Redditor Advanced_Bad4443 asked:
"Teachers of Reddit, what was the moment you realized, 'This kid is gonna be a serial killer one day'?"
Impulse Control
"I was in my office one day when a kid I’d never met before strolled in. Very quickly I recognized by his behavior that he was a BD (behavioral deficit) student who somehow got out of his class."
"He started a conversation with me asking who I was and what I did. I could tell he was trying very hard to get under my skin as he emptied a box of tissues one by one. So I didn’t react."
"He then kicked over a number of trash cans, but I didn’t react. He went into my office bathroom while talking to me with the door open (not to use it), and started messing with the supplies in there."
" I walked over so I could get a clear view, and he then tried to pull the sink off the wall while telling me that he has compulsion issues and has a really hard time not doing the things he thinks about but knows are wrong."
"He said last year he was expelled from his school because he threw his desk at another student. He told me sometimes he imagines what it would be like to brutalize and murder someone."
"Eventually, he tired and realized the sink wasn’t coming down. I kept talking to him and asked if he would like to help me clean up the mess on the floor or if he wanted to go back to class. He helped me clean and then I took him for a walk back to his class."
"That kid took a lot of work over four years by a lot of people, therapy and medication included. He eventually learned impulse control and learned the differences between craving negative and positive attention from people. He left BD and got to be in general classes, became an athlete, got some real friends, and graduated."
"I honestly cried when I saw him get his diploma. I hope he stays healthy."
- PantsIsDown
Not Going Places
"A nine-year-old chasing an eight-year-old with a brick in each hand trying the smash the other kid's skull in. When I stopped him, he was screaming something about how he was going to kill the other kid..."
"He's probably 13 now and I suspect in jail or killing animals for fun."
- free_crude_oil
Positive Influence
"Preschool teacher for a very wealthy community. I have a three-year-old who is physically violent. The first day I had him in my class he attacked me."
"I tend to get down on the floor and play with the kids. Seeing an opportunity he latched on to my ear and tore little bits of flesh with his tiny fingernails. I bled."
"I tried talking to his Mom. She said, 'Yeah, he gets rowdy...'"
"Just this past week I had him in my room again. He delighted in making another boy cry. Refused to participate in our activities. Only wanting to throw toys directly at my face."
"Once I did convince him to participate, he clung to me. It was bizarre and honestly made me very sad."
"I talked to some other teachers who've known them longer. Apparently, Mom and Dad are serious alcoholics. He is an only child and desperate for attention."
"They all know about his outbursts and violent tendencies, but there's really nothing anyone can do because he is three."
"I'm just going to try my best with him. Maybe a positive influence and some consistency will give this little guy some reassurance.
I know that there are people who are mentally ill and born with issues beyond their control, but I think this kid just has s**t parents. Wish me luck, friends!"
- MissSassifrass1977
Disturbing
"I have an eight-year-old student in my class this year. All his time at school he has been a troublesome kid, hurting other kids without being provoked, having unpredictable mood changes, and he's really hard to read. Lots of teacher colleagues say he looks dead in the eyes, with no expressions of joy or any other emotions."
"The moment that really shocked me, was when another student had found a fly in the playground. The fly was hurt and couldn't fly anymore. So this student gave it a name (Henkie) and started to care for it, very sweet."
"Lots of classmates joined in taking care of the fly and helping it (making a house out of leaves, etc). I gave the kids some magnifying glasses so they could take a nice look and encouraged the kids' curiosity and gentleness."
"This kid also came over to 'take a look' and was told to be careful, because Henkie was the other students' friend. He looked for 2 secs, grinned, and stomped on it."
"The worst part is that Henkie didn't even die (or at least it was still twitching). So the other student kept on trying to nurse his little buddy back to health. He even took it inside to read it a story. My heart just broke by the love this student was showing for this little creature, but the kid didn't seem to care at all about what he did."
"This was a couple of months ago, and he still even kind of brags about when he (almost) killed Henkie. This kid just gives me the chills."
- Snackicu
Just a Matter of Time
"I'd like to say there wasn't one defining instance but more of a long list of them that when everything was over and I had time to relax and process everything did I come to the realization that in 20, maybe 10, years time, I'd see this little boy as a teen or a man on the news for murder."
"I had this one student, let's call him Timmy (age 4 at the time). Timmy was prone to extremely violent outbursts for little to no reason at all and they were so unpredictable that I had to set up a Timmy evacuation protocol with my other students incase I felt their lives were in danger. These are some of the times I had to use this protocol."
"Before Timmy was banned in my room from using pencils and safety scissors, he went on a rampage with a pencil. He was trying to stab another classmate because I helped her with her writing before him."
"He was doing his writing just fine, and seconds before that, I had told him, 'Great job, Timmy, I love how you are keeping your letters on the lines.' He didn't need help, and he never once asked for it."
"Thankfully, the little girl was not hurt as I was right there and was able to throw my hand in front of her face where he was aiming. However, he did get me and the pencil lead was left in my hand."
"Timmy attempted to choke another child because that child was using a red crayon, so instead of getting an identical red crayon from the bucket in front of him he tackled that child out of his chair and put his hands on his neck while screaming like a banshee."
"About a week after the choking incident, he was upset because he wanted to be the only one in class, so he pushed a shelf that I, as a grown adult, have trouble moving over in an attempt to in his words 'squish' his classmates who were working on the carpet. (Thankfully, I was able to hold it up while they ran.)"
"He proceeded to destroy my entire room, to the point where I decided to just move classrooms for the day as it would have been impossible to clean it up and frankly I didn't want my already traumatized students to come in and witness it."
"Every single day, this child would have a violent meltdown. Some were more contained to himself, a small area, or me personally."
