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When you are a student in school, it is usually best to do what teachers tell you, but sometimes the teacher doesn’t understand the full situation.

What would you do if you were pulled from class to set up the sound systems for an event taking place that evening, but one teacher who didn’t know this told you to return to your normal class? And, when you tried to explain that you were supposed to be doing this, he slapped you and called you a liar?

That is what happened to the student in this story, so he returned to his normal class, which meant the sound didn’t get hooked up. The teacher in charge of the event finally tracked him down and pulled him back out of class, which let him finish setting things up just in time.

It is good that everything worked out in the end, but I sure hope that bad teacher learned his lesson. Read through all the details of the story to see if you think he did.

Go to my class… Ok Sir

So, I went to one of the government schools in Sri Lanka. In 2015, I joined my school media unit as a sound engineer.

Sound engineering classes sound interesting.

At first I was the only sound engineer and we didn’t had a separate club for it. So, after a year I gathered my friends and started a radio club as a sub club to the main media circle, which then we also managed to conduct an annual radio broadcast of my school after more 10 years of it last being conducted.

To be honest the first one is a mess, but I gained lot of popularity in the school for this and my sound engineering services. A perk of being a member of my school media unit is that you get a break lot of rules officially.

These are some nice perks.

Bring your phone and laptop to school, missing periods, staying overnight at school and coming to school in appropriate colour clothing.

(For example, in Sri Lanka, government school students have to wear specific white clothes to school and it is prohibited to bring electronic items to school. We also had to have a appropriate haircut and have to clean shave our beards when they started to grow.)

Other students were jealous.

To be honest I actually liked breaking those rules since I got this official pass as a media unit member. In my senior year my class mates hated me for this as by that time I didn’t even go to the class.

I also encountered many incidents in those years but I am going to share this specific incident with this story.

Getting hired to do this event would be a great experience.

So, this happened in 2018, and by that time I was well recognised as a senior member of media unit and I was also the president of the radio club. That means I got to skip classes all the time and for this some of teachers hated me.

So, each year our school’s sinhala literature club organize an event called Sinhala Day. The event usually held on school auditorium and if the organizers didn’t hire external sound services they have to get us, my club to manage sounds for the event.

He seems to be in charge of the whole operation.

As usual, I got called by our teacher in charge to inform me about this club giving the radio club to manage the sounds for their event. As by this time I also had a trained junior batch in the club.

So, for rehearsals I assigned them to manage the sounds while I and few of my friends decided to manage sounds on the event day as it is a big responsibility.

Ok, this all makes sense so far.

But there was a media competition in another school on the same day, so my friends had to go to that competition in the morning, meaning that I have to work alone until they come back from the event. So, rehearsal happened without any incidents and the day came for the official event.

There is a rule in our school to only host these kind of events after school hours. This is mostly because the sound of the event can bother ongoing classes. This means they also have time to do a final rehearsal in the school hours.

The event group isn’t quite ready.

Usually students of the club who are organizing the event stays overnight the day for the event to set the stage and decos. And us, the radio club comes around the morning to arrange the sound setup. Usually while we are arranging the stuff, final rehearsals also goes on.

So, on the event day I had to set the sound in the morning. But, when I went to the auditorium in the morning the stage is still being setup by the organizers, so I informed their president to send a message to me once they are done.

I can see why this would be frustrating.

It usually take 2 to 3 hours to arrange the sound setup and balance sounds, so I told them to finish this up at least 4 hours before school ends (We have 8 hours of school). Literature Club president agreed and apologized for the delay. I said it’s fine and went to media room.

They somehow took more than 5 hours to complete the decorations. When they send the message to me I was almost angry because this means I have to arrange all the stuff by myself within less than 3 hours because they will also do final rehearsals. But I didn’t show it to them, I just went to the auditorium and started to arrange the audio setup.

Some teachers are just mean.

Now I forgot to mention about the teacher in charge of this literature club. He teaches Sinhala for Junior classes and well known for his terrible attitude. He easily gets angry and well known for punishing his students even for small stuff.

So, while I was arranging sounds, this teacher came in to the auditorium. Usually when these types of events happen, some kids who are not involved comes and stay in the backside of the auditorium to skip classes. So, when the teacher came in, he saw these kids in the back and went to chase them away.

He isn’t doing anything wrong.

