Unfiltered Story #352823
My high school was small enough that we all knew most of the substitute teachers that came in when are regular teachers were sick, etc. pretty well. It was rare to have someone we didn’t know, often also knowing them from outside of school.
My junior year, our homeroom teacher became suddenly ill and I guess none of the regular substitutes were available, so they brought in a woman from the next town over. She seemed nice enough, early 30’s, smartly dressed. You would think she knew what she was doing.
This was also at the time when more of us were starting to get cell phones, and a few of my classmates still had pagers/beepers. The school didn’t have a clear policy on them yet, but they were “discouraged”.
There was a girl in our class, she was the nicest person you could ever meet. She also happened to be diabetic and wore a pump attached to her hip. Admittedly, I suppose those pumps could be mistaken for pagers from a distance, but once you got up close it clearly was not a pager.
Our first morning with the unfamiliar sub, the girl’s T-shirt rides up and the sub spots the brightly colored pump on her hip.
Substitute: *instantly goes from calm to furious* YOU! There NO PAGERS allowed in school!
Girl: Um…it’s not a pager. It’s my insulin pump. I’m diabetic.
Substitute: Don’t lie to me! There’s no such thing as an insulin pump that small! They’re huge! Now hand that pager over!
We all stare for a second, because we’ve had subs in the past ask about her pump and then quickly apologize for thinking it was something else. But never anything like this.
Girl: *on the verge of tears from being screamed at* I swear, it’s my insulin pump. You can call the principal’s office and double check with them.
We all start nodded and agreeing with her, which makes the sub even more upset.
Substitute: You will NOT disrespect me! Now hand it over! *she lunges forward and tries to RIP THE PUMP from the girl’s waistband*
Thankfully, two boys in our class jumped in front of the girl before the sub could rip her pump off and blocked her. Another girl closest to the door took off for the principal’s office.
It wasn’t long before half the administrative staff came running into the room to find the sub screaming in the boys’ faces for protecting the girl, who was practically sobbing by now.
The principal took control of the situation, got the sub out of the room, and had the girl sent to the nurse’s office to make sure she was okay. We found out later that the sub had somehow been thinking of a DIALYSIS MACHINE when the girl said ‘insulin pump’. But still, her reaction was totally uncalled for. We never saw that particular substitute again at our school.
