Armchair Anonymous: Bad Teacher

Welcome welcome welcome to armchair anonymous. I'm Dan Rather and I'm joined by miniature mouse. Hello today We have one of your favorite things but not the right version of it. You love teachers. Oh, I do love but these are bad Oh, I don't like bad teacher. You like some bad teacher Okay, well this is bad teachers these guys are baddies. Yeah, they're baddies are no good We got to get them out of the school. Please enjoy bad teachers What a great trick for me. Why? Because when I knew we were gonna talk to Joey So I was like, oh, it's gonna be a boy who's trying to play up Monica's love for friends Oh, wow, I quickly whipped up a whole scenario. It is based off of a different show though. It is is a test Okay, is it from Blossom or the other one connected to blossom Okay, what about an ocean something with the ocean. You got Joe versus the volcano. No, it's a show. It's a show Australian mermaid. Oh my god I think you're out of that demo for the Australian mermaid. Oh wait wait wait. Wait. Is it Three something tour. What is oh? Yeah, it's island Think of like the teens on Dawson's Creek. Oh Well, I didn't unfortunately that's one of my blind spots. It's all right on this week's fact check We read an exhaustive list of girl names that were boy names that were originally boy names. Yeah, it's a great list I only got through about a fifth of it. Okay. Where are you Joey? I'm in New Jersey the gardens Yes, drove here today from Massachusetts just to do this Wait, what you don't have internet and Massachusetts? No, we do, but I needed to get back here in time. Oh you were on vacation in Massachusetts. Were you on the Cape or you in Marta's vineyard? No, but close to the Cape is South Shore So an ocean town. Oh Our theme and you've got a nice savage glow. You've got the sunkissed glow. Okay, Joey You have a bad teacher story. I do and I preface this to say that Most teachers are awesome because I am one. Oh, so let me set the scene It was early two thousandths and it was my fifth year of teaching and right at the start of the school year I was told that I would be orienting a new teacher and that she would have her own classes But we would co-teach one section of eighth grade English together I would imagine in the teaching game It doesn't get much harder than eighth grade most people think that but this is gonna be my 26th year of teaching and I Teach 6/7th and 8th grade like I love middle schoolers. Yes, they're crazy, but they're crazy in a good way as opposed to For me little ones who's like noses are running and things like that That's like way more hectic than someone with their hormones all out of whack But so they were telling me that as someone who's in my fifth year that I was the veteran Which was kind of a crazy concept to me, but I'm like, okay, I can do this But shortly after being told this I didn't feel like I was the veteran because We had these two weeks of teacher meetings in august where it was professional development and I met this person that I was gonna be co-teaching with and Immediately she intimidated Many of us including myself. This was a private school in a very liberal city And so we spent a lot of time sharing out about our strengths and weaknesses and our hopes and fears and all of that and it seemed like Every time she shared something about her background and experience, I just kept getting more and more impressed with each thing And I'm like, what can I have to offer this person? So first it was she graduated from a very well-known division one university and had been in the honors program Next it was while she was there She was the head of the writing center and ran the whole thing while she was a student Next it was she was on the division one volleyball team and it just like kept going on and on and on She was a vunderkin. She loves division. Why? Yeah, exactly and I was just kind of like each time Like shriveling back more and more and you know She's like taller than I am when the students arrived They also were very drawn to her because she had just graduated from college. She was young She had a distinct sense of style super energetic But then shortly thereafter all of a sudden she started calling in sick Next thing we know she's out because a relative died then a relative was murdered Sounds like addiction, but continue so like more stories started appearing each week, right? And you know, there's of course like a group of teachers who are like, okay We should all dress in black one night and go out and like stock her apartment and see what's really going on It was like a little bit of that background kind of stuff going on I was saying dress in black for the murdered relative. Oh, it shows some you support Yeah, this was early 2000s. Obviously we had the internet, but people just weren't googling things as much to try to match up the story or anything like that Needless to say the co-teaching wasn't going very well because her attendance was so spotty So like I never knew if she was gonna be there and on one particular day She was late to our co-taught class and you know as a teacher you're not waiting for your Co-teacher to start the class so I kind of just Started things off and we weren't even supposed to be doing a joint thing that day I was supposed to be leading something and she was just going to be supporting some of the students in the room when all of a sudden The head of school pops in to observe and he did this unannounced all the time to different rooms So that wasn't something that was alarming But I knew I had to start the class even though she's not there and I don't want to draw attention to that So I just start going over some short lesson on vocabulary that we would encounter in our reading she arrives and jumps right in and Just starts writing a bunch of stuff on the other side of the white board