- VanillaRose33
Preventative Care
"My wife thinks her best friend’s son is going to grow up to be a serial killer, and, while I think she tends to overstate things, it’s hard to deny that there is cause for concern."
"I’ve gotten creepy vibes from this kid since he was a toddler, less than a year old."
"He’s probably six or so now but was kicked out of most of the preschools in their area for being violent towards other kids. At one point a couple of years ago, he got very fascinated by death, squishing bugs to see what would happen and talking about stabbing himself."
"The mom (my wife’s friend) is concerned and has taken him to doctors to try and discuss, but hasn’t gotten much in the way of help. But I don’t think they’ve pursued strongly much in the way of psychiatric/psychological specialists."
"The dad (who has become VERY right wing) seems to not be overly concerned, and his solution seems to be either Catholic or Military School when the kid gets older. Which to me sounds like it would do more harm than good."
- justahominid
Flip of a Switch
"She was a little angel student when my boss was in the room, but the second the door closed, she tilted her head, stared at me, and said, 'I want to hurt you.' Her eyes were absolutely lifeless. She was eight."
"She was also very frequently violent to me and other students/teachers."
- TheUnpunctualWizard
No One Home
"This is chilling to recall. I’m also a teacher, and while nothing violent happened with this kid, I also looked into a kid’s eyes one time and saw absolutely nothing. It was like there was no soul in there."
"He was a run-of-the-mill disrespectful child, with a reputation for being a troublemaker, but I never actually had an incident with him. However, I have never forgotten the day I made eye contact with him, and the coldness and emptiness in his eyes scared me so bad. I have never felt so creeped out."
- cml678701
Wrestling Match
"Not a teacher but used to have a friend that had a cousin in the same school and this cousin had an almost disconnected link to other people."
"The first time I was introduced to him he started the conversation with, 'If I kill someone, I'll get away with it because they say my head's different.'"
" This was during high school where everyone is finding themselves so I just thought he was trying to be a tough guy. Just nodded my head and stepped back."
"He was the type that if people were play fighting or wrestling he'd invite himself and make it a real fight. Once getting me in a wrestling move called the 'Boston crab' and just kept adding more pressure as I was screaming for help and clawing at the floor, genuinely thinking my back was going to break."
"No remorse or thought he was taking it too far, only stopped when several people were yelling at him to let me go."
"The look on his face as I was getting away, like he was disappointed he had to stop haunted me for years. Stayed as far away from him as possible after that."
"Last I heard he's admitted now due to refusal to take medication and constant violent outbursts."
- KingOfFlukes
Hopefully All Talk
"I’ve taught PreK (four and five-year-olds) for years. Only one kid has ever really scared me and I wish I knew what happened to him, he’d be high school age by now."
"He used to talk about hurting animals a LOT, we had several conferences with his family but they swore he never did that at home and never hurt an animal despite so many times of him talking about it at school."
"He had zero affect most of the time, no smiling or laughing. He would be sneaky about hurting other kids, pinching or things like that, and have no remorse when he did something wrong and wouldn’t deny it either. Completely dead behind the eyes."
"I’ve never had another kid like that, even the violent ones who have hurt me or destroyed my room have had emotion and remorse at some point. Not him."
- waughwaughwaugh
Too Fascinated
"There was a kid in my elementary school who used to abuse small animals. In high school, he got super obsessed with serial killers and was caught trying to make poison brownies and give them to kids at our school."
"I was one of those kids (as were two of my classmates in one class), but we didn’t eat the stuff he offered us."
- Gulbahar-00
It Starts at Home
"He wrapped both his hands around her throat unprovoked, he laughed about it, and his mom defended his behavior. He was eight years old."
- nniicholee
Shocking Reveals
'"I think about hurting people all the time. I dream about it every night,' was said by the sweetest, most polite girl in one of my ninth-grade classes."
"I turned that over to the counselors immediately. Hope she got the help she needed but knowing the public school system my guess is they didn't even address it."
- little_shop_of_doors
No One Listening
"Kid in fifth grade (11 years old) very intelligent and in gifted classes. He would torment the other gifted kids. The only time I ever saw his creepy, dead-eye, jack-o-lantern smile was when he made another kid cry."
"He would do things like finish a book over the weekend that the other kid was reading just so he could come in and spoil the ending. He researched some country that this kid's grandparents came from and called him a nazi (it wasn’t Germany - can’t remember)."
"The other kids' parents did the nice kid thing: just ignore him. And god love them, these kids tried."
"He would chase them on the playground just to say creepy s**t. Anyway, I came in 1/2 way through the year. I called a meeting with the parents and school social worker. They said the other kids bullied him!"
"I kept a bunch of papers that he wrote about blowing up the school, blowing up the White House, and making way for a new species of human. He is definitely going to kill prostitutes or hide bombs somewhere."
"After he went to middle school there were a bunch of bomb threats. I notified the principal about his behaviors and sent copies of the papers he wrote. Awkwardly, his father worked at the middle school. Anyway, the threats stopped soon after that."
"He would have graduated by now and I have no idea where he is. But when he kills people, I’m going to the news with all my documentation and show that I tried to get this sick little s**t some help and no one cared. What else can you do?"
- troismanzanas
Social Influence
"Not a teacher but the meanest, most malicious, vindictive, manipulative child I ever knew growing up did not become a serial killer. Nope. She became an 'influencer.'"
"I’m kind of scared of what she’ll become when she’s no longer relevant as an influencer, or when her looks fade and fail to bring her the attention she craves."
- SuddenYolk
These stories are absolutely chilling, and it's no wonder that there were concerns about who these people would grow up to be, or what they would do when they came of age. Hopefully at least some of them received the care they needed, so they could turn their lives around for the better.
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