History Main / OffToBoardingSchool

* In ''Series/TheLoveBoat'' episode "Return of the Ninny," a woman plans to have her fiancé's kids sent to boarding school and the nanny fired so she won't have to deal with them. Her plans call apart when the father hears the nanny discussing the future with the kids, causing him to call off the engagement.

-->'''Brighton''': ''(in Eastern European accent)'' I'm Dracula, I'm gonna suck out
all your blood and bury you alive!\\

* In TheMovie of ''Film/TheCatInTheHat'', Lawrence wants to marry Joan and send her son Conrad off to military school (apparently because Conrad knows what kind of a person Larry is). Unfortunately, his evil scheme is foiled by the Cat, making Lawrence go to military school alone while getting Joan to place a flyer for said school on his sticky, purple goo filled body.

* In TheMovie of ''Film/TheCatInTheHat'', Lawrence wants to marry Joan and send her son Conrad off to military school (same dif). Unfortunately, his evil scheme is foiled by the Cat, making Lawrence go to military school alone while getting Joan to place a flyer for said school on his sticky, purple goo filled body.

* In an episode of ''Series/TheNanny'', Brighton and Gracie are playing:
-->'''Brighton''': ''(in Eastern European accent)'' I'm Dracula, and I'm going to suck all your blood and bury you alive!\\

'''Brighton''': ''(in normal voice)'' All right, fine. I'm C.C. (''[[RichBitch C.C. Babcock]], their dad's business partner''), and I'm gonna marry Dad and send you away to boarding school!\\

%% DON'T USE THE ACTORS' NAMES FOR THEIR CHARACTERS: * In TheMovie of ''Film/TheCatInTheHat'', Alec Baldwin wants to marry Kelly Preston and send her son off to military school (same dif). Unfortunately, his evil scheme is foiled by Mike Myers, making Baldwin go to military school alone while getting Kelly Preston to place a military school flyer on his sticky, purple goo filled body, thus ending the film with Fanning, Preston, and Breslin (all 3) jumping on a couch as Myers sets off on his own (with Thing 1 and Thing 2).

* In ''Film/TheParentTrap1961'' and its remake ''Film/TheParentTrap1998'', the father's new fiancée plots to have his daughter sent away to boarding school after they're married.
* In most film versions of ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'', as in the book, the Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge a vision of his younger self alone at boarding school while the other boys have gone home for Christmas. Some versions, like ''Film/Scrooge1951'' and ''Film/AChristmasCarol1984'', even [[AdaptationExpansion give more explanation than the book does]] for why Scrooge's father doesn't want him at home: usually that his mother [[DeathByChildbirth died when he was born]] and his father [[MaternalDeathBlameTheChild still blames him for it.]]

* ''Film/TheSoundOfMusic'': "Darling, haven't you ever heard of a delightful little thing called boarding school ?"

* ''Film/DetroitRockCity'': Teenage Kiss fans in the titular's 1978 Kiss mania peak bust one of their stoner pals out of a Catholic one
* In ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'', after Biff marries Lorraine in 1985-A, Marty is sent to (and expelled from) various boarding schools.
* ''Film/ProblemChild 2'': "Whether you like it or not, I am going to marry your daddy. And when I do, you will be on the first plane to boarding school - in Baghdad!" Bonus points for there being a war on over there at the time the movie was released!

* ''Film/ThreeMenAndALittleLady'' has the director fiance of the little lady Mary's mother plotting to send Mary to one
%% DON'T USE THE ACTORS' NAMES FOR THEIR CHARACTERS: * In TheMovie of ''Film/TheCatInTheHat'', Alec Baldwin wants to marry Kelly Preston and send her son off to military school (same dif). Unfortunately, his evil scheme is foiled by Mike Myers, making Baldwin go to military school alone while getting Kelly Preston to place a military school flyer on his sticky, purple goo filled body, thus ending the film with Fanning, Preston, and Breslin (all 3) jumping on a couch as Myers sets off on his own (with Thing 1 and Thing 2).
* ''Film/AddamsFamilyValues'' was a weird case. One, the kids were not the children of the married (Uncle Fester and serial murderess [[BlackWidow Debbie Jellinsky]]). Two, they ''were'' shipped off. Three, it wasn't a boarding school but a summer camp. And four, they didn't prevent Debbie from executing her scheme -- Fester, being an Addams, proves harder to kill than her other victims, and when Fester escapes and Debbie turns her wrath toward the entire family, it is little Pubert who ends up [[ShockAndAwe literally short-circuiting]] [[HoistByHisOwnPetard her plans]].
* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:''