We have a bunch of students who have various learning styles maybe someone's ADHD Maybe someone else has some auditory processing thing and if you've got like a ton of things going on in the front of the room The ADHD kids loving it and everyone else And they're already in eighth grade so their executive functioning is like out of control anyways And so I'm thinking immediately in my head It's like you're the veteran teacher you have to control this like what are you gonna do not only is she up there doing this She's jamming things into the corner. So all of a sudden I say something like let's pause and get some additional information from Cindy before we go back to the vocabulary Cindy, what do you have for us? And so she starts going through some sort of a timeline About the Vietnam War because the book we're reading is set in the Vietnam War, but it's like false information She's pronouncing things incorrectly, and then the cap is like a word. She writes up there very boldly is not a real word She does everything with such confidence that I start questioning myself and just as I'm trying to figure out what to do She fully turns herself to the board with her back completely to all of us because you know most of the time teachers Try to be like at an angle so you're never not looking at the kids and her song is fully on display No, okay, and the head of school. Oh, wait a minute hold on what she's wearing a thong but her like pants are jacked out 2001 Exactly, yeah, low ride and like the shirt has popped up. That's a pretty big event for an a-thread boy Oh my gosh, right exactly right and I'm waiting for one of them because I've seen you know the kids who are clearly Focus on something else or doing something else with their hands and whatever None of them burst out laughing no one says a word and the head of school is sitting there and so again I'm like I got to do something I have to do something so I immediately say Cindy. Thank you so much Can you sit with Charlie while I share some of the vocabulary and make sure that he gets it all down? You're also reminding me of a news anchor. It's like now. We're gonna go to Betty with the weather No, we're not we're gonna go to Mike on the street Fire alarm and that moment or something so eventually the class ends and I'm questioning my sanity still I'm either the only one seeing this because the head of school just Strolls right out of the room without a word to either of us. Oh my goodness And he's a man. So maybe it was like he didn't know how to address the situation Talk about his employees underwear. Yeah, that's tough. I think the minimum part of it at least like hey We're gonna meet to debrief this but then it got even better where a few days later She's off coaching a middle school sports team I think it was basketball and they're headed to play against the school for the deaf and they arrived at the game And it's well known that we're playing this school for the deaf. So it's not like that was a surprise The ref who's supposed to work the game who was someone who was certified in American sign language was not an attendance and the Substitute ref asks if anyone knows sign language. Oh, yes Cindy announces that she knows sign language. Yeah, and this is like in the moment So there's no oh, yeah, I know that language that's never gonna come up or something right right The ref then asks her to communicate something to an opposing player and She starts making a variety of hand signals that look like a mixture of Tai Chi moves and someone trying to come up with a secret handshake and a maybe some light sure grades. Yes. So this kid on the opposing team has no idea what's going on. And yet she holds fast to this claim that she's fluent in the language. Oh my gosh. And luckily no one got hurt. The game went on. It was universal enough. So then we get back to school and we're having this faculty volleyball game where all the kids come to watch and the teachers play each other. And of course everyone wants her on this team because remember she's a division one volleyball player. I can't wait. I mean this is like in a movie. This is next year. Yes. It's next year. And then also like in the movie were of all the sports they're going to have the faculty play the students. It's volleyball. Exactly. And we did a basketball game once, you know, stuff like that. But people can get injured easily and all of these things. So everyone wants her on their team. But after the game starts, it becomes apparent that either our expectations of what a division one volleyball player would look like were either too high or this was another skill that she did. So as she tries to serve the ball or return balls or spike the ball or whatever, none of her movements are any better than what any of us who just took middle school gym classes. But then she starts inventing moves that don't really work well, but blames her teammates for like why it didn't work the right way. And then gives a variety of names to these moves that don't make any sense. You're watching someone living in their own reality. Yeah. Well, there's like a kind of money. You want it? You want it to be CT or money. Yeah. But it's so good because I sort of believe, but didn't believe, but I question myself. I don't really remember exactly how it fully came to ahead if there was like a couple of other things before this. But one day the dean of faculty who was person that I looked up to on the staff comes to me and he just sits down and he's like one of those people that like only says a few words at a time. First, he apologized for hiring this person to me and putting me in the situation acknowledged that it turned out some things hadn't been true that we thought were true. And then said, but hey, you know, it's going to only a good story one day. Then before the school year ends, she sends out this