My Mean Fifth Grade Teacher

Sometimes I want to tell my fifth math grade teacher, Mrs. Wise, I turned into a non-cheating, kind, thoughtful, considerate person. 

She had it out for me from day one, and, no, I'm not imagining this.  It could've been that I got into a physical fight with her son, Brad, who was the same age as me and in my homeroom class.  There was that, and I did beat the shit out of him.  He threw a book at me during Language Arts, it busted my lip, and when I noticed I was bleeding all hell broke loose, and I jumped out of my desk and starting slamming his head on his desktop.  I then took off his glasses and scratched the lenses on the gritty floor.  Everyone is yelling, "Fight, Fight, Fight!"  Talk about rage.  During my childhood, my dad spent a lot of time teaching me how to defend myself, so when I say I can scrap I mean it.  Brad and I got written up and had to go to counseling sessions together with the school counselor, Ms. Scott, who had braces and spit all over you. 

I happen to think Mrs. Wise hated me before I ever fought her son, and that fight only made a bad situation worse.  She loved to accuse me of cheating, and I still haven't gotten over that.  There was one particular time during a fractions test.  I was sitting behind Elizabeth Wright, and I was working hard on my fraction test.  Pencil chewing hard.  Next thing I know, Mrs. Wise calls me out and says something like, "Vicki Williams, are you looking over Elizabeth Wright's shoulder and cheating for test answers?"  She said it really loud, and gave me the shittiest look. The hag called me out in front of all my peers and shamed me.  I didn't know what to say.  I turned red, got hot, and probably meekly said something like, "No, ma'am."  I wasn't cheating, but Mrs. Wise just knew I was cheating, and she made me change seats and sit alone.  I was mortified.  There were two or three other times that she did that, and I haven't forgotten and I never will.

There may be good teachers out there, but there are also those that are just plain mean, and, for me, Mrs. Wise was the meanest teacher I ever had.