Teachers play a huge part in shaping our lives. Almost everyone has that one teacher that they remember as being a real source of inspiration for them, who pushed them to achieve their best and pursue their passions.
However, in some instances, children leave quite a lasting impact on their teachers — and not necessarily for the right reasons. One person recently took to Reddit to find out more about the children that leave a negative lasting impression on their teachers by asking, “Teachers of Reddit, what is the most disturbing thing your student has ever done?”
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Below are some of the most disconcerting and troublesome answers that the question received.
Crafting Booby Traps
“A student created a boobytrap-like card for another teacher’s birthday that, when opened, shot out sharpened, unfolded paper clips. I was stunned by how ingenious of an invention it was.” — rfnj2490
I must have missed this episode of Blue Peter where they were showing you how to be a psychopath.
Strange Presents
“A few years back I taught second grade. An 8-year-old boy would always bring little treats for me in the morning like candy, a cookie or even these tiny animal toys. This one morning he came to my desk and told me he had a gift for me. He opened his bag and pulled out a big brassiere and gave it to me. I was speechless, took it and put it in a drawer and just said thank you.” — Excelor
Apparently the teacher called in the kid’s mother and explained the situation. The kid never brought in gifts again, thank goodness.
Pulling Out Teeth
“Middle school English teacher. I had a student pull a tooth out of his own head to get out of silent reading. It was a baby tooth (thank god) but according to mom, it was not loose. He just sat at his desk and grabbed it and yanked it back and forth and popped it out and came up to the desk bleeding all over himself and said he wasn’t able to read anymore so could he just put his head down. He was sent to the nurse and mom was horrified.” — durnik20
This actually happened to me once in school. A kid pulled out one of his teeth completely unprompted and threw it in the bin like it was nothing. That was a strange day that I had completely blocked out until reading this.
Extremely Violent Tendencies
“I had a girl who couldn’t be in the classroom and had to be on a 1:1 with me at all times. But she couldn’t be in the classroom because she was extremely violent and deliberately stabbed another child in the eye with a colored pencil, then laughed about it. The other child had to be hospitalized. When we asked her why she did it, she started laughing again and said ‘Because I wanted to’. She would also randomly attack kids on the playground and in the halls. When they put her on a 1:1 with me and she couldn’t do that anymore, she started attacking me on a daily basis.” — columbiasongbird
Apparently, the child who did this was only 4-years-old. It’s hard to imagine a child so young being capable of such extreme behavior.
Threatening The Whole School
“I had a student who I had worked hard with to build a good rapport. One Friday, he looked me in the eyes and told me, completely calmly, that I shouldn’t come to work on Monday. He kept telling me that he didn’t want me to be there Monday. When I finally pressed him for why I should not come to work Monday, he told me that he was going to ‘blow this s**t up.’ I said, ‘You know I need to report this, right?’ He told me to do what I had to do. He was arrested right out of my classroom and I had to be interviewed by the police.” — musicalsandmuscles
This incident took place at an “alternative high school” with an area that had a lot of gang violence, according to the teacher.
Animal Cruelty
“Crushed a bird in his fist” — Ludinev
Animal cruelty is definitely something to watch out for in children, as it can be connected to more serious developmental behaviors.
Hostage Situation
“A kid tried to hold the classroom hostage by pulling a box cutter. Immediately started making crazy demands.
Before security could even arrive a big kid pushed him down, grabbed the box cutter right out of his hands and said ‘Quit being an a*****e.’ Then sat right back down for the lesson to continue.” — ligamentary
It is impressive that that kid managed to take control of the situation like that, but also a miracle that they didn’t get hurt!
Abusive During Pregnancy
“Recently had one of my students tell a pregnant teacher that he wanted to punch her in the stomach. Another student said, ‘You can’t do that, she’s pregnant!’ The first student then said, ‘That’s the point.’ These are 5th graders. This is also in a school that rarely has behavior problems, so this was quite a shock.”
5th grade is old enough to surely understand what the implication of doing this would be, so it would be perfectly natural to be shocked by this!