mass message saying that she's going to need to leave to go take care of a sick relative and won't be in the area anymore. Take care of her father who already died. She forgot to say three times before. Yeah. So a few weeks after that, a group of us teachers were all like at a local road race. And one of the guys who was faster is standing there waiting at the finish line for me. And he's like, you got to go over to the energy drink. And so I go over to where they're giving out all the free stuff and who's the person promoting and giving out coupons for this energy drink, but this teacher. And so again, another lie. Like not that we thought she really was off to take care of her relative, but she ended it with that story. Oh, in the age of now, the internet, if you figured out if she even was a graduate of college, so I looked her up two days ago because of this. And she is on the internet. It lists it as her background, but I don't know how you verify that. Could I list that I have been to the moon? Sure. I've been telling people I went to UCLA for like 30 years and everyone believes it. Right. Yeah. And then it was probably on like a Wikipedia page. That's right. Yeah. And then it becomes real. I never went. I never even went to college. I know. Yeah. No, it's crazy. It's crazy. I really get away with it. You have a look on your face. Like you're really questioning whether I did go to UCLA, but yeah, you can claim anything. As teachers and anyone who works with a kid, you have to get those background checks to make sure that like you haven't been in trouble with the law or there's this thing called pass the trash. A school isn't supposed to be allowed to like pass a bad teacher to another school. And so it's this check-in thing that you have to do it like your last place. I mean, she could have stolen someone's identity. That's kind of what it sounds like. There's a lot going on. She's a pathological liar, which is fascinating. I would like to know more about that condition, people who are pathological liars. Right. Why do they do it? I have a pretty good friend who while trying to get sober, they were a bit of a pathological. Like they would tell people they had children and stuff when they were talking to someone else who had kids. Like, yeah. And I've asked this person like, what was going to happen? They're like, I don't know. Other than in that moment, the most important thing is that they like me and want to bond with me and make said they have kids. So it's like this kind of insecurity. And you think this will be the thing that makes this other person like you. But that's so deep to do a full-blown line. Yeah. Yeah. This one's that one hit. I'm like, wow, man. That's a biggie. Do you think if there was a medical emergency and they're like, is there anyone trained in this medical technique? Yes, because she did the sign language. I mean, that's bonkers. What a gift she gave you. Yeah, it is a good story. He was right. It is. But most of us teachers are not like that. Well, clearly not. You're a blast. I wish I had you as an eighth grade teacher. Yeah, you'd be fun. Thanks. Well, it's a lovely meeting you. I'm thank you for racing back. Thank you. And I just want to say I first started listening to you guys two years ago because two years ago, my mom got diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I would go on lots of walks and listen to you guys through that. And actually two weeks ago, tomorrow, she passed away. And I got your message though a couple days later that I was on. So it was sort of my first smile that I had. So I wanted to thank you for that. Just to shout out to Hannah who's a former student who knows this bad teacher. Good teachers that I work with now who listen to you guys. Heather and Dan and Mary Ann. Oh, we love Dan. I love it. Okay. Thank you. So much, Joey. Bye. Big air Chris. Hello. You have a gallery wall. I do have a gallery wall. Yes. Really nice. So you have some neon lighting and it's in a squiggly pattern. And at first, I was like, that looks like it could be a racetrack, but I don't think it is. No, I was just kind of randomly putting up holes in the wall and it created this. Okay. Wonderful. Art. And Chris, where are you? I'm in Denver, Colorado. But my store takes place in Austin. Oh, nice. I was in Denver last weekend for the Savannah bananas. Oh, yes. With Kristen. That's right. And are you from Austin? I'm actually from Knoxville, Tennessee, but I spent about 10 years in Austin. So basically from Austin, how does one leave Austin? I think this story will kind of tell you. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Great. This story actually takes place my junior year of high school. So this was back in 2019. I lived in the suburbs of Austin. I was in this organization called Deca, which is like a business competition club. And so there's three levels to get to international. So you have to make it through the district and then the state competition. Texas, obviously, there's a ton of kids that participate in Deca. So in our specific category, there was over 250 competitors or teams at the state level. So somehow miraculously, me, my partners pulled it off. We placed first in the state of Texas. Oh, yeah. How many folks are on your team? There is three of us. I love winners. Exactly. Yes. We placed first in the state of Texas, which was awesome, which meant we were headed to international and Disney world. So it was a big deal. We had spent the whole school year preparing for this competition. We were very excited. It was one of the proudest moments in my high school career because we put in so much time and effort. So a week later, there was about 20 kids from my school going to international. So within the organization, there was probably 350 of us. There was only nine boys. So there's an odd number of boys traveling. And so