>

They've cut our funding for OK schools to the point that we don't have enough actual teachers. Not that I blame them for leaving.
In elementary school we did this and our gym teacher said if we could do it more than ten minutes he would buy us McDonald’s. The class ended and a kid was still doing it, he got his McDonald’s and a Walkman from the teacher. >

What a legend. >

That kid did a 15 minute wall sit?  Daaaamn. Fucked up thing to do to a kid though. >

I recall having to do a couple minutes at a basketball camp and being so sore the next day. That seems insanely long. >

I rowed in college, we’d do hour long wall sit sessions. The key is shifting pressure back and forth between your legs and making sure your feet and your back have a ton of grip on the ground and the wall to avoid any additional strain. >

That's really smart. >

Sitting on the ground is much smarter >

I could lay down in bed and take a nap in my sleep. >

Big brain >

He should have warned him! >

Here's the wiki for a wall sit: link
15 minutes is a very long time to do it. It's described as being like a 'jetliner position', which can be used as a form of physical torment. >

In HS several of my teachers would use wall-sits as a deterrent from being late to class. 1 min of wall-sits per minute late. No one ever did more than 6 minutes iirc. It seemed like a fairly harmless deterrent from being late. 
I was the fat kid in highschool and couldn't even finish a mile in 20 minutes. But I could do my share of wall-sits same as the rest of my classmates. I don't see how it's any different than forcing kids to do physical activity in phy-ed. So many things in phy-ed hurt way worse than wall sits. And I tried my best to do them all anyway. >

Ever done one for 15 minutes? >

If you can’t do it for 15 minutes, you don’t. You just stop. Have you never been to a gym? >

A kid was forced to do it as punishment in a classroom, not an adult doing reps at the gym you moron. Do you know how to read? >

There is a nationwide shortage of teachers primarily due to low pay and shitty parents. When that happens you get idiots like this in the classroom because school systems are desperate. If this is true that teacher should be fired on the spot. >

My daughter had a sub that was apparently a hardcore religious fanatic. He spent the class period telling all the girls that they should be ashamed for not wearing dresses and that they'd never find a husband. The kids immediately reported him.. and they still had him finish out the day with the principal "checking in often" because they had no one else(According to an email about the incident). 
I'm glad she's in middle school so she only had to deal with him for one period instead of all day.
In my state, they have a short course you can take to be a sub if you have a highschool diploma or GED. These "subs" are teaching for the entire year in some cases, though. >


they still had him finish out the day with the principal "checking in often"

At least the Principal wasn't like "So?"...  but yeah that sub should have been walked out and the Principal should have finished their day himself even if it just meant "Let's watch a movie about sea birds" (or not, see reply below) >

School admin here: it’s VERY hard for us to sub even for 15 minutes, as all student behavior and safety issues ultimately come to us.
I can’t go more than about 20min without needing to investigate a student behavior issue. Subbing the rest of the day in a class is nearly impossible. >


I can’t go more than about 20min without needing to investigate a student behavior issue.

As a parent of a child with executive dysfunction,.. I believe you 😞
It sounds like the admin did the best they could in that situation. >

Thank you for all you do for your child. Our kids need more support than ever — and it’s no one’s fault.
I know people want to blame parents, or teachers, or admin. It’s no one’s fault.
Our kids just need love, attention, and support more than ever. Thank you for what you do at home! >

I used to coach kids for gymnastics and climbing, at an actual competitive level. We'd do these sometimes. Anything over a minute and a half is crazy, even in that context, and not great for developing joints. >

For those wondering, this is a wall sit. You're holding a squat position while leaning against the wall.
This wasn't asking the child to sit in the floor or in a chair against the wall.
His legs were shaking and hurting from holding that position for so long, as you'd expect. >

Next week is kneeling on rice. >

you get a free upgrade to legos if you stop wincing >

I walk over legos >

kneeling on them is kinda different though. >

Lego Studded Ice. >

Every fitness person is thinking "15 MINUTES!?". Make that teacher do a 30 minute one. >

If safety was a priority you wouldn’t keep someone on staff that hurt a child.
Mom is right for pulling the child out that is insane. >

"Last month, there was a coach that got in his face and made him do thirty push-ups in front of the class because he wouldn’t run," Stephans said. "He has asthma."
I feel like that's a bigger story. >


"The principal told me the staff wasn’t supposed to be acting in such a manner."

