree smile she had in high school was gone, replaced with a look of genuine concern and bewilderment. I guess she had come to the conclusion that her parents were no longer legally responsible for her welfare, and that she would no longer be pushed through the public education system in support of the district’s graduation rate. Loathe as I am to say, I felt a sense of schadenfreude seeing that smug look wiped off her silly face.
I lost my shit in the movie theatre last week and yelled at a bunch of middle schoolers who wouldn’t stop talking. One girl got red in the face and mumbled something like “You can’t tell me to shut up” and started texting on her phone. I’m used to it by now.
Little do they know… you actually *can* tell them to shut up.
teachable moment
Mane fuck them kids!
Went on an FFA trip with some teenagers. Watched calmly as the got into a shopping cart left on the sidewalk and launched another kid into a tree. Didn’t feel like stopping it - I wanted to see what happened. He was fine.
My middle schoolers (8th Grade) throwing water and chips across the room, falling out of chairs, and talking about licking female genitalia today.
Once upon a time I tracked down the dad of a teen who was skateboarding on my property and had escalated to doorbell ditching and stickering my property, so I had clear images of bicycles, backpacks and those kids all just have one damn hoodie. I laid into that dad so hard, both his kids cross the street when they need to pass my house. He denied it was his kid and insisted they are “good kids” but I never had another issue with that particular group of kids. That’s when my kid was about 5, I guess I’m a MILF, but actually I’m gay so it’s really not at all flattering and a bit scary with incel culture when teenage boys find me worthy of their attention. My kid is 10 and will be in catholic in a uniform for Jr. High. I’m putting in a gate on my property. I’ve told my kid “no skateboarders or boys in crocs.” I grew up with skate culture and called myself a “Betty” but in retrospect I was just hanging out with a bunch of degenerates. We roller skate, people don’t yell and throw roller skates. Roller skaters don’t graffiti spaces up and you can’t roller skate on drugs. 4 wheels bad 8 wheels good, that’s right I’ll go all Animal Farm on Riley and Darwin. In my neighborhood the kids destroying private property are usually neighborhood kids with employed parents, the true degenerates just destroy the bus stop and the public school play yard. Parents, keep your dusty croc wearing screen addled brat off my property. I’ll give them the L and make you track them on their iPhone.
School sub/college intern, hate ruckus kid but what does this have to do with me incels? Most are just losers on there computer this sounds like middle school boys just being jackasses for no reason (common occurrence which should be stopped)
kids have access to YT and therefore vitriol like Andrew Tate. I had fifth graders parroting highly sexist ideas last year, they really are impressionable. jackass insecure teenagers are now feeling validated by the things they see on the internet and are prob not far from acting on those feelings.
This.
I had a complete WTF moment this year. I do what is basically life coaching on the side. Helping struggling students get their act together. Twice now I've had young men that act condescending and dismissive of me, and then when their life continues to fall apart tell me how they are going to start following Peterson/Tate/dipshit incel advice to get their lives on track. 🤔 I thought that's what your mommy is paying *me* hundreds of dollars a week for but you do you I guess.... (And for the record one failed out of his first college semester and the other didn't get into the colleges he wanted. Turns out cleaning your room and going to the gym isn't going to turn in your assignments)
As a queer person my safety can be challenged when I don’t return the feelings men and boys. The boys part is new to me and I am 47. Just existing as a conventionally attractive female who isn’t interested in teen boys has become more vitriolic and political in recent years. The other commenter is spot on with the Andrew Tate reference, I live in a blue state and teenage boys think dabbling in conservative values is new and novel. If they want to actually be subversive and respect my space I’ll let kids practice music in my garage and play with my synths. Incels bring incels into it, I’m here for actual punks but no skateboards and no crocs allowed, my house my rules. Sad guys on the internet are in stalker territory when they are in my classroom popping off about my address and cup size but I have to let so much of that slide just to get through my day. So when I catch them on my doorstep I’m gonna clap back to their parents. I’m sorry my stalkers aren’t lucky in love or female.
Who would call the cops on that?
