I am 17 years old; almost a legal adult. So, why do some teachers at my high school insist on treating students like we are still in elementary school? Remember when you were in second grade and your teacher would line your entire class up, single file, and walk you down to the cafeteria? To be fair, we now are allowed to walk on our own from class to class, but this event can still be compared to certain rules enforced at my school.

In the last four years of my life I have gotten my cellphone sent to the office for being on it at lunch, been put in ‘time out’ for laughing, had doors slammed in my face for being in the hallway a minute before the bell rings, shouted at for printing out my homework, carrying my backpack between classes, and more nonessentially strict actions.

Having a door slammed in your face for standing in the hallway before the bell rings is one of the most ridiculous things to get in trouble for, if you ask me. I am not seven years old and my hand does not need to be held anymore. I would never get in trouble for waiting outside my classroom in college because, when class is over, we can just leave and not have to wait for a sound over the intercom to say when we can be dismissed.

I understand everybody has ‘bad days,’ but it is not necessary to be rude to students by yelling at them to get out of their way in the printer room, when they had blatant permission from their own teacher to print out their homework. But, I guess they don’t think the random student they disrespected would actually offended by the interaction.

I also understand in the situations listed above, I was not always in the right. I was laughing in class when I shouldn’t have and I was on my cellphone in a school environment. However, the way each teacher handled the situation was extremely disrespectful and made not only me, but other students as well, think about them differently and how they are using their authority in negative ways.