So I (18F) have lived in the UK my whole life but my parents come from abroad so there are little mannerisms that I don’t pick up on or words I mispronounce occasionally as I haven’t been able to learn from them – just had a query about this exchange.
I brushing my hair in the school library – this is a silent study area, but people do whisper and wander the shelves, like today there were kids playing tag in it (they got kicked out but still), that day it was pretty much empty apart from maybe 6 other students. I had just come from school photos and it was super windy outside so my hair was knotty and brushing it into a pony tail, it was a quick fix up, I have short (but admittingly thick) hair and I had planned on studying immediately afterwards because it was my lunchbreak – I had my books out and everything.
As I was doing so my teacher came up to me and told me that it was inappropriate to be brushing my hair in the library and it was something I should do in the bathroom. She said this in a joking way like it was a rule that everyone knew and was laughing like haha you know you’re not meant to do this, you’re being very cheeky now, this is a reminder. There was another male teacher behind her who was like laughing about it as well like of course this is something you should do in the toilets, how embarrassing.
I was super confused and just apologised – also note I don’t cover my hair in a religious way and neither does she, our school is not religious at all and I thought she was a very open person. She taught me sex-education and head of PSHE at our school, encouraging us to have open discussions about drugs, alcohol, etc so was I being inappropriate by brushing my hair?
Also I asked the person sitting next to me and she told me face to face it was fine but later one (I had my headphones in with no music) I heard her talking about it with another friend… Not sure if it was malicious or not