[Intro Music: Cheerful Clown Show]
[School Bell Ring]
High school, the so-called golden years. Some swear it will be the best time of your life, while others beg to differ. But it undeniably marks a crucial phase in someone’s coming-of-age story. From getting your license, to diving into your first real relationship, to dressing up for prom to tossing off your cap at graduation – all of these moments make you feel like you’re one step closer to adulting.
Despite these defining moments, there are certain incidents from high school that lurk in the obscure corners of our brains. Curious to unearth some of these weird stories, I reached out to a few college students to see what memories they’ve tucked away.
Grad student Anthony Watts went to high school in the Chicago suburb area. He experienced a wild situation his freshman year of high school, to say the least.
ANTHONY WATTS: I was on my way to school, and I had dropped my sister off. And I was going in my cafeteria with a couple of my teammates. And randomly out of nowhere, a deer ran into the cafeteria and broke the glass doors in the entrance, and there was about like 40 or 50 of us in this cafeteria, because we had a late start. Teachers tried to keep it safe, but the deer just ran away, probably was just scared that they saw other people and I just was at a loss of words. And that glass door had been broken for like the whole semester. And we still talk about it to this day, it was a crazy thing that at eight in the morning, you’re just you just don’t expect the deer running in as you’re eating breakfast, so
Having random wildlife animals trying to join the student body isn’t an anomaly to Anthony or even to schools within the Midwest. Sophomore Rhema Phiri has a similar experience, but this time with an animal from the Lion King.
RHEMA PHIRI: I went to boarding school in Lilongwe, which is a city in Malawi. And I was in form three when the story happened. So because I went to boarding school in the evenings, they would make us go back to the classroom area to do prep for like two hours, three hours just to study and get us locked in. This one time my friend and I were, and everybody had already left the classroom area. So we’re walking back and we’re the only ones outside at this point. And on one of the football fields, we saw hyenas and the football field where the hyenas were was the area that we had to pass by to get to our dorms, so we had to find a way through the twist and corners in the backwoods to be able to get back safely and did.
My school was no stranger to random wildlife sightings on or around school grounds. Ranging from geese to coyotes. These visits were most likely prompted by the scent of food. But maybe if I went to Sophomore Nicole Moshi’s high school that wouldn’t have been a problem.
NICOLE MOSHI: But, I remember my freshman year, my biology teacher, me and my friend were able to tell if it was her who was teaching or the student teacher based on the horrid smell of this teacher’s lunch. She got these like frozen meals. I don’t know if she wasn’t aware or just didn’t care, but it was just so bad and whenever she would finish eating them instead of like at least throwing it in the garbage or something, she would just leave it out in the middle of the front of the classroom. And I really hope she learned how to cook after all these years because those were horrible. So bad.
While this teacher’s lunch had a particular scent to it, some teachers would strictly enforce a no-food policy. But what is high school without at least one person in the administration who is a stickler for the rules? While attending a high school in Michigan, DeAhnna Brown observed firsthand the extent to which her vice principal adhered to the rules.
DEAHNNA BROWN: A weird story from high school that I can recall was our teachers and our Vice Principal as well as principal being very strict on the girls school skirts. For reference, I went to a Catholic school so you know, image was everything. And at first, I thought this was just like every single school was super strict and uniform. But I later came to Northwestern and realized that I think my school was just oddly strict about it. Everyone had a habit of rolling up their skirt and they just didn’t get it hemmed or sewed and decided to like fit it properly, so they would just roll it up. And our vice principal who was a male had a really big problem with it. Like he made it apparent. He always talked about it. And it got to the point where he literally would walk around with a ruler and he would put it next to your leg if he thought it was too short. I remember one time he called us all down to the chapel. And he was saying that our skirts are ‘giving strip club.’ I remember one time we had a spirit day it was like country versus country club and almost every girl in the school was sent home it was insane. Like it was pretty much all boys the entire day.
