Wayback Wednesday: The Story Of The Michigan Teacher And The Fly

On the surface, it appears that a teacher up north was suspended for cooking a student's food. But there's a little more to it than that.

Okay, to be fair, he also made the kid eat a fly. Allegedly.

This incident happened back in 1983 in the small school district of Mio along the banks of the Au Sable River in Northeast Michigan.

A student in Michael Messinger's 7th grade English class swatted and killed a fly during class time. The event set off cheers from the 20-some odd students in class, which got Mr. Messinger's attention.

It's unclear at this point if one of the students or the teacher jokingly remembered Messinger's message from earlier in the week when he was talking about hunting in the woods. 'You should only eat what you kill yourself', the teacher had instructed.

The student who caught the fly then responded that the teacher had also told them to never eat uncooked meat.

Messinger then put the fly on a stick and 'cooked' it using a lit match and handed it back to the student, who then ate it.

While the student who ate the fly never filed a complaint with the school district, the mother of another student did, and the subsequent investigation got Messinger put on two months' leave.

Messinger denied ever having a student eat a fly, and denied any involvement.

After hammering it out with the teacher's union, the school district eventually suspended Messinger, a seven-year teacher at Mio Middle School, and he was eventually suspended without pay until the following school year.

No word if Messinger did return to teach or left for another job.