How do you handle a difficult teacher?

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Sometimes we have a difficult teacher that we don't know what to do. I will give you some examples. The teacher gives you an assignment such as writing about a hobby that you like to do, you go to the teacher with a rough draft and she says she loves it and thinks it's very good. However, when you turn the paper into her, you get a 7.5 out of 10 (B- or so). You go to her and she says "you didn't follow the instructions of the assignment". Second example, the teacher allows you to write a movie review, you choose to write about a movie that is pretty controversial. She doesn't like your topic so decides to give it a lower grade. Third example, due to medical issues that you have you miss many classes, the teacher gets a VERY bad attitude and tells you "you must come to MY class and NEVER miss a class EVER." Obviously, sometimes medical issues do come up and there are people that do have medical issues that cannot be cured. Questions: How can we deal with these difficult teachers? Should we try to avoid taking their classes? Should we protest to the director/principal/department head/Dean? I have witnessed those examples in my schooling before and it makes me not like the teacher. In example one, it happened to me. The teacher was loving my rough draft and made me believe I would get around 9 or 10 (A grade), but when I turned in the final copy (very similar content to rough draft with additions, grammar corrections and moving sentences, just the normal stuff we do when we edit an essay), she gave me that grade. The second example applies to me as well. The teacher said we could write about ANY movie. I chose a controversial movie: "Y Tú Mamá También", it is a movie from Mexico. It was banned from a few countries. I think she didn't like the movie and in turn gave me a lower grade than I should get. The third example, I witnessed with other students. They had some medical conditions and the teacher made a big deal in class. In fact, I saw that she treated these students differently! I thought it was unfair, and at the time I didn't realize I had the RIGHT to complain to the Dean or Department head of the university. That type of behavior is unacceptable to treat students that way. I can't wait to see what you all have to say. Pablo