We recently posted a question on the Education Week Teacher Twitter account that had teachers telling us some wacky classroom stories.
Teachers, what’s the craziest thing you ever had to confiscate from a student?
Let us know in the comments below! #EdChat #replytweet
— EdWeek Teacher (@EdWeekTeacher) November 11, 2019
The post asked teachers to tell us about the craziest thing they ever had to confiscate from a student—and teachers were ready to share.
Some teachers had to confiscate technology from students who tried to pull one over on them using decoys and fakes.
Not one, not TWO, but THREE decoy smartphones...so he could keep snap chatting his pals under the desk
— Alexa Kilroy (@AlexaKilroy) November 12, 2019
A pair of headphones, but wait... It was an old pair of Apple earbuds that he had cut the wires off of so they would look like AirPods. He refused to give them to me until I said, “Give me your AirPods,” instead of “Give me your earbuds.” He stored them in a dental floss box lol
— Vince Moore, PhD (@MooreEducation) November 12, 2019
Others had to handle more “lively” items.
A live bird was taken off one of our year 11 students who had hidden it in order to collect it and take it home after school! 🤣
— Charlotte Danaher (@CharlotteWatk18) November 12, 2019
A worm
— Christen Anderson (@TeacherChristen) November 13, 2019
A (real) shark in a jar
— Yolanda Stockdale (@stockdalestyle) November 12, 2019
One student was carrying something a little less alive.
A skull
— Beth Sullivan (@bsullivanedpro) November 12, 2019
Some teachers ran into safety issues caused by some of their more creative students.
An bullwhip.
— Robin Pulido (@rpulido721) November 11, 2019
A meat grinder
— KD (@kd_parman) November 11, 2019
Just last week pic.twitter.com/6p4hO6IXUG
— Porsche Sims (@portiateach) November 11, 2019
Handcuffs. From a 3rd grader. 2 weeks ago.
— Melissa Bennett (@melissa_bennett) November 11, 2019
An air pods charger, because he was challenging other students to touch the exposed copper...
— Bren Vitter (@bren014v) November 14, 2019
I once confiscated a cigarillo and two firecrackers that a 9th-grader had place on his desk.
— James Dittes (@Father_Ahab) November 11, 2019
A homemade taser.
— Ashley Hanlon (@HanlonVTed) November 11, 2019
While the decision to confiscate items was often cut and dried, in some cases, teachers had to make more difficult choices.
Twitter user @NancyBarile decided not to take one of the stranger items she found on a high school student.
One time one of my high school students had a chicken wing in his pocket. I didn’t confiscate though. I said carry on.
— Nancy Barile, NBCT (@NancyBarile) November 11, 2019
Another teacher shared a story about food that some will find truly surprising.
A friend of mine (who is now a principal) once had a freshman student get a pizza delivered from Domino’s in the middle of his geography class. @kylewiskow
— Vince Moore, PhD (@MooreEducation) November 12, 2019