the advisors, which were our teachers, asked us if any of the guys would be willing to room with guys from another school in the district. And so I volunteered because I actually had some friends who banned who were at another high school in the district. And they were also going to international. So I was like, okay, I'll take one for the team. I'll volunteer for everyone to room with kids from another school. So the advisors agreed everyone approved. I didn't think twice about it. And then about a week before the competition, my advisors emailed me asking if I could come to their office to talk to them. And so I didn't think anything of it. I was like, sure. So I walked in expecting to talk about some sort of travel details or the competition schedule or something about our paper. And instead, the very first words out of her mouth when I walked in were, are you gay? What an appropriate question to ask a high school student. What the fuck is wrong with you? And how big is your penis? Oh, God. So at like 16 years old, I'm still positive. My friends knew, but none of the teachers knew my parents didn't know. I was very caught off guard. The first thing out of my mouth was what, why does this, what does this matter? And she told me that if I was gay, I wouldn't be allowed to room with my friends from the other school because they could also be gay, and we could all potentially have sex together. Oh, they were envisioning a deco orgy. What? Also, even what about the kids in your own school? They're trying to not facilitate the students having sex with each other. I think it's completely inappropriate that they're as you, but also they're not putting boys and girls together. No, but you would be with the boys in your class. And that's what I said. So I was like, what's the difference? Because no one else was gay, except me. Oh boy. In the situation. It's like, why are we signaling out me? I'm being gay kid. I thought she was joking up first. So I was like, okay. So because I might be gay, you automatically assume that I'm going to hook up with my friends. And she says that's exactly right. Oh, she didn't hide from it. You're in Texas. I said, well, can I room with my two friends who are girls? Obviously I knew the answer was going to be no, but I want her to say that. So no, I asked why. And she says because we can't can't prove your gay. And I was like, okay, you're on dry over both not being a and being gay. This is insane. I said, let me get this straight. So I can't room with my friends that are boys from the other school in the district because I could potentially be gay and I could potentially hook up with them. But I can't room with my two friends who are girls from this school, because you can't prove I'm gay and I could potentially hook up with them. There's a real catch 22 look me dead in the eyes and she goes, that is exactly right. Oh my God. So the plan that all four, the advisors had come up together, they were apparently talking about me because I guess someone spilled that I was gay. They said that I had to go room with two random boys from another school in the district. They weren't going to tell me who they were until we got there. So I left her office and I was kind of like, okay, well, I don't really have anyone to talk to about this because I wasn't out to my parents. If I was out to my parents, my mom would have gone absolutely ballistic on the school. I had a couple friends. Obviously, my partners who were in Deca with me, they knew I was gay. So I talked to them about it. And we kind of fought back with the teacher and she still was firm with her decision of we are not letting you room with anyone that you know, you could also hook up with people you don't know. I don't understand any of this. The other thing that I kept saying was I was like, I could go hook up with this guy in his room if I really wanted in the straight people are definitely hooking up by the way. Yeah, I quietly accepted the new room assignments. She ended up telling basically everyone that was going to international with us. So now 15 of these people now know that I'm gay, which then spread throughout the organization. So then people in the organization knew now people at the other school know and I was just kind of like, okay, you've kind of just spilled my secret to everyone for what like what was the point of the scarlet letter? Yeah. And so the funniest part of all of this is we get to Disney World with there for the competition. I meet my two new roommates the very first day. Next morning, we wake up at 6 a.m. on the dot. One of my roommates alarms go off. And it's delicate by Taylor Swift. I was gonna say hope is a meet you. Oh my god. I asked the kid right then and there I was like, Oh, so are you gay too? And he was like, no, I'm not. Well, three years later, he came out on Instagram and now he is an openly happy gay person. Wow, it's soft at this age. This is wild. It's funny because it's like her foolproof plan to not get with anyone that I potentially could know. It's a funny story now. I wrote my college essay about it. That's actually like how it came out to my mom and dad. And I was like, Hey, here's this crazy story that happened to me last year. Sorry, I couldn't talk about it. Oh, wow. Well, I'm really sorry that happened, but you are very smiley. I think you're indomitable. Thank you. I appreciate that. I do have a couple shots. Take your time. Her name is Susan. She's my best friend's mom. She actually got me on to armchair anonymous. She's been listening since day one. She was actually one of the only parents who I had come out to before my parents. And so she knew during this whole entire time, this whole entire story going on. And she was very much ready to go to war with this teacher as well. And then Jesse, my manager, because she let me take about an hour and a half off