Bad students-for anyone who teaches

[Lisbeth]

I've never been a teacher, but I'm sure that there are students who are absolutely terrible.

Any stories?

[ButterflieRJ]

My mom was a teacher (3rd grade), and she frequently told us about a student of hers, David.  He was one of those kids who would do annoying things for attention, like drop pencils and paper all the time, sniffle a lot, etc.  Nothing *wrong* but annoying and attention-seeking.  It drove her BATTY!

One day, little David got the hiccups.  My mom noticed and asked if he wanted to get water.  He declined.  And continued to hiccup.  My mom says that after 20 minutes she decided to take action. 

She began pacing the aisles as she was teaching her lesson.  She paced passed David's desk 3 or 4 times, slowing each time she went by.  One more pass by his desk and *WHAM!!!* she slammed the palm of her hand onto his desktop as she walked by--I have no doubt in my mind that it was done mid-lesson and nonchalantly, a perfectly natural-seeming act.

He was so scared he tipped over in his chair.  The entire class had jumped.  The hiccups, and the small irritating ways of acting out did too.

ETA: This happened a couple years before I was born...

Mom walked back up to the front of the room, cleared her throat, and continued on with the lesson.

[T'Mar of Vulcan]

I've never been a teacher, but I'm sure that there are students who are absolutely terrible.
Any stories?

I've only ever had three kids that I really couldn't deal with.

One kid was from only my third year of teaching, when I was very young and green. He was one of those kids whose parents (well, mother) thought he could do no wrong. She had taught him that he was better than everybody and didn't have to listen to anyone. He was a Muslim, so he would sit in Bible Ed. periods (we still had those then) talking loudly, banging on the desk, etc. Then we were told the Muslim kids had to sit outside during Bible Ed. and of course they created chaos outside, with him being the ringleader. One day it got too much and I told him I wanted his "blue file" (it was a personal file where their behaviour records were kept - we used blue cardboard folders) and he came into my desk, yelled, "Here!!" into my face, threw it onto the desk, and stomped out. I called the Vice Principal, who reprimanded him. The next day, his mother was there, screaming at the VP that she wanted to see "that rude, useless b-word" who'd dared to reprimand her child. The VP refused to let her anywhere near me.

The next year when Bratlet was in my Geography class, he would create such chaos I couldn't teach. He had NO work in his book even though I diligently gave out notes and put work on the board despite them screaming and shouting in the background. His mother blamed me (and I guess I was to blame for not seeking support, but whenever we had problems with kids our principal would say we had to solve it ourselves) and the principal actually said, "You must get his book in order." I was so introverted then that I usually didn't say anything, but I stood up to him and said, "I refuse to do that. He's the one who disrupted my class; he must catch up himself."

When Bratlet went to high school he made a racist remark to a black child (Bratlet was Cape Malay/Coloured) and the black child beat him up. I wish I could say I felt no satisfaction, but I did. The next year during a rugby match Bratlet jumped on a kid's head and broke his jaw, and Bratlet and his mother were sued, and the broken jaw kid won, and Bratlet's mother had to pay $$$. Oh sweet revenge by proxy.

I had another child a few years later who I swear was possessed. I used to say, "If you throw holy water on that kid, he'll start fizzing." He gave me the absolute creeps. Just thinking of his cold, dead eyes gives me chills. He was such a handful that even his mother couldn't deal with him and used to periodically ship him off to live with his father (they were divorced). His sister wasn't much better - she got pregnant at the age of 14 - her mother used to let her do what she liked, buy her inappropriate clothes, let her drink, etc.

The third child was just a naughty little you-know-what. He hated me for some reason and used to misbehave all the time. Eventually I got fed up and made him sit in the Head of Department's class, and I just sent the work there. Otherwise he was so disruptive I couldn't get anything done, but again, I was told, "Sort him out yourself." Talking to his parents didn't help; I tried that.

This year I have a kid in my class who is known for being a troublemaker. Last year he spent most of the time on the corridor because no teacher could put up with him for more than ten minutes. So I keep him busy by sending him on messages and giving him things to do. He still misbehaves, but much less than he used to. I'll keep you posted about him, since school only started this week!

[eport]

Not a teacher, but this thread reminded me of a story.

