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When teaching at a school, it is not uncommon to have some students who are always pushing your buttons and trying to get a reaction out of you. Teachers have to find a way to get past this without causing a distraction to the other students.

What would you do if you had a student who tried to make you upset by drawing a picture of you on his test before handing it in?

That is what happened to the teacher in this story, so rather than saying anything to the student, she had the school counselor perform a mental health evaluation on him, knowing that it would annoy the student more than anything. Not surprisingly, it worked out just the way she had planned.

This is exactly the type of creative problem-solving that teachers need to engage in every day. Read through the full story and see what you think she should have done.

Cue the school counselor

I’m a high-school-teacher and taught among other subjects politics at my previous school.

That is a pretty broad list of symptoms.

We were briefed over and over again to be on the lookout for any sign that a student might be in psychological distress.

While I do understand that it is part of my job, I was always shaking my head in disbelief, when we were given the list of possible symptoms: “mood swings, irritability, lack of interest in schools, under-performance, changes in interests, etc.”.

Some students seem to enjoy causing trouble.

Since I work with teenagers, that list applies to about 90% of them. So obviously, that list wasn’t any help.

At the same time, I had a very provocative student who was two grades behind and who was just smug as heck. He always spend an unnerving amount of his potential trying to push his teachers’ boundaries and see how far he could go.

She knows how to handle students like this.

Luckily, I’m not that easy to anger – and always try not to play into students’ hands by doing exactly what they want me to do. So, if I notice that somebody tries to anger me, I give my best to speak even more calmly, etc.

When I was grading a test in politics, I noticed that he hadn’t filled out a question – probably because he was once more oblivious to the answer. Instead, he had used his time during the test do draw a little sketch made of stick figures:

Honestly, this was the right way to handle it.

One stick figure, labeled as me had its hand on a lever, up on a risen platform with a gallow. The stick figure with the head in the noose was labeled with his own name. At the feet of the gallows, the rest of the class was protesting with signs saying “Stop” or “Don’t do it!”

I thought about what comment I might write next to it, when I remembered the training we were given over and over again! Obviously this student was in distress. So I contacted the school psychologist and mentioned the disquieting sketch on the test.

Getting him evaluated was smart.

Two days later, during my lesson, there was a knock on my door: it was the school counselor who came to get the student for a psychological assessment.

The sour look he gave me, when he came back was marvelous…

While it was likely that the student was just trying to push her buttons, you can never be too careful. Getting him evaluated was the right decision.

Read through what the commenters below had to say about the situation.

I was thinking this same thing.

This commenter has a good suggestion.

When a student acts out like this, listen to them.

You have to take these students seriously.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a resident who is not amused by new parking rules, so locks a lot gate to teach management a lesson.

This teacher would have done the same thing.

She was just doing her job and keeping everyone safe. What the student did could have been a threat, even if this particular student didn’t really mean it that way.

It is always better to be safe than sorry since you can’t truly read the minds of all the students in school.