of work today to come film this. And then Emily, Hannah, Selena and Natasha, because those were the four people who were in deco with me who went to internet animals. They're actually in those pictures. I don't know if you guys got let me see. Also, how do you guys do in Orlando? Okay, so we placed in the top 25, which was pretty crazy. Okay, that's amazing. Oh, you're even cuter. And who's this you and your lover? Well, that's me and my boyfriend now. Yes. Chris, what a delight to meet you, my friend. It was great for me. You guys. Yeah. Thank you so much. I really appreciate special thanks to your manager. Take a little actually 20 minutes. There was an internet connection issue. Have a great day. Take care. Thank you. I appreciate it. You guys have a good bye. My gloom is over. Yeah. Hey, gloom is lifted gloom gloom go away. Let my smiles shine today. Hi. Hi, can you hear me? Look at that shirt. Okay, why did we pick Abby for a fake name? Okay, wait, do you want me to start recording now? Yeah, ABR girl, you don't know the rule. I'm sorry. You got the shirt you should know the rules. Okay, it's recording. Abby is my mom's name. And she is the biggest armchair. She's watching on FaceTime in the corner. Stop it. That's so cute. I Abby. Literally, she's been watching armchair since it came out in 2018, which is coincidentally, when this takes place, my story. And when I started middle school, so I grew up with you guys. And I can't believe I'm on here right now. We're excited to have you the best day. So I know from that that you're not the teacher in this story. I am not the teacher. I am the student in this story. Okay, let us have it. Well, a part of the country is this take place in the Midwest in my university's podcast recording studio. I was going to say, I can see the sound deafening background. And acts are going to like this, I go to school and the applatch in mountains. You do? Is it so beautiful right now? It is so pretty. It's all green. We're starting to get a little bit of change, which is kind of weird, but it's gorgeous up here right now. You probably went there saying Appalachian, but now you know to say Appalachian, my mom grew up here in the Appalachian Mountains. So it was kind of ingrained in my head. I was a kid wishing in the Kentucky, the Virginia, the North Carolina North Carolina. Okay, great. Alright, so hit us with this. Okay, so my story takes place starting in middle school and goes all the way through high school. So I was in middle school starting in 2018. And my seventh grade year of middle school is when COVID hit. So that following day after we all left a spring break and the world shut down school looked very different. We had different days where half the school would go to class and the other half would go on a separate day. It was called 8 a and B days. You are with the same five or six people for every single class. And it was called like a cohort. And it was just a weird period in general, because middle schools such a developmental period in your life. And then to have it in COVID when you can't talk to people or see people just made it even worse. Kids were assholes. Everyone hated everyone. It sucks. But what came from that is connections got really strong because we were in those classes all the time and we were with certain teachers more on certain days. You just naturally kind of latched on to those teachers. So that teacher for pretty much every student in my middle school was a teacher that will call Mr. L. Mr. L was an ELA teacher, but he was also the head of the student council. Is ELA emotional English? Oh, yeah. English language learning. I thought it was English as a second language. Yes. But what's the English language arts? Nice. Okay, good job. You're great. I'm glad you're in college. Yeah. Okay. So with Mr. L, it wasn't, you know, we just had him in class. We were with him before school for student council meetings. During school, we'd eat lunch with this teacher after school. We'd have our events. We'd get pulled out early or go on field trips and stuff like that. So this was just one of those teachers that really shaped who we were as people. And especially the student council kids because we were all the goody two shoes and we're all super involved. This was the teacher that we liked. And he was our favorite teacher going forever and ever and ever up through high school. And so even after middle school, when we would come back or do events, that was the teacher that we always wanted to talk to. I have tick talks with this teacher. We would post on social media. We followed him after we graduated. So that's the first half of the story. A few years later, my junior of high school towards the end would have been in 2024. And there was rumors going around that Mr. L had passed away. Oh, no, I was texting my friends. We were just hearing this through the rumor mill and we were in like a grieving era because he was that teacher that we all just love so much. My brother at the time was in middle school with him. So my mom got the email with the big statement saying we're so sad to hear the passing of Mr. L. He was such an integral part of our community. Can I ask what age he was when you were his student? He was a young teacher. So he was probably in his early 30s. Okay, yeah, this is not a 70 year old man. This huge statement came out. And after the statement came out, we had to do a mandated program called SOS, which stands for signs of suicide. So Mr. L had killed himself. And that just makes it worse. You know, they're sad and suffering. Yeah, exactly. And I mean, everyone was posting about Mr. L. Everyone was talking about it. It just really shook our community. And I sent you guys a picture of a Facebook post that was created in his honor. And you know, it just talked about all the incredible things he did for our schools. He looks cute in that picture. So about a week after the announcement of his passing, these accounts on Instagram started getting really popular called petafile patrol. So what these accounts were, were teenagers who basically were doing like, the Chris Hanson to catch a pedophile in our hometown. So they would create Tinder profiles, Hinge profiles, Instagram, Snapchat, all under the guise of luring men and sometimes older women to catch them trying to have sex with minors. Wow. This was in that manosphere doc. Do you remember that? That was like the side hustle of that weird dude from England living down there. And then they beat that guy up in that car. It's like, A, I want justice for the kids. B, vigilanteism always goes sideways. That's just a fact. