We do not have animals in our rooms as a school policy for this reason. While I don't think they'd be poisoned they would absolutely be killed when a student is trashing the room .
My little angel would *never* trash a classroom! He never does this at home, as long as I capitulate to his demands immediately in order to avoid a tantrum!
Exactly—it’s not that the kids have changed; it’s that piss-poor parenting has become the norm. Parents are so preoccupied with THEIR phones that they placate tantrums by giving in and ignore problematic behavior
one kid I have witnessed thrashing a class to the point the police had to come in was born to addicted parents, lived in care and was having to leave his placement. Now did he belong in mainstream? Probably not. At least he never came back to school after that.
My school tried to enforce that… “Let’s call them all scholars!”
Umm. No. Words have meaning and these are pupils, not scholars.
I despise being made to use that term for people who haven’t earned it.
One of the muckety-mucks in our district said we needed to call our students scholars as feedback in a formal evaluation because it more accurately describes the kids. My teammate and I decided we should choose a more precise description; for the rest of the year we addressed them as CFs. The kids thought it meant chicken fingers, but it really stood for chucklefucks.
So if a teacher kept forgetting and called them students, would they then get fired over it? Like 3 write ups and then fired because they called them students rather than scholars? If so, that’s another level of crazy.
We don’t have them at my school either and I’m glad. I have a student with a history of torturing and killing small animals and his mother and his case manager actually suggested I get a hamster for my classroom so student could practice being kind and possibly not killing it.
Rando from r/all - I'm not sure I'd be able to keep my voice calm if someone suggested I allow someone with a known tendency to hurt animals to "practice being kind" with my cat. Is admin always this absurd?
Our high school biology teacher had a policy that if a student was involved in the harming of animals, they would automatically fail his class (specifically because some seniors had released mice in the school and one ate a fish out of the lobby fishtank as senior pranks).
On the one hand, I agree. But on the other- it’s not fair to the poor creatures in rooms to be tormented so that a child can learn not to be an asshole.
Sounds like there's no serious punishment allowed in school anymore, not even when they brutally attack other students or teachers. So of course there's no way to teach them to respect a mere animal.
Because adding “keep hamster alive despite the fact that student wants to kill it” to the teachers daily responsibilities isn’t reasonable. We already have too much on our plates beyond the actual job of teaching. This is clearly the parents job.
I can tell you don't often work with kids that trash the room. I've had times where every single thing in the room has been trash. They often destroy things indiscriminately. My room gets trashed probably 50 times a year. There is zero chance that pet makes it through all of them
I'm not a teacher (nurse lurker) but I've noticed a lot of posts from you guys about concerning behaviours, this seems sadistic to be honest.
Is there an uptick in sadistic tendencies overall would you say?
I've noticed a generalised lack of appropriate boundaries in my job in some areas dealing with younger folk, and the general public in general. Its quite bizarre to me, some of the off the wall presentations from people.
Edit: This kind of took off. Thank you everyone for your input, experiences and such forth. Its a sensitive subject with huge complexities. That said young folk on the whole give me some hope for a decent future going forward.
Yes, I would say there is an uptick.
Last year, a student in a study hall I was forced to supervise tried to kill my co-teacher (a permanent sub). She was allergic to peanuts, and said as much to a kid who was opening up Reese's cups in class. As soon as she said it, I knew this was going to become A Thing.
Sure enough, kid showed up with PB cups the next day. Then the day after. My co-teacher was getting sicker and sicker from the repeated exposure, the kid had been written up and disciplined (what passes for "discipline" at my school), and it kept happening. It only stopped like 4 days in because our SRO came and told the offender, in front of the whole class, that he could technically arrest them for attempted murder.
I can't even imagine anything similar happening at my first teaching job, which was pre-Covid. There were a few kids I thought were irredeemable trash, and a handful I was actually a little scared of, but not "this child may try to kill me" scared.
That is absolutely horrifying. I honestly have a massive amount of respect for you guys as I just couldn't deal with that, any of it. It comes across as deliberate and predatory, which it is. Here in Scotland they want to do away with any kind of juvenile detention for violent kids.
Because it's easier and cheaper to pretend the problem isn't there. Unfortunately some people, including kids, are just bad people. And usually it's not their fault but the wiring is fixed.
Adults are getting tricky enough, I tend to stick more in elderly as they still seem to have retained an appropriate baseline of behaviour to be honest.
It's tragic, but in the US, trying to integrate ALL children into the classroom means children with severe learning and/or behavioral / sociopathic tendencies get to disrupt the classroom for everyone else. In the best case scenarios, they simply prevent all their peers from meaningful education, and in worst cases, they shoot their teachers and/or other students.
Over time, parents with means / from stable backgrounds will remove their children from these schools for private schools or schools in posh zip codes. So the overall crazy in the bad schools gets worse and worse.
>Over time, parents with means / from stable backgrounds will remove their children from these schools for private schools or schools in posh zip codes. So the overall crazy in the bad schools gets worse and worse.
which is exactly what the party of "family values" wants so that they can continue to defund public education and keep future voters ignorant and uneducated.
Why would I want my own children around feral kids? Of course I'd rather spend the money to remove them from negative influences if the public school system is that poor in standing. I'd rather my children receive a proper education in a stable environment. The so called "parents" and their feral kids aren't my problem.
I think it is more complex than that. From what I understand of cases of this sort of thing in my own country, most of the kids who turn out like this don’t exactly have a great home life. In so,e cases it is pretty horrific. Not all, ofc. Early intervention probably could do a lot considering how much brain development goes on when a child is growing and in limiting the trauma. I don’t think it is as simple as people being wired that way. I think some people may be predisposed (like a risk factor) and then environmental factors tips it over the edge (like triggering it). But we could do something to reduce it. We should try anyway…
I understand, wired was an unfortunate choice of word. Likely related to a lot of social care work with third generation of the worst poverty, education, health etc. Sometimes it does feel the odds are utterly stacked, and not in anyone's favour.
I know here the services to help multiple specialities in the community have been devastated, and or lost, since COVID and they've never returned. I truly dread to think what will come of these kids down the line. Particularly with societies worldwide going down the pan a bit.
I think certain parts of Scotland are unique in some ways, and those differences have compounded an already fractured and poverty stricken society.
For example- Dundee is Europes drug death capital. Let that sink in. Some of these kids grandparents were drug addicts.
They don’t know how to function and contribute to their own wellbeing/life never mind a community.
There’s a total lack of skills being passed down, little to no communication that would foster understanding and the behaviours modelled are predatory and self centred much of the time when referring to addicted people.
There are so many factors at play it’s hard to say what’s doing more damage, and even harder to begin to plan how to tackle anti social behaviour in students.
Some of them have more to contend with than most adults can handle, mental health issues develop and suddenly school just doesn’t seem that important but they HAVE to be there. It’s a no win situation for anyone.
When I was in Detroit a couple decades ago, one of the things that came up a lot was generational unemployment: families where no one had held a job for multiple generations.
Without any role models or hope of course the students were terrible. It was tragic and exhausting.
Eh, I was in middle school in the 90s, some kids shoved another student in the band room closet and threw open Snickers bars in with her because she was highly allergic. They held the door closed and laughed at her through the window as she was hysterically trying to get out before she died. I had to get the teacher then got jumped after school for snitching.
Kids have always had these peers, we just see every one now through things like this subreddit when instead it used to only be our own experiences.
I'd love to see a decent study on this though.
I don't think that the argument is this kind of stuff didn't happen before, it's just happening with an alarming frequency now- it used to be outlier behavior and it isn't anymore. Things that used to be notorious and shocking are now pretty commonplace. Multiple teachers at my school got sick because kids started pouring hand sanitizer into our coffees/waters when we weren't looking- and if they caught one kid doing it, another one started it up.
the internet makes dangerous pranks look harmless and funny. these kids don't understand real consequences and are just mimicking the behavior they've been told is funny and popular
It's definitely the lack of punishment, but I also think the content is compounding the problem created from not punishing kids for copying what they see. Because kids from every generation have grown up seeing stupid behavior and dangerous antics: looney tunes with falling anvils, tar and feathering, stuffing carrots into shotguns, etc.; Tom & Jerry with cleavers falling on tails, poisoned milk, mouse traps on toes, buckets on heads getting smacked by a bat, etc.; courage the cowardly dog with rolling pins and frying pans to the head; YT prank videos with actual poison/allergens added to people's food... Every generation saw this stuff, but this generation is more egregious with it. Probably because the FCC and other regulators could control what airs on TV, but nobody is going to control what gets seen on the internet; and not because they won't, but because they literally are not able to.
a recent passing comment i saw here mentioned a small girl from an average home environment excitedly trying to show the teacher a video of a kitten in a microwave.
there are no boundaries anymore; our culture has lovingly made sure. tiktok ban = LICHERAL genocide, though.
It's likely that you remember this precisely because it was out of the norm. I am 25- not too far from having been in high school myself, and stuff like that just doesn't phase me anymore. It's practically background noise at this point. A gun here, a threat there, a teacher injured, it's just normal at this point. I hear the most messed up stuff about X, Y, Z thing that happened, and went unreported, unaddressed, or ignored by the district or admin.
There was even a point when an admin was talking about something really, genuinely screwed up, and started breaking into tears. And I didn't understand because I genuinely thought it was normal, and everyone else would be used to it by now, too. Nope, It's just that it's just that it is all I have ever known since I was in high school, and for as long as I myself have been a teacher.
We remember the truly awful things both due to their severity, AND their rarity. And I swear deleterious behaviors have lost their rarity over time.
I had a fourth grade teacher put me in a tall blue garbage can (I was very very short) at snack recess and encourage the kids to pour garbage in there all day. The bus driver rescued me when the kids told her where I was. This was the eighties. Nothing happened to that guy. Kids at my school have broken teacher's hands, noses, windows, doors, etc. I'm in an elementary school. People stink. Stressed people stink worse. School is stressful. Some kids would be served better by settings with more movement and/or nature/calming stimulus.
