A collection of questionable and lunatic teachers

At a recent book appearance near my hometown, several of my high school friends graciously gathered to listen to me read.  After the reading, about half a dozen of us hung around the library, sharing stories from our days in school together.

Conversation eventually turned to our former teachers, and after a few minutes, someone correctly pointed out that our collective childhood was littered with inappropriate, strange and oddball educators who, if working in education today, wouldn't last ten minutes.

Some of the the examples included:

The teacher who pulled one of our classmates out of the room by her hair

The teacher who was caught by one of my classmates making out with a substitute teacher in the science lab

The teacher who required students to only raise their dominant hand

The seeming abundance of high school teachers who ended up marrying their former students

The teacher who married a former student and then lost his job after an indiscretion with another former student

The teacher (who I have written about before) who called me The Big Dickus, my brother The Little Dickus, assigned detentions like he was doling out candy and handed out zeros as test grades for bad behavior

The teacher who would watch us eat lunch with an unlit cigarette in her mouth

The teacher who my fourth grade class made cry.  And then the other teacher who my fourth grade class made cry.      

The teacher who refused to teach my fourth grade class when we returned to elementary school (that was quite a year for us)

The teacher who told me that she had given me a D- on my report card because she didn't like me

And these are just some of the less-than-savory, less-than-highly-skilled educators who litter my educational landscape.  I know I'm forgetting a bunch of other examples, and perhaps my high school friends can add to the list for me. 

But I wonder:

Were these teachers reflective of the time period that I attended school (1976-1989) or was my hometown a gathering point for lunatics and unskilled professionals?