When I think back to my school days, I had some really cool, normal substitute teachers and then there were a few that definitely should not have been allowed to be around kids.

Once, we had a sub for gym class during my Freshman year of high school. Admittedly, we were a rambunctious group, but the woman filling in for the day totally lost her mind and said to all of us, “why don’t you go f*ck yourselves?!?!”

Seriously! That really happened!

I never saw her at that school again…

Teachers, what’s the weirdest or worst thing a substitute teacher did while you were gone?

Let’s see what people on AskReddit had to say about this.

1. Time to lock it down.

“I had a sub steal my dry erase markers and emergency chocolate once.

After that, I locked my drawers and left them with two pens and one dry erase marker.”

2. What happened to the eggs?

“I had left out – overnight – eggs that I was going to use in a science experiment the following day. I was out and thought nothing about it.

I returned the following day and went looking for the eggs only to find them missing. Asked a student where they went and I was informed that the substitute took the class to the special education kitchen, hard boiled them and ate them.

I went to talk to my AP and was informed that the sub had called in sick for her job for that day, due to food poisoning.”

3. A nightmare.

“Gave out snacks I bought with my own money that I kept for kids who stayed after to get tutoring.

Threw out a broken electric pencil sharpener that kids broke in front of her. Which again, I bought with my own money and couldn’t get replaced by the company because I had no product to send back. I still don’t have a sharpener for my room.

Let the kids go through my things in my cabinets and desk. Lost a bunch of stuff that way.”

4. That’s pretty bad.

“I was a teacher’s assistant while in college. The teacher and I took a week long workshop and had a sub.

The worst thing she did was not letting the kids go potty. It was in kindergarten and she said all the kids going to bathroom were interrupting the class.

One girl wet herself. School policy was if kids under a certain age had an accident the nurse would give them a pull up (basically a diaper) to wear. The substitute proceeded to make fun of the girl for wear a diaper, calling her baby and such.

The little girl ended facing repercussions at home too.

It’s was devastating to hear about.”

5. The accused.

“Accused a student of stealing something that the aide had put away. This was a class that contained some pretty rough students including one suspended multiple times for fighting and some gang members.

She decided to go after a sweet, petite girl that never caused trouble and was generally popular with her classmates. This set off the entire class which is when the sub went ballistic and started wildly throwing accusations and yelling at said students. Security eventually got called and took several students out.

My first clue was when the sub got my cell number from the staff directory and went off for 20+ minutes about how bad my students had been. This was followed up with an extremely long email and a two page written note on my desk plus a concerned note from the administrator about not having appropriate sub plans (she didn’t follow them in the first place and decided to throw me under the bus).

The next morning when I arrived at school, the students were waiting for me at the door. Once I got them calmed down enough to tell their side of the story, we had a discussion on how they could have handled the situation differently. I promised them never to get that sub again.

On a related note, I had a good relationship with said “rough children” because I treated them with respect and fairness. They usually behaved for me.”

6. Out on a limb.

“She was bought in to teach history.

What did she teach? GEOGRAPHY

Like how?

The worksheets I left were literally on Hitler’s rise to power?!”

7. Lay off the sauce.

“The sub passed out drunk at my desk. Kids WRECKED the room. Kids stole all my stuff.

The kids had the sense to take themselves to lunch and recess, so no one in the school realized anything was wrong until after the kids had left for the day.”

8. You can’t do that!

“Had a substitute teacher in my high school French class show a movie that was straight up soft core p*rnography but tried to explain that since it was in French it was artistic.

It was equally frustrating because while I wanted to see boobs, I also couldn’t stop reading the subtitles because I had to understand what they were saying.

The teacher did not come back the next day.”

9. Ouch.

“I would occasionally give out Starbursts to my 4th graders.

B*tch ate all the pink ones.”

10. Hmmmm…

“He yelled at one of the only girls in my high school engineering class saying girls don’t belong in engineering.

He also kicked his feet up on the desk and read the paper the entire day.

He banged a yardstick on a desk to get everyone’s attention then pointed it at the whiteboards with the daily objectives. All without saying a word.

He disappeared at lunch and came back smelling like weed.

These are all reports I got from my students the next day. This guy was a retired teacher, too.”

11. Total chaos.

“Came back to my art room with paint on the walls , chairs, and tabletops.

None of my plans had been followed. My chocolate stash had clearly been eaten, and apparently she allowed the students to leave the room and wander the school.

They were a class of 8th graders. I was furious.”

12. Oh, boy…

“Two things come to mind:

Tell the black children they need to speak more clearly because people think black people are hard to understand.

Just sit and play on the phone while class loses its mind.”

13. Oops.

“I had a substitute when I worked in a rough school.

I knew it was going to be a challenge for the substitute, so I prepared ahead of time with a LOT of candy (from Costco) and notes to not leave their lunch in the fridge (it would have been stolen). The substitute gave out all of my 5 pound bag of candy AND my calcium chews.

When I came back from the field trip the kids were in a soft lockdown, because the school was being searched for drugs. I immediately noticed my calcium chews (chocolate flavored) were gone. I assumed there would be some serious health repercussions, so I frantically searched for a warning label. It said something along the lines of “excess consumption may cause to act as a laxative”. One of my hungrier kids had eaten 15+ chews…

The nurse had to round up each of my classes and (with the sub) escort them to the bathroom. The kids NEVER took candy from another substitute of mine, ever again.”

Have you ever had a substitute teacher do something really bad when you were gone?

Share your stories with us in the comments.

We can’t wait to hear from you!