The principal probably doesn't know what's going on in their own school because there are a lot of half-assed pieces of shit in school administration. >

Or, because he is the principal of an Oklahoma school, he knows exactly what’s going on, and that’s what he signed up for. >

I had to do this as a form of punishment IN THE CANADIAN NAVY, wich was fair.
A kid should not have to do this >

Yeah, I would not accept this as a punishment at all, if you think you can physically torture me in this day and age, ya got something coming for you. >

Teacher went full drill sergeant. >

I heard they were relaxing standards to allow veterans as teachers but this is ridiculous. >

My brother was taking a karate class once. He did something wrong, and for punishment he had to be down on the floor with his hands underneath his knees, and forehead touching the floor for the remainder of the class. When he was allowed to sit up, his face was completely swollen. We never went back to that class. >

If that were my kid, I would have gone back to that class exactly once, and that would be to beat the shit out of that instructor in front of his class. >

But if the guy knows karate? >

Former karate instructor here. My experience was that the majority of instructors in most American-based martial arts styles probably aren’t hard to beat up.
Yes, I know your sensei is the exception and a badass. >

Quads are jacked.  Can probably dunk a basketball now. >

Absolute god quad >

Apparently this was some sort of twisted get back by the coach because he refused to run the week before because he has asthma
A lot of sadists gravitate towards working in schools because kids are powerless, parents are too busy, and school administrators enjoy wielding power for power's sake >

I’d be ripping someone a new asshole >

I don’t think that kid could do a 15 minute wall sit…🤷🏾‍♂️ >

I want to find a source that confirms it was a 15 minute wall sit and not the kid saying "I had to wall sit for like 15 minutes". >

This story is kind of suspect. I wrestled as a kid and wall sits were a pretty frequent punishment for whatever. There isnt a universe where I could’ve done anywhere near a 15 minute wall sit. Either this kid is superman or he is exaggerating. >

I agree it sounds like the kid was exaggerating. Teacher probably shouldn't make the kid do that but I doubt exercise is going to hurt the kid. >

Impressive core strength. >

And that day Jimmy did NOT skip leg day. >

Just because some of ya'll in the comments had to do this in school including me, It doesn't make it right, Its a valid disagreement on how to punish a kid.  This made the boy a target of ridicule and thats never ok. >

Just Oklahoma things. There's not enough people willing to do the harder and lesser paying jobs, so you get places where they have to let despicable and terrible people work these kind of important jobs. >

Now this child has a 45” vertical jump as measured during recess, playing basketball >

Something tells me the kid is lying ...a 15 min wall sit.... 15 min ... Then again it's probably the mom exaggerating not the child. >

I mean, the kid doesn't  necessarily need to be lying, although that could be true. Kids have very poor perceptions of time. On top of that, time stands completely still when doing wall sits. 
I doubt it was actually 15 minutes. Either way, wall sits aren't an appropriate punishment. >

agreed. kids do have poor perceptions of time, but in my experience teachers usually say how long the punishment is for "go do x for x minutes" so he could be telling the truth. but yeah, it's not appropriate no matter how long it was. we had tons of teachers make us do stuff like this when i was a child (go texas!) and even as a young kid i thought it was fucked up. >

I had a teacher do this to me in like  5th or 6th grade. It was definitely more than 10 minutes. And he also made it a point to tell everyone in the class that because I couldn't do a pushup he's making me do a wall sit instead. I was new to the  school, and it basically set the tone of my social life for the next many years. >

Did these myself for clowning around with the guys in gym class 😂I wonder what the kid did? >

