I'm not a teacher but a student at the end of a teachers comment. My 10th grade advanced biology teacher called me and my two lab partners "a bunch of pussies" for refusing to dissect a fetal pig in the lab. She was a great teacher, (I never liked her at all personally, but she was very good at teaching biology) but she had been put on teacher probation periods before for questionable comments and tests and things.

It was a big debate about us not wanting to dissect the pig for like 15 or 20 minutes, and my lab partner got the school councilor to come and help us settle a solution. She would not accept that we didn't want to do it, and she had no other plans in place for students who refused. Apparently no one else in any other class said no, or in previous years. It wasn't even that I was like sad about the dead baby pig. We started the dissection but it bothered us, cutting through it's flesh and bone and stuff was disturbing. I explained that it was gross, and it was disturbing to me to cut in to something so human like, and I have no interest any future in biology or medical fields at all and I don't want to do it. She called me and my two lab partners a bunch of pussies right in front of the school counselor.

Yes it was a very inappropriate comment from a teacher period. But in high school you get used to teachers being open and themselves, and saying what they want to their students, and it doesn't bother me. The fact it was an insult directed at us, and not just a little normal open teacher comment, and the irrationality of the situation at hand was what made us mad. "We're pussies because we don't enjoy slicing a baby pig open? ...Okay then." We ended up settling it with the principle and we got an A for the assignment and my teacher was put on academic probation again.

I'm glad I was able to settle it with the principle, (who knew me pretty well by then) so my mom didn't have to get involved. She had a history of screaming at my teachers/principles/counselors and making them fear me for the rest of my time at that school when she thought they were being stupid about something or felt I was injusticed in some way. She was pissed when she found out but didn't go to the school or anything because me and my friends solved it well enough ourselves. My mom may have wanted her skull as a trophy, but the probation was good enough I suppose.