Grade school, 7th grade. The boys in my grade were not well behaved and having 4 teachers' kids, the vice principal's kid, and the principal's kid (in a class of like 70), they were not really disciplined (I guess so those kids  could still be poplular).

We had a sub for music class, who announced that this was her first subbing experience and first time in front of a classroom  (still in college). I started to feel like chaos will rule. One of the boys immediately starts acting stupid and jumping on his chair (at 6' tall, it causes a bit of noise). She gave him an icy stare and said, "I know who you are Douglas V." This quiets everyone down as she hasn't called roll yet. Turns out she was the daughter of another teacher who showed her pictures and gave names of who would cause the first bit of trouble in each section she was subbing for.

That surprised them enough that the boys behaved for the rest of the class.

[SunkissableOne]

When I was doing my special education rotation I was placed with emotionally impaired kids.  One day I was working with this boy (8th grader) on math.  Out of nowhere he freaked out on my and ALMOST stabbed a pen through my hand.  This is the same kid who would hit myself as well as my supervising teacher almost of a daily basis.  As for working in general ed classrooms....I've been called every name in the book. 

[pixiesilk]

Coming out of lurkdom with a story! 


First year teaching, 4 years ago. I was not feeling well, so at lunch I just sat with a bottle of water. My class right after lunch was my 9th grade sewing class. We were working on handsewing aprons. I absent mindedly put my bottle of water on my desk. I was super busy the entire hour checking stitches and helping the kidlets out. After class, I picked up my water, took off the lid and thankfully looked in it before taking a swig. In the bottom was a nice, shiny sewing needle. Through the process of elimination and lots of threats from the principal, the offender was sorted out and suspended for quite a while.

I might have to post a few more!

Ash

[dawbs]

I'm trying this again...apparently the internet doesn't believe I should tell my tales....


Oh the stories I could tell...(I don't work as a "normal" teacher, but I have taught in over 100 schools...and I love what I do and still work in education...but that doesn't mean that I don't want to smack someone every now and again)...Some of the stories are disturbing and aren't fun to share (they have more to do w/ parents and adminstrators usually though), so I'll just stick with one really one 

Once upon a time, when I was very new to the job, I got an assignment in a 'difficult' school.  (any elementary school wher the kids flash gang signs in the hallway likely has problems.  A lot of the problems at this school were contributed to by racial tension and poverty)

I had an over-crowded classroom with kids ages 6-9. The administraion had created a nightmare lack of structure. I was doing my darnedest to make some headway (not doing to badly, all things considered) but I continually had to break up fights between child who needs disciplining and a group of other boys. (Luckily at that age, I’m still bigger than they are)

I had been warned the other boys were trouble--and the other boys were a challenge.  But something about the situation didn’t feel right… I couldn’t *quite* put my finger on it, but I wasn’t sure child who needs disciplining was being innocent when he was “beaten up.”(it never got to that point in my classroom, but I only had these kids part of the day)  I separated them, but to no avail.
(I hadn’t yet gotten the administration involved because child who needs disciplining’s mother was employed by the school and wielded a lot of power.  She was also difficult and manipulative.)

child who needs disciplining was “mature” in some ways for his age (did not play well w/ his peers, he considered himself “above” most of them.).  He was a bright kid, but the other kids didn’t ostracize him for it, he ostracized himself.  He tried very hard to be a teacher’s pet—worked hard to gain the approval of adults, but not his peers.  He tried to be a tattle-tale.  He was also a master of manipulation.

My opportunity to figure out what was happening came the day I was “accidentally” given a very competent (I trained her, I’m biased) teacher’s aide.  I let the aide handle some things and tried to melt into the woodwork so I could observe.  (I appeared to be concentrating on some prep-work).

Sure enough, I watched as child who needs disciplining found a reason to be out of arms reach but within earshot of the boys.  He started quietly saying things about how dumb the boys were—very racially inflammatory things said in a whisper so that only the 1 or 2 boys he wished to torment could hear.  (child who needs disciplining was white.  The rest of the boys were of varying races but “not white”).  The group of boys, having limited control of their tempers, couldn’t just ignore it.  They said things back (loudly, they lacked the masterful manipulations of child who needs disciplining)  (The aide ignored this only because I had asked her to.) and child who needs disciplining countered with even more hateful things. And this leads to a near fist-fight. 