Squat day has entered the chat >

so this is actually weird, my aunt used to give this same punishment to me when she babysat me. i don’t think it was ever this long, maybe like 5 minutes. but if we fell it would add on 30s. >

I remember being the overly competitive kid in high school that tortured myself with a 10 minute wall sit as a freshman, just so I could beat the senior who was supposed to be a god tier athlete. I had the top mark in the school at just over 10 minutes. I wish somebody took video of me trying to participate in football practice after that. I guarantee I looked like a newborn fawn taking its first steps lol
That being said, most kids were tapping out under a minute. Only the good athletes were making it to 2-3, and the all state kids were all between 5-10. All I know is that half of our school was walking around like Jack Sparrow for a couple days after that competition lol 15 minutes is absurd for 99.9% of the population. >

Who else held up their step father's boots in the corner while he watched your cartoons? >

And i thought standing in the corner was bad…. >

This was one of many punishments my father would dish out. It was usually 20-30 minutes and if I collapsed my time started over. My heart absolutely breaks for this kid and I hope this teacher is not allowed to teach again! >

That kid is what 8/9 years old, that is horrifying. >

Honestly, this seems like a normal high-poverty school. Poverty is the biggest predictor for school outcomes. >

sounds like a japanese POW camp in WW2. >

Yeah thay definitely sucks but as I read most stories I'm reminded of how bad it was when I worked as a sub so I can't say I really feel bad for the kid. 
Does it suck that the kid had to do it?
Sure. 
Is there a reason behind this punishment? 
Probably 
Was it justified?
Can't say. I don't want to read the article. 
Might be some random ranting to some but I know from personal experience how bad schools are. Even if they doubled my current salary I don't think I'd go back to working around those monsters. I currently work in the correctional system and I can say that I feel 10 times more safe in there with the inmates than I did at schools. >

Multiple teachers have had issues with this child, according to the article. They don't call it out specifically, but this isn't an isolated bad-teacher incident. >

Multiple adults put their heads together to come up with a solution to a problem child and the best they could come up with was..... *checks notes* *re-reads article to be sure* physical abuse?
And I'm supposed to be mad at the kid? >

Not the kid. The parents. The parents who allowed their child to repeatedly misbehave then cried fowl when others had to step in. To an adult who grew up during real corporal punishment in schools and had parents who punished again at home, this story comes across as....one-sided at the minimum. >

Ahh yes...
"I was physically abused at school AND at home! I'm not capable of feeling bad for people if they don't have it at least as bad as I did."
Not the take you think it is. >

Oh, I feel bad for the kid, just not because he got punished for bad behavior. 
Oh, BTW: purposefully misunderstanding what I said and then assuming my emotional capacity...not a good look for ya. >

"I know what real physical abuse looks like, both in school and at home, because I experienced it, and I don't believe that this story is an example of physical abuse."
I believe that is a fair summary of your comment. And you are wrong for thinking that way. That's where my assumption about your "emotional capacity" comes from.
Making a child hold a wall squat against their will is physical abuse, just like paddling or cracking their knuckles with a ruler is also physical abuse. Just because they could have it worse does not mean they are not being physically abused by adults who are trusted with their safety.
Edit: And just to clarify, we are talking about a fucking third grader. >

Maybe he f***ing deserved it >

In college, this was my punishment when I was late to practice. Late twice, never again. >

We had a football coach who taught science class in high school who would punish kids with wall sits, he was like everybody’s favorite teacher lol. >

Yep. Late grade middle school and high school gym teacher would use wall sits, planks and other types of punishment. The chemistry teacher, also a coach, used a long wooden paddle too. Early grade middle school teacher used duct tape to tape the hands of a kid who wouldn't stop playing with his face during lessons to a desk. I could go on. This was a few decades ago before more recent studies about how bad these punishments are during childhood development. All of them were well-liked teachers. >

Public education is run as though it's a historical re-enactment of itself.  This kind of stuff was happening many years ago when I was a kid.  Unfortunately, we know that physically punishing children can hinder their ability to learn, so best of luck to schools that insist on this obsolete model of learning.