Her English teacher’s harsh words cut deeper than the noise of the old chair, dismissing her strength and attachment as mere distractions. Yet beneath the frustration lies a fierce spirit refusing to be diminished by careless remarks, standing firm in her right to live and move with dignity on her own terms.
I’m 18f, have a pretty messed up pair of legs, have had since birth, I can walk but am an ambulatory wheelchair user. I’m currently due an upgrade for my chair, I’ve had it close to 7 years and it’s a bit messed up.
It’s gotten pretty uncomfortable and it makes noise but like I said, I’ve had it 7 years and I’ve grown rather attatched to it. We’re saving to pay for the new one at the moment.
I have one teacher, my English teacher, who constantly makes comments about how banged up looking it is, and gets pretty pissed any time I dare move and it makes noise. She says it’s distracting.
The comments about the appearance of the chair annoy me a lot because it’s hardly going to look brand new after 7 years of constant use.
She made a comment this morning along the lines of “You know, you should really get a new one, that one looks like it’s about to collapse under you”. I got really mad about this and I said, “You know what, if you think I should get a new chair so bad, you can pay the nearly 4 grand it’s gonna cost or you can stop making nasty comments about something that literally doesn’t affect you.”
She didn’t really look at me until the end of the class but the boy who sits besides me said it was slightly assholeish as she probably didn’t realise how difficult the process was.
AITA?
Conclusion
The original poster (OP) is facing a conflict stemming from a teacher’s repeated, critical comments about her well-used mobility aid, which the OP finds hurtful and intrusive. The OP reacted strongly by demanding the teacher either fund the expensive replacement or cease the criticism, highlighting the disconnect between the teacher’s casual judgment and the OP’s practical, financial, and emotional reality regarding her necessary equipment.
Was the OP justified in aggressively confronting the teacher regarding the expense and persistence of the commentary, or did this confrontation cross a line into inappropriate student behavior given the context of a classroom setting? The core debate centers on where the line for acceptable professional commentary ends and where personal, necessary boundaries begin.
Here’s how people reacted:
It also bothers me about how concerned she is with the noise from your chair distracting her. Legit, the other noises coming from everywhere while teaching are distracting, and you get used to them. Pencil sharpener being used? Still teaching. Kids whispering to each other? Still teaching. Kids running down the hall outside your classroom? Yeah, still teaching over that too.
I wish you the best dealing with this teacher (I would consider reporting her) and I hope that only for your sake, since you talk about being uncomfortable sitting in it, that you get your new chair soon.
I imagine she’s gotten really annoyed at the little noises your wheel chair makes, like we all do it some keeps making noise. She might even think you’re doing it on purpose! However that is never a good reason to single out and basically bully a student.
While she might not realise how expensive a new wheelchair is, people are often naive about these things, she shouldn’t mock someone because they’re poor – ie unable to pay the “small” amount to update the object.
Either way, she’s a teacher and needs to start acting more professional.
In future, if someone harasses you over something outside of your control, take them aside the very first time and ask them nicely to stop. If there’s a second time, tell them to stop. If there’s a third time, escalate to whoever is in authority over them. You don’t have to take undeserved crap from anybody. Plus life is too short to suffer in silence.
Good job sticking up for yourself. The kid in class is probably just ignorant to how hurtful her words are
Mobility aids are often expensive and hard/slow to get the right fit for the individual. It doesn’t take someone with vast medical knowledge to know this. And even if it did, she’s an adult and supposed to be a professional, it’s not acceptable for her to pass comment on any aspect of a students appearance.
This made me mad just reading it, so I can’t imagine how angry you must have felt.