I am from Brazil, where there is a large divide in quality of public schools and private schools.
I went to private schools, and envied the columbine guys, when it hit the news, I wanted to do the same. (happily, I didn't).
Still, friend I had (outside of school) that went to public schools, were real Lord of the Flies material:
* One friend I had, once was assaulted by 3 bullies using their school scissors as a weapon, he reacted by bashing the head of one of them in using his skateboard, hitting his skull with the skateboard wheel supports.
* Another friend of mine broke someone jaw with a fire extinguisher in a school brawl.
And even in my private school:
* Some dude threw my sister into a construction area, after that she started to walk with a non-optical mouse ball in her pocket, she knocked a guy with it once after the guy stole her lunch.
* A kid from first grade made a hole in another kid skull using one of those traditional spinning tops made of wood and nail, this resulted in a spinning top ban.
* After the spinning top ban, the popular toy became yoyo, that also became banned after a kid tried to strangle another with the string.
* Metal rulers were forbidden, it is because some years earlier, before I joined the school, a group of kids figured they could sharpen the rulers until they were sharp, use them as swords, and steal all other kids, including much older ones, money.
And then we have incidents like this:
* Teacher in my high-school had some quirky behaviour regarding emergency staircase, later another teacher told us he witnessed a student jump from it headfirst in a fashion that made brain splatter all over the place.
* One of the highlights of my high-school principal career, is that when he was teacher in another school, one of his students put a bomb in a bathroom that was so strong the toilet he wanted to explode made a hole in the ceiling above.
* Kid got kicked out of school after arriving 6:30 in the morning blind drunk, got in a brawl with other students, and destroyed half of the desks in a classroom.
* Whole city was hit hard by the news that a group of 15 year old kids organized a massive party, then when it was time to leave one of them decided to drive home drunk, despite mininum driving age being 18 anyway, crashed, and killed himself, 2 more students, and left two others paraplegic.
And all that is from a relatively wealthy place, poorer areas we had kids murdering each other and teachers without even hitting the news.
And now some recent news about school incident, in portuguese, so you might need google translate:
I went to private schools, and envied the columbine guys, when it hit the news, I wanted to do the same. (happily, I didn't).
Still, friend I had (outside of school) that went to public schools, were real Lord of the Flies material:
* One friend I had, once was assaulted by 3 bullies using their school scissors as a weapon, he reacted by bashing the head of one of them in using his skateboard, hitting his skull with the skateboard wheel supports.
* Another friend of mine broke someone jaw with a fire extinguisher in a school brawl.
And even in my private school:
* Some dude threw my sister into a construction area, after that she started to walk with a non-optical mouse ball in her pocket, she knocked a guy with it once after the guy stole her lunch.
* A kid from first grade made a hole in another kid skull using one of those traditional spinning tops made of wood and nail, this resulted in a spinning top ban.
* After the spinning top ban, the popular toy became yoyo, that also became banned after a kid tried to strangle another with the string.
* Metal rulers were forbidden, it is because some years earlier, before I joined the school, a group of kids figured they could sharpen the rulers until they were sharp, use them as swords, and steal all other kids, including much older ones, money.
And then we have incidents like this:
* Teacher in my high-school had some quirky behaviour regarding emergency staircase, later another teacher told us he witnessed a student jump from it headfirst in a fashion that made brain splatter all over the place.
* One of the highlights of my high-school principal career, is that when he was teacher in another school, one of his students put a bomb in a bathroom that was so strong the toilet he wanted to explode made a hole in the ceiling above.
* Kid got kicked out of school after arriving 6:30 in the morning blind drunk, got in a brawl with other students, and destroyed half of the desks in a classroom.
* Whole city was hit hard by the news that a group of 15 year old kids organized a massive party, then when it was time to leave one of them decided to drive home drunk, despite mininum driving age being 18 anyway, crashed, and killed himself, 2 more students, and left two others paraplegic.
And all that is from a relatively wealthy place, poorer areas we had kids murdering each other and teachers without even hitting the news.
And now some recent news about school incident, in portuguese, so you might need google translate:
http://www.vice.com/pt_br/read/aluno-morre-esfaqueado-escola...