Educators Open Up About The Most Horrible Things They’ve Seen Kids Do (28 Stories)
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Teachers are on the frontlines of education, shaping young people's minds and helping them become good human beings. The problem is that sometimes, things slip through the cracks, and kids might act in a way that a teacher never could have imagined. They can only stand by and watch the mess unfold.
These horrified teachers are finally opening up about some of the most shocking things their students have ever done. Some of these stories are so troubling that you should probably mentally prepare before reading them.
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My favorite teacher in high school was a very kind a lenient man. do your work, be respectful, and follow the major school rules and you and him would be cool. the one thing that would seem minor, but that he was very strict about was taking any medication in any way shape or form in his classroom. one day, i needed to take some advil for cramps and asked to take it. he said i needed to go to the nurse for permission. i ended up asking him why he's so strict on it. it turns out, he had a student pass out in class one day at his former school. he tried to wake her up and called the nurse, but she wouldn't wake up. they called 911 and by the time they got there, she had [passed away] of an OD'd on [substances] she's took in the bathroom that she had hidden in a tylenol bottle. i don't know how he went back to teaching after that.
At least he gave a valid reason when asked, and didn't just fall back to the tired old "because I said so".
A different type of bad than most of these.
I was a teacher at a poor inner city school.
I had a lot of wonderful students but some difficult ones. One was the worst — clearly bright but was always sleeping through class and acting up and never doing homework.
I lived about 30 mins away. One night, I stopped by the local Wawa after a night out with friends. Was at least 11:30pm and I was already dreading the early morning drive to school. And who should be checking me out but my own “problem” student.
He was working late to make money for his family and then getting home at 1:00 am or later before heading into school on 4-5 hours of sleep.
He was a smart kid. Really smart. I hope things worked out for him but I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if he’d been allowed to have a childhood and focus on his education.
I was teaching for three months in a terrible inner city school in London (UK). Terrible, because the school’s management was super ridiculous and refused protecting or standing up for their teachers. I quit after three months, at the end of the first term – the school begged me to stay and promised me a pay increase. Here are some highlights: 1. A female 15 years old student pulled out a used tampon from her v****a during class, and chucked it on my colleague’s (female) face, telling her to “f*****g shut up” 2. A 16 years old female student spat on my face while calling me “a f*****g poof”. The school’s head teacher put her on detention for an hour as punishment while the student was laughing at me saying “you see? All I got is a free lesson now f**k off”. The school refused to suspend her and let me know that if I call the police to charge her with assault they will support the student and refuse to acknowledge the attack (“to protect the school’s reputation”) 3. A male student smeared his feces on a huge wall in the boys’ toilet, writing “s**t” with it 4. A group of 6-7 students 16-17 years old surrounded a male colleague, pushing him from one to another, took his glasses (very high prescription, rendering him practically blind), breaking them, then beating him and kicking him. The school refused to investigate as he couldn’t identify any of the students (he couldn’t see the faces without his glasses). He quit the school the same day. This place was a nightmare!
Can confirm many UK schools are like that. The disrespect for teachers is insane.
Teaching has always been viewed as a valuable profession because of its impact on people’s lives. We’ve all had that one educator who treated us well and changed our attitudes about a certain subject. Since we spend nearly one-third of our day at school or college, a good teacher can seriously make all the difference in how we feel about our time there.
Educators can have such a big impact on students, and the reverse is true as well. Some kids stick out in their teachers’ minds because of their personality, skills, or actions. But these memories aren’t always positive. Just like you’ll see in this list, some students really traumatized their teachers by doing horrible things out of the blue.
Saw a very sweet 16-year-old girl I taught for 5 years being strangled by her boyfriend in the hallway at school.
I was FUMING and he got very aggressive with me yelling in my face that it was "just a joke" and I should "chill". As a woman, I also felt really intimidated by this teenage boy.
I passed it on to the safeguarding team and I'm not sure how they dealt with it, but I know the girl defended him. He got expelled for something else a few weeks later and she told me that they broke up when he was gone, but I still worry about what kinds of relationships she's going to have in the future if she thought his behaviour was acceptable. She deserves sooo much better.
