Was there a time in High School you were sent to the Principal's office? I was not sent. But my name was marked by the faculty as someone "notoriously bad". Maybe, I'm just exaggerating but I vividly remember I heard the Principal, at the mention of my name by her secretary when I was next to see her, "Oh, that Avigail, she's "bad!" Meaning, "I will not sign her High School clearance" as my gateway to College or University. I was in fourth year High School. In section A, pretty much made it to top 5, thankfully. But I was nearly going to lose all that hard work in my graduating class because of what the principal thought about me. I think it was one of those student council days in my youth when I led a group of students to march in to her office to express important issues. I don't remember what they were about. But I was quite outspoken back then. And that did not make our Principal very happy. I did regain my High School Clearance--the last one to get it, though, with much trepidation from the Principal's Office.
I never went to the Principal's office. I do understand your concern for the bad reputation. I have a common name and there was another girl with the same first and last name who was hell on wheels. Often her bad behavior was attached to me, I even got charged for a book that she did not return, I never took the class. It took awhile but we got it straightened out.
I survived the Catholic school system, from 1st grade through high school. Nun of the none's had anything good to say about me. However, in the 6th. grade, our music teacher took pity on me for the way I was being treated by other nuns, and tried to be extra nice to me. I was never sent to the principle's office, not even for the time I set off the fire alarm or the time I locked our janitor in his workshop. Our principle didn't like me either. Once in high school at an assembly, he singled me out as an example and gave me what for in front of the whole school. Those days are over now, thank God.
When I was in first grade I was going back to class and instead of walking on the sidewalk to class I cut through the field. As I was going to the end of the field there was our Principal waiting for me. He looked at me sternly and said I was not to cut across the field and walk on the sidewalks to class the Principal said. I apologized and he looked at me and smiled and sent me back to class. Seeing the Principal doesn't mean you're a bad person. Seeing the Principal only means that they are doing their jobs. Don't worry for in the records it doesn't show that the Principal talked to you.
The elementary school in Wallace, Michigan (closed a few years ago) went from kindergarten through the eighth grade. There was a hill behind the school, probably created from construction fill. Seventh and eighth graders were allowed to go on the hill during the dinner break, but we were not supposed to go over the hill, to a point where we couldn't be seen. To prevent all of the students being out at the same time, the lunch break was staggered by fifteen minutes. The seventh graders would be dismissed for lunch fifteen minutes before the eighth graders and, of course, have to go back to class fifteen minutes before the eighth graders. For a half hour we were both at lunch at the same time, so we had wars on the hill, and this generally meant going over the hill from time to time. The hill was covered by sumac trees, which were the size of bushes. The thing about sumacs, however, is that they are very resilient, so when you bend them over they spring back into place with quite a lot of force. One day when I was in seventh grade, a few of us snuck behind the hill while the others covered for us. In the first fifteen minutes, we stripped several of the sumac trees, leaving two notched branches at the top. We gathered several sticks that were about foot long to use as ammunition. Then when the seniors began ascending the hill, we bent the sumacs over, placed the branches over the notch and let them fly. They acted like slingshots. That gave us a good start in the battle but we ended up getting beaten up a little. That's not what I got sent to the principal's office for, however. We tried it again the next day but myself and a couple of my cousins wrote welcome messages for the seniors on rocks, using crayons or something, I don't remember which. They were not altogether complimentary messages and, as it turned out, they were not considered acceptable language. Later that afternoon, we were called into the principal's office. The district superintendent, whom we almost never saw, was there as well. I don't remember what was said but before it was over, they had us believing that we had a mark on our permanent record, and that we would never be able to get a government job.
@Ike Willis, like you, I was also schooled in a Catholic educational system. My elementary and high school years were all in Saint Anne's Academy, a school run by nuns. For college, I took up Industrial Engineering course in University of Santo Tomas which is run by priests. You can guess that I am a very disciplined person when it comes to the classroom so I never had that problem of being summoned into the principal's office. My high school chum is the opposite. She is a daring person and I was shaking when she lit a cigarette inside the school campus one afternoon after classes. And she did that stunt just for kicks. From what I remember, she was almost expelled from school because of misdemeanor of all kinds. Fortunately, she was able to graduate with us.