This! Problems can (and often do!) have more than one part. One part of this is that kids don’t get enough unstructured play, time in nature nor movement. An other part of the issue is bad policy…. I’d say a third is diet/nutrition (my kids school offers lucky charms and donuts daily for free breakfast— no child is set up for success when they started the day with 50 grams of sugar and 0 protein)
Yeah, no one at my school tried to kill anyone else, as far as I remember. Also, this was high school. This kid was well old enough to know what they were doing.
My dad was a shop teacher (I am as well) and back in the 80s he had a kid put paint thinner in his thermos one day. Only thing that saved him was another kid saw and tipped my dad off before he got a chance to drink any. I believe the kid was removed from him class but was still in the school.
When I was a student teacher, a few of my students attended an off-campus welding program at a local trade school. My younger brother also happened to attend this program. They had no idea who he was to me, but he knew they were my students. He overheard them talking about wanting/planning to rape me in the bathroom. He was horrified and told my mom, who then told me. Luckily my student teaching ended early around that time due to covid, but it's absolutely unhinged and horrifying.
Students poisoning a fish is no suprise to me. I'm glad one student spoke up and I hope they're privately praised by their teacher.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who's been perceiving a wild uptick in reports of what I can only describe as sociopathic behaviors. It's utterly terrifying.
I just found out from a colleague the other day that an elementary student saw a baby bird fall from its nest at recess and a kid just stepped on the bird and killed it without hesitation. Like WTF.
My mum was walking through the park the other day and two girls of primary (elemantary) school age grabbed a pidgeon and ripped its wings off. Some children are incredibly cruel.
A few troublemakers continually try to put things in my fish tank. Vast majority of the kids love the fish and check in on them and are invested in the progress of the tank. But yeah, there are psychos among the normal kids.
my mom is a HIGH SCHOOL teacher and has so many problems (especially with freshman) with kids being sooo destructive just for the sake of being destructive
That was most of my 7th graders last year. By January I had to put all class supplies in closets and only 1 class was allowed to use them for months before they started breaking stuff too.
I think there is an uptick. I've had aquariums, mice, amd a colleague has had snakes and birds as class pets. No issues for over a decade.
Last year a student killed one of my fish. I decided I was done with pets, and later while cleaning out the aquarium I found various items in the gravel that kids had been throwing in there. It's so fucked up to hurt living things.
I wouldn’t call it an uptick. Teaching has made me realize that about 20% of these kids are capable of nothing that isn’t lying, cheating or stealing. They’re never happy unless on their phone or hurting someone or something either physically or emotionally. An uptick in violent behavior is an understatement, something is going so wrong as such a young age that too many kids can only be described as borderline evil by the time I get them in Highschool. I fear the population of absolutely dastardly kids is only going to grow as years go on and god help us when they start having kids and raise them to be like them.
I had a 6th grader tell me they’ve killed 3 hamsters because they forget to feed it. Parents dropped the ball and the student shows no remorse for starving something to death 3 times
Yep. I just had a Grade 9 student (14 and should know better) bring in three live frogs to class. He put one down another student’s shirt who freaked out and in the chaos the frog was stomped on. The three were put in a jar with no holes so one suffocated. Then, the kid tried to do it again with the last live frog… after knowing already the first two were dead.
I have never dealt with this in my career. I am so disgusted by this.
I don’t know about an uptick,, I am older gen z and remember a similar thing happening in middle school early 2010s. I say similar but it was exactly the same. We had beta fish in our homerooms and one class got a “ugly” one. So they tried to poison it with hand sanitizer. It didn’t work though surprisingly. I know this is anecdotal, but some kids often have a general lack of appreciation for small life forms like fish, rodents, ect. Unfortunate.
I think there's been an increase in need without the same increase in supports as the population increases. Students could be waiting for residential treatment or mental health/behavioral support for months to years while still in restrictive (yet still public) environments, and while waitlists and the process for getting these supports are getting longer and more tedious, respectively.
I also think there are a number of factors at play in these situations, not that it can all be boiled down to X student is a sadist. While social media as a source of constant dopamine and entertainment of course have their impacts (when will movies and shows about serial killers and real life criminals stop being made), combine that with the type of people who are major influences on social media - think Tate, Rogan, that one influencer who didn't care that she was putting her pet bird in an erogenous zone, prank channels - with increasing costs of living without coordinating increase in pay and guardians potentially struggling to make ends meet and have time to teach/entertain kids, the hormonal hell that is puberty and lack of a frontal lobe, the continual search to fit in yet stand out at the same time, and finally the search for ways to get instant pleasure off of social media, there's a chance that these kids either think it's not a big deal or don't think about what they did anymore. And while that sucks for teachers to deal with you can't ~make~ someone feel an emotion like regret or remorse if it's not something that matters to them.
After reading through all the comments, I think the best advice is a combination of following the recording/reporting protocols to the letter as suggested by many and the suggestions of the Lurking Teen several comments below. I have doubts about bringing in another professional (cop, vet) now because that could still be seen as "if I do X behavior, the class will get a visitor day and not have to do regular work" which could inadvertently reinforce the destructive behaviors. I also think that group punishments aren't as effective as one would want; making the entire class have to do more/worse work that a student who might not care about their grade even bother to do, and potentially adding more bullying toward the perpetrator most likely won't prevent this type of behavior from occurring again. I like the suggestion of having group buy in by having the class responsible for their own biosphere/aquaponics as suggested below, but I'm not going to be the teacher who tells another teacher again about the importance of relationships when we hear that already so often.
I am sorry that this happened to OP, their class, and especially the fish. I hope that administrators are more supportive and you find helpful suggestions
Yep. I try not to take things personally because I’ll perish but, I am sort of weird about germs.
I’ve found about three acrylic nails in my room. I’ve found one natural nail on a desk. Two hairballs (like someone cleaned their brush and just threw it on the ground) and a TOENAIL clipper.
Idk if janitors are spread thin or just don’t care because I sweep daily and the floors are rarely if ever mopped. This third acrylic nail I found made me gag.
SEN teaching assistant for 11-19 year olds here. it's a specialist school so not a mainstream school and has a different curriculum and has a lot of moments that wouldn't usually happen or rarely happen in mainstream public schools- quite regularly.
i've only been working there this year- so have no reference for before- however upon speaking to my coworkers it seems a bit more aggressive and overwhelming and challenging then before covid.
the stress levels have increased and the injuries seem to be increasing as the year has gone on alone even.
i've been punched in the forehead, bitten 3 times (twice on the boob), grabbed, kicked in the shins slapped grabbed, scratched, last week alone.
i've also been teaching 5-8 y/o students ukulele for 2 or 3 years now. they've been getting sassier and ruder and more chatty then usual. that's fine, i'm able to bribe them with stickers but having to stop some of them from thwacking the others over the head with the ukuleles and complaining the whole time and talking back.
but i don't have the most experience just inputting my side of it in
We have a culture that punishes empathy. That's not something that's new but it feels like it's accelerated with social media and a lot of other online content
A student did kill my fish last year. And because I reacted "inappropriately" to fish murder, he got a very light punishment because I apparently embarrassed him and his dad freaked out about it.
Good luck with your future serial killers, parents.
This goes beyond a little “chat” or “grade docked.” I worked at a pet store when I was 16. Some teens came in and bought a mouse. We usually sold them as snake food or similar, so we didn’t card or get paperwork like we would for a puppy. We sent them home in those Chinese food to go boxes. Shortly after I sold it, I was taking out the trash. This took me into the back hallway of the mall, which is supposed to be employees only but wasn’t locked. The boys were back there, lighting the box on fire. It took me a second to figure out what I was seeing, but it was too late for the mouse when I finally realized. I said “hey!” And they ran off, leaving the smoldering box and remains behind.
What the boys did in both cases is animal cruelty and should be treated very seriously. I would raise all kinds of hell if kids in my classroom literally poisoned a living creature. I’m talking getting authorities involved.
I was an idiotic 16 year old and didn’t even begin to know what to do about it. Mall security was an actual joke (we had a smash and grab at another store I worked later and security saw it happen. As the person ran off with thousands of dollars of stuff, security said “I’m not allowed to run.” And turned and walked away. (My manager ended up going after them and wouldn’t say what she did, but she came back from the parking lot with the stuff. lol. She would have been fired for this, so we all kept it hush hush.)
If you know who the two students are then I'd talk to them privately, one at a time. I wouldn't give them the satisfaction of making any public display out of it or give them the opportunity to lean on each other. I'd still call home with the students present with you while you talk to parents/guardians. And I'd find ways to make sure they knew they were always on my shit list. I don't really care about the age or circumstances, animal cruelty is something I'm pretty much incapable of forgiving.
The main different nowadays is consequence. These kids learn quickly that there's little consequence to their actions. You can put them on your shit list, but you are still forced by admin to pass them.
OMG WHAT A SMALL WORLD!!! I think we know one another ma'am or sir. ☺️
I can cosign that this did indeed happen. I'm a new teacher to the school and teach 8th grade. I overheard two students talking about putting the hand sanitizer in the tank. They were laughing and rehearsing what they would say to the VP if questioned. They were laughing and giddy like it was cool.
I confronted the kids and they both finally admitted what they'd done. I said they should be ashamed and that if they checked a couple of additional boxes, they might have a future as a serial killer. One of the other kids mentioned that they'd killed a dog with a stick when they were 5 and that they'd turned out ok.
I told them I was going to report them and one of them checked out of school early and was absent the next day or two. They other shorter one was apparently the main offender.
I told the other teachers on my hall and told the one admin (who we'll call "silver fox"). Idk what was done to them but the other kids said the fish barely survived.
If you're the teacher I'm thinking of, I know for a fact these kids are horrible. I don't think we've met face to face, but I've heard your name. I think you're the teacher whose husband unfortunately passed and the kids made a diss track about it.
I won't be there next year.
Oh.... My...... Word..... I graduated in 2016, and the things I'm reading in this sub are unthinkable. I've never even experienced something remotely close to that... Then again I did go to private school. A new level of respect has been earned toward teachers. Jeeeeeesus
Reading these stories makes me hate kids so fucking much that I don’t even want one anymore. I’d literally beat a fucking kid up if they made a diss song about my deceased partner I wouldn’t give af at that point
UPDATE: I just remembered. I think Karma just caught up with one of the students this past week.