There was an article on the BBC News site just last week along similar lines, and the gist was that teens are growing up seeing so much pórn (screw you, BP censors) that involves strangulation that the think it's normal. Boys are actually asking teachers in sex education how they can know how much it's safe to strangle their partner and how they can resuscitate them if needs be. If the boys think that's a normal part of sex, then I guess the girls must do too. It's crazy.
It’s a three-way tie for me.
Student 1: Steal my class pet, a fish that I really loved. Claim to flush it down the toilet. Another student said they gave it away to a kid on the street in a water bottle.
Student 2: Raise their hand in a fist like they were going to hit me when I was visibly pregnant to see me flinch. They repeated this gesture three times. I wasn’t their teacher. I just asked them to stop banging on random doors and go to class.
Student 3: Put his finger in his throat and forced himself to throw up on my floor. I asked him why he just did that. He said to go to the nurse. Why didn’t he just ask though? Why start with forcing yourself to puke on my classroom carpet?
I quit teaching; the kids and their parents and the admin are raising a generation that isn’t going to understand consequences. We are creating sociopaths. I also grew tired of parents screaming at me for the dumbest reasons (I didn’t allow phones out in my classes; another wanted me to pay for her internet at home). And finally— I was not paid enough yet I was expected to subsidize the education system.
A lot of these kids that do really violent s**t end up being coddled instead of sent to juvie where they belong. I totally understand why OP quit. I honestly fear for the future. One reason I sub is because I like seeing the good kids that give me hope. I just pray that they stay good and don't get corrupted. I make sure to praise and encourage them for their good behavior, and I do what I can to help the problem kids; unfortunately, not all of them want to be helped.
Stab another student in the back of the head with a pencil.
Went in right at the base of the skull. Luckily it didn't hit anything important and just needed three stitches. But it was deep enough that it stayed in before the doctors took it out.
My best friend got stabbed in the same spot with a Bic pen in 7th grade. All he did was ask to borrow one from the kid next to him, instead of saying no he stabbed him as hard as he could. The stabber got 3 days ISS, the same punishment I got that year for writing on a desk in pencil.
The scale of terrible things kids have done can range from gross to downright scary. To help you take a break from some of the more extreme stories on this list, Bored Panda interviewed a teacher (who wished to remain anonymous) to hear some of her stories about naughty or rude things kids did. She said that once, while “reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar to a group of kindergarten children when we came to the page about the caterpillar getting fat, one little boy screamed that the teacher was fat like the caterpillar.”
She shared a few other examples, like a kid who “screamed that she hated the teacher, as the teacher asked her not to push another child. As we now have cameras to check back and reconfirm, we also show the parents some [of] the footage so they can understand the situation as well. One little boy put Play-Doh in his ears and his friend's ears. When asked he said he didn’t know how it happened. [Another] little boy threw a tantrum as he wasn’t allowed to run outside the classroom and he bit the assistant teacher.”
Saw a boy stab a girl in the eye with a pencil.
Luckily for her the pencil was blunt and he missed her eyeball and got the bridge of her nose instead.
The boy bullied other boys and girls..as long as they were smaller than him.
I called the principal, the little girl still had the pencil mark on her nose. Boy was taken out of the class...but sadly there were no long term consequences. I think he just got talking to from the principal.
The girl was more surprised than hurt, she did not even cry. But i was horrified.
On another note...I remember Billy. Billy was a good kid, doing well in school. Then his parents decided to make him a "boarder" at the school. Billy's parents lived so close you could see his house from the school...but he was no longer allowed to go there. He lived in the school now, like the other boarders. But he could still see the home he was no longer allowed to go to...
His behaviour went from good to bad. He stopped doing any work and misbehaved all the time.
I was a teacher but I also lived at the school...(a private school). One day I walked past Billy, who was sitting on a stair and crying while looking at a picture he held in his hands....of his mum and dad.
After a few years he was allowed to be a day boy instead of a boarder, his mum and dad let him go home again. But Billy's personality had changed...possibly permanently. This was about 15 years ago...
I hope you're ok now, Billy.
My wife is a elementary teacher and has a kid this year that likes to slip under their desk and lick toes (we live in a warm state) and they all think he will grow up to be a creeper.