When I was fifteen, I was accused of stealing a pen. By whom, I have no idea, but it was clearly someone that didn't like me. The headmaster of my school hauled me of to his office and I was interrogated. I told him, quite truthfully, that my sister had given me the pen (it was a fountain pen of a quite unusual shape and design). It was obvious that he didn't believe me and he confiscated the pen. That evening, I asked my sister to write a note to say that she had indeed given me the pen. I took it to the headmaster and his attitude was that anyone could have written the note. We were at an impasse. Neither of us had enough evidence. The whole thing went on for about a week and suddenly he called me in, gave me the pen and told me to go. No explanation, no apology. I knew better than to start a debate. I'm still none the wiser fifty years later.
I share with @Ike Willis and @Corie Henson a former religious education, but thankfully my days under the "mercy" of nuns were over within few months after starting my elementary school. I guess those nuns were probably members of mob gang rather than a religious congregation because while I don't remember this fact, my parents said they used to ask money on a weekly basis to give us candy and other stuff I never received from them, on the contrary, I remember those nuns being cruel and intolerant not just with me but all children. Fortunately my granny realized about those facts and pushed my parents to take me out of there, going then to a regular federal school where I had no issues until age 13-14 when I turned in to frequent visitor to the principal's office. I have shared with you (in other threads) two facts that characterized when I was that young; being unable to put my portable radio away, and being a hard-die Creedence Clearwater Revival fan, so most of those visits to the principal's were to receive a reprimand for listening to the radio at classroom, or for being caught browsing my CCR scrapbook rather than my history book. One of those days, the principal appeared in the classroom and caught me folding a CCR poster that he quickly broke into a thousand pieces to make me understand we were studying, not having fun. However I used to study and had good notes, the CCR-fact was just an "add-on" hahaha Even though, I was also required at the principal's office for not wearing the school uniform (I used to change clothes in the restroom) or for carrying a Swiss knife (my dad's) that sometimes used to menace my classmates for bullying me because, yeah, bullying has always existed and I hate those campaigns of today "victimizing" the victims (pun intended) to do something about, when there was nobody who cared for us, the victims of yesterday, but that's another story. Here is simply accounting some of my many visits to the principal's office
Gee, @Carlota Clemens, you remind me of my high school chum who is a renegade of sorts. I remember one time she drew a sketch of the guidance counsellor who is a nun. The drawing was a nun with a tobacco in her mouth holding a machine gun. That signifies the character of the guidance counsellor who acts like a truant officer, always observing the students. But in fairness to my high school, she is good inside the classroom and she regularly participates in the recitation hour. Coincidentally, my high school chum posted a photo on Facebook yesterday. That's me in the middle and my high school chum is on the right. That's a souvenir shot during our high school days.
Corie, I like it that you posted a photo with your message on here. I have enjoyed reading everyone's experiences in school. I too was sent to the principal's office a few times. Usually, with another girl that I was spending too much time talking to instead of doing my work. I used to get extremely bored in class and wound up spending time passing notes to my best friend, whoever that was in whatever school I was in at the time. I never was spanked or even frightened by a principal, just had to sit there and listen to a good talking too. I did skip school some in the 7th and 8th grade but was never caught. A friend and I would go for a walk in the hills around our small country town outside of the state capital of Oregon. I'd usually go buy a few candy bars or cupcakes and enjoy a nice sunny spring afternoon. That's where I first developed my love of walking through old cemeteries and reading the headstones.
I was never sent to the principal's office. In High School we had a place outside on the school campus where students would go to smoke cigarettes. It was called "The Wall". This was a very popular place, as it was considered 'cool' if you smoked. It wasn't allowed, but... you could see any number of kids standing around chatting and lighting up. If you were caught, it was an automatic given that the principal's office is where you'd go and get a lecture about missing classes and smoking. You can see the wall in the bottom right side of this picture: I do recall a long time ago when I was in first grade, the art teacher rapped my fingers with her ruler because I was drawing outside the lines. I started drawing when I was four years old, and when I started school, I had my own ideas about what was art!
That's a pretty school. Your art teacher was horrible! A lot of art teachers are because they don't realize what art really is.
How true! When I was 10 years old I was invited to attend Saturday Art Classes at Carnegie Mellon University to study. I went to classes there until I graduated high school. In high school, I was one of the artists who worked on our high school yearbook. Then, after high school, I went to Moore College of Art to study more.
Looks like exciting years of life in your days . Today's 21st century sicko-resentment, victim-pandering culture should get a life and work harder and be positive contributors to the economy. Sorry, got carried away.: -D