When you think of the Colosseum, you might picture gladiators clashing swords, but the arena also hosted a parade of blood‑soaked animal spectacles that were downright cruel unusual. The bestiari—men forced to battle exotic beasts—were only the tip of the iceberg. Below are ten shocking details that history books often skim over.

Cruel Unusual Realities of Roman Beast Hunts

10 The Suicides

Some of the men thrust into the arena were seasoned fighters who chose the role as a career, but most were unarmed criminals or captured soldiers tossed in with barely a weapon to their name. The terror of facing snarling lions, bears or boars drove many to desperate measures. One German prisoner, for instance, choked himself on a lavatory sponge—yes, the very thing used to wipe anuses. Another grim episode involved 29 Saxon prisoners who strangled each other to avoid the beasts, a macabre pact that ended with the last survivor meeting an equally grim fate.

9 The Fighting Killed Off Whole Species

The sheer scale of slaughter at the Colosseum decimated wildlife across the Mediterranean. Roman hunts are blamed for wiping entire populations of lions, jaguars and tigers from the region. After a single series of games that saw 9,000 animals killed, the hippopotamus vanished from the Nile, and the once‑common North African elephant disappeared from the earth entirely.

8 Few Bestiari Ever Survived

Because most bestiari were prisoners, they rarely had the tools or training to dispatch a raging beast. The philosopher Strabo tells of a hapless captive first slated to die by a boar. When the boar accidentally gored its handler, the guards were forced to replace it with a bear—only for the bear to refuse leaving its cage. Finally, a caged leopard was released and promptly tore the prisoner’s throat. Luck, it seems, was a foreign concept in the arena.

7 Commodus And The Ostriches

Emperor Commodus, immortalized by Joaquin Phoenix in Gladiator, delighted in animal carnage. Legend claims he killed over 100 bears in a single day, likely by stabbing them while they were tethered. Yet his true claim to fame was archery: he allegedly decapitated sprinting ostriches with crescent‑shaped arrows, then hurled the severed heads at the crowd—or even his own senate—as a chilling display of madness.

6 Elephants Crushed Deserters

The punishment known as damnatio ad bestias—condemnation by wild beasts—often left victims defenseless. The earliest recorded case in 167 BC saw Aemilius Paullus order a group of army deserters to be crushed beneath a herd of elephants. The gruesome spectacle proved so popular that Romans began watching animal executions every morning before the afternoon’s gladiatorial bouts.

5 Public Hunts

Occasionally the general public got a taste of the hunt. Around 280 AD, Emperor Probus transformed the Circus Maximus into a massive forest, releasing hundreds of ibexes, sheep, ostriches and other beasts. Spectators were then allowed to roam the “forest” and hunt for sport, keeping whatever they captured. The next day, unsatisfied, Probus ordered 400 lions and 300 bears slaughtered.

4 Orpheus Against The Bears

Legend says Orpheus could charm any creature with his lyre. Romans tried to reenact this myth by dressing condemned criminals as Orpheus, handing them lyres, and throwing them into arenas packed with angry bears—often starved or beaten. Some variations even crucified the “Orpheus” before the bear encounter. Unsurprisingly, the outcome was predictably brutal.

3 Carpophorus’s Rape Giraffes

Among the professional hunters, or venatores, Carpophorus stood out. He could kill 20 beasts in a day, some by strangulation. More disturbingly, he allegedly trained giraffes—and other animals—to assault women. By collecting scent samples from females in heat, he allegedly aroused male animals, then forced them onto slaves or homeless women in the arena. These twisted displays aimed to dramatize myths where Zeus assumed animal forms to ravish mortals.

2 Prolific Killer Animals

Romans didn’t always pamper their beasts; many were killed after each show to save on feeding costs. Yet some animals became legends. Cicero recorded a lion that slaughtered 200 men before finally being felled. In another episode, 18 elephants, initially meant to be dispatched by darts, broke through a fence and stormed the crowd, prompting Romans to dig a deep trench to separate arena and spectators thereafter.

1 No Animals Had To Die

Perhaps the most paradoxical cruelty was that many of these animals never needed to die for the crowd’s amusement. Trained elephants performed dances, bows and tricks, delighting spectators who actually booed when the gentle giants were slain. Crocodiles lounging in water, leopards pacing in a straight line, or any exotic creature simply existing proved enough to captivate Romans—as if the arena were an early zoo. Yet the Romans chose to add bloodshed for extra spectacle.

When we talk about the 10 cruel death marches that scarred modern history, the Trail of Tears often comes to mind first. That forced relocation of Native Americans was a grim precursor to the industrial‑age death marches of the 20th century, where armies turned walking, starvation and brutality into a method of mass murder.