Sadly, eating out of a bin because they were so hungry. I worked in a very deprived area and this has always stuck with me as one of the worst things I’ve witnessed at school.
In many of these situations, students' actions put themselves, other kids, or the teachers at risk. Educators might be unable to discipline the child effectively because of school rules or out of fear of their parents retaliating. That’s why many teachers feel powerless, and some even fear for their safety.
A survey by EdWeek Research Center found that 41% of school educators feel less safe after the pandemic. They have observed that there are a lot more behavioral problems and mental health struggles among students ever since COVID. With an increase in violence among students and the problems that they are facing, it’s no wonder that teachers are worrying about being safe in schools.
I was talking to a kid about Pokémon one day during their lunch time. I'm the band director and a lot of band kids come to the band room for lunch. We were having a good time. He's a great tuba player and I tell him I can't wait to see him tomorrow. He took a rope and hung himself in the last period of the day by kicking a desk out from under him. Luckily the teacher he was with was able to somehow get to him, but I ran down in time hearing the screaming and was in time to see him hanging there as others tried to support him enough to keep him from [passing away]. Kid was gotten down, but that was awful. It's so hard to tell sometimes even when you're right there with them right before they try it.
The was a loud pop and a flash in the back corner of the classroom. I asked the student sitting there what happened. She said it was firecrackers. I sent her to the office. While she was still in the office, I realized the electrical outlets in the room didn’t work. At that point, another student fessed up that the student sent to the office had put a pair of scissors in the outlet. I’m not sure why that student thought it was better to lie and claim she was doing fireworks inside the school?
It gets very hot here in the warmer months and so the school put out those big containers for water for everyone. Well one student was caught peeing into a bag and dumping it into the containers.
Adding: student was 11 or 12.
When kids get so out of hand and do things they aren’t supposed to, the teachers must find a way to step in. The educator we interviewed mentioned that in the case of “most behavioral issues, we speak to the child at the time of the incident. If it is severe or they have harmed someone the parents get called in, we have a meeting with parents and school management, then parents and the child with the teacher.”
“The school will call the parents in to speak to them about the challenging behavior. It is always immediate, we don’t usually wait until the next week unless the parents are very busy. As soon as the incident happens, the child is taken away from the situation and spoken to/calmed down. They are asked about what happened so we have a better idea of what triggered the behavior. Some may be given a time-out (they can choose to sit in a quiet corner or color/draw what is bothering them). They are allowed a few minutes before the teacher speaks to them about how their behavior is not appropriate, and they need to follow classroom expectations so we can all work together,” she added.
Once caught a child looking up furry [adult film] on a class ipad. That was something.
When I was teaching preschool, I had a little girl, between 3-4, walk up to another girl who was sitting on the rug reading a book, grab her by the hair and slam her head into the wall. They hadn’t been interacting in any way prior. When I asked her why she did it, she said she “wanted her to know it hurts.”.
The response seems to imply that the victim here had maybe done the same thing to the perpetrator in the past.
About 8 years ago a Student was spraying deodorant in class, teacher asked the student to stop as that she and other students might be asthmatic and to go outside instead, the student paused for a moment then sprayed it directly in her face, teacher had an asthma attack and was taken to hospital, student was given a stern talking to but otherwise had no consequence.
With having to teach, discipline kids, and deal with parents, it’s no wonder that nearly 6 in 10 teachers experience job-related stress and burnout. A Pew Research Center survey found that 52% of educators would not advise a young person starting out today to become a teacher. It might seem shocking, but with so much pressure on their shoulders, it’s no wonder that people in this profession find it tough to manage. If these stories are any indicator, educators have way too much to handle.
That’s why parents need to step in. The teacher we interviewed said that if a kid is really out of control, the parents “may need to address certain issues with a therapist or counselor. We explain [that] the child may require additional support at home from the parents, and [that] the best way to build better relationships is to talk it through.”
I taught a student who was born addicted to various [substances] and at the age of 17 still had no coping mechanisms, so when he was stressed out he would lean over and fart in your face. The day he graduated I cried buckets.
I taught college English literature and composition for twenty-five years until I retired a few years ago.
I've caught students cheating on exams and plagiarizing quite a few times--at least a couple per semester.
