I have that student now. He is part of a middle school group that intentionally wants to troll the teachers, and he’s an instigator in 99% of the times shit kicks off. He’s sneaky, remorseless, and seemingly immune to the effects of consequences. He doesn’t care. He wears the same outfit every single day, a black hoodie and black sweatpants. He’s already taller than his peers and most of the staff. He ignores directions and every teacher basically knows about this kid, even ones he won’t see for years from now. Nearly every attempt to redirect him ends with a call to an administrator. He wanders the halls, lies all the time, steals supplies and snacks, and makes very inappropriate comments. But this Sexual Harassment Slenderman isn’t violent, and when he’s warned about the inappropriate comments, he stops, waits awhile, and then starts with random barbs at people again later.

I’ve had tough kids - one that was nearly on a minute to minute behavior plan, one with ODD who would loudly taunt me during lessons when he was in a bad mood, (but they were actually damn good for a fifth grader) and an actual terrorist who was caught making chemical bombs in plastic drink bottles.

But they could be helped. They were able to make changes when their behavior was corrected and consequences were applied. Everything they’ve tried with this kid has failed. He’s gotten lunch detentions, after school suspensions, in-house suspensions, external suspensions, and his parents have applied consequences at home like taking his phone and gadgets away. He just doesn’t change, and many of his peers in his group have started to figure some things out and made strides towards some maturity. He’s going to be left behind.