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. So that was happening in your town. Yes. And the people doing this, they were just like delinquent teenagers. They weren't kids, you know, trying to like make a difference and save kids life. They just wanted to fucking brawl. And get likes and views. Exactly. So after these accounts started getting popular, a video popped up and lo and behold, it was Mr. L on the pedophile patrol Instagram account. And this video is brutal. It's in our hometown grocery store parking lot. They've got the camera against his car window. They're yelling, screaming, trying to open the door, trying to break the window. Get out here. We're going to beat your ass. You wanted to meet up with little kids. He was in his car looking at the profile and incriminated himself on camera. They tried to hit his car. There's a moment about halfway in the video where you can just see his face. And he realizes that his entire life is just completely ruined. It just ended. Yeah. And this video is passed around. It's got thousands of views. Everybody's talking about it. And people were like, when was this taken? And they responded that it was taken a day before the announcement came out of his car. So he killed himself and response to that. He killed himself because he got caught being a pedophile. Oh my god. I don't know if you heard the episode we had on this. Yeah. We had to express on about pedophilia. Oh yeah. The woman who's the head of the Johns Hopkins. Basically prevention. It's so upset. It's also fucking upsetting. Obviously, I hate pedophilia. And obviously no one's picking to be a pedophile. And this is the end result. It's horrible. It's horrible. All of it. Whoa. Oh no. Was there a funeral for him? There was. But it was planned before the video came out. And once it came out, everything was just wiped off the internet. There was never a follow-up. Because I mean, it's not like the school district's going to say anything. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it was all left alleged, but that video is so incriminating. The worst part about this story is when we started talking about it, you know, me and my friends, we thought back like, could this really be? Could he really have done that? And there was a rumor that went around in middle school that he would make out with kids in his closet. And we all just brushed it off laugh. Ha ha ha. But now thinking back, it's just like, oh shit. Oh my god. Oh. Even worse. Yeah. Also, gratitude if you're not afflicted with this. I mean, it's even worse to think my little brother was in his class at the time. Oh yeah. And that's like the group that he was looking at. It's just so icky. I hate it. Yeah. So none of you or your friends experienced obviously anything. Well, it sounds like he liked boys. Sounds like he liked boys. Yeah. It's rare you can say you're saved by being female. It's very rare. It's very rare, but in this case, that's awesome. Well, I hate to say this, but you know, the expert was saying like so many of these cases are people that are, look, he could have been in pedophile day one and got this job specifically to groom people and he's a predator. That's one version. But we learn there's also another version where it's like otherwise people who don't have that are in a situation that can be situational. It's like someone who has a stepchild. It sounds like this feels a little more intentionally. Yeah. Yeah. He's making out with kids in the closet. Yeah, but she was saying there can be teachers who are like getting all this attention from something. They're feeling a certain way. And that gets confusing. How much education needs to be around like, hey, even if you haven't had a history of pedophilia, people are susceptible to this. That's what I'm trying to point out. But this doesn't feel like it doesn't, but that is true. That is a thing. Yep. Oh, boy. Oh, man. Well, look, every school you know, it's funny. It's talking to my children and it said, no, it's talking to you, wasn't my children. Yeah. Okay. That I had an iron and I wiped our butt on our gym teachers by focal glasses. We hated them. And we did that. Monaco is really, really mad and then I said, but you should know, this man was fired when we were in 11th grade for this for what's he gets. And then she was like, Ben, she's happy that we wiped our butt on his glasses. Yeah, I should think you did. Look, you got to find a little bit of humor in this darkness. Well, because any of pink eye, and he probably couldn't go out. No, no, no, no. I hope he got pink eye, but I don't think we ever successfully. We just live to watch him put his glasses on. And then he'd always wear a white t-shirt. And then he would wipe his glasses off on the white t-shirt. And I would be sitting across, like, and waiting for the instruction or just the delight we would have of him then ruining your shirt. But you didn't know he was a pedophile. We had bad vibes about him. I mean, we weren't just randomly doing that. No, there was cause. Oh, boy. Wow. Okay. I guess I'm as bad as those boys in the parking