* Ted 'Theodore' Logan, in ''Film/BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure'', has a strict father who doesn't approve of his rock-star dreams and plans to send him off to "Oates Military Academy" if he doesn't get an A on his history final. Avoiding such a heinous and un-triumphant fate is what causes said excellent adventure in the first place.

** But played straight when Blanche Ingram wants to send Adele to boarding school... where she goes for a while, though for totally different reasons, when [[spoiler: her governess/stepmother walks out and her guardian (probably her father, for all he denies this) becomes disabled.]]
* Played straight (this page's description is ''exactly'' accurate) in ''I'm the King of the Castle''; however the plan is foiled in the most horrible way possible.

* Suggested in ''[[Literature/EnchantedForestChronicles Searching for Dragons]]'' when Cimorene and Mendanbar come across a would-be EvilUncle. He's in the Wicked Stepmothers' Society (Male Auxiliary) but has been commanded by them to do something "evil" or lose his membership. He joined the society before he actually got to know his nephew, and is at a loss for what to do, since the nephew wants to be an adventurer and thinks the uncle's attempts to get him lost in the forest are just great fun. Mendanbar's solution? OffToBoardingSchool! The kid will hate it, but it won't actually harm him, so the uncle can appease both the society and his conscience.
* Many of the ''Literature/{{Gone}}'' characters have this in their backstory. Many of these are justified, since the boarding school in question - Coates Acadey - is a school for "difficult" kids, but others are just excuses to send kids away. For example, Drake was sent to Coates for shooting at the boy next door, Diana for lying to the police, Caine because his parents realized he was a sociopath, Jack for hacking a government website, [[CureYourGays Dekka for kissing a girl]], [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and Brianna for failing math]].
* Creator/CorneliaFunke's ''Literature/GhostKnight'' has ten-year-old Jon Whitcroft sent off to boarding school by his mother, who has gotten serious with a new boyfriend. The boarding school in question has a lot of ghosts that hate his guts and want revenge for something his ancestors did long, long ago.

* In the original Literature/{{Papelucho}}, Papelucho and his AloofBigBrother Javier spend the second part of the book in a boarding school run by the priesthood.
* ''Literature/TheBabySittersClub'':
** Logan almost got shipped off to his father's old boarding school but he and Mary Anne managed to talk him out of it.
** Mallory effectively sends ''herself'' off to boarding school (her parents obviously have to sign off on it, but it's her idea and she's the one who puts in the work to make it happen) to get away from the extreme bullying she's been dealing with at the local school. In the one book it's featured in, the school seems to be pretty nice (except for Mallory initially having a JerkAss roommate, which is resolved by the end of the book) and Mallory is happy there.
* Zig-zagged for Dinnie, the protagonist of the Creator/SharonCreech novel ''Literature/{{Bloomability}}''. Technically, she's sent to live with relatives... who run a boarding school, which she attends (although she continues to live in her relatives' house instead of the student housing). In her case, it's being done with good intentions; Dinnie's parents were poor and transient and both of her siblings had already started to have some issues (her brother was in trouble with the law and her sister [[TeenPregnancy had a baby at 16]]), so the family hoped that sending Dinnie to a more stable environment where she could go to a good school would help her to have a better life. She's not thrilled at first, perceiving it as her parents trying to get rid of her, but eventually comes to like the school and recognize that the situation is to her benefit.