10 1918

In the early 1900s the world was introduced to the term “genocide.” Beginning in 1915, the Ottoman Empire orchestrated the systematic extermination of its Armenian minority, killing an estimated 1.5 million people. The Armenians called it Medz Yeghern, meaning “the great crime.”

The campaign unfolded in stages. First, every able‑bodied Armenian male was slaughtered. Then women and children were forced to trek across the Syrian desert. A 1915 New York Times report described how Armenians were deported from Cilicia to the desert south of Aleppo, noting that the marches guaranteed death because there was no shelter, work, or food awaiting them.

Subsequent New York Times articles detailed how the deportees were starved, beaten, robbed, raped and even forced to eat grass, locusts, dead animals and, in the most desperate cases, human flesh. The Ottoman authorities used the marches themselves as a killing tool, employing cattle cars, concentration camps and bureaucratic terror that foreshadowed the Holocaust.

9 The Chelm Massacre 1939

Chelm, a city in eastern Poland, had already endured centuries of anti‑Jewish violence, but the 1939 massacre eclipsed earlier horrors. After Soviet forces withdrew in October 1939, the Nazis rounded up the town’s male Jewish population on December 1 and forced them toward the Bug River, hoping to push them into Soviet hands.

More than half of the marchers were shot along the way. When they reached the river, Soviet troops refused them passage, prompting many to plunge into the water and attempt a desperate swim. A survivor’s testimony recounts the Nazis ordering the men to run, shooting anyone who hesitated, and forcing some to dig their own graves before being sent running again.

Out of roughly 2,000 Jewish men and boys who set out from Chelm, only about 150 survived the brutal trek.

8 Stutthof Death March 1945

Established in 1939, Stutthof concentration camp housed over 100,000 prisoners, many of them non‑Jewish Poles. By early 1945 the SS decided to evacuate the camp as Soviet forces approached.

The first 5,000 inmates were forced to the Baltic Sea, compelled to wade into the water and then shot en masse. Civilians helped herd the victims onto the beach for execution. The remaining prisoners were sent toward Lauenburg, only to be turned back when Soviet troops blocked the route, forcing a return to Stutthof where thousands more perished.

On January 25 1945, over 25,000 prisoners were forced on a ten‑day march with food supplies for merely two days. Anyone who fell behind was shot. Smaller groups were evacuated by sea, where many more died. Stutthof was finally liberated in March 1945.

7 Auschwitz Death March 1945

“Arbeit Macht Frei”—the infamous sign at Auschwitz’s entrance—did not promise freedom, but forced labor and death. In mid‑January 1945, as Soviet troops closed in, the SS ordered the evacuation of roughly 60,000 inmates.

Men were first marched to Wodzislaw Śląski and Gliwice, then crammed onto unheated freight trains bound for other camps. While the SS claimed only the fit should go, many sick and under‑age prisoners volunteered, fearing that staying behind meant certain execution.

Prisoners were forced to march while hauling their captors’ luggage and weapons. Stragglers were shot on the spot, leaving a grisly trail of bodies. In one horrific incident, a train full of Auschwitz prisoners was fired upon, killing more than 300 men. Estimates suggest up to 15,000 lives were lost during this final death march. Today, memorials line the route, and an annual “March of the Living” reenacts the trek in solemn silence.

6 Bataan Death March 1942

When the Battle of Bataan ended in April 1942, the Japanese army faced a logistical dilemma: too many American and Filipino POWs for the available trucks. General Masaharu Homma decided the only solution was a forced march.

Prisoners were compelled to walk 88 km (55 mi) to San Fernando, then transferred by rail to Capas and forced to cover a final 13 km (8 mi) on foot to Camp O’Donnell. The Japanese denied water, left them exposed to the scorching sun, and routinely bayoneted, beheaded, shot, or simply abandoned those who could not keep pace. Daily, a man was tied to a tree and executed as a warning.

Filipinos who attempted to aid the captives were also shot. After the war, General Homma was tried, convicted, and executed in 1946 for his role in the atrocity.

5 Sandakan Death Marches 1945

In early 1945, after Allied bombing crippled the Sandakan airfield in Borneo, Japanese commander Hoshijima Susumu ordered the evacuation of Australian and British POWs. The prisoners were told they would be moved to Jesselton (now Kota Kinamalu) for labor, but instead were forced on a 260 km (162 mi) trek to the town of Ranau.

The first wave of 455 men left between January and February, marching through swampy terrain and relentless rain. Those who lagged were bayoneted or shot. By April, with Allied forces closing in, the Japanese razed the camp and evacuated the remaining inmates. A second wave of roughly 530 prisoners set out; only 183 survived the journey to Ranau.

At Ranau, disease, starvation and relentless brutality claimed almost every survivor. In August, the last 40 POWs were executed. Only six men survived the entire ordeal, all of whom escaped. The commandant and eight others were later hanged for war crimes.