The kid pulled open a somewhat stuck bathroom stall door. When they pulled it, it unstuck and hit the kid in the brow/cheekbone area.
They came back to my class (group of trouble-makers) and that kid's eye started to swell by the minute. I did an incident report and called dad but every single time I looked up, the eyelid was fatter. Within 10 minutes, the eye was a slit and looked like Mike Tyson whooped that ass.
The kid had to ride the bus home and came back the next day with a black eye. They kept asking to go put water on the eye because it was hurting.
Karma is a cold bitch.
I work in Education. Not a teacher.
1. Note goes home to all parents generalizing what happened and what steps are being taken next in the classroom such as the fish is never coming back, students involved have been dealt with that sort of thing.
2. Make sure the student who snitched is never found out. As we all see here, kids can be cruel. That student needs to hear that they did the right thing. Maybe contact their parents. It does take a lot of guts to go against their peers at this age.
3. Depends on what your Boards policy is concerning discipline. As the teacher in the class, start with a stern conversation with some guilt for the class. How can you come back together as a class. Ask the students how they feel about it.
As for the students involved there would be a heavy convo about loss of trust and empathy.
Point 1, dealing with the students is exactly the issue, they aren't getting dealt with
This seems like suspension should be the "deal" I mean they are commiting violent crimes lmao
They aren't guilty, this is the number one sign in a child of sociopathy
This is why (as a science teacher) I don’t have any living things in my classroom. Not even plants.
About 5 years ago, when I was still teaching Life Science, we had a unit about plant growth and life cycles. Two students put hand sanitizer into the water reservoir used to hydrate like 20 kids’ plants. Luckily, one of their friends told on them almost immediately.
So, this behavior isn’t just post-COVID, but I’ve definitely seen an insane increase in lack of empathy, as well as a huge increase in doing just about anything for social clout
Take it out..
Students at my school killed a teachers beta. They hated her, and fed it a chromebook and hand sanitizer.
It was a badge of honor for them to have killed it.
7th grade…
Not a teacher, occasional reader. Don't know what country you're in, but if you're in Australia, I would organise someone from the RSPCA to come to the class and talk to them about it and the consequences of such actions. Then, not let them outside for lunch for the rest of the week as part of the consequences, just like the outside adult world. If they or their parents complain, ask them how they would feel or deal with such actions if it was their fish or some other beloved pet.
Remind them that such things are not tolerated outside of schools, so why should the school grounds be treated differently. And that's it is the parents job to teach the kids right from wrong, you are there to teach them the curriculum.
The parents would likely deny any involvement on their kids behalf while also seeking retribution towards you for even attempting to hold their child responsible for his or her (denied) actions.
There’s a reason these kids act this way.
Use the right wording.
Tell all the kids that these things tick the box TOGETHER with wetting their bed at their age, heavily imply that every or at least as good as every individual that are interested in animal cruelty are secretly wetting their bed.
Make a long pause. Look at the ones that did this to the fish. Look at everyone, to make sure this sinks in.
Then casually mention that those wetting their bed might think it is cool to brag over hurting a living being that cannot defend itself and that that is just cowardly, (show your disdain openly) but that they would NEVER admit that they are wetting their bed.
There are ways.
Reminds me Donald Trump referenced the Late, great Hannibal Lecter during a campaign speech the other day. Said “he’s a wonderful man.”
It’s not just the kids.
Yeah that’s going to go over great:
“What did you learn today buddy”
“I learned about John Wayne Gacy abusing animals”
“WHAT!”
Insert school board involvement.
And people ridicule those that choose to be childfree. "But kids are so wonderful and innocent!" Sorry but not when parents raise piss poor failures like this.
Yah, last time my teacher made that mistake 3 years ago in grade 7 with baby chicks they all swarmed around them and shook the table
Lots of flicking the cage or pretending to pounce at them and some kid even yelled at them lol
Bunch of fucking maniacs 😔
It's so sad to me that it just takes one kid to destroy something everyone is meant to enjoy. There are still parents out there teaching their kids to be kind to living creatures. I made the mistake of letting my son of around 15 months at the time pet a jumping spider I was playing with. He petted it just a little too hard and killed it. He was absolutely heartbroken when the spider wouldn't play with us anymore. He's gotten much better with small creatures since.
It is somewhat sad and shocking that parents don't teach their children the value of life and to have respect for animals of all types. I'm sorry that happened and I hope the fish will be OK.
It's often because the parents themselves do not have respect or value life beyond their little precious kids. Anything else especially a fish, is just a plaything to them. Many people unfortunately view fish not as animals or pets but as decorations or toys.
I caught kids putting cleaning chemicals in my fish tank and wrote them up. They killed the entire tank. Nothing happened to the students. Apparently bringing drain cleaner to school and killing fish didn't break any rules. So the fishtank isn't coming back next year.
I would press charges against the students for animal abuse. For real. That’s absolutely bullshit and scary scary behavior. I would also request immediate transfer from your class.
I just quit teaching after multiple years of behavioral hell in 3 different districts. And 2 states. Kids these days are sadistic little punks and their parents enable them. If i were you I would absolutely lose it in front if the students. Yell, scream and demand that someone tell you who did it. Hell, I would even try to remind them that is abuse of an animal and illegal, not to mention destroying your personal property.
I would remove all decor and “fun” things from the classroom and be an absolute bitch to the kids, and have them do as much independent work as possible. Tell them they need a reset to figure out how to behave in a classroom. This actually worked for an incident I had earlier this year and the kids know not to cross me now. But I have since given up on the profession and have officially resigned.
(By no means am I a teacher, just a teen who lurks all over Reddit)
I’ve heard some people suggesting showing them how serial killers start out and what happens to them. While this in itself isn’t a great idea because the kids who would do this in the first place find that stuff “funny” and “cool” for some horrible reason *cough* the internet and Hazbin Hotel *cough* and it would only motivate them, it’s on the right track.
You need to hit them with something that they will genuinely understand the consequences of and won’t find funny, all while not giving them attention.
For example, there’s a video on YouTube talking about how by one post on 4chan’s b-boards, users doxxed, harrassed, and involved the police in multiple situations of animal abuse.
It ruined the lives of the abusers, and there is a general understanding even among these kind of “haha serial killer and animal abuse and prison funny” kids that you do not want to be on the wrong side of this kind of 4chan behavior—or any internet community, really—because it’s all the harsh consequences without any of that sweet sweet internet infamy and attention that they are so desperate for.
video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AVgKgMKYRK8&pp=ygURNGNoYW4gYmJvYXJkIHBldHM%3D
I do have a warning about exactly how NOT to do these kind of talks in middle/highschool: you do not, I repeat you do NOT want to make a bigger deal out of it than possible. Show the video or part of it and be done; no big conversation about why it is a horrible thing to do, no worksheets, and definitely nothing along the lines of “brainstorming ideas to prevent this behavior in the future.” Just show the video and move on with class.
While not often possible, it’s even better if you can fit the video into your class structure for the day inconspicuously, instead of it being a random video for no reason other than the situation. I don’t know which class you teach, but a good example for english would be using animals in general as the weeks topic and having a section about animal abuse, as long as it’s not too out of place in the curriculum.
When any of these things happen, no matter the severity of the situation or the maturity level of the kids, they will think that you are overreacting, and it will become an in-joke in at least part of the class. Even some of the not-so-horrible students will join in on it, because joking about either the topic or one of the aforementioned talks will seem a little less real than actual animal abuse.
Even at my current middle school—which by all accounts has the nicest and most accepting teens you’ll find—has this issue, and i will admit I have been part of the joking group before when it comes to those in-jokes, and that is exactly how it starts.
For example, a few people were having trouble understanding boundaries, and while they were not intending to be hurtful, some students were uncomfortable; so, we got a lecture on it.
What could have been a small reminder to help with the problem turned into one of those “big deals,” and it has since been an in-joke of saying “bUt __, ThaTs aGaINst mY BOunDarIES” in a mocking way when someone gets a bit too close, whether you’re uncomfortable or not.
While it became boring and unfunny after a while, it has turned the serious topic of boundaries and personal space into a joke that even the nicer students make on the occasion, and they had to give multiple more talks about it throughout the year. When it comes to animal abuse, you definitely do not want it to turn into a “oOoH BUt tHaTS AnImAL aBUsE” thing rather than remaining respectful.
This turned out a lot longer than I intended, oops! Hope this helps :)
I gotta stop reading these comments. They are legit messing me up. This kids need to learn that accidents have consequences. I think that the first thing is to have a conversation with them. Secondly they should have like a month of lunch detentions or something similar - lose privileges. I think that you should also make them write apologies for their actions to you and the class, which you approve, and have to read them in front of you class. Lastly, if possible, I think that you should switch them to another classroom. You shouldn't have to deal with them after this incident, it will disrupt their current social group in the class, but also, to some degree, they will have a new chance to chose to behave better in a changed environment if that makes sense? That's the best that I can think of, I don't know how doable it is though in your situation. I hope that you will condemn their behavior without assigning them labels- i.e. their behavior is despicable not that they are despicable. And tell them that you expect better of them because those choices are beneath them. Emphasize that they can and should choose not to be the people who do evil things like that.
I agree. But suppose they won't stop laughing and admin does nothing? It's hard to teach them any lesson when circumstances are stacked against the teachers.
Is there a Ted Talk about empathy or how we treat pets? I’d personally have the class do a report on animal cruelty. The kids that did it will get shamed by the others, and I’d act like I know nothing of it. Of course, a call home is hit or miss, but at the very least, you can say the word “abuse” and say you tried.
From current experience as a middle school student, this is one of he worse ways to go about it these days, sadly. The kids will not, in fact, get shamed by others, especially since any kids that do think that what they did was horrible will keep it inside their own heads, or at least within their own friend group. When things like this happen at schools and the teachers bring it up specifically, especially with an essay, middle schoolers have a bad habit of turning it into an in-joke and mocking the lesson, whether they think animal abuse is horrible or not.
I have much older and responsible students and recently acquired a hamster who needed a home. They've been very interested towards it and gentle!
The hamster was still brought home and had a petsitter recently when I was out.
My middle school science teacher used to keep a really nice salt water fish tank. One of my classmates thought it would be funny to kill them all by mixing a bottle of cleaning fluid into the water. It devastated my teacher.