lot. Oh, yeah. We have to deal with a lot today. Yeah, we do. We have to process a lot of this one. Abby, you're such a well-spoken, great storyteller. I don't know what your majoring is. You know, some oral dexterity. I hope you double down on it. I totally do. I just talk my professors ears off all day. Good, good, good. I have to shout out my professor because he's letting me skip class to do this because he's an armchair as well. So shout out to Dr. Shomper. Wait, wait, Dr. Shomper. Shomper. Shomper. I want him to be a dental instructor, Dr. Shomper. Okay. Dr. Shomper. Do you mind if I have my mom say hi? Yes, of course. Let us say hi. Hi, Abby. Hey guys. She's so cute. She's a matching shirt. Oh, you guys. She does. I love it. You guys are so sweet. We love you guys. We love you back. Yeah, both of you. All right. Take care. All right. Bye. Bye. What does your shirt say? It's Queens of the Stone Age. Rob, are you hard as a rock back there? Love Queens of the Stone Age. He loves it. Alexis, where are you? I am going to be vague because he will get me really quick. Based so far on this, this story better involve murder. It doesn't. Unfortunately. So vague. What part of the country? A zone? Northeast. And are you currently residing where you were born or have you relocated? I'm still in the Northeast. And I go to school in the Northeast. Okay. You're born in the Northeast. Yes. Okay. Wonderful. So you have a bad teacher story. I do. This was about four years ago. I had transferred out of my regular public high school in the second semester of my sophomore year into this charter school. So it was a little weird. It was dedicated for the arts, which was super fun, super cool. And a lot of students had similar experiences to me where they transferred out because their other school just wasn't working for them. A very, very, very large population of the students were queer and experienced a lot of bullying at their old school and at this new school. It was great. Obviously they had regular classes that I had to take. I was placed into a biology class. And my teacher, well, I'm just going to call Mr. Teacher because he will get me in soon. He was kind of a selling point for the school because he went to this preperceded undergrad and he was a doctor. However, he was a doctor in natural path like medicine, which is very important. And also, I think we're playing a little fast in life. Can you get a doctor? Can you get a MD? Not from a university. I think it's called like an MD or something, but they were very insistent that he was a doctor. Okay. Okay. Just hadn't taken the MCAT or done a residency or even probably even got a PhD. So not even a doctorate. It was the kind of thing where you'd be on the first page of the website. He was a selling point for the school because it's like, wow, look at his doctor we have working here. Originally, I thought he seemed kind of cool because he was this middle-aged guy and he was super accepting and very open and created this wonderful environment for all these queer kids. And he provided a lot of hygiene products and little snacks and food. You could just take the questions asked and I thought that was pretty neat. However, as I was in his class more and more, I kind of started to see through this front. Yeah. Can I ask quickly what the hygiene products were? Like pads, tampons, birth control options, deodorant. He's a mini CVS. Pretty much. He had like rice packets, he could microwave. Oh wow. Okay. Yeah. It really was like a little store. So a lot of students had issues at home and there was kind of this following around this teacher where they all refer to him as a father figure. Oh no. And it was just weird. It was almost culty. And he knew that referring to him as a father was happening. And he just kind of looked at him and looked at him. let it happen. He obviously had his own views on, I'm just going to call it like evidence of based medicine. He's going to call it legitimate medicine. He had a peer reviewed science. And it would come through a lot with personal conversations with students and his actual class. He would tell students individually to talk to their doctor and be like, you need to tell your doctor to stop prescribing you medication. There was this one specific conversation I overheard where he was like, you need to stop taking your lexapro tell your doctor because so many of these students were on antidepressants and he would say, don't take them. And at the beginning of every class, 60 minutes of short class, he would take attendance and attendance was an event. It was 20 minutes minimum because he would ask people individually how they were, he would be like, Monica, how are you today? This would kind of open the floor for students to essentially trauma dump. It turned into this therapy session where he would suggest things and it just was a very long event every single day. And he then after attendance would often propose a hypothetical situation or hypothetical question and he loved his hypotheticals. And often these hypotheticals had sexual themes. There was one time he used a student's name. He loved using students as examples and he said, if student's name was a stripper and only stripped while they were ovulating, they would make more money because of the hormones. There was a question one day, he asked a room of 20 or 30, 15 year olds, if you had a kid and comes out to you as a furry or a zoofile, which would you prefer. He wrote it on the board, which is one of the pictures that I sent in. Oh my gosh. Okay, I want to look at this. Girlfriend dog, it says. Yeah. Oh my other kin. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Because he follows it up with what if it was your girlfriend or boyfriend who said they were a zoofile or a furry, it was just unbelievably strange. Yeah. Yeah. This is not school. No. This is his own narcissistic masturbatory. This is like the ending of my sophomore year and I'm like, this guy is really fucking weird. So I decide to Google him because I'm a stalker at heart and if something's on the internet, I'm going to find it. There are countless articles about him debunking his claims and tearing him apart because he calls himself a doctor and makes medical claims which are false. His main claim was that an elder flower pill can replace the flu vaccine, which is also the other pictures that I sent in. One is just a screenshot of Google of all of the articles and the other is his claim. Can I ask, how long had this charter school been in operation when you joined? How long was he holding court like this? And how on earth were no students flagging this to anyone? As of right now, it's been open like 10 years and he had worked there for maybe two years at the time. I imagine his confidence was just growing. He didn't start out this hardcore like, hey, what do you want your boyfriend to be? Or if you're a stripper on your period? I mean, it feels like you'd have to ramp up to that and like a tip not getting busted for being inappropriate and then. Well, if he's a father figure and people are looking up to him, he's disgusting. Yeah, the principal loved him because he was a doctor. He was a wonderful asset to the school. And he'd gotten rid of the principal's eczema. It was impossible to get fired from that school too. There's some like crazy stuff that I'd gone on there. So in the beginning of my junior year, now that I had taken a class with him, he obviously knew me very personally and could now diagnose me. So I ended up having a seizure within the first month of my junior year because of a side effect of well-buterin. Oh, no. And it's like one of the most common side effects. It was a one-time event never happened again. So I'm telling my friend about this. I'm like, "Girl, you're never going to guess why I wasn't here the other day." And he overhears this conversation and he comes up to me. He's like, "You need to stop taking all of your meds." And this was exciting for me. I'm like, "Oh my gosh, this is my first I'm finally getting medical advice from this crazy man." Obviously, I continue taking my medication. And a couple weeks later, I am complaining to the same friend about period cramps. And he looks at me and says, "Those aren't period cramps you're having." And instead, it's a bug in my stomach that has been passed down through generations of my family. And that I need to go get tested. He says it, like it's like a freaking STD. I'm just kind of okaying my way through the situation because that's what I've learned best with him. If you just go, "Okay, you know, he's always right no matter what." And he stops talking and he looks at me and he goes, "Alexis, I don't think you're taking me seriously." He is like super like stern and mean about it. He kind of just shrugs it off and suggests I take a garlic pill. He ended up getting fired finally because he was using students as examples in class. There was this like plastic high school couple who ended up breaking up and he was using this as this example. And that was the final straw. Wow, it's kind of shocking that that was versus all the other stuff. Yeah, it's kind of like when you talk about bottoms and it's like there's so many bottoms but the actual bottom is never really the worst one. Oh right, right. But that's because of someone told their parents and a parent probably complain. I'm not entirely sure because he had talked to parents and offered medical advice to parents about their kids, like one of my best friends during parent-teacher conferences. He suggested to her mom that she get taken off of Lexapro. I'm mildly delighted he got fired for that. I thought for sure this is going to end up with him in an inappropriate relationship with the student because he's like, "I'm a father. I'm a trustee." He's clearly an ego. Yeah, he's an ego maniac and a narcissist. He was on his way to cult leader which always involves sex. Yes. He does work with children now still. I would like to add just some other additional fun facts about him. He had a human skull in his room. He did not know who it belonged to. He just kind of had it which I don't think is ethical. He pulled us in depth about his suicide attempt and experiences with acid and then one day my friend was experiencing a UTI and he found out and told her unprompted that she needs to start having more phone sex with her drug bond because she's having sex on the weekends but not enough sex during the week days so she needs to have phone sex. This is insane. It's something horrible. It does. It does. When I told my friends I was going on this podcast. They were all like holy shit because everyone's a victim of Mr. Teacher. No, thank you. You would kill him. Oh, I might have him take a look at my story at a car. It's right to see if he's got another perspective on how I can approach it. Yeah, no, no. If my daughter's came home and gave me this report, it would be very hard for me not to drive up to the school and yeah, I get physical. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. That's a story. Well, Alexis is so nice meeting you. I'm glad you made it through and I'm glad he got canned. Right. I would love to shout out my mom. She is a reading teacher and a very good one at that. We listen to this all of the time. Shout out, mom. All right. Well, have a great rest of your day and have fun in college. You too. Thank you so much. All right. Take care. That was a good prompt. It really was. All right. Love you. Do you want to sing a tune or something? We don't have a thing. So for this new show. So here I go, go, go. We're going to ask some random questions and the help of our cherries. We'll get some suggestions. On the fire, I wish. On the fire, I wish. Enjoy.