Shutterstock

Schools often run various health screenings to help ensure the students are healthy, but parents can opt their kids out of them if they choose.

The student in this story was known to be deaf in one ear and had regular visits to a hearing doctor, so his mom sent a note to the school opting him out of the hearing tests.

Instead of honoring that request, however, the school nurse forced him to take the test. So, he came up with a plan to prank the nurse, which resulting in his mom having to come to the school for a chat.

This is a funny story, and it is good that his parents backed him up. Read through all the details below, and see what you think.

Malicious Compliance by my 10y.o self- School health checks and a busted ear

Thought I would post my tale of 10 year old me, a district nurse, my head teacher, and the best malicious compliance I have ever masterminded.( to date)

So, I’ve been deaf in my left ear since birth. Found out just before I started school. Gotten used to it over the last 25+ years, but I will always remember this.

Back when we found out about my hearing impairment, I was allocated an audiologist at the hospital to check my hearing every 6 months so I wasn’t damaging my one “good ear”.

Keeping track of the health of students is a good idea.

About 2-3 years into primary school, the government decided to do yearly health checks on all the kids. They looked at weight, height, eyesight, and of course, hearing.

Probably wouldn’t get away with it nowadays but back in the 90s you could.

The health checks involved a district nurse, a line of kids and eye charts, scales, and of course a machine to test your hearing.

Hearing tests are pretty simple, but important.

For those of you who haven’t had your hearing checked, it was a set of headphones hooked up to a frequency generator.

The operator could generate tones at different volumes and low/high pitches.

Stick your hand up when you hear the tones.

They could also check the left and right ear separately.

There is really no reason to test his hearing anyway.

My mum wasn’t too impressed about the checks, but sent me to school with a note to excuse me from the hearing exam. This was also in my school files and my teachers always knew about it.

Important fact – although I have no hearing, my ear drum is intact so I can feel sound pressure.

So, at the beginning of the tests, I hand the nurse my note. She ignores and it does the eyesight/height/weight.

Then asks me to stand back in line for the hearing test.

I bet she was confused.

10yo me goes, nope I have a note, a real audiologists, and a good hearing result about 4wks prior and toddles back off to class.

Guess what: I get summoned by the nurse to go back.

Little me tries to argue, but she wasn’t taking no for an answer. Never mind, no harm if i just get the test but I must have made the nurse mad or something. Also, didn’t want to get a detention.

She begins testing my deaf ear. I can tell she is testing the deaf ear due to the looks on her face and the fact that I’m not raising my hand (doh!)

The nurse should know better than to do this.

Pssst, it’s a secret but I can feel the air pressure from the left headphone. She even checks the cables/machine.

At this point I’ve decided to just play along and not remind her about my disability……UNTIL…..UNTIL ….she blast the volume so loud the sound pressure physically hurt my inner ear.

It was so loud, I heard it in the other headphone. I rip the headphones off.

She threatens me with the head teacher so I have to continue.

He should just do the test properly.

You would think I was done, but no. I’ve not maliciously complied yet 🙂

I asked her not to blast and she agrees and starts the test again but this time I raise my hand……randomly – on both ears.

Heard a noise, delayed reaction, completely ignore some sounds, if no noise- raise my hand.

Get some right, some wrong and again raise my hand with no sound. Complete and utter random gibberish hand raising.

It doesn’t sound like the nurse cared all that much.

Test ended, she looks confused but send me on my way. Still looks puzzled. Probably just wanted to get all the kids tested.

So, there has to be a good ending right? This is not malicious compliance without one.

Well, unknown to me at the time, the school thought this was so serious the head teacher called my mum.

The headteacher decided to tell her that they had discovered a serious health concern and would rather not discuss it over the phone, and to come into the school.

Even Mom is in on the joke.

When she arrived, they told her that they were really really concerned about my hearing, that I was somehow deaf and hearing strange noises at the same time.

During this emergency meeting, my mum was puzzled as to why they had checked my hearing, but very quickly realised what a mischievous little brat I had been and decided to act along.

Never Miss a Story

Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.

She played the hurt, concerned and scared parent for a good 30mins before coming to ask me what had happened.

I told her about the almost perforated ear drum and the random shenanigans.

I can see why she would be upset about this.

She then took great pleasure in ripping them a new one for a) not checking my school file, b) not reading my note c) causing me physical pain and lastly d) could have messed up my “good ear”. Threatened lawyers, health officials and school inspectors. The works.

Thanks to my little act of malicious compliance, we never saw that nurse again and the following year the health checks were cancelled.

Oh, and yes, my parents did have a word with me about my little act of defiance, but it’s tough to explain to a 10yo that your secretly proud of their actions, but trying to encourage said kid to deal with it the “correct” way next time round.

If a child has a note from their parents, the teachers and nurses should have honored their wishes.

Read on to see what the people in the comments on Reddit have to say.

Some parents don’t care enough for their kids, though.

These tests can help to find many problems, though.

This commenter is deaf in their left ear, too.

Finding potential health issues is important.

Why didn’t the school listen to the parents?

The school should have never even let him take this test. That nurse deserved to be fired for what she did. Turning the volume up that high was abusive.

I’m glad to see that his parents stood up for him.

Add TwistedSifter to your Google News Add us as a preferred source on Google

Author

Michael Levanduski