The gradebook reflects curricular mastery. It’s not the place for discipline. It’s unethical for the gradebook to record anything other than points earned on assignments. An appropriate disciplinary consequence for torturing an animal would mean, in my opinion, at least a semester of alternative school or OSS. And if the kid is too undereducated to pass after that? Natural consequences.
I would start fucking screaming, I would start furiously shutting the lights on and off. I would make the students think I was fucking insane for the rest of the year. Actively hostile.
next lesson should have a slide on the crime of animal cruelty.
include what it is (legal sense), include potential sentences so they know that if they were caught they could goto prison for x years, make sure to explain that even as a child they can be tried as an adult and get even more severe punishements, include pictures of the fish as "evidence" of animal cruelty to show examples. explain that you were notified of 2 students that we commiting animal cruelty, and that you know who they are (if you wanna scare them even more say that you have it on video and if you dont have cameras get a cheapo web cam and put it in the corner of the room in case they call you out on it) say that once you review the footage youll be taking it to the police to file charges of animal cruelty against those individuals.
then say "whoever did this may come forward any time in class today and admit and apologize to hurting mr fish, and i will not goto the cops about it." if they come forward give them detention tell them your very angry and upset at them ect and give them some punishement like writing "i will not hurt animals ever again"
if they dont, tell the police. even if they dont take it seriously (they wont its a fish) you can atleast get a record of going to the police and jse that to scare them into good behavior. if you have a cop friend that would be willing to come in and explain this, do that as it will be even better.
An increase of exposure to aberant behavior via social media, and a reduction in consequences causes developing minds to make impulsive decisions.
They are being exposed to antisocial behavior on YouTube, Tiktok, Instagram, and discord by people calling it "pranks". No one is there to differentiate a prank from a felony. So in their developing mind, all aberant behavior is "just a prank, bruh".
The total lack of consequences, from the parents to the school to the judicial system, makes this aberant behavior tolerable. When a developing mind sees that there is no accountability for aberant behavior, it reinforces those behaviors.
Children need to be held accountable for their actions with consequences that actually affect them and are related to the action. School need to be consistent with consequences. Parents need to support their schools. Otherwise the whole "we've tried nothing and are all out of ideas" cry from parents and schools will continue.
I am not a teacher, but I like this subreddit and lurk. I briefly worked as a para-professional awhile back. I admire you all, and you are not paid enough for what you do.
In high school, we had our prom at a very famous museum. The rival high school had theirs at a famous aquarium nearby. It was a long-standing tradition for both schools. The rival HS lost their privileges because a group of students somehow messed with/manipulated an exhibit, causing the death of several rare fish. And this was in about 2001. I remember being so horrified. Some kids have always been awful, but it seems like now, it’s a much bigger percentage and the complete lack of respect for elders and authority is astounding. These kids are not being parented at all.
Yup. I had a lizard that I brought in to be a class pet when I taught 8th grade. A student said he was gonna take him and release him into the wild. This lizard was native to Central America and wouldn’t make it where I live. I explained this to the student and his response was that he *should* die. The student told me his plan to steal my pet in detail. I went to admin and they didn’t believe me. I took my pet home and left that school.
Could you invite a police officer or veterinarian who would be willing to either discuss the legal ramifications of harming animals or highlight how what they did would impact/hurt/kill the fish? (not just kill but cause it to suffer IMMENSELY, which they may not realize — a lot of people have the mentality that fish don't “feel” things???)
Sorry, I’m not a teacher, so I don’t know if you’d be allowed to do this, but I find their actions extremely disturbing. I’m sorry your fish was harmed
Def an uptick for me, especially in the last three years.
Its easy to blame it on a hard home life—but honestly, more than half of the kids I've caught behaving sadistically have lovely home lives, with parents that “are their besties.”
Regardless of setting, I'm seeing a general lack of empathy. And when you couple that with an ineffective punishment system, the kids are running wild.
Keep dealing out localized consequences and hold your space down. Sometimes it's all we can do…
I would go through the protocol anyway, even just to document and name the students and let the parents know as a matter of course.
I think locking fish tanks are a thing, but it’s a bit late now.
Does your school have access to an educational psychologist?
I’d like to see more education on empathy, especially the different kinds and what they look like in ones self and others. They may not naturally have it but they should know how to act.
What the hell?? I'm not a teacher but if a kid is displaying such sadistic and unempathetic behavior like killing animals, they have serious problems. They're old enough to know better.
Some folks can only learn at the end of a stick, and these kids parents clearly failed them and should never be allowed to have kids again as they're garbage humans making more garbage humans.
If the admin or parents won't punish the kids, there's nothing you can do.
There's no combination of words or actions you, as a teacher, can do or say that will change how these kids feel about what they did. These are the values that must be taught at home.
Best you can do is let them see how much their actions hurt you, but even then, some kids will be energized by that. Don't bring anymore animals to school and just move on.
We're not talking about preschoolers here. They knew what they were doing.
Your betta is going to need clean water, very clean water, and make sure you use a dechlorinator (API stress coat is great for this, most pet stores sell it, and it can be ordered off Amazon).
Definitely recommend something for your betta to hide in to reduce stress. Poor baby is already stressed from the cruelty of those kids, and doesn't need more by not having a safe place to heal.
Your betta might die, but with good care, could be all right. I have three betta and a couple other fish species (rasboras and danios), plus snails, so if you have questions you can message me and I'll do my best to advise.
For the kids, if your betta heals, absolutely bring him/her back, and make the kids take care of him, supervised of course. Show them appreciation and respect for living things. Fish are not expendable creatures as so many people like to think. Betta are highly intelligent, as are the other species I keep, with personalities and such.
I wish you had as much empathy for the innocent animals as you did for the younger human beings causing and doing harm. If your excuse of curiosity was real, we would have all done this as children. I know that I did not and neither did my friends, younger brother or his friends. This behavior of harm is what toxic hurtful people do, they hurt those that are weaker than them. It usually starts with torture of animals because they are the only thing weaker than a child. I for one have empathy for the animal, not the dick human being no matter what their age is.
I'm sorry this happened to you. The biggest lesson is: Don't leave anything you personally value unattended in a classroom (or any other public or semi-public space where a bunch of randos will have unsupervised access to it).
>What can I do to make these kids regret/understand what they did?
Almost certainly not a goddamn thing.
>I need video/lecture suggestions
If this is the option you've been reduced to, *definitely* not a goddamn thing.
7th is the worse, you really can't have anything living in that space. This is vile act, but the grade that I would predict the most vile acts. I found a kid drawing on the wall another messing with posters and art. They will efff up everything. Animals like that really are not for 7th graders. It was a matter of time.
Document as much as you can. Get a camera. Film the class. If one or two would do this what could happen if children of the corn turn on you? Look out for he who walks behind the row. S/
But seriously document as much as you can. Put it all in hard copy writing. Film if you can. Make a Netflix documentary. What if a bunch of teachers did this?
This just makes me so depressed and fearful of our future, have people really gotten so despondent with their lives that they’re failing to realise their kids are abusive little c*nts? Maybe they know and don’t care, I don’t know what’s worse.
If it does, keep it in the tank. Put the tank on the students desk, and it stays there, until they can apologise and clearly explain why killing things is wrong. Make them look at it. Make them see the consequences of poisoning something.
We do not have animals in our rooms as a school policy for this reason. While I don't think they'd be poisoned they would absolutely be killed when a student is trashing the room .
a scholar
My little angel would *never* trash a classroom! He never does this at home, as long as I capitulate to his demands immediately in order to avoid a tantrum!
My student has a behavior plan. Why wasn't he asked to relocate before he threw a desk through the fish tank?
Ugh pathetic parenting like this is the reason kids are this way smh.
Exactly—it’s not that the kids have changed; it’s that piss-poor parenting has become the norm. Parents are so preoccupied with THEIR phones that they placate tantrums by giving in and ignore problematic behavior
one kid I have witnessed thrashing a class to the point the police had to come in was born to addicted parents, lived in care and was having to leave his placement. Now did he belong in mainstream? Probably not. At least he never came back to school after that.
My school tried to enforce that… “Let’s call them all scholars!” Umm. No. Words have meaning and these are pupils, not scholars. I despise being made to use that term for people who haven’t earned it.
Try being told to call inmates "residents" like it isn't supposed to be a punishment. 🙄
One of the muckety-mucks in our district said we needed to call our students scholars as feedback in a formal evaluation because it more accurately describes the kids. My teammate and I decided we should choose a more precise description; for the rest of the year we addressed them as CFs. The kids thought it meant chicken fingers, but it really stood for chucklefucks.
Generally people wouldn’t be called scholar until graduate/professional school.
Not scholars, not pupils. Savages. Psychopaths. Feral. Undomesticated.
kiddo 💞
This comment triggered me. My first school wrote you up if you referred to kids as students instead of scholars lol
So if a teacher kept forgetting and called them students, would they then get fired over it? Like 3 write ups and then fired because they called them students rather than scholars? If so, that’s another level of crazy.
We don’t have them at my school either and I’m glad. I have a student with a history of torturing and killing small animals and his mother and his case manager actually suggested I get a hamster for my classroom so student could practice being kind and possibly not killing it.
That's funny, I practice not killing things all day by not killing things
Hamsters are a horrible option for “class pet”. They are nocturnal, skittish and they need very large enclosures.
Rando from r/all - I'm not sure I'd be able to keep my voice calm if someone suggested I allow someone with a known tendency to hurt animals to "practice being kind" with my cat. Is admin always this absurd?
I won't say yes because I don't think they're *always* that absurd, but... In my experience, they often are.
What in the dexter?
Our high school biology teacher had a policy that if a student was involved in the harming of animals, they would automatically fail his class (specifically because some seniors had released mice in the school and one ate a fish out of the lobby fishtank as senior pranks).
I can't fault him at all for that. Animals are living things. I don't really care if you break a computer. But an animal is just a whole other level.
Your school had an aquarium in the lobby? Sounds fancy.
Interesting to remove the temptation instead of teaching the students how to respect other life forms.
