Everthing my school did that I had a problem with

This is an informal blog (more of a list/rant per se) about everything that my secondary school did that annoyed me/I'm still mad about to this day/I wasn't particularly angry about but I was annoyed by. Idk how long this is gonna be but I'm assuming quite long because of the amount of bs I had to put up with in my 5 years there. I'm also probably going to make multiple parts because there's so much lol

1. The bus situation

So my secondary school had two single story buses for the entire school. As you can tell. this would obviously create problems for a school with 1,000+ students across all the year groups. And for comparison, all the other schools in the area had at least 3+ buses that were all double decker. To combat this problem, instead of just getting more school buses, my school implemented this dumbass 'bus pass' system where you could only ride the bus if you lived outside the town. This is ridiculous for a number of reasons. 

1: The town isn't that small and it could take up to an hour on foot just to walk to the other side from the school. It makes no sense that someone who lives on the very edge of the town cannot get the bus but someone at the very start of the next town can when they're right next to each other and are basically the same distance away, if that makes sense

2: My town is NOT safe lol. I think it's a bit of a silly idea to send an 11 year old year 7 walking all the way to the other side of town just because 'thErE's nO RoOm oN thE bus' when that could easily be fixed by GETTING ANOTHER BUS !!!! LMAO

Now I wasn't really that bothered by this at first, I just thought it was a bit silly but I walked home anyway so it didn't really affect me. That was until they didn't let a girl on the bus who had crutches because she lived in town, so she had to walk all the way home !! She lived on the other side of town btw... I'm sorry but it's difficult enough to walk around school in crutches, nevermind walk for over half an hour to an hour. How about instead of spending money on random tv screens around the school that just play the school's youtube videos all day, blocks of texts about how we should eat vegan burgers instead of meat burgers, and expensive high quality cameras to record results day 🥴🥴, we just GET ONE MORE BUS !

2. Toilets

This may come as no surprise to anyone but my secondary school was ridiculous with toilets. I could honestly have just written a blog alone about how they treated toilets, but I'll try and sum up some of the worst things.

1. I noticed something especially in my final year which I couldn't really confirm so i just felt like James Doakes from Dexter the whole time, but the girl's toilets would ALWAYS have something wrong with them, whether they were inaccessible or most of the doors were broken or there was no soap or water or hand dryer etc. And it wasn't just all of the student girl's toilets, it was also the all the staff ones too ! I'd walk past the staff girl's toilets and they would ALL have signs on them that said out of order all the time, but the men's ones were completely fine 24/7 ? So I don't exactly know how female teachers used the toilets. Also, on the point of student girl's toilets, a lot of the stalls would just not have doors on them, or the locks would be completely destroyed. Now you could say that students broke these doors, but how on earth would a student completely dismantle the door off its hinges ? So out of the roughly 8 toilets in each bathroom, only 2-4 would be available each time, and they'd never fix them. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but something's off here.... I fully believed that the school was doing this on purpose, because the boy's toilet stall doors would never be completely removed or broken. (If you're wondering how I know this, none of the bathrooms had doors on them so you could literally just walk past and see all the stalls, which is another thing...) And there was also a much bigger focus on trying to restrict girls from using the toilets than boys, which I'll get to in a sec.

There was also this thing where the hand dryer in the girl's toilets for the cafeteria would ALWAYS be broken and they'd never be bothered to fix it, which was strange seeing as when the one in the boy's broke, it was fixed the next day ? And when the girls' handmdryer did get fixed, it would immediately be broken the next day ! Now what temu ass hand dryers do they have that break from people just using the motherfuckers ? The exact same thing with the soap dispenser in the same bathroom, so we had to just wash our hands with water. Which, considering how dirty that school is, is quite a health and safety hazard if you're about to eat your lunch and have something like a sandwhich that you have to hold with your bare hands. Again, probably done on purpose by the school but I got no evidence so....

2. The obsessive behaviour about girls taking a leak was definitely an annoyance and really suspicious. tell me why there would be about 9 staff members stood in a barricade in front of ONLY the girl's toilets, turning away anyone who tried to go in, but boys could go to the toilet completely fine ? This went for the toilets in the other building too, which had the same ridiculous amount of staff members guarding them while the boy's, again, had no one there. Additionally, whenever we were given a mind numbingly boring assembly about how too many people go to the toilets in lessons, the focus would always be around the girl's going and how they go sooooo much and how 10 girls keep standing in one stall (which is a huge hyperbole), instead of bringing up all the wet toilet paper stuck to the ceiling in the boy's toilets, or the sheer amount of boys going to the toilet too, which imo was actually a lot more than the girls ? Idk about other classes, but every class I was in boys would ask to go about x10 more than girls. Also, there is a thing called a period which girls have which, ya know, you can't really stop ! Use your brain for a second to think why girls could be going so often..

