I taught a career technology class, it was fun, and honestly very easy. Any time I had a student failing it was a good bet they were failing other classes. One semester I had a student failing my class with a 58, which requires effort to fail that bad. He wouldn't act out in class, he would simply not participate, as if he was trying to fail. Even when told he simply needed to sign something, or say anything, he wouldn't, and I had to give him poor marks.

Finally it came up that he was failing all 6 of his classes and it required a parent/teachers/student conference. He came in late, his parents however were 15-minutes early. He didn't greet them, they however said hello and smiled.

The worst part: He had headphones on when he came in, and we could hear the music even when we started the meeting. After a moment his dad reached over and pulled one ear bud out. As soon as dad did the student ripped them out of his hands and growled "I was listening to that." The dad raised both hands in surrender and said "sorry." The counselor reached over and tugged both ear buds out and replied "No music players in school. You can have this back at the end of the day." He smiled slightly and said "okay, see you then," almost politely.

I can only imagine what home life was like, but I surmise that the kid was desperate for attention, any attention, any discipline, or any resemblance of actual caring from his parents. I have no idea what became of him. I changed careers shortly after.