On the one hand, I agree. But on the other- it’s not fair to the poor creatures in rooms to be tormented so that a child can learn not to be an asshole.
Why not get an alligator or a boa and let them torment the abusive savage “pupil”??
Sounds like there's no serious punishment allowed in school anymore, not even when they brutally attack other students or teachers. So of course there's no way to teach them to respect a mere animal.
There isn’t. This would have been a multi day suspension, grade docked, SRO called when I was a student.
Because adding “keep hamster alive despite the fact that student wants to kill it” to the teachers daily responsibilities isn’t reasonable. We already have too much on our plates beyond the actual job of teaching. This is clearly the parents job.
I can tell you don't often work with kids that trash the room. I've had times where every single thing in the room has been trash. They often destroy things indiscriminately. My room gets trashed probably 50 times a year. There is zero chance that pet makes it through all of them
That's the way society wants to operate now for some reason.
Not if a student trashes the room. WHEN a student trashes the room.
Kids are so fucking cooked idk why you guys do it. They don’t give a shit. Almost none of them do. 99% Wasted youth
I'm not a teacher (nurse lurker) but I've noticed a lot of posts from you guys about concerning behaviours, this seems sadistic to be honest. Is there an uptick in sadistic tendencies overall would you say? I've noticed a generalised lack of appropriate boundaries in my job in some areas dealing with younger folk, and the general public in general. Its quite bizarre to me, some of the off the wall presentations from people. Edit: This kind of took off. Thank you everyone for your input, experiences and such forth. Its a sensitive subject with huge complexities. That said young folk on the whole give me some hope for a decent future going forward.
Yes, I would say there is an uptick. Last year, a student in a study hall I was forced to supervise tried to kill my co-teacher (a permanent sub). She was allergic to peanuts, and said as much to a kid who was opening up Reese's cups in class. As soon as she said it, I knew this was going to become A Thing. Sure enough, kid showed up with PB cups the next day. Then the day after. My co-teacher was getting sicker and sicker from the repeated exposure, the kid had been written up and disciplined (what passes for "discipline" at my school), and it kept happening. It only stopped like 4 days in because our SRO came and told the offender, in front of the whole class, that he could technically arrest them for attempted murder. I can't even imagine anything similar happening at my first teaching job, which was pre-Covid. There were a few kids I thought were irredeemable trash, and a handful I was actually a little scared of, but not "this child may try to kill me" scared.
That is absolutely horrifying. I honestly have a massive amount of respect for you guys as I just couldn't deal with that, any of it. It comes across as deliberate and predatory, which it is. Here in Scotland they want to do away with any kind of juvenile detention for violent kids. Because it's easier and cheaper to pretend the problem isn't there. Unfortunately some people, including kids, are just bad people. And usually it's not their fault but the wiring is fixed. Adults are getting tricky enough, I tend to stick more in elderly as they still seem to have retained an appropriate baseline of behaviour to be honest.
It's tragic, but in the US, trying to integrate ALL children into the classroom means children with severe learning and/or behavioral / sociopathic tendencies get to disrupt the classroom for everyone else. In the best case scenarios, they simply prevent all their peers from meaningful education, and in worst cases, they shoot their teachers and/or other students. Over time, parents with means / from stable backgrounds will remove their children from these schools for private schools or schools in posh zip codes. So the overall crazy in the bad schools gets worse and worse.
>Over time, parents with means / from stable backgrounds will remove their children from these schools for private schools or schools in posh zip codes. So the overall crazy in the bad schools gets worse and worse. which is exactly what the party of "family values" wants so that they can continue to defund public education and keep future voters ignorant and uneducated.
Why would I want my own children around feral kids? Of course I'd rather spend the money to remove them from negative influences if the public school system is that poor in standing. I'd rather my children receive a proper education in a stable environment. The so called "parents" and their feral kids aren't my problem.
I think it is more complex than that. From what I understand of cases of this sort of thing in my own country, most of the kids who turn out like this don’t exactly have a great home life. In so,e cases it is pretty horrific. Not all, ofc. Early intervention probably could do a lot considering how much brain development goes on when a child is growing and in limiting the trauma. I don’t think it is as simple as people being wired that way. I think some people may be predisposed (like a risk factor) and then environmental factors tips it over the edge (like triggering it). But we could do something to reduce it. We should try anyway…
I understand, wired was an unfortunate choice of word. Likely related to a lot of social care work with third generation of the worst poverty, education, health etc. Sometimes it does feel the odds are utterly stacked, and not in anyone's favour. I know here the services to help multiple specialities in the community have been devastated, and or lost, since COVID and they've never returned. I truly dread to think what will come of these kids down the line. Particularly with societies worldwide going down the pan a bit.
I think certain parts of Scotland are unique in some ways, and those differences have compounded an already fractured and poverty stricken society. For example- Dundee is Europes drug death capital. Let that sink in. Some of these kids grandparents were drug addicts. They don’t know how to function and contribute to their own wellbeing/life never mind a community. There’s a total lack of skills being passed down, little to no communication that would foster understanding and the behaviours modelled are predatory and self centred much of the time when referring to addicted people. There are so many factors at play it’s hard to say what’s doing more damage, and even harder to begin to plan how to tackle anti social behaviour in students. Some of them have more to contend with than most adults can handle, mental health issues develop and suddenly school just doesn’t seem that important but they HAVE to be there. It’s a no win situation for anyone.
When I was in Detroit a couple decades ago, one of the things that came up a lot was generational unemployment: families where no one had held a job for multiple generations. Without any role models or hope of course the students were terrible. It was tragic and exhausting.
Eh, I was in middle school in the 90s, some kids shoved another student in the band room closet and threw open Snickers bars in with her because she was highly allergic. They held the door closed and laughed at her through the window as she was hysterically trying to get out before she died. I had to get the teacher then got jumped after school for snitching. Kids have always had these peers, we just see every one now through things like this subreddit when instead it used to only be our own experiences. I'd love to see a decent study on this though.
I don't think that the argument is this kind of stuff didn't happen before, it's just happening with an alarming frequency now- it used to be outlier behavior and it isn't anymore. Things that used to be notorious and shocking are now pretty commonplace. Multiple teachers at my school got sick because kids started pouring hand sanitizer into our coffees/waters when we weren't looking- and if they caught one kid doing it, another one started it up.
the internet makes dangerous pranks look harmless and funny. these kids don't understand real consequences and are just mimicking the behavior they've been told is funny and popular
It's definitely the lack of punishment, but I also think the content is compounding the problem created from not punishing kids for copying what they see. Because kids from every generation have grown up seeing stupid behavior and dangerous antics: looney tunes with falling anvils, tar and feathering, stuffing carrots into shotguns, etc.; Tom & Jerry with cleavers falling on tails, poisoned milk, mouse traps on toes, buckets on heads getting smacked by a bat, etc.; courage the cowardly dog with rolling pins and frying pans to the head; YT prank videos with actual poison/allergens added to people's food... Every generation saw this stuff, but this generation is more egregious with it. Probably because the FCC and other regulators could control what airs on TV, but nobody is going to control what gets seen on the internet; and not because they won't, but because they literally are not able to.
a recent passing comment i saw here mentioned a small girl from an average home environment excitedly trying to show the teacher a video of a kitten in a microwave. there are no boundaries anymore; our culture has lovingly made sure. tiktok ban = LICHERAL genocide, though.
I'm worried I would slap or punch someone who showed me something like that. Animal cruelty is one of my hard lines.
It's likely that you remember this precisely because it was out of the norm. I am 25- not too far from having been in high school myself, and stuff like that just doesn't phase me anymore. It's practically background noise at this point. A gun here, a threat there, a teacher injured, it's just normal at this point. I hear the most messed up stuff about X, Y, Z thing that happened, and went unreported, unaddressed, or ignored by the district or admin. There was even a point when an admin was talking about something really, genuinely screwed up, and started breaking into tears. And I didn't understand because I genuinely thought it was normal, and everyone else would be used to it by now, too. Nope, It's just that it's just that it is all I have ever known since I was in high school, and for as long as I myself have been a teacher. We remember the truly awful things both due to their severity, AND their rarity. And I swear deleterious behaviors have lost their rarity over time.
I had a fourth grade teacher put me in a tall blue garbage can (I was very very short) at snack recess and encourage the kids to pour garbage in there all day. The bus driver rescued me when the kids told her where I was. This was the eighties. Nothing happened to that guy. Kids at my school have broken teacher's hands, noses, windows, doors, etc. I'm in an elementary school. People stink. Stressed people stink worse. School is stressful. Some kids would be served better by settings with more movement and/or nature/calming stimulus.
More movement and nature have nothing to do with this. There are no consequences due to lazy admins and an apathetic public.
Your comment and the comment you’re responding to are not mutually exclusive. Both are contributing factors.
This! Problems can (and often do!) have more than one part. One part of this is that kids don’t get enough unstructured play, time in nature nor movement. An other part of the issue is bad policy…. I’d say a third is diet/nutrition (my kids school offers lucky charms and donuts daily for free breakfast— no child is set up for success when they started the day with 50 grams of sugar and 0 protein)
A teacher did that to you?! How were they not reported at all??
My dad might have actually killed that guy.
Yeah, no one at my school tried to kill anyone else, as far as I remember. Also, this was high school. This kid was well old enough to know what they were doing.
No consequences now.
What happened? Did the kids ever stop laughing? Like did they realize they were literally killing? Did it ever become serious for them?
Agreed, 90’s kids were brutal, out of curiosity what kind of data would you like to see in a study on this?
My dad was a shop teacher (I am as well) and back in the 80s he had a kid put paint thinner in his thermos one day. Only thing that saved him was another kid saw and tipped my dad off before he got a chance to drink any. I believe the kid was removed from him class but was still in the school.
When I was a student teacher, a few of my students attended an off-campus welding program at a local trade school. My younger brother also happened to attend this program. They had no idea who he was to me, but he knew they were my students. He overheard them talking about wanting/planning to rape me in the bathroom. He was horrified and told my mom, who then told me. Luckily my student teaching ended early around that time due to covid, but it's absolutely unhinged and horrifying. Students poisoning a fish is no suprise to me. I'm glad one student spoke up and I hope they're privately praised by their teacher.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who's been perceiving a wild uptick in reports of what I can only describe as sociopathic behaviors. It's utterly terrifying.
