Unfiltered Story #298985

My mother is Catholic and sent me to private Catholic schools all the way up until I graduated from high school. Naturally, being in more religion-centered environments meant that I had plenty of experiences with those on the more extremist side of the faith. It’s also important to note that I am, and always have been, a very quiet and anxious person and I cry very easily when a raised voice is directed at me for pretty much any reason.

Back in middle school, there was one girl in my grade that was consistently picked on (I have since learned from her that she had undiagnosed ADHD that her ultra-conservative parents continue to refuse to acknowledge). On this particular day, someone stole something that I can no longer remember from her and our teacher is going around “interviewing” everyone to get the thief to fess up and return it. Eventually, it’s my turn:

Teacher: “[My Name], did you take [Girl]’s [item]?”

Me: “No, it wasn’t me, I swear.”

Suddenly, my teacher’s face turns red and she gets visibly angry.

Teacher: “Excuse me!? You can’t say that, [My Name]!”

Me: *Starting to tear up* “I-I just said it wasn’t me?”

Teacher: “No! You said ‘I swear’ and we all know that the ‘to God’ is implied! We just went over the Ten Commandments, you should know better than to take the Lord’s name in vain!”

Me: “I’m-I’m sorry?”

Teacher: “You should be, go sit down!”

Thankfully, I didn’t get into “actual” trouble for this but I did spend several minutes at my desk trying not to audibly sob and basically didn’t speak again that day. I never had another issue like that with that teacher but it definitely made me avoid her as much as I could until I left for high school. I’m pretty sure this was the first major event that really made me start moving away from Christianity and I can’t say I miss it.