I think almost everyone who had a dress code in high school may have a similar story from their time there. But some principals are a bit too busy dealing with stuff from their personal lives to care about skirt length. Lynette Lim’s principle certainly did.
LYNETTE LIM: There was a rumor that my principal was with a teacher. And it wasn’t clarified until that teacher’s ex spread the screenshots of evidence, or their receipts saying that they were together. And it was around the same time that the principal was exposed for doing substances. And eventually, once those both caught around, someone changed my high school’s name on Apple Maps to ‘My Principal’s Pothole.’
Student creativity at its finest. However, when it comes to conveying preventative messages to high schoolers,, in the pursuit of creativity, some approaches can take rather unconventional turns. Senior Brendley Nathanial found herself at the center of such an unusual experience during her time in high school.
BRENDLEY NATHANIEL: My high school had this thing, where on the day or like the Friday before prom because I think prom was on a Saturday night, they would have a huge, like mom’s against drunk driving, I guess MAD put on a huge thing across the district. Basically, when you got to school, there was this huge car wreck thing where it just looked like a car had been run into a big bale of hay, which although I’m from Kentucky, they were not hay bales in front of my high school. But then when you walked in, there’s like a don’t drink and drive thing. And then throughout the day, there would be a grim reaper that would come into classes, and just take students away. And then those students would not be in classes the rest of the day, and then at the end of the day, there was a huge assembly or something for juniors and seniors. And it was the craziest thing.
Crazy indeed. On the bright side, Nathaniel only had to deal with this weird incident once. And I believe almost everyone who went to high school probably has a story they could tell that mirrors the others mentioned. Or if you’re like Jimmy Oñate then you have a bunch of strange incidents to share.
JIMMY OÑATE: I’ve had some interesting experiences throughout my four years of high school. Overall, I think my school went on lockdown at least five times. I remember one of them was because there was a gas leak from the train that like derailed close by and we had to stay indoors just in case we didn’t breathe any toxic chemicals.
Another reason his school went on lockdown was because –
JIMMY OÑATE: There was a student that was seen throwing like some sort of like electronic like battery like device into the trash. And I guess someone reported it. And so then shortly after my school, the whole school went on lockdown for like two-three hours. Then they discovered it was just like one of the like robotics kids. He was just fiddling with some like battery and he just threw it away. I think the most infamous lock down story that I remember was I believe it was my junior year right before COVID. It was early morning, it was like first period. I was in Spanish class and all of a sudden that, you know, the intercom comes on stating that we’re going to be on lockdown for I don’t know how long, just like locked doors. Were like, ‘Okay, this is strange,’ but we just continued the lesson. We were kinda unphased at this point. But it was like past first period, and they still haven’t said anything. Or they kept saying that, like, we’re still on lockdown. So I was like, ‘Okay, we’re all like, okay, guess were’re stuck in Spanish class.’ I think it was until like, third period, or the time that third period starts when they finally announced that we were able to leave and go to our next class.
So what exactly happened that lead to an almost three hour lockdown?
JIMMY OÑATE: There was like a homeless man that somehow got into our school. Which is strange, too, because even for me, it’s hard to get into school because there’s so many installed like gates, like surrounding the whole campus with like, very few entrances. And with those entrances, they also like they locked the gates after the first period, bell rang, rang or rings. Apparently, he stated that this homeless man stated that he did this because he wanted to test the security of our school, which of course, was a massive failure. At the end of the day, it’s like another story that we tell. So it was just you know, Florida vibes.
And there you have it: a whirlwind of high school tales that range from the bizarre to the downright unforgettable, each one hiding in the obscure corners of our memories. So here’s to the wild, wacky, and weird world of high school – thank God that’s behind me – and hopefully you too now.
For WNUR News, I’m Karrah Toatley
[Outro Music: Cheerful Clown Show]
Royalty Free Music from Tunetank.com
Track: Cheerful Clown Show by Rage Sound
https://tunetank.com/track/5427-cheerful-clown-show/