4 Brno Death March 1945

Genocide’s bitter after‑taste often includes revenge against former victims. On the very first day of peace after World War II, anti‑Nazi sentiment sparked the forced expulsion of roughly 20,000 ethnic Germans from Brno, the capital of Moravia, into Austria.

The march began after a German woman and her infant were clubbed to death and thrown into the Elbe River. President Benes urged the populace to “take arms and kill Germans.” Many were expelled or killed merely for bearing German surnames.

Survivor Marie Ranzenhoferová recounts that the march, composed mainly of women, children and the elderly, turned nightmarish when Romanian soldiers entered a locked barn, raping women, beating people, and loading trucks with corpses. Upon reaching Austria, Soviet forces denied entry, forcing the refugees back to Brno, where they were interned in a field near Pohorelice. Starvation and disease claimed at least 700 lives. This episode foreshadowed the massive post‑war expulsions of millions of ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe.

3 The Tiger Death March 1950

The Korean War unleashed a series of brutal forced treks, the most infamous being the “Tiger” death march. Prisoners had their boots and outer garments stripped, even in freezing weather, and subsisted on a single rice ball per day with little to no water.

The march spanned roughly 193 km (120 mi) to an internment camp near Pyongyang. Among the victims was an 80‑year‑old nun, imprisoned for alleged “anti‑Communist” activities.

Major “The Tiger,” a scar‑faced North Korean officer, led about 850 American POWs on the march. He and his guards killed 89 men along the way. Survivors dubbed themselves “The Tiger Survivors,” describing their captor as a man with “no humanity.” Only 262 men ever returned; among them was Private First Class Wayne Johnson, who painstakingly recorded the names of 496 fallen comrades.

2 The National Defense Corps Incident 1951

The South Korean National Defense Corps Incident stands out as a death march inflicted by a nation’s own military leadership. President Syngman Rhee, backed by the United States, ordered men aged 17‑40 into the National Defense Corps (NDC) to thwart North Korean conscription.

Although the NDC was allocated funds for 200,000 soldiers, the money vanished. When a Chinese offensive forced a winter retreat, the ill‑supplied corps was ordered southward. Lacking food, clothing and shelter, up to 90,000 men perished from starvation and exposure.

Investigations later revealed massive embezzlement by senior officers. Several were executed; Rhee’s involvement remained suspected but never proven.

1 The Evacuation Of Phnom Penh 1975

The 10 cruel death marches of modern history would be incomplete without mentioning the forced evacuation of Phnom Penh in April 1975. The nascent Khmer Rouge claimed the operation would last three days, yet the city remained nearly empty for three years.

Residents were herded into the countryside, many ending up in forced‑labor camps and collective farms. While some accounts suggest a relatively peaceful relocation, numerous witnesses reported soldiers shooting those who refused to leave, and bodies littering the roads.

Estimates of the displaced range from 2.6 million to as high as four million. The evacuation foreshadowed the Cambodian genocide, which claimed 1.5‑3 million lives. To date, only one war‑crime conviction has been secured—former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav (Duch), sentenced to life for overseeing the deaths of roughly 15,000 people.

These ten harrowing journeys remind us that the cruelty of forced marches has left indelible scars across continents and decades.

Civilization is barbaric. Even today, bloodsports remain popular. From tossing wildlife into the air to chasing foxes with hounds, simpletons everywhere still get their kicks from animal cruelty.

But animal cruelty kicks back. 

In order of ugliness, here are 10 of the worst — and how participants have got their comeuppance.

10. Fox tossing

Fox tossing was exactly as its name suggests. Participants in pairs (often couples) stood facing each other in a closed arena, each holding one end of a rope slack to the ground. Then a captive fox or other wild animal would be released. The aim was to pull the rope taut the moment the animal ran over it, tossing it in the air. Apparently they could reach bone-breaking heights of more than 20 feet.

If the animal didn’t die on hitting the ground, it either tried to escape or attacked its tossers. However, this was all part of the fun. Fox tossing was often a festive affair with dozens of participants, hundreds of animals, and even fancy dress.

But not everyone got off lightly. In 1648, Poland’s King Augustus II hosted a toss that killed 647 foxes, along with 533 hares, 34 badgers, and 21 cats. He was clearly addicted, since by the end of his reign, Poland was greatly diminished. The country lost its status as a European power and, in spite of his wishes, he failed to leave a strong monarchy to his son. Unfortunately, though, it wasn’t for another century and a half that fox tossing was finally banned.

9. Cock throwing

Also known as cock threshing, cock running, and throwing at cocks, this old British pastime involved throwing sticks at cocks until they died. Sometimes it was hens; it didn’t seem to matter. But either way, they had to be tied to a stake by one leg, which even at the time many felt to be “unsporting.” Officially, that was why it was banned. (Really, though, for the aristocratic, fox-hunting, game-shooting law-makers, cock throwing was too working class.) By the end of the 18th century, the sport was no more. 

