Having asthma is no walk in the park…

But often it means literally “no walking, let alone running, in the park”.

Unfortunately, some PE teachers don’t understand this and tell children to run and do strenuous physical exercise despite their warnings of a possible asthma attack.

This time though, a teacher got a much-needed reality check.

Let’s read the story.

Wanting me to do a long run just because I didn’t bring you proof of asthma like last year? Now we’ll all be late.

This is a story from my primary school.

I had asthma pretty much all my life.

Every year my teachers wanted the same paper even though they knew me, they knew my condition and sometimes had to deal with me having asthma attacks during classes.

Asthma attacks are extremely difficult for the sufferer. But not everyone has empathy.

When I was around 13~14 years old (7th grade in our school system) we had a year focused on running in PE.

Also, the PE teacher was our homeroom teacher.

She knew I had asthma and kept saying that unless I brought her the paper from the doctor (like every year before), I’d have to do the runs.

She knew she had asthma, but kept demanding a paper anyway. Cruel.

My petty revenge came in when we were doing what would be translated as “cross-country running”.

It’s 1500 meters run and even on the best days, that would be hard for me.

So, the class begins, and what was usual that it was a double class, meaning it was 90 minutes.

We started the jogging warmup and the teacher split us into two groups so we can fit on the jogging track.

Her teacher was about to learn a valuable lesson.

And unwisely she put me into the second group.

The first group finished around 55 minutes into the class. Then came time for our group.

To my credit, I tried, but I started hyperventilating in the first 50 meters and had to slow down to a slow walk.

She listened to her body while technically doing what she was told to do.

Since I wasn’t allowed to stop, I walked. Slowly.

I could see the annoyance on her face and it just gave me the serotonin to survive the rest of the day.

Long story short, when I reached the finish line, it was twenty minutes into the next class and nobody was happy about it, but the teacher had her damn time to fill in the table.

And she didn’t ask me for the paper again.

Her teacher needed the reality check.

This could have ended badly.

Let’s see what Redditors have to say about this story.

A reader shares something that happened to their nephew.

Someone shares a story of their own.

Another person who suffers from asthma shares their experience.

Another commenter chimes in.

Yup!

Someone shares how their dad dealt with a similar situation.

If she told her teacher she had asthma, the teacher should check with her parents before letting her run.

Gambling with people’s health can backfire.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.