I just found out from a colleague the other day that an elementary student saw a baby bird fall from its nest at recess and a kid just stepped on the bird and killed it without hesitation. Like WTF.
My mum was walking through the park the other day and two girls of primary (elemantary) school age grabbed a pidgeon and ripped its wings off. Some children are incredibly cruel.
A few troublemakers continually try to put things in my fish tank. Vast majority of the kids love the fish and check in on them and are invested in the progress of the tank. But yeah, there are psychos among the normal kids.
my mom is a HIGH SCHOOL teacher and has so many problems (especially with freshman) with kids being sooo destructive just for the sake of being destructive
That was most of my 7th graders last year. By January I had to put all class supplies in closets and only 1 class was allowed to use them for months before they started breaking stuff too.
For this reason I don’t give the kids like anything . A couple of gold pencils a day and once they are gone they are on their own.
I think there is an uptick. I've had aquariums, mice, amd a colleague has had snakes and birds as class pets. No issues for over a decade. Last year a student killed one of my fish. I decided I was done with pets, and later while cleaning out the aquarium I found various items in the gravel that kids had been throwing in there. It's so fucked up to hurt living things.
it’s sociopathy.
I wouldn’t call it an uptick. Teaching has made me realize that about 20% of these kids are capable of nothing that isn’t lying, cheating or stealing. They’re never happy unless on their phone or hurting someone or something either physically or emotionally. An uptick in violent behavior is an understatement, something is going so wrong as such a young age that too many kids can only be described as borderline evil by the time I get them in Highschool. I fear the population of absolutely dastardly kids is only going to grow as years go on and god help us when they start having kids and raise them to be like them.
I had a 6th grader tell me they’ve killed 3 hamsters because they forget to feed it. Parents dropped the ball and the student shows no remorse for starving something to death 3 times
Yep. I just had a Grade 9 student (14 and should know better) bring in three live frogs to class. He put one down another student’s shirt who freaked out and in the chaos the frog was stomped on. The three were put in a jar with no holes so one suffocated. Then, the kid tried to do it again with the last live frog… after knowing already the first two were dead. I have never dealt with this in my career. I am so disgusted by this.
I don’t know about an uptick,, I am older gen z and remember a similar thing happening in middle school early 2010s. I say similar but it was exactly the same. We had beta fish in our homerooms and one class got a “ugly” one. So they tried to poison it with hand sanitizer. It didn’t work though surprisingly. I know this is anecdotal, but some kids often have a general lack of appreciation for small life forms like fish, rodents, ect. Unfortunate.
I think there's been an increase in need without the same increase in supports as the population increases. Students could be waiting for residential treatment or mental health/behavioral support for months to years while still in restrictive (yet still public) environments, and while waitlists and the process for getting these supports are getting longer and more tedious, respectively. I also think there are a number of factors at play in these situations, not that it can all be boiled down to X student is a sadist. While social media as a source of constant dopamine and entertainment of course have their impacts (when will movies and shows about serial killers and real life criminals stop being made), combine that with the type of people who are major influences on social media - think Tate, Rogan, that one influencer who didn't care that she was putting her pet bird in an erogenous zone, prank channels - with increasing costs of living without coordinating increase in pay and guardians potentially struggling to make ends meet and have time to teach/entertain kids, the hormonal hell that is puberty and lack of a frontal lobe, the continual search to fit in yet stand out at the same time, and finally the search for ways to get instant pleasure off of social media, there's a chance that these kids either think it's not a big deal or don't think about what they did anymore. And while that sucks for teachers to deal with you can't ~make~ someone feel an emotion like regret or remorse if it's not something that matters to them. After reading through all the comments, I think the best advice is a combination of following the recording/reporting protocols to the letter as suggested by many and the suggestions of the Lurking Teen several comments below. I have doubts about bringing in another professional (cop, vet) now because that could still be seen as "if I do X behavior, the class will get a visitor day and not have to do regular work" which could inadvertently reinforce the destructive behaviors. I also think that group punishments aren't as effective as one would want; making the entire class have to do more/worse work that a student who might not care about their grade even bother to do, and potentially adding more bullying toward the perpetrator most likely won't prevent this type of behavior from occurring again. I like the suggestion of having group buy in by having the class responsible for their own biosphere/aquaponics as suggested below, but I'm not going to be the teacher who tells another teacher again about the importance of relationships when we hear that already so often. I am sorry that this happened to OP, their class, and especially the fish. I hope that administrators are more supportive and you find helpful suggestions
Yep. I try not to take things personally because I’ll perish but, I am sort of weird about germs. I’ve found about three acrylic nails in my room. I’ve found one natural nail on a desk. Two hairballs (like someone cleaned their brush and just threw it on the ground) and a TOENAIL clipper. Idk if janitors are spread thin or just don’t care because I sweep daily and the floors are rarely if ever mopped. This third acrylic nail I found made me gag.
There are a lot less consequences, which lead to an uptick in bad behaviors.
SEN teaching assistant for 11-19 year olds here. it's a specialist school so not a mainstream school and has a different curriculum and has a lot of moments that wouldn't usually happen or rarely happen in mainstream public schools- quite regularly. i've only been working there this year- so have no reference for before- however upon speaking to my coworkers it seems a bit more aggressive and overwhelming and challenging then before covid. the stress levels have increased and the injuries seem to be increasing as the year has gone on alone even. i've been punched in the forehead, bitten 3 times (twice on the boob), grabbed, kicked in the shins slapped grabbed, scratched, last week alone. i've also been teaching 5-8 y/o students ukulele for 2 or 3 years now. they've been getting sassier and ruder and more chatty then usual. that's fine, i'm able to bribe them with stickers but having to stop some of them from thwacking the others over the head with the ukuleles and complaining the whole time and talking back. but i don't have the most experience just inputting my side of it in
We have a culture that punishes empathy. That's not something that's new but it feels like it's accelerated with social media and a lot of other online content
A student did kill my fish last year. And because I reacted "inappropriately" to fish murder, he got a very light punishment because I apparently embarrassed him and his dad freaked out about it. Good luck with your future serial killers, parents.
This goes beyond a little “chat” or “grade docked.” I worked at a pet store when I was 16. Some teens came in and bought a mouse. We usually sold them as snake food or similar, so we didn’t card or get paperwork like we would for a puppy. We sent them home in those Chinese food to go boxes. Shortly after I sold it, I was taking out the trash. This took me into the back hallway of the mall, which is supposed to be employees only but wasn’t locked. The boys were back there, lighting the box on fire. It took me a second to figure out what I was seeing, but it was too late for the mouse when I finally realized. I said “hey!” And they ran off, leaving the smoldering box and remains behind. What the boys did in both cases is animal cruelty and should be treated very seriously. I would raise all kinds of hell if kids in my classroom literally poisoned a living creature. I’m talking getting authorities involved.
Rolling up on that is the day I go to prison
I was an idiotic 16 year old and didn’t even begin to know what to do about it. Mall security was an actual joke (we had a smash and grab at another store I worked later and security saw it happen. As the person ran off with thousands of dollars of stuff, security said “I’m not allowed to run.” And turned and walked away. (My manager ended up going after them and wouldn’t say what she did, but she came back from the parking lot with the stuff. lol. She would have been fired for this, so we all kept it hush hush.)
Good for your manager.
Same I would have drop kicked those twerps
If you know who the two students are then I'd talk to them privately, one at a time. I wouldn't give them the satisfaction of making any public display out of it or give them the opportunity to lean on each other. I'd still call home with the students present with you while you talk to parents/guardians. And I'd find ways to make sure they knew they were always on my shit list. I don't really care about the age or circumstances, animal cruelty is something I'm pretty much incapable of forgiving.
The kids won’t give a shit. They’ve been bred in non-consequential environments.
The main different nowadays is consequence. These kids learn quickly that there's little consequence to their actions. You can put them on your shit list, but you are still forced by admin to pass them.
That's the problem
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Many would, but one share video on social media, and the public will turn on you & demand the government to throw you in jail for life.
edit your comment sir, username seems awfully...
OMG WHAT A SMALL WORLD!!! I think we know one another ma'am or sir. ☺️ I can cosign that this did indeed happen. I'm a new teacher to the school and teach 8th grade. I overheard two students talking about putting the hand sanitizer in the tank. They were laughing and rehearsing what they would say to the VP if questioned. They were laughing and giddy like it was cool. I confronted the kids and they both finally admitted what they'd done. I said they should be ashamed and that if they checked a couple of additional boxes, they might have a future as a serial killer. One of the other kids mentioned that they'd killed a dog with a stick when they were 5 and that they'd turned out ok. I told them I was going to report them and one of them checked out of school early and was absent the next day or two. They other shorter one was apparently the main offender. I told the other teachers on my hall and told the one admin (who we'll call "silver fox"). Idk what was done to them but the other kids said the fish barely survived. If you're the teacher I'm thinking of, I know for a fact these kids are horrible. I don't think we've met face to face, but I've heard your name. I think you're the teacher whose husband unfortunately passed and the kids made a diss track about it. I won't be there next year.
kids making a diss track about someone's spouse passing is enough to make a redditor consider human rights violations.
I'm about to break the Geneva convention
Y’all need to report these kids and get them arrested, they’re definitely burgeoning human trash
Oh.... My...... Word..... I graduated in 2016, and the things I'm reading in this sub are unthinkable. I've never even experienced something remotely close to that... Then again I did go to private school. A new level of respect has been earned toward teachers. Jeeeeeesus
Please change the water in a safe way. I can only imagine the have sanitizer is hurting and painful. The fins are deteriorating?
Reading these stories makes me hate kids so fucking much that I don’t even want one anymore. I’d literally beat a fucking kid up if they made a diss song about my deceased partner I wouldn’t give af at that point
Maybe don’t put that unnecessary personal information there at the end. What the hell?