Tampering With Drinks
“One of the most disturbing things that has stuck with me for years was when two boys (both age 4) peed in a cup and tricked another boy (age 3) into drinking it. They had supposedly told the boy that it was lemonade and that the teachers gave it to them. The boy took a sip and naturally noticed that something was wrong. So he went to me and told me that the lemonade tasted funny. The boys who gave him the pee just laughed. For them, it was just a prank, but from an adults perspective it’s just plain disturbing and not to mention gross.” — awaylikeapaperplane
The idea of this one made me balk a little, I’ll be honest.
F***l Catapult (Yes It’s As Hideous As it Sounds)
“There was one [second grade] troublemaker, the kind that would intentionally do things to make people laugh, but was honestly pretty harmless. One day, he asks to use the bathroom, is granted permission, and disappears inside. He reappears a few minutes later […] His pants are… Gone… Nowhere to be seen, and he liked to have collected his f***l matter, presenting it to the class like a trophy earned.
“This was manageable. I started to walk towards him to usher him back into the bathroom, but he suddenly turned into a s**t catapult… And p*o was flying EVERYWHERE… It wasn’t the most solid matter created, and he presented like a child raised on sugar cereal, sugar water, and sugar everything.” — BigToeHamster
The child was apparently moved to another class; however, I imagine the smell remained for a long time afterward!
Setting Fires
“Not me, I’m a guard at a prison. My wife is a high school teacher. And one day she came home early and in tears. I, of course, ask what’s wrong and she replies ‘a boy at our school tried to set the class on fire, he just came to class and [dousing] everyone in oil.’ If I recall correctly, one girl had 3rd-degree burns.
“Most of the room burn[e]d, desks, carpet, books, and the flag. Luckily most of the school was made of concrete so the damage was minimal. If I recall correctly the boy failed that class so he tried to burn it down.” — Kaiser20105
The person who set the fire did apparently face charges. Also, the girls’ burns thankfully turned out to not be too severe.
Sexual Assault
“High School male English Teacher here. Had a male student slap my b**t for no reason. I had a male student cup my cheek romantically with his hand in the middle of instruction. Had a male student stick his finger in my mouth when I was standing next to a group of kids staring at them annoyed to non-verbally indicate I needed them to be on task with the assignment.” — CliplessWingtips
This must be a horrifically uncomfortable situation for that teacher to be in, they should probably report those incidents to the head of department or higher.
Carving Names In Their Legs
“It was literally my first day teaching ever [and] a kid in my class carved a girl’s name into his leg and bled everywhere. That same class a month later I had a kid steal my wallet and then later come give it back to me when I was alone in a hall after school. When he gave it back to me he calmly told me I should be aware of what he could do to me since he was able to easily steal from me without me noticing.
“I actually never reported him for that but soon after his parents pulled him out of our school because they thought we were too liberal and filling their godly son with bad ideas” — potionbee
Yes, I’m sure that it was the teachers that inspired this behavior, not the book full of plagues, crucifixion, and suffering that the kid’s parents are clearly a big fan of.
Detailing Their Murders
“Probably tell me without emotion about the countless people they had killed (child soldiers). A lot of them were blasted on a pretty f***ed up mix of gunpowder, cocaine, and amphetamines. Turns them into robots.” — MikeJudgeDredd
This teacher used to teach refugees in Canada, according to further comments.
Flashing
“One student, in particular, is very challenging. He took his pants off twice – once in my coworker class, once in my class- both happened right after we yelled at him for being disruptive […]
“Two weeks later he was running to the classroom, stopped in front of my manager and headbutted her breast. On the same day, he also planted his face on our janitor’s b***s when she was trying to break up their fight. We have told his mom about this and she said she would talk to him about the flashing incident but not the headbutting as she was sure he did not mean to do it.” — elMoro
Hopefully, this list hasn’t put any people off becoming a teacher! There are still a lot of good kids out there, and the world always needs good teachers!
Stoning
“I had a 5th-grade student pick up two brick-sized rocks and try and stone another kid to death.”
Where would a 5th-grade student get the idea to do such a thing? Hopefully, the other child was alright!