I didn’t care much as I am on official duty in here. So, I continued on my work. After the teacher in charge chased the kids off, he turned to the front of the auditorium to see me just standing on the stage.

I remember I was thinking about a way to get cables managed around the decorations. I actually saw him looking at me from the corner of my eyes looking at me with a angry face, but I shrugged it out as I am here for their day.

It might be an honest mistake.

When I was about to go in the room where we stored sound items, he shouted “Hey you, where are you going? Go to the class right now!!!”

I turned to see him now on the stage, staring daggers at me. To be honest this is not the first time I got in to situations like this where teachers mistake me for a kid skipping classes.

This teacher is not going to listen to his explination.

Usually when I tell them why I am here they understand and leave me to complete the job. So, I said “I am here to set…”.

He didn’t let me finish the sentence before he started to yell at me for skipping classes and me to stop lying about it. Then he ordered me to go to my class before he punish me.

Is the teacher allowed to hit a student?

Now, I was tried and I only had less than a hour before I should finish up. I was already angry about it when he came, so when he yelled to me like this I only just got more upset. Right now he was really closed to my face yelling stuff to me.

I again try to explain, only to get slapped in face mid sentence. Ok now he’s done it. I was so angry and I tried to keep my composure, but they only led me to have tears in my eyes.

If he wants him to leave, that is just what he will do.

I looked around to see some junior kids who came for final rehearsals are also looking at this. I felt shamed. This never happened to me before. Then I had a thought.

If you wants me to go to the class then I will. I knew without sounds they can’t do the day. And as the only sound guy in school today until my friends arrives after the school hours they won’t be able to find someone else to do the work.

His actual teacher wasn’t even expecting him to be there.

So, you want me to go to my class then that’s what I am going to do. I left. I locked the sound room, took the key and went to the media room. Then I left the key in the locker, took my bag and went to my class.

Even my teacher was surprised seen me in the class as they all knew I won’t be able to attend any classes during today. My teacher asked me why I am here but when she saw my expression she just told me sit down. So, I sat down quietly and waited.

This event is not going to happen on schedule.

30 mins before the school ends a member from the literature club came running in to my classroom. He excused to the teacher came to my desk and asked me what the heck I am doing. I was angry, but in calm voice I said “Your teacher in charge told me to go to classroom. So I came to the class”.

He was confused at first. Then he asked “So, are you done setting up?”. I said no and told him that he didn’t let me finish up. The guy was freaking out. He begged me to come to auditorium as in another hour they have to start.

Hopefully, they can get things worked out.

I just looked at him and said sorry I am in the class. He just looked at me, sighed and left the classroom. Now I was feeling petty as I know they are going to freak out because without sounds the event is ruined.

Few minutes after the guy from the club left, the teacher in charge of my radio club came to the class and sat down next to me. She asked me what happened. I explained everything to her.

I hope he can get things done.

She somehow managed calm me down and took me back to the auditorium. That teacher in charge who slapped me was not there by that time, but the president of that club waited and apologized to me and begged me to setup the sounds.

The guys are actually really good and I didn’t wanted to ruin their day, so I agreed and began to setup the stuff. The president even send me few of the organizers to help me up.

Great! He finished up just in time.

So, I managed to set the things up and balance sounds just few minutes before the first invited school arrived. Then my friends came and took over as I was really tried by that time.

I also informed them what happened and they got angry too, but I told them to do their best. I took a half a hour nap in the media room and came back.

I hope that rude teacher knows what he did was wrong.

The event went ok. There was few technical issues as I didn’t got to check everything out, but nobody blamed me.

Their teacher in charge was there too but he didn’t made eye contact with me.

It is good that everything worked out in the end, but that teacher who hit him should be in trouble. Even if corporal punishment is allowed, he shouldn’t do it before understanding the situation better.

Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say about this story.

I agree with this commenter.

Maybe he should have gone home for the day.

This commenter loves what he did.

Sadly, I doubt there was any fallout.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a student who did the math and figured out he was better off skipping school than serving detention if he forgot his ID.

Here is a student who is going through something similar.

Everything worked out in the end, but I don’t think that mean teacher learned anything. I hope that he got reported and, at the very least, he got in trouble for what he did.

His rash judgment and punishment could have ruined the whole event. Luckily, this kid was able to get everything done on time.