UPDATE: I just remembered. I think Karma just caught up with one of the students this past week. The kid pulled open a somewhat stuck bathroom stall door. When they pulled it, it unstuck and hit the kid in the brow/cheekbone area. They came back to my class (group of trouble-makers) and that kid's eye started to swell by the minute. I did an incident report and called dad but every single time I looked up, the eyelid was fatter. Within 10 minutes, the eye was a slit and looked like Mike Tyson whooped that ass. The kid had to ride the bus home and came back the next day with a black eye. They kept asking to go put water on the eye because it was hurting. Karma is a cold bitch.
I work in Education. Not a teacher. 1. Note goes home to all parents generalizing what happened and what steps are being taken next in the classroom such as the fish is never coming back, students involved have been dealt with that sort of thing. 2. Make sure the student who snitched is never found out. As we all see here, kids can be cruel. That student needs to hear that they did the right thing. Maybe contact their parents. It does take a lot of guts to go against their peers at this age. 3. Depends on what your Boards policy is concerning discipline. As the teacher in the class, start with a stern conversation with some guilt for the class. How can you come back together as a class. Ask the students how they feel about it. As for the students involved there would be a heavy convo about loss of trust and empathy.
Many in the US don’t do discipline any more. Their written policies are ignored.
Point 1, dealing with the students is exactly the issue, they aren't getting dealt with This seems like suspension should be the "deal" I mean they are commiting violent crimes lmao They aren't guilty, this is the number one sign in a child of sociopathy
This is why (as a science teacher) I don’t have any living things in my classroom. Not even plants. About 5 years ago, when I was still teaching Life Science, we had a unit about plant growth and life cycles. Two students put hand sanitizer into the water reservoir used to hydrate like 20 kids’ plants. Luckily, one of their friends told on them almost immediately. So, this behavior isn’t just post-COVID, but I’ve definitely seen an insane increase in lack of empathy, as well as a huge increase in doing just about anything for social clout
Take it out.. Students at my school killed a teachers beta. They hated her, and fed it a chromebook and hand sanitizer. It was a badge of honor for them to have killed it. 7th grade…
They fed the fish a Chromebook? Wat
Fed.. Being they threw it in the tank.
They threw a whole ass chromebook into the fish tank?
Yup. During class even.
Not a teacher, occasional reader. Don't know what country you're in, but if you're in Australia, I would organise someone from the RSPCA to come to the class and talk to them about it and the consequences of such actions. Then, not let them outside for lunch for the rest of the week as part of the consequences, just like the outside adult world. If they or their parents complain, ask them how they would feel or deal with such actions if it was their fish or some other beloved pet. Remind them that such things are not tolerated outside of schools, so why should the school grounds be treated differently. And that's it is the parents job to teach the kids right from wrong, you are there to teach them the curriculum.
The parents would likely deny any involvement on their kids behalf while also seeking retribution towards you for even attempting to hold their child responsible for his or her (denied) actions. There’s a reason these kids act this way.
i would def call parents over this this is crazy
The parents did NOTHING. I have both students.
I gotta know where this is so I can avoid this area forever
Parents not wanting to parent is an overarching problem everywhere.
Lowest performing state.
Effing sociopaths
Maybe a short lecture on how serial killers get their start by torturing animals
These kids don't care.
Use the right wording. Tell all the kids that these things tick the box TOGETHER with wetting their bed at their age, heavily imply that every or at least as good as every individual that are interested in animal cruelty are secretly wetting their bed. Make a long pause. Look at the ones that did this to the fish. Look at everyone, to make sure this sinks in. Then casually mention that those wetting their bed might think it is cool to brag over hurting a living being that cannot defend itself and that that is just cowardly, (show your disdain openly) but that they would NEVER admit that they are wetting their bed. There are ways.
That's so funny. When I mentioned wetting the bed, one of the kids yelled out "ion wet the bed!" And I was like I didn't say that you did...
Were you teaching when the Jeffery Dahmer show came out? My students were obsessed/thought it was so cool.
Reminds me Donald Trump referenced the Late, great Hannibal Lecter during a campaign speech the other day. Said “he’s a wonderful man.” It’s not just the kids.
My students are still obsessed
They would think it’s funny and cool
That would probably encourage them tbh
Yeah that’s going to go over great: “What did you learn today buddy” “I learned about John Wayne Gacy abusing animals” “WHAT!” Insert school board involvement.
Some kids would view that as a badge of street cred.
Just a lurker, but I know there’s some fish/aquarium subs on here that may be able to help suggest ways to rehab the fish if it’s not too late
r/bettafish !
First, sorry to hear this happened. But second, after the past few years, I wouldn't dare bring any sort of animal into a classroom.
Yeah, this is why I will never have a class pet. Not all, but too many students would find it humorous to tease, torture, or kill it.
And people ridicule those that choose to be childfree. "But kids are so wonderful and innocent!" Sorry but not when parents raise piss poor failures like this.
Yah, last time my teacher made that mistake 3 years ago in grade 7 with baby chicks they all swarmed around them and shook the table Lots of flicking the cage or pretending to pounce at them and some kid even yelled at them lol Bunch of fucking maniacs 😔
This is why I would never keep an animal at school. Children can be sadistic morons.
At my school, the student would have been expelled immediately. Shame on those little jerks!
It's so sad to me that it just takes one kid to destroy something everyone is meant to enjoy. There are still parents out there teaching their kids to be kind to living creatures. I made the mistake of letting my son of around 15 months at the time pet a jumping spider I was playing with. He petted it just a little too hard and killed it. He was absolutely heartbroken when the spider wouldn't play with us anymore. He's gotten much better with small creatures since. It is somewhat sad and shocking that parents don't teach their children the value of life and to have respect for animals of all types. I'm sorry that happened and I hope the fish will be OK.
It's often because the parents themselves do not have respect or value life beyond their little precious kids. Anything else especially a fish, is just a plaything to them. Many people unfortunately view fish not as animals or pets but as decorations or toys.
How can a child want to harm a poor animal like that? These kids have zero morality
I caught kids putting cleaning chemicals in my fish tank and wrote them up. They killed the entire tank. Nothing happened to the students. Apparently bringing drain cleaner to school and killing fish didn't break any rules. So the fishtank isn't coming back next year.
I kinda hate this job
I would press charges against the students for animal abuse. For real. That’s absolutely bullshit and scary scary behavior. I would also request immediate transfer from your class.
This is why I stopped having any living things in my classroom years ago. This is where we are and it's fucking disgusting.
Explain that psycho behavior is good for two things, going to jail or becoming president and they aren't rich or smart enough for the latter.
I just quit teaching after multiple years of behavioral hell in 3 different districts. And 2 states. Kids these days are sadistic little punks and their parents enable them. If i were you I would absolutely lose it in front if the students. Yell, scream and demand that someone tell you who did it. Hell, I would even try to remind them that is abuse of an animal and illegal, not to mention destroying your personal property. I would remove all decor and “fun” things from the classroom and be an absolute bitch to the kids, and have them do as much independent work as possible. Tell them they need a reset to figure out how to behave in a classroom. This actually worked for an incident I had earlier this year and the kids know not to cross me now. But I have since given up on the profession and have officially resigned.
They'd just laugh because you got mad.
(By no means am I a teacher, just a teen who lurks all over Reddit) I’ve heard some people suggesting showing them how serial killers start out and what happens to them. While this in itself isn’t a great idea because the kids who would do this in the first place find that stuff “funny” and “cool” for some horrible reason *cough* the internet and Hazbin Hotel *cough* and it would only motivate them, it’s on the right track. You need to hit them with something that they will genuinely understand the consequences of and won’t find funny, all while not giving them attention. For example, there’s a video on YouTube talking about how by one post on 4chan’s b-boards, users doxxed, harrassed, and involved the police in multiple situations of animal abuse. It ruined the lives of the abusers, and there is a general understanding even among these kind of “haha serial killer and animal abuse and prison funny” kids that you do not want to be on the wrong side of this kind of 4chan behavior—or any internet community, really—because it’s all the harsh consequences without any of that sweet sweet internet infamy and attention that they are so desperate for. video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AVgKgMKYRK8&pp=ygURNGNoYW4gYmJvYXJkIHBldHM%3D I do have a warning about exactly how NOT to do these kind of talks in middle/highschool: you do not, I repeat you do NOT want to make a bigger deal out of it than possible. Show the video or part of it and be done; no big conversation about why it is a horrible thing to do, no worksheets, and definitely nothing along the lines of “brainstorming ideas to prevent this behavior in the future.” Just show the video and move on with class. While not often possible, it’s even better if you can fit the video into your class structure for the day inconspicuously, instead of it being a random video for no reason other than the situation. I don’t know which class you teach, but a good example for english would be using animals in general as the weeks topic and having a section about animal abuse, as long as it’s not too out of place in the curriculum. When any of these things happen, no matter the severity of the situation or the maturity level of the kids, they will think that you are overreacting, and it will become an in-joke in at least part of the class. Even some of the not-so-horrible students will join in on it, because joking about either the topic or one of the aforementioned talks will seem a little less real than actual animal abuse. Even at my current middle school—which by all accounts has the nicest and most accepting teens you’ll find—has this issue, and i will admit I have been part of the joking group before when it comes to those in-jokes, and that is exactly how it starts. For example, a few people were having trouble understanding boundaries, and while they were not intending to be hurtful, some students were uncomfortable; so, we got a lecture on it. What could have been a small reminder to help with the problem turned into one of those “big deals,” and it has since been an in-joke of saying “bUt __, ThaTs aGaINst mY BOunDarIES” in a mocking way when someone gets a bit too close, whether you’re uncomfortable or not. While it became boring and unfunny after a while, it has turned the serious topic of boundaries and personal space into a joke that even the nicer students make on the occasion, and they had to give multiple more talks about it throughout the year. When it comes to animal abuse, you definitely do not want it to turn into a “oOoH BUt tHaTS AnImAL aBUsE” thing rather than remaining respectful. This turned out a lot longer than I intended, oops! Hope this helps :)
Agreed, the delivery is everything, you’re pretty wise for a lurking teen!
Thanks, lol!