Violent And Spoiled Child Abusing Pets
“A girl had sharpened 2 pairs of scissors both at different times cause 1 got confiscated. She had stabbed a student with it and got expelled. Thing was she was a monster. Recording videos of her tying up live hamsters to an arrow and shooting it. Spinning a hamster wheel fast with a hamster in it. And her excuse was that they only live for a few months. Yes, she was also spoiled.” — HITHEREIS
Begging Without Realizing
“I taught 3rd graders for a year, so the kids were around 9 years old. It was a couple of days before the summer holidays and I asked the kids what they were going to do during summer. I got to this one girl and ask her what she was going to do and she happily announced she was going to Germany with her sister and parents.
“I asked her what she was going to do in Germany and she said she was going to ask people if they have 1 euro. I was like ‘What?’ and she proceeded to sit down on the floor with a really sad look on her face, stuck her hand out to me and said: ‘See like this. Please miss, do you have just 1 euro, I’m hungry.'” — PatientCustard1
Apparently, the parents were indeed taking their kids to Germany and making them beg for money. The kids were ultimately removed from the school as well, according to the person who wrote this.
The Worms
“I’m a Pre K teacher,” this person writes, “I had a student that would find worms and slowly pull them apart section by section.” -shortstackboy
The Bowl
“I was a temporary student teacher and I was looking after class grade 1, section 4,” this teacher writes, “The kid forgot his bowl so he couldn’t eat his lunch. He got very upset and tried to leave the classroom. He called in the teachers and found out that after classes he ran to the middle of the road and got hit by a fast van. The kid was alright but was never mentally stable.” -Rhongepooh
Could’ve Been Worse
“I’m a 6th-grade teacher,” one person shares, “I teach library and one time a kid got into a fight and attacked the principal. So we had to check his bag where we found 2 clips of bullets and 3 lighters. The kid got expelled and arrested.” -JimtheBeast
Source Material
“A had a student who started ripping out the pages of his book because he didn’t like what I was teaching,” -deaddrop007
Close Call
“A kid once picked a desk up over his head and threw it at me because he again didn’t like what we were learning,” -DFTBA9405
Hall Pass
“A Freshman girl with a history of mental and social issues leaves my class to ‘go to the bathroom’ with a pass,” this person shares, “And comes back 10 minutes later having cut her arms multiple times and is dripping blood all over the floor and is sobbing.” -1st0fHerName
Assault
“I teach 8th grade and I had a female student reach behind her and stick her hands up a boy’s shorts while they were sitting in their desks,” this person writes, “Apparently she would stroke him whenever my co-teacher or myself would turn. It was a big ordeal and they ended up going to an alternative school and being charged with public lewdness.” -coppercat13
Sticky Situation
“When I taught middle school art, I had a boy smuggle in a bottle of superglue and try to convince the other kids to use them as eye drops,” -biancamarieg
Fresh
“High school freshman took some beads out of my air freshener and started popping them in her mouth,” one teacher writes, “Just, ya know, casually during my lecture.” -__karm
Inappropriate Photos
“I caught some kid trying to take inappropriate photos of his lady friends in the class. When I noticed him doing something fishy (he was directly aiming the camera to where the female students were sitting) I told him to hand over the phone and he got visibly uncomfortable but complied.
“I handed it over to his form tutor, who was a lady and explained the situation. First sweep through his documents didn’t reveal anything, but luckily I thought of suggesting her to check the ‘hidden’ category and I’m told everything was in there. School took disciplinary action as a result.” — Beeder01
Suicide
“One of my students (high school) came in one day and handed me a Pop! Vinyl figurine from one of her favorite bands. She said I could have it and I, not used to random gifts, asked her why she was giving it to me. She said something along the lines of she didn’t need it anymore. I thanked her and told her to have a good day.
“The following day she killed herself. It immediately became clear why she didn’t need the figurine anymore. That still bothers me.” — clori
Sometimes it is possible to see signs that someone is struggling; however, sometimes it is impossible to see the signs as they are so subtle, and a lot of time they aren’t there at all.
It is important not to blame yourself for missing signs that were imperceptible or nonexistent as that can easily happen.
h/t: Ask Reddit
Last Updated on August 4, 2021 by Paddy Clarke