* Subverted in ''Literature/DieAlchimistin''. When Aura is told she's sent to a boarding school, she thinks it was her mother's doing, probably at the insistence of the latter's lover. However, it turns out that it was the father [[DaddysGirl whom she trusted and thought her friend and confidant]] who planned it, and [[spoiler:his goal was to preserve her virginity so that he would be able to get a child with her later]].
* Zig-zagged in the ''Literature/ChaletSchool'' series. While some girls are sent off to the Chalet School as a punishment (Richenda Fry being one of the most obvious examples) and/or because their parents and/or guardians want to get rid of them, others are sent for more positive reasons. For instance, Dr Marilliar recommends it for Lavender Leigh in ''Lavender Laughs'' because he thinks settling in one place will be good for her health, while Nina Rutherford's family in ''Genius'' hope she will become more rounded as a person and learn other skills besides music.

-->'''Brighton''': (''in Eastern European accent'') I'm Dracula, and I'm going to suck all your blood and bury you alive!
-->'''Gracie''': You don't scare me!
-->'''Brighton''': (''in normal voice'') All right, fine. I'm C.C. (''[[RichBitch C.C. Babcock]], their dad's business partner''), and I'm gonna marry Dad and send you away to boarding school!"
-->'''Gracie''': (''runs away screaming'')

* ''Series/PunkyBrewster'' once left her foster father believing it'd keep him and his girlfriend from breaking up when they argued over sending her to a boarding school.
* This happened to Glen Bishop in ''Series/MadMen''. He and Sally maintained a long-distance relationship via secret late-night phone calls.

* [[SoapOpera Soap operas]] frequently have characters do this with their children to allow for SoapOperaRapidAgingSyndrome to take place. It generally seems to be regarded as evil behavior for the parent in question, as most kids come back resentful of their parents for sending them away, overlooking the fact that they received a very good education. ''Series/GeneralHospital'''s Lois was horrified when her grandfather-in-law called the school to enroll her child, even though she had only ''just'' announced her pregnancy, citing family tradition. She made it abundantly clear that she would not be sending her child away.
* In ''Series/TheLoveBoat'' episode "Return of the Ninny," a woman plans to have her fiancé's kids sent to boarding school and the nanny fired so she won't have to deal with them. Her plans call apart when the father hears the nanny discussing the future with the kids, causing him to call off the engagement.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' Gloria's backstory involved being sent to a cruel acting school as a girl through the machinations of her mother's boyfriend, who prevented any letters from her mother sent to her. To be fair, she did become a fantastic actress because of the schools training, with fame and riches that far outshone her StageMom. Unfortunately, it's also the underlying reason for her mental breakdown, which kicks in after [[spoiler: her mother commits suicide]]

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'' episode "Mommy Fearest" has Sedusa doing this to the girls while disguising herself as a woman (Ima Goodlady) that the Professor goes ga-ga for... (much to the Mayor's dismay as he turns his back against her by un-grounding the girls and throwing her boot-ay in jail where she belongs). Sedusa returned but disguises herself as Sara Bellum's evil twin in the episode "Something's a Ms." (a parody of "Something's a Miss"), not knowing that the girls and Sara Bellum accidentally discover her evil scheme of ruining/destroying someone else's house and wind up getting caught by the police (well, actually Sedusa).

* Also happens in "[[Recap/DuckTalesS1E58TilNephewsDoUsPart Till Nephews Do Us Part]]" from ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'', where a RichBitch has set her eyes on Uncle Scrooge. She plans to send Huey, Dewey and Louie to military school and Webigail to finishing school ("I don't want to be finished!") [[spoiler:Fortunately, his old love from the Klondike shows up and spoils the plan]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'' reveals that the main character spent the majority of his childhood and teenage years bounced around different boarding schools (where he was either ostracized or relentlessly bullied) because his mother couldnt be bothered to raise him, being more concerned with her career as a spy, her love life and her ''dog''! To no one's surprise, Archer has a ''lot'' of issues stemming from his crappy youth, which is part of the reason for why he's such a womanizing jerkass.