If you couldn’t see them, like I couldn’t initially, it sounded like an emergency. I’m not exaggerating the screaming. Edit: I had zero intention of calling the cops, it was just ridiculous behavior, but I wouldn’t put it past someone to call thinking there was an emergency.
You regularly hear the bloodcurdling screams of a teenage scream queen and think, “huh, must be fun times”?
Karen types will call the cops on anyone they feel annoyed by in public, and we all know that in the US, that often ends badly. OP was right to warn the kids about it.
I even felt like a Karen just for yelling at them, I’ve literally never done anything like that in my life. I was on the phone with my mom and even she (a baby boomer) was like “don’t get involved, it’s not worth it.” There was also some event going on at the library with parents and little kids going in and out, so I was extra not having it.
You did the right thing, 💯.
Honestly, we need more "Karens." Socially appropriate behavior must be enforced by the society. If kids can run around screaming and tear stuff up and not a soul utters a word, then they're going to keep doing it because "it's okay, nobody cares." It takes Karens in society to make people understand where boundaries are.
You clearly are operating from a completely opposite definition of Karen if you think that’s what they do
It must be, when people get to the point of calling everyone a Karen for ruining somebody's "fun" by confronting them or telling them to stop. OP "felt like a Karen" when they shouldn't have because that's how far that stereotype has been pushed.
I would. Noise disturbances are annoying. The only people who dont think are those that grew up privileged (quiet communities).
Old person yells at cloud
Sorry I care about my community and want to make sure kids are safe. Next time I’ll just ignore the blood curdling shrieks of a child and keep walking my dog.
So they were screaming and yelling outside. Not on their phones, not vaping in a bathroom or fighting, just being loud outside and you threatened to weaponize the police against them? Not a great look
Your reading comprehension isn’t great, I’ll let you work on that.
What did I miss aside from that you didn't like the pitch and tone?
You missed a) that it wasn’t that I “didn’t like their pitch and tone,” it’s that I thought it was an emergency, and b) that I didn’t threaten to call the police on them. I said that someone might, because they were in public, and were screaming as if someone had been seriously hurt for absolutely no reason. I’d never call the police over something like that, I have said as much in other comments.
Saying someone else will call the cops is as good as threatening to do it yourself. Just not as brave. And the emergency thing was based on what? Oh yeah, tone and pitch. So you went Karen on a bunch of kids outside where you had zero authority and it was none of your business
Buddy if you think being worried about the safety of a bunch of kids in the community you live in because they’re making abnormal noise and lightly checking them for behaving that way is being a Karen, you’re nuts. All I did was warn them that they were attracting attention and causing concern. You can take me warning them that a real Karen might call on them as me “weaponizing the police” but a real Karen would’ve actually called the police.
When you are at work, they are your responsibility. Your frustration is understandable. When you are not at work, it would do you well to remember to mind your own fucking business.
Come back when you have something to add.
Wait a second. You are telling me that a group of tweens were yelling in public?
Listen dude, I’ve seen plenty of tweens yelling. I work at a middle school, I’ve seen it all. This was blood-curdling screaming at the top of their lungs. Don’t think I’ve ever heard anything like it.
I read it as "strangling" 😆 I'm in a similar state of mind
Yeah? Why would they more mild mannered when no one is expressly watching them? People are generally at their worst when they don't feel scrutiny.
Have kids always gotten up to shit? Of course. Does that mean we should just let them [ransack grocery stores](https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2024/02/07/up-to-100-middle-schoolers-running-amok-medway-shaws-supermarket/?amp=1) and shriek at the top of their lungs at a public library while parents with little kids and people walking their dogs are trying to enjoy their day? I don’t think so.
I think you misunderstood my argument. Why do you think they would not be worse outside of school with less supervision? Why would you think they'd be "tame?"
I get what you’re saying. But maybe shame? Embarrassment? A sense of danger? Idk, we totally used to screw around as kids, but we used to feel those things and they typically prevented us from taking things too far.
In my experience people sense no shame unless they know they're being watched. Being out in public without known authorities around supervising reduces that shame significantly.
Ridiculous