Cathy-
I am so sorry for your bad experiences in high school. That teacher must have had self esteem issues. Were your parents aware of what was going on at the time? From a parent's perspective, I would want to raise he** over it!
Sigh... I had a teacher who was very invested in being smart. He HATED me, and I had to endure him for English classes both freshman year and senior year. He didn't do enough to get himself in trouble, but he used to roll his eyes at me and make sarcastic comments. Once I skipped his class when we had a substitute, and he seemed delighted to provide me with a detention. This guy hosted an annual freshman trip to NYC, and he said he chose the participants by lottery. But I knew the truth when I saw the list of who was "randomly" selected. Every one of his pets made the list, and I obviously, did not.
People who are overinvested in their intelligence can be absolutely brutal to the very people you would expect them to support. Here's a Carol Dweck model that shows what a negative mindset can do:
http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2007/marapr/images/features/dweck/dweck_mindset.pdf
