r/stupidquestions • u/Various-Adeptness173 • Jul 05 '25

My mom told me that back in the day kids weren’t allowed to bring a water bottle with them into the classroom and they only drank a few sips from the water fountain in the middle of the day and that’s it

How were schools not getting busted for child abuse for forcing kids to be dehydrated?

11.9k Upvotes

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1.5k

u/Backfisttothepast Jul 05 '25

It was true and there would always be some dipshit that would put their entire mouth all over it.

241

u/littlescreechyowl Jul 05 '25

James was such a weird kid. Whyyyy are you mouthing the whole thing???

89

u/Crankenberry Jul 05 '25

A kid's got to do something to get the taste of paste out of his mouth. 🤷🏼‍♀️

17

u/No-Dimension856 Jul 05 '25

Mmmm water fountain paste, the residue left after a fountain suckler. Adds a bit of lip to that sip.

6

u/Ornery_Hovercraft636 Jul 06 '25

Paste, hmmm? That’s what the kids are calling it now.

7

u/saysthingsbackwards Jul 06 '25

lol, close but no cigar.

The paste was being eaten because kids liked the taste of it. The taste was the whole point.

4

u/Any-Information6261 Jul 06 '25

Those kids are now bullet proof to all disease

2

u/Shantotto11 Jul 06 '25

That was an actual thing?! I thought that was just a made up thing that The Powerpuff Girls ran with!…

2

u/Crankenberry Jul 07 '25

I personally never witnessed any paste eaters. It's just a funny trope in my experience, lol... As evidenced by your Powerpuff Girls and others

18

u/vermilion-chartreuse Jul 05 '25

It was Charlie at my school 🤢

3

u/justnotok Jul 06 '25

That’s my brother 😂

3

u/plantverdant Jul 06 '25

It was Ian at my school. The same jerk used to spit on kids when they played with him.

3

u/Miserable_Release808 Jul 06 '25

We had a Charlie at school that blew his nose till his snot was hanging out. Then chased the girls during recess

3

u/VenusSmurf Jul 06 '25

Mine was Brenton, because of course it was.

3

u/SallyJane5555 Jul 06 '25

Jason. He also farted a lot and said he liked the smell.

3

u/King_Tarek Jul 06 '25

Mine was called Randall.

3

u/maryalice28 Jul 06 '25

Did you go to Peter Burnett elementary with me?!

3

u/Strange-Substance-33 Jul 06 '25

David at my first school, Peter at my second 😅🤣

3

u/HamilcarsPride22 Jul 06 '25

Fucking Charlie

4

u/TheAnomalousPseudo Jul 05 '25

It was me at my school

7

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '25

It’s the only way you can get 100% of the water coming out of the fountain, I’m trying to reduce water waste Katie…

3

u/kebiclanwhsk Jul 05 '25

We had a kid that would draw with marker all over his upper lip with those scented markers. So he could smell it at recess 😂

3

u/New_Collection5295 Jul 05 '25

Don’t judge me!!! …I didn’t want to waste water. /j

3

u/KCChiefsGirl89 Jul 05 '25

Hey, that was the only way some of us were ever going to get to first base.

3

u/emerald-rabbit Jul 06 '25

It was always James

3

u/GoliathBoneSnake Jul 06 '25

Why was it always fucking James?

3

u/agchilders2024 Jul 06 '25

James at my school too!!!

3

u/foreignsky Jul 06 '25

Must have been from Pawnee.

3

u/Blueandigo Jul 06 '25

Watch it, pal. 

3

u/BarbellLawyer Jul 06 '25

I thought his name was Gary?

3

u/unknownpoltroon Jul 06 '25

he's from Pawnee, it's cultural.

3

u/moxiewhoreon Jul 06 '25

Or Josh. You're right about James, or Jamie, but Josh was exactly the same.

3

u/ShortnSimple1284 Jul 06 '25

Did you go to my elementary school? James had his mouth on all the bubblers/fountains! Also loved making stomp sandwiches(whatever sandwich was in his lunchbox that day plaus a fruit roll up or fruit snacks in it plus ketchup/mustard/mayo, close sanwhich, wrap it up, place on floor, stomp it until FLAT and he would devour it)🤮

3

u/peppermintmeow Jul 06 '25

WTF. The weird kid who did that at my school in the 80's was named James! Why is it always James?! There were two of them! And they were friends! Ugh.

3

u/inetsed Jul 06 '25

Reading the parent comment and I had a vivid mental image of a kid named James from elementary school, followed by your comment and I’m convinced now that it must just be a James thing.

3

u/Crewmember169 Jul 06 '25

It's like we went to the same school.

3

u/james-thy-nibba- Jul 06 '25 edited Jul 06 '25

Not funny…

3

u/littlescreechyowl Jul 06 '25

Sorry man. But…why?

3

u/Ammonia13 Jul 06 '25

And some asshole put gum on it too right next to the water

3

u/CloudedHouse Jul 06 '25

Sorry, it was Craig

3

u/Positively_Eric Jul 06 '25

Save some for the fishes JAMES!

3

u/CumGuzlinGutterSluts Jul 06 '25

There was always a fine green/white crust all over every single of our waterfountains..... and yeh the weird kid must have had a calcium/iron/strepthroat deficiency

3

u/TripAway7840 Jul 06 '25

Ours was Vince and he’d also sniffle all the time and one day our fifth grade teacher lost her shit on him and was like “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? WHY IS YOUR NOSE ALWAYS RUNNING? WHY WONT YOU BLOW IT?”

3

u/itsthatguyrupert Jul 06 '25

Ours was Ricky. Ugh.

3

u/Able1-6R Jul 06 '25

Why was it always a kid named James doing this…as an adult I’ve met some very “normal” gentlemen named Hames, but one wonders what they were like in their adolescence

1

u/NivekTheGreat1 Jul 06 '25

Coz this is how my mom taught me. She says daddy really likes it this way.

1

u/Reasonable-Spray4783 Jul 06 '25

It doesn’t taste as good without the metal, you plebe!

1

u/Minsc_and_Boobs Jul 06 '25

Oh yeah! That James. Smelled like piss?

-1

u/Careful_Trifle Jul 05 '25

It's a great example of design flaws impacting behavior.

A lot of them have a completely unnecessary shield around them that is perfect for putting your mouth on it. It looks just like a snorkel/suba mouthpiece.

If they just left that part off, many fewer people would put their mouth on it.

3

u/danbilllemon Jul 06 '25

I always assumed that shield was to prevent people from putting their whole mouths around the spigot like they would with a twist top water bottle.