At that point, I involved the administration.
Apparently, this has been going on for quite some time, but since no one ever heard child who needs disciplining provoke the boys (you didn’t ‘notice’ until the boys responded to him, at which point it was a “he said/he said” situation…and the teachers would only have heard the boys, not child who needs disciplining.)

Bratleys mother was incredibly upset that I dared to accuse her boy of saying racist things (nevermind that I heard them) after she “had given up everything to come and help these poor black children, we coudl afford to be elsewhere, but we are sacrificing to help them...”. 
And then Brately’s mother was upset because of course it was obvious these children were picking on child who needs disciplining only because he was smart..he of course was just getting into the petty bickering like kids do, and they went and beat up her boy.

Both the aide and I actually made it quite clear to the administration that child who needs disciplining was instigating the physical aspect of the fights too…he would wait until his victims were so upset they couldn’t see straight and would do something small (a poke or flinging a bit of paper or something virtually unnoticed) to escalate things into a physical fight…
Then his victim would explode, the teacher would break it up, and it would appear child who needs disciplining was an innocent bystander who was being picked on.

The administration did very little at this point. 

(child who needs disciplining’s motivation seemed to be getting other boys in trouble.  I never truly understood why.  Perhaps to be the teachers pet, perhaps because of some racism taught at home, perhaps he just picked his targets as kids he didn’t like and wanted them punished [the other kids were punished…often].)

A few days later (when I had a different aide)  child who needs disciplining, after having me usher him back to his seat (away from these boys) repeatedly, refused to return to his seat (after figuring out the game I was dealing w/ it the best I could) and tried to reach around me to strike the other boy.  .  I maneuvered myself between 2 very angry boys and ordered them both to sit down.  The other boy, purple  w/ rage bit his lips, clenched fists, and  stiffly sat down… and child who needs disciplining, at that instant, threw himself at the boy and hit me…

Suddenly the administration HAD to deal w/ child who needs disciplining, because not only were there witnesses he was attacking another student who was sitting quietly, he had left a heck of a bruise on me.

Of course, that was only 2 days before my assignment at that school ended…so for all I know, the administration did nothing;  at the very least, the aides and other teachers now understood what was happening and knew the game child who needs disciplining was playing—before this he had played the martyr card (“they pick on me because I’m smart and I’m good”), maybe this incident helped tarnish his halo a little.

At least I hope so--because I don’t know where he is, but he’s now probably in someone’s high-school.  Or maybe even college by now.

[IndianInlaw]

I am merely the crossing guard, but all your bad students have to go SOMEWHERE after school.

I had on kid my first year, whom I didn't think was fit to be unattended.  He threw rocks at cars and once darted out in front of one (he was still a block away from my corner).

A couple years ago, some boys thought it would be fun to do a little dance, complete with obscene rapping in front of me.

They were surprised when I chased them down to the next corner and the other crossing guard and I took their names and called the school.

(There weren't any other kids for me to cross as I can see a half mile down the hill)

[J.D.]

I have to wonder how much of the "bad student" is outside influence from parents and teachers.

I worked as a student aid in a grade seven class back when I was in high school.  For some reason, this particular class seemed to have an unusually high number of students who had LDs or behavioural problems.  The teacher got me to work one-on-one with a few of the kids who were struggling the most, and for the most part, the kids were great. However, I was also assigned to work with another student - we'll call him D - who was the exact opposite.  He had some pretty significant challenges: ADD and ADHA, some behavioural  and temperament issues, etc.  He was so difficult, I eventually asked the supervising teacher if I could work with other students. 

But as frustrating as this kid was, I felt very real sympathy for him.  He was on meds o control the ADD/ ADHD, but his parents allowed him to take his med on his own; it was his responsibility.  No twelve-year-old is going to take meds on their own, especially when it's so clear to them that this makes them different from their peers, and at that age, different is the worst thing you can  be.  They didn't want to force him (hooey, they're the parents here), and they wanted the school to manage him on their own.  The teachers and admin. had long ago stopped trying to help him; they would just sit him in the office when he misbehaved.  No one wanted to deal with him, so they shuffled him off to me - a then 18 year-old student with no training and no experience.  LDs and behaviour issues aside, no wonder the kid was acting out. 

If nothing else, I learned a LOT about classroom management and the importance of parental involvement.

[Bob Ducca]

Wow...so many. 