During every exam, I had students turn off their phones and place them on their desks face up. I always went around and checked their phones.
During one exam, I had a student say she didn't have a phone. She was a single mum who had recently immigrated to the country, so it seemed reasonable that she couldn't afford a phone and it didn't occur to me that she was lying. She asked to go to the bathroom during the exam and I let her go.
While she was gone, her name popped up on the course site and I could see every resource she looked at while she was out of the classroom for about five minutes.
I let her finish the exam, but wrote to her immediately after and included the record of everything she'd viewed during the exam from her phone (that she apparently didn't have).
She claimed that she forgot she had her phone (and when she remembered she did have it, she was embarrassed to admit it), that it was in the pocket of her jeans, that she must've hit the course site when she was pulling down/pulling up her pants because it was the last thing she'd looked at online.
I said I'm sorry, but I'd have to forward the evidence to the dean. She said she was going to appeal it. I replied that that was fine--it was her right to appeal.
Meanwhile, the dean's office contacted me to say that this was her third offence.
Because it was her third offence, she automatically failed the course. It was sad because she had high enough grades to pass the course before the exam, so even if she'd failed the exam, she would've passed the course.
I think about her often because I admired her so much for restarting her life with a small child in a new country. She would sometimes bring her young son to class if she couldn't get a babysitter and she was very attentive to him and he was very well behaved and never disrupted the class.
To SirWriteALot, I understand this sentiment given the mother's circumstances, but in this case the professor couldn't have known that it was their third offense like that. She did what she should have done.
This was the worst thing I know of that happened at my high school.
Someone brought a blasting cap to school (OK, that's a bit dumb), and flushed it down the toilet (that's REALLY dumb). Then told a teacher about it, because maybe it wasn't such a good idea (their best idea that day, really).
Wound up with that restroom being taken out of service while the fire department x-rayed the plumbing to find and remove the (admittedly tiny) explosive. Took several weeks before it was back in service.
Don’t let all these student horror stories put you off being a teacher. It is one of the most rewarding professions, with some educators having a lifelong impact on the kids they teach. Although there may be hiccups or bumps in the road, the journey is beautiful, and you’ll probably come out on the other side with amazing stories to tell.
As a student or teacher, have you ever seen any kids really get out of hand?
Early years educator specialising in children with S.E.N. (special educational needs). Eating faeces. No competition. Seeing a child chewing their own s**t is something that stays with you. Having to try and hook it all out of their mouth with your finger whilst they bite you is something you forcibly forget.
Children with complex sensory issues, particularly those with hyposensitivity to smell and taste will often seek out particularly strong smells and tastes and things that we find disgusting are not to them and instead are stimulating. Combined with the delays to their development which means they are still likely to be at the stage of exploration where everything is tested in the mouth this can obviously lead to situations that are very unpleasant to us.
Edited to add clarity and further explanation.
The fact that they used that picture for this story, will make me never see chocolate pudding cups the same way again 😖
This morning one of my kiddos used the urinal as a drinking fountain :-).
I remember there being a fight at my high school where one girl rubbed the other girl’s face into the concrete. She had braces and they tore up her mouth. Saw her a few days later with two black eyes and scabs around her lips.
Saw a 4 year old purposely push a piece of furniture over onto another 4 year old at preschool. It actually really hurt the other kid, and her parents took the school to court.
Preschoolers can be violent. We had a student dislocate a teacher’s knee and then attempt to break her pinky finger the next week. Afterwards he encouraged other students to do the same and threatened to “break her other knee” when she told him no. He would climb on furniture, get others to do so, and then flee the classroom. They had to put up a baby gate but he figured out how to undo it. Administrators did very little. The teacher lasted until the end of the school year. Later the BOE claimed they didn’t realize this type of behavior was occurring (after witnessing it firsthand).
Didn't see them do it, but it was such a catastrophe that I heard about it for weeks.
The countryside Japanese junior high school I used to work at had one really rough year. When the 3rd years were 1st and 2nd, they were angels. As 3rd years, they were absolute demons.
Four male students in particular were stereotypical delinquents. They often just walked out of class and wandered the school, smoked out behind the building, and stole/broke a lot of things. It was so bad they had to schedule staff who weren't in class to walk the halls to catch them before they did anything.