This is also kind of off topic but is still relating to toileting, but one time in year 9 I went to the cafeteria toilets and, obviously my skirt was rolled up because I didn't really fancy looking like I had a train skirt on because they were so long. Well this one teacher (who I WILL be dedicating an entire section to later on) must have seen me going in with it rolled up because when I had done my business and was leaving the stall the bitch was waiting outside the stall for me to ambush me and log me on her pathetic little ipad for a uniform violation !! I repeat, the mf was stood outside a toilet stall listening to a teenage girl having a wee because she was so affected by the length of her skirt !!!!!! Does this not seem insane to anyone else ?

3. Yes, that's right, ANOTHER point about toilets. It never ends does it ? Another thing they'd do is completely shut the toilets in certain buildings which, mind you, we actually were allowed to be in during break and lunch, so it's beyond me why they wouldn't let us in. By shutting them, I mean have a member of staff stand in the doorway guarding them (a classic). So you can't even really use the excuse that 'the toilets are unsupervised during break and lunch so we shut them' because clearly you have enough staff to supervise them if you can get someone to stand there for the whole of break and lunch just to not let people in 🥴 What is this chop logic. 

4. And ANOTHER thing, when it was break and lunch, if you needed the toilet then you could go to the cafeteria toilets (which we've already established the problems about). But what they would do is take 10-15 minutes to actually open them, so if you wanted to actually get a chance to go in (because they would immediately become chock-a-block), you'd have to queue for what seemed like forever waiting for them to just open the fucking toilets. One time I was doing this because I had just started my period and it was quite the dire situation because if I didn't get in the toilets THEN and THERE then I'd probably leak everywhere. Well they only took about 20 minutes to open the toilets, while I had to stand in my own blood ! Another flaw with this is that it then leaves no time for anyone to get any lunch, because firstly you have to run to the queue like a concert mosh-pit so you get first dibs on having a wee. If you're lucky, you get to the front of the queue and get into the toilets first. If you're unlucky and about 99% of the rest of the school population, you'd have to stand queuing for ages waiting for people to hurry up and piss because there were only 4 stalls in that bathroom for the whole year group. And you wouldn't even be able to go and use the other toilets, because the ones in U block are also chock-a-block and most don't have stall doors, and you can't even get into L block without a pass, and even then the toilets are being guarded !

5. This is more of a minor one but it actually kind of pisses me off even more than the other ones because it was 100% unnecessary and felt like they just did it to do it, but they got rid of all the mirrors in all the bathrooms ? Bitch, why ? Like they genuinely couldn't even give us a reason for it apart from 'people were looking at their reflections to much.' I'm sorry, have you never used a mirror before ? Why would you install them in the first place if you're going to get annoyed that students are, oh no... using them !! Also this just leads to an increase in students just bringing their own mirrors which then leads to them looking at their reflection in class instead and being distracted. Also, this made me think, what if a girl in a hijab needed to fix it because she had hair showing or some other reason, but she can't see what she's doing because there are no mirrors ? Talk about an inclusive environment.....

6. Then, they started introducing toilet passes where you could only go in lesson if you had a medical condition. At first, they were giving students temporary passes if they were on their period, but then they stopped doing this ?? Mf why ?? Idrk what else to say on that note apart from just let people go to the toilet lmao

Anyway the toilet section is getting way too long now so let's move onto the next one:

3. Pedophiles :)

I'm not even just saying that a lot of the male teachers were pedophiles in an 'ew he's got a weird vibe' way. I'm saying this because they were. Here are a few instances:

1. The headteacher apparently pulling down a girl's skirt with his hands because she refused to roll it down. This was just a rumour at first that I heard in year 7 (what a way to make a first impression, eh ?) but apparently it was circulating with parents too because when I told my mum she apparently already knew because she had seen on Facebook. So yeah, not a very good sign if it's reaching everyone and their mother (literally !). Not only that but he would do this thing where he would stand at the bottom of the stairs for going up in U block (we had a staircase for going up and a staircase for going down, bs one way system, I probably don't even need to elaborate), and I'm not going to lie, if you look up you actually will be flashed because of how the stairs are built. I'm not saying this because I'm a creep that was looking up girls' skirts on purpose, I'm saying this because multiple times I have just simply looked up and unfortunately been flashed. 

For reference the stairs were the 'double L-shaped stairs', but they were quite steep, idk how to explain. ANYWAY, my point is that he would stand at the very bottom of the stairs constantly staring straight up. Can you see where I'm going with this ? Very suspicious. Considering he'd also hang out outside the girl's toilets and had allegations of pulling down girls' mf skirts down, I don't really think it's too far fetched to suggest this....

^ how he would be looking up

2. We actually had a convicted pedophile who was fired not really that long before I joined, and i would have multiple teachers try to defend him in lesson. Basically, I don't even know what he taught, but this teacher was caught messaging one of the students personally, whether it was sexual or not, it's still pedophilia. Let's get one thing straight, it is illegal to personally message students as a figure of authority. Infact, I just looked up the article again and it said the relationship was 'sexually motivated', so that pretty much tells you all you need to know. To this day, he's still in the school's youtube videos and they haven't been deleted. And what's beyond me is how teachers were defending him to classes saying 'it wasn't sexual they were just talking !!@!@!' when A, that's still illegal and B, it was sexual !!! 

