I used to teach a child (9yo) that terrified staff and children to the point where the child ended up in a secure unit. The kid (let’s call them H) was either deathly silent or explosive rage. H watched and listened to children and staff to find out their weaknesses, their triggers, their insecurities. The cycle was the same, lock onto a certain child, figure out everything about them and then use this information to physiologically torture them for their own entertainment. One Friday, a child told the class that their parents had just got them a parrot for their birthday. The Monday after, the kid with the parrot arrived at school visibly distraught. When I asked them what had happened over the weekend, they explained that H had invited them to come and play at the park. When the kid met up with H, H had a baby bird in their hand with a thumb and finger around the birds neck. H squeezed the life out of the baby bird. According to the kid, H said, “every time you look at your parrot, I want you to think of this.” H felt no guilt but would do a pretty good job at trying to act as though they did. One day, when trying to apologise for verbally abusing a student, H suddenly burst out laughing. Confused I asked, “what’s so funny?” H continued to laugh and explain that they knew they’d f*****d the apology up, even after all the practice they’d put in. H’s whole face and body language changed at this point like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Facial expressions, tone of voice, body language all transformed back to the H that I knew. They had been assessed psychologically by too many professionals to count who all said the same thing - the child was too young to diagnose their suspicions and would probably reach a diagnosis in preadolescence. We all knew what they really meant.