Last hear I had a student named John who was one of the most insensitive, insulting kids I had ever met.  He came from a wealthy family and thought he could get away with anything.  He made racist comments, sexist comments, and homophobic comments regularly.  Nothing I did could make it stick.  He finally made me cry- and is the only student to have done so- and was transferred out of my class.

[Clara Bow]

My father is a college professor at a four year university. He teaches intro classes, advanced (prereqs required) and majors classes. He is also an advisor and head of the environmental geology program. He is not a stupid man, nor is he a poor teacher (he has a slew of educator of the year awards).
I say that to say that every semester he gets a moron. I don't mean someone who is impaired, or has suffered an injury or disease that has left them mentally or physically handicapped. I mean someone who refuses to study, refuses to come to class and still has the stones to whine when they fail. His Sedimentology class (a class for future majors that you have to have and that you have to be in the geology program to get into) all failed a test recently. One student made a two. He was furious and gave them a legendary tongue lashing (his legend on campus waxed a great deal). One student looked at him and said "Well I didn't know we had to study for this class!" AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

[Lizmo]

This is amazing but I've been a teacher for five years and when I sit and try to think of truly, truly awful kids, I really haven't had any. I have had some that are annoying and frustrating, but none that were really THAT bad... Then again, I'm in a private school, that might have something to do with it. 

However, I had my first crazy parent this year.  She came in and screamed at me because her daughter was getting two bad grades on her midterm.  She yelled at me b/c she was straight A's last year at her old public school (our city's public schools are not known for being good...in fact, at one point they weren't even accredited).  Anyways, I was just giving her daughter these grades and it was something I CHOSE to do, and her daughter was a straight A student and I was stupid.  I was so mad.  GRRRRR. 

[J.D.]

Auntie Venom,  my mother is in the same position! She teaches at the college in my hometown, and I'm amazed by the stories she has about students who just don't get it.

[Clara Bow]

We ought to get the two of them together, but I don't think that bringing it all up at once would be very good for their blood pressure....

[dawbs]

I do have one more which may be truly awful...but then again, I'm not sure how much of this is the child's fault
(it's why I can come up with way more "why my administrators are horrid" and "why certain parents should be smacked w/ a clue-by-four" stories than "bad kid" stories...a kid may be obnoxious and difficult but often they have redeemable qualities and it's the fault of someone else (at least partially) that they are obnoxious and difficult)

This child was a girl around age 12.  She was more "sexually mature" at that age than most.  We were doing an "under the seas" biology lesson, and she had asked lots of questions on reproduction (seemed like curiousity and confusion rather than anything malicious) and I answered them (This was a private school program and the parents knew I'd be touching on these subjects...I went a bit more "in depth" because of her questions, but it was a biology/anatomy lesson, so they were relevant).
 On the last day of this program I normally passed around lots of cool things (shells, fossils, etc).  But there were several absences, so instead I had the kids gather around me so I could show them details before I passed the items off.

This girl stood right next to me, and her hand 'accidentally' landed inappropriately on me.  The girl left it there.  I shifted my position and in doing so dislodged her hand.
It happened again.  Again, I shifted positions, not wanting to embarass this girl.
It happened again, and it was becoming clear it wasn't an accident.

The girl didn't appear to be malicious, in fact, she didn't make eye contact with me.  (I had known that this girl had become very taken with me in the time I had been there...things, however, had been very professional)

(I was unsure how to proceed, so I simply changed gears completely, made an excuse as to how it would be easier to see if we followed a different setup, and moved out of reach.)

At this point I was very grateful that there were 2 adult aid trainees in the classroom, and when one of them was about to leave I just mentioned to them (out of earshot of the kids) that I needed at least one of them to have a good view of me and the students for the rest of the day (no explanations given yet...the next day when I reported the incident to my supervisors (who, of course, talked to the aides) they had no idea what was happening--which, I suppose means I played it off well.)

I was very careful in making my report about the incident.  I didn't think the child was being sexually abused, I thought she was merely being "curious" in an inappropriate way...but I couldn't rule out abuse either.  (And, I did have to cover my own tail, allegations can have far-reaching consequences).  And the program was through a religious school which might have taken issue with a girl inappropriately touching another female (and I knew the girl's parents would take issue with that)

(and again, the hazards of the oft transferred teacher, I'm not sure what happened with it, this incident occured shortly before I changed jobs, so I had no ability to follow up)