* ''{{Inverted}}'' in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'', where Ulrich's abusive father wants to ''pull him out'' of boarding school because his grades are poor (which was presumably also the reason he was sent to Kadic Academy in the first place).

-->-- '''Clarice Kensington''', ''Film/{{It Takes Two|1995}}''

* ''[[Anime/LupinIIIPart5 Lupin III (Part 5)]]'' has a non-villainous example. Lupin sends child prodigy hacker Ami to a French boarding school because he wants her to experience a normal childhood (while also keeping her safe from any dangers that come with his "job" as a master thief).

* ''ComicBook/{{Robin|Series}}'': For one of the arcs during Creator/ChuckDixon's run, Tim gets sent to Brentwood Academy by his dad, who is worried about him being a rebellious and secretive teenager.
* In ''ComicBook/TheSandman'', Charles Rowland is sent off to boarding school because his single-parent dad works for the British foreign service. At one point, having died of injuries sustained at the hands of undead bullies, he wonders if his being sent to boarding school was just a way for his dad to avoid actually having to be a parent.

** ''Film/IronMan'': Tony Stark says that the happiest day of his father's life was when he shipped him off to boarding school.

* Zig-zagged for Dinnie, the protagonist of the Creator/SharonCreech novel ''Literature/{{Bloomability}}''. Technically, she's sent to live with relatives... who run a boarding school, which she attends (although she continues to live in her relatives' house instead of the student housing). In her case, it's being done with good intentions; Dinnie's parents were poor and transient and both of her siblings had had some issues (her brother was in trouble with the law and her sister [[TeenPregnancy had a baby at 16]]), so the family hoped that sending Dinnie to a more stable environment where she could go to a good school would help her to have a better life. She's not thrilled at first, perceiving it as a straight version of this trope (that her parents were trying to get rid of her), but eventually comes to like the school and recognize that the change is to her benefit.

* Zig-zagged for Dinnie, the protagonist of the Creator/SharonCreech novel ''Literature/{{Bloomability}}''. Technically, she's sent to live with relatives... who run a boarding school, which she attends (although she continues to live in her relatives' house instead of the student housing). In her case, it's being done with good intentions; Dinnie's parents were poor and transient and both of her siblings had had some issues (her brother was in trouble with the law and her sister [[TeenPregnancy had a baby before she finished high school]]), so the family hoped that sending Dinnie to a more stable environment where she could go to a good school would help her to have a better life. She's not thrilled at first, perceiving it as a straight version of this trope (that her parents were trying to get rid of her), but eventually comes to like the school and recognize that the change is to her benefit.

* In ''Videogame/{{Bully}}'', the protagonist is a troublemaker who is dropped off in an amazingly shitty boarding school by his neglectful mother so she wouldn't have to deal with him personally.

[[folder:Film]]

* ''Fanfic/TheKarmaOfLies'': After winding up as Adrien's legal guardian, his Aunt Amelia responds to him threatening to blow off his online courses by calmly informing him that if his grades slip too much, she'll be shipping him off to MilitarySchool. Given that she pulled him out of school partly for his own protection, given that his father was unmasked as Hawkmoth and the public suspects he might have been assisting his sire, this is a non-villainous example.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' episode "Mommy Fearest" has Sedusa doing this to the girls while disguising herself as a woman (Ima Goodlady) that the Professor goes ga-ga for... (much to the Mayor's dismay as he turns his back against her by un-grounding the girls and throwing her boot-ay in jail where she belongs). Sedusa returned but disguises herself as Sara Bellum's evil twin in the episode "Something's a Ms." (a parody of "Something's a Miss"), not knowing that the girls and Sara Bellum accidentally discover her evil scheme of ruining/destroying someone else's house and wind up getting caught by the police (well, actually Sedusa).

Not to be confused with NotImportantToThisEpisodeCamp in which the sending away is not for evil purposes, but merely as a plot convenience.