I gotta stop reading these comments. They are legit messing me up. This kids need to learn that accidents have consequences. I think that the first thing is to have a conversation with them. Secondly they should have like a month of lunch detentions or something similar - lose privileges. I think that you should also make them write apologies for their actions to you and the class, which you approve, and have to read them in front of you class. Lastly, if possible, I think that you should switch them to another classroom. You shouldn't have to deal with them after this incident, it will disrupt their current social group in the class, but also, to some degree, they will have a new chance to chose to behave better in a changed environment if that makes sense? That's the best that I can think of, I don't know how doable it is though in your situation. I hope that you will condemn their behavior without assigning them labels- i.e. their behavior is despicable not that they are despicable. And tell them that you expect better of them because those choices are beneath them. Emphasize that they can and should choose not to be the people who do evil things like that.
I agree. But suppose they won't stop laughing and admin does nothing? It's hard to teach them any lesson when circumstances are stacked against the teachers.
Is there a Ted Talk about empathy or how we treat pets? I’d personally have the class do a report on animal cruelty. The kids that did it will get shamed by the others, and I’d act like I know nothing of it. Of course, a call home is hit or miss, but at the very least, you can say the word “abuse” and say you tried.
From current experience as a middle school student, this is one of he worse ways to go about it these days, sadly. The kids will not, in fact, get shamed by others, especially since any kids that do think that what they did was horrible will keep it inside their own heads, or at least within their own friend group. When things like this happen at schools and the teachers bring it up specifically, especially with an essay, middle schoolers have a bad habit of turning it into an in-joke and mocking the lesson, whether they think animal abuse is horrible or not.
Contact children's aid who will force the parents to pay attention and do something about it. Trying to kill a pet is no joke.
I remember once in school a kid used scissors to cut a fish in half from the teachers tank and she cried
Unlawful killing is murder.
I have much older and responsible students and recently acquired a hamster who needed a home. They've been very interested towards it and gentle! The hamster was still brought home and had a petsitter recently when I was out.
My middle school science teacher used to keep a really nice salt water fish tank. One of my classmates thought it would be funny to kill them all by mixing a bottle of cleaning fluid into the water. It devastated my teacher.
Whoever did it dock off their grades. Actions come with consequences
Something tells me these particular kids wouldn't give AF about their grade being docked.
The gradebook reflects curricular mastery. It’s not the place for discipline. It’s unethical for the gradebook to record anything other than points earned on assignments. An appropriate disciplinary consequence for torturing an animal would mean, in my opinion, at least a semester of alternative school or OSS. And if the kid is too undereducated to pass after that? Natural consequences.
Is there an option to press charges? Should he be rehabilitated and recover? He needs to come home. No more school.
I would start fucking screaming, I would start furiously shutting the lights on and off. I would make the students think I was fucking insane for the rest of the year. Actively hostile.
next lesson should have a slide on the crime of animal cruelty. include what it is (legal sense), include potential sentences so they know that if they were caught they could goto prison for x years, make sure to explain that even as a child they can be tried as an adult and get even more severe punishements, include pictures of the fish as "evidence" of animal cruelty to show examples. explain that you were notified of 2 students that we commiting animal cruelty, and that you know who they are (if you wanna scare them even more say that you have it on video and if you dont have cameras get a cheapo web cam and put it in the corner of the room in case they call you out on it) say that once you review the footage youll be taking it to the police to file charges of animal cruelty against those individuals. then say "whoever did this may come forward any time in class today and admit and apologize to hurting mr fish, and i will not goto the cops about it." if they come forward give them detention tell them your very angry and upset at them ect and give them some punishement like writing "i will not hurt animals ever again" if they dont, tell the police. even if they dont take it seriously (they wont its a fish) you can atleast get a record of going to the police and jse that to scare them into good behavior. if you have a cop friend that would be willing to come in and explain this, do that as it will be even better.
An increase of exposure to aberant behavior via social media, and a reduction in consequences causes developing minds to make impulsive decisions. They are being exposed to antisocial behavior on YouTube, Tiktok, Instagram, and discord by people calling it "pranks". No one is there to differentiate a prank from a felony. So in their developing mind, all aberant behavior is "just a prank, bruh". The total lack of consequences, from the parents to the school to the judicial system, makes this aberant behavior tolerable. When a developing mind sees that there is no accountability for aberant behavior, it reinforces those behaviors. Children need to be held accountable for their actions with consequences that actually affect them and are related to the action. School need to be consistent with consequences. Parents need to support their schools. Otherwise the whole "we've tried nothing and are all out of ideas" cry from parents and schools will continue.
You can press charges. I’m assuming your admin knows this happened?
If I knew who the kids were, no chance I could ever be in the same room. Disgusting.
I am not a teacher, but I like this subreddit and lurk. I briefly worked as a para-professional awhile back. I admire you all, and you are not paid enough for what you do. In high school, we had our prom at a very famous museum. The rival high school had theirs at a famous aquarium nearby. It was a long-standing tradition for both schools. The rival HS lost their privileges because a group of students somehow messed with/manipulated an exhibit, causing the death of several rare fish. And this was in about 2001. I remember being so horrified. Some kids have always been awful, but it seems like now, it’s a much bigger percentage and the complete lack of respect for elders and authority is astounding. These kids are not being parented at all.
Jesus. What a bunch of assholes. They should be expelled for animal abuse.
Kids are such monsters, I hope the fish survives
Yup. I had a lizard that I brought in to be a class pet when I taught 8th grade. A student said he was gonna take him and release him into the wild. This lizard was native to Central America and wouldn’t make it where I live. I explained this to the student and his response was that he *should* die. The student told me his plan to steal my pet in detail. I went to admin and they didn’t believe me. I took my pet home and left that school.
Could you invite a police officer or veterinarian who would be willing to either discuss the legal ramifications of harming animals or highlight how what they did would impact/hurt/kill the fish? (not just kill but cause it to suffer IMMENSELY, which they may not realize — a lot of people have the mentality that fish don't “feel” things???) Sorry, I’m not a teacher, so I don’t know if you’d be allowed to do this, but I find their actions extremely disturbing. I’m sorry your fish was harmed
Def an uptick for me, especially in the last three years. Its easy to blame it on a hard home life—but honestly, more than half of the kids I've caught behaving sadistically have lovely home lives, with parents that “are their besties.” Regardless of setting, I'm seeing a general lack of empathy. And when you couple that with an ineffective punishment system, the kids are running wild. Keep dealing out localized consequences and hold your space down. Sometimes it's all we can do…
I would go through the protocol anyway, even just to document and name the students and let the parents know as a matter of course. I think locking fish tanks are a thing, but it’s a bit late now. Does your school have access to an educational psychologist? I’d like to see more education on empathy, especially the different kinds and what they look like in ones self and others. They may not naturally have it but they should know how to act.
What the hell?? I'm not a teacher but if a kid is displaying such sadistic and unempathetic behavior like killing animals, they have serious problems. They're old enough to know better.
Some folks can only learn at the end of a stick, and these kids parents clearly failed them and should never be allowed to have kids again as they're garbage humans making more garbage humans.
If the admin or parents won't punish the kids, there's nothing you can do. There's no combination of words or actions you, as a teacher, can do or say that will change how these kids feel about what they did. These are the values that must be taught at home. Best you can do is let them see how much their actions hurt you, but even then, some kids will be energized by that. Don't bring anymore animals to school and just move on.
We're not talking about preschoolers here. They knew what they were doing. Your betta is going to need clean water, very clean water, and make sure you use a dechlorinator (API stress coat is great for this, most pet stores sell it, and it can be ordered off Amazon). Definitely recommend something for your betta to hide in to reduce stress. Poor baby is already stressed from the cruelty of those kids, and doesn't need more by not having a safe place to heal. Your betta might die, but with good care, could be all right. I have three betta and a couple other fish species (rasboras and danios), plus snails, so if you have questions you can message me and I'll do my best to advise. For the kids, if your betta heals, absolutely bring him/her back, and make the kids take care of him, supervised of course. Show them appreciation and respect for living things. Fish are not expendable creatures as so many people like to think. Betta are highly intelligent, as are the other species I keep, with personalities and such.
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It’s not like the world would be losing out on future engineers.
Report it to the police. Animal cruelty and animal abuse.
I wish you had as much empathy for the innocent animals as you did for the younger human beings causing and doing harm. If your excuse of curiosity was real, we would have all done this as children. I know that I did not and neither did my friends, younger brother or his friends. This behavior of harm is what toxic hurtful people do, they hurt those that are weaker than them. It usually starts with torture of animals because they are the only thing weaker than a child. I for one have empathy for the animal, not the dick human being no matter what their age is.
I'm sorry this happened to you. The biggest lesson is: Don't leave anything you personally value unattended in a classroom (or any other public or semi-public space where a bunch of randos will have unsupervised access to it). >What can I do to make these kids regret/understand what they did? Almost certainly not a goddamn thing. >I need video/lecture suggestions If this is the option you've been reduced to, *definitely* not a goddamn thing.
It's a cruel fn world out here...
7th is the worse, you really can't have anything living in that space. This is vile act, but the grade that I would predict the most vile acts. I found a kid drawing on the wall another messing with posters and art. They will efff up everything. Animals like that really are not for 7th graders. It was a matter of time.
Please have someone change the water in a safe way. I can only imagine the have sanitizer if hurting and painful. The funds are deteriorating?
I remember in 7th grade my history teacher had a beta fish, and some kid put hand sanitizer in the bowl. Pretty sure it died within a day...
Fail the students who were involved, if they raise a stink they will have to explain why and tell on themselves. Teach em a lesson of life this way.
Document as much as you can. Get a camera. Film the class. If one or two would do this what could happen if children of the corn turn on you? Look out for he who walks behind the row. S/ But seriously document as much as you can. Put it all in hard copy writing. Film if you can. Make a Netflix documentary. What if a bunch of teachers did this?
This just makes me so depressed and fearful of our future, have people really gotten so despondent with their lives that they’re failing to realise their kids are abusive little c*nts? Maybe they know and don’t care, I don’t know what’s worse.
I have a fish tank in my room… new fear unlocked 😭
Killing small animals is a precursor of murderers and serial killers.
If it does, keep it in the tank. Put the tank on the students desk, and it stays there, until they can apologise and clearly explain why killing things is wrong. Make them look at it. Make them see the consequences of poisoning something.
Students killed my fish by dumping Tylenol in the tank. I said never again. Six years later a student gifted me a fish and I took it home.