Well, while the 2nd years were out in the gymnasium for PE, one of the 3rd year delinquents escaped and went up to their classroom which had all their uniforms and gear laid out on their desks. He pulled the pin on the room's fire extinguisher and sprayed the /entire/ classroom down in pink foam. Everything was ruined.
I'm a sub, and I usually don't teach above 6th grade for this reason. Taught 7th and 8th a few times, and it was absolute hell. Security seems to get called the most on the teenagers. I love the special ed classes though. They're the greatest 💙
My wife has a few this is only one "during class one girl was sitting with her hands in her lap shaped like a bowl, upon further inspection I noticed she was collecting her spit in her hands ...said her name, made eye contact, she drinks it and wipes her hands on her shirt. She didn't make a move to ask to wash hands so I sent her to.".
Two boys pushed a girl down a flight of stairs.
I hope those little shits got seriously punished for that. At the schools I teach at, the other girls would beat those boys' asses in a heartbeat. The inner city girls don't stand for that s**t.
Bring an air rifle to school in his backpack and get arrested outside my door.
Not the worst, but one I’m comfortable sharing. A student picked their nose and wiped their boogers on another teachers back.
How old was the child If it was a young child, need to teach the child to get a kleenex and blow his or her nose or wipe the booger on the kleenex. Then wash its hands.
As a former teacher I understand the frustration other teachers have. Most of the time, it is not actually the children who are the problem. It's a lack of support from administration and parents (who may not be able to consistently parent their children). The struggles of parenthood in modern society are significantly more intense than for previous generations, and the results of that struggle are shown in the children. We as a society need better supports for individuals and families.
UK (ex) teacher here, I saw a kid choke hold another kid but I was told I couldn't intervene until a 'trained' teacher was there. By 'trained' I mean that only certain teachers could touch children in descaling conflicts. A week later I quit after the same kid randomly threw a table and chair at me for absolute no reason.......boy, did that kid scream when I roared and stood up.
Not a teacher but my school is kinda wild. My classmate smeared c**p all over the walls of the accessible boys washroom stall- a kid the grade under me threw a soccer ball at my head (they love doing that) and I ended up with a concussion despite not the many times before (once they moved the soccer net to be right in front of where I was laying down, and I was absolutely bombarded with every sports ball in existence) also literally a week or 2 ago around half of my class threw rocks at eachother at recess and someone got hit in the head with a massive rock. He’s back to school now, I’m surprised he doesn’t have brain damage, the one who hit him acts like she deserves instant forgiveness from everyone just because she was remorseful- like shut up girl- also once a guy last year who was older then me used to bully me, and the final confrontation was him saying that he wanted to f-Ck my little sister and describing the act as well. He got in so much trouble that he never bullied me again
As a former teacher I understand the frustration other teachers have. Most of the time, it is not actually the children who are the problem. It's a lack of support from administration and parents (who may not be able to consistently parent their children). The struggles of parenthood in modern society are significantly more intense than for previous generations, and the results of that struggle are shown in the children. We as a society need better supports for individuals and families.
UK (ex) teacher here, I saw a kid choke hold another kid but I was told I couldn't intervene until a 'trained' teacher was there. By 'trained' I mean that only certain teachers could touch children in descaling conflicts. A week later I quit after the same kid randomly threw a table and chair at me for absolute no reason.......boy, did that kid scream when I roared and stood up.
Not a teacher but my school is kinda wild. My classmate smeared c**p all over the walls of the accessible boys washroom stall- a kid the grade under me threw a soccer ball at my head (they love doing that) and I ended up with a concussion despite not the many times before (once they moved the soccer net to be right in front of where I was laying down, and I was absolutely bombarded with every sports ball in existence) also literally a week or 2 ago around half of my class threw rocks at eachother at recess and someone got hit in the head with a massive rock. He’s back to school now, I’m surprised he doesn’t have brain damage, the one who hit him acts like she deserves instant forgiveness from everyone just because she was remorseful- like shut up girl- also once a guy last year who was older then me used to bully me, and the final confrontation was him saying that he wanted to f-Ck my little sister and describing the act as well. He got in so much trouble that he never bullied me again