Okay so I just read through the article and I'm just going to copy and paste this paragraph which tells us what was going on:

he had kissed one of the girls, met or arranged to meet her outside school, exchanged e-mail messages with her and had a meal at her house.

So it makes it even more indefensible !! The proof's in the pudding !

3. Another male teacher, this time maths, had apparently been in a full blown relationship with a student in the 90s, according to the mother of a student in my year. I actually find this easy to believe because the mf is a weirdo lol. This is just a rumour though and I don't really think a lot of people know about it, so I'm not gonna say too much and just go off of weird vibes alone, buuuut....

4. The dreaded teacher

Now the part you've all been waiting for ! (Probably not): The teacher I mentioned before that waited outside of my toilet stall for me to tell me to roll my skirt down ! 

1. She would have these weird favouritism/grooming-esque relationships with students in my year particularly popular girls. I say grooming-esque because it wasn't full blown sexual relationships, but something weird was definitely going on. For the rest of us students, we hated her because she had such a superiority complex and was constantly on a power trip finding any way to scream at us for minor things. For example, the uniform changed for our school in year 8, going from green ties from year 7 - year 10 and a red tie in year 11 to different colours for each year group. Now because I'm not made of fucking money, I couldn't get the tie yet (because it also included a new skirt, and later new jumpers with the year group colour on the neckline), so I had to just wear the old tie until we had the money. Well apparently, this teacher just doesn't like poor people because I got screamed at as soon as I entered the school even after providing an explanation, and I had to hand over my phone for the day to trade for a temporary tie. I'm sorry but have you ever heard such bullshit in your life ? Like actually ? This was just one of the many things that she did to students that weren't popular. 

However, in juxtaposition, she would form these weirdly close relationships with popular girls and be incredibly nice to them and have, imo, really unprofessional convos with them like she was friends with them. I don't know if she forgot that shes a mandated reporter or what, but when she left in year 9 the girl's she had this weird relationship with were in FLOODS of tears SOBBING, as if they were dependent on her or something ! I'm sorry, but you shouldn't be having such an intense reaction to a teacher leaving unless they saved u from drowning or an abusive household or something, which I can assure you she never did. It was almost as if she was trying to make them feel special or something because she wouldn't tell them off.

Also, I think it's incredibly unprofessional to pick and choose which students you want to have a problem with. For example, she was weirdly nice to my friend for some reason. When my friend came in with long practically stiletto nails this bitch said 'I'll let you off because I like your nails and they don't look very unnatural' which was a fat fucking lie if I ever heard one. I'm sorry, but you'll let a student break a rule that you're adamant about for other students as long as it's your taste ? Weirdo. I actually think it had something to do with our appearances though, because my friend is quite petite, a lot shorter and skinnier than me, and she does look quite a bit younger than she does, meanwhile when i walk next to her I look like a giant in comparison. Considering she was about 4'11 and I was about 5'5/5'6, and also notably chubbier than her, I feel like the teacher picked my friend because of her childlike appearance seeing as we act pretty much the same way and wore the same things and broke the same uniform rules as each other, so I don't really know any other potential reasons.

I have a whole list of things she'd nitpick me for actually:

-Claw clip on my blazer

-Claw clip on my bag strap

-Deep red shoelaces (my black ones had been mauled, thanks a lot, Kickers ¬_¬)

-Skirt rolled (it actually was NOT rolled this time, this was in year 7 with the old skirts which were significantly shorter and I just had long legs, I'm sure I was already about 5'5/5'6 in year 7, of course my friend would have hers rolled up but she'd never be pulled for it because she has shorter legs and so it didn't appear as that noticeable)

-Having badges on my blazer (the same friend had about 30 badges on her blazer which were band badges and pride badges and of course she never got pulled for it but when I had 3 it was an issue)

-Wearing a headband (she waited until the beginning of year 8 to tell me that the headband I had been wearing since the beginning of year 7 was not allowed because it was a 'bandana' (it wasn't, it was a headband you silly bitch))

-Wearing a black jacket because it wasn't a coat and apparently hoodies had been banned (they hadn't, wore one until the end of year 11 and never got pulled ever again)

-Not me but she screamed at my other friend for having drawings on her hand (I still don't know the reasoning)

Ironically I never got pulled for uniform ever again after she left (including when I came in with bright pink, purple and red hair on multiple occasions) so maybe she was just trying to get promoted or something...

Anyway, I've already been writing this blog for ages so I'm gonna end it there. I definitely will be doing at least one more blog about this because I have way more to say lol. If you have any ridiculous or similar stories that happened at your school I'd be very interested to hear lol