There aren’t many tales of cock throwers getting their comeuppance, unfortunately. But, given its use of projectiles, we assume things often went awry. In 1766, for example, some kids were cock throwing in a churchyard when they missed and hit a woman walking past. There’s also the 1753 riot in Dublin, which broke out when soldiers expressed disgust at the sport.

8. Goose pulling

If you’ve ever been hissed at by geese and wondered why they’re so damn foul-tempered (no pun intended), look no further than a) foie gras, and b) the centuries-old tradition of goose pulling. Especially popular on the Iberian peninsula but common throughout Europe, it involved galloping on horseback toward a goose on a rope and attempting to pull off its head.

Nowadays, dead or even fake geese are used but it was only in 2005 that the Basque fishing town of Lekeitio stopped using live birds. Their tradition is also slightly different, seeing participants (men and women) leaping off boats towards a goose strung over the harbour.

Despite there seemingly being no record of mishaps for participants, the seventeenth-century Dutch poet Bredero did recall a knife fight at one goose pulling event that left a farmer dead. More decisively, goose pullers have been forbidden from using live geese everywhere but Lekeitio since the 1920s. 

But don’t expect those hissing geese to forgive us any time soon.

7. Human baiting

Human baiting involves brutal combat between a human and an animal, usually a dog. The most notorious example — the 1874 fight between a “dwarf of extraordinary strength” called Brummy and a bulldog called Physic — took place in Victorian England, but was reported on by the American press as well. Each combatant was chained to the wall so they could reach each other to attack but also keep back out of reach as needed. Like the dog, Brummy fought on all fours and mostly naked, except for his trousers. The aim wasn’t necessarily to kill the other but to knock them “out of time,” meaning they were so beaten they weren’t ready to fight again in 60 seconds. 

Brummy was no innocent; he arrogantly claimed that no dog “could lick a man,” even a bulldog. He also provoked and taunted his opponent by hissing and making faces, driving it into a frenzy. Nevertheless, among the crowd the dog was the favorite to win. In the end, the human won. But for what it’s worth, his life wasn’t easy, replete with grudges and troubles with police. 

Other human baiting examples have led to more decisive comeuppance. In 1877, two drunk men were arrested for “worrying” a dog in a kennel; one of the men, wearing only his trousers and wielding a knife, was fighting the dog for 20 minutes before police arrived, while the other was holding his clothes. The fighter’s arm was mauled and bleeding, and both men were given 21 days in the clink. And, on another occasion, a “gentleman” fighting a bulldog almost had his bowels torn out.

6. Octopus wrestling

Few sports say early 1960s American macho like the World Octopus Wrestling Championship. Established (and shortly thereafter terminated) at Tacoma on Washington’s Puget Sound, it involved divers wrangling and “rassling” octopuses from the bay. The more they weighed, the more points they scored — times three when caught without diving gear.

In 1963, when the event was televised, more than 100 divers and thousands of spectators were present. But, while almost 30 octopuses were wrestled, nobody got what they deserved — until the following year when a man got entombed inside a 50-pound octopus forcing his son to help him out.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t until 2013 that a man beating an octopus to death in Puget Sound was globally shamed for the killing. Hunting was subsequently banned.

5. Fox hunting

Fox hunting is cruel to all animals involved. The foxes that are chased to exhaustion and torn apart by the hounds, the hounds that are beaten and unceremoniously shot dead by the humans they trust, and the horses that fall and get injured (and are punched in the faces by riders). Even humans often lose their lives. It’s a despicable sport that, secretly, symbolizes the dominion of the wealthy over the land. The fox is their excuse to trample over borders and fences, block traffic, and so on, in pursuit of their terrified prey (the blood of which they smear onto children). 

It’s also pompously, pedantically bureaucratic. Fox hunting groups’ micro-management extends even to the minutiae of how many buttons participants can have (according to rank), how women should wear their hair, and how to say the most basic of things. If a gate is left open, for example, they can’t just say so; they have to say “gate please” to others.

As mentioned, many participants are killed in the sport — often when horses fall on top of them. Increasingly, they’re also facing criminal charges for continuing to break the law forbidding the hunting of foxes (in place since 2004). Generally, this is no thanks to the police but to the tireless work of fox hunt saboteurs, who pursue and record the often violently abusive fox botherers. In Scotland, the ban is taken more seriously with new legislation to enforce it.

4. Bullfighting

The most iconic of bloodsports worldwide, bullfighting has a veneer of respectability about it — though it’s not clear why. Every year, 180,000 bulls are tormented and killed in arenas by men and women in glittery clothing. When it finally comes time to end the bull’s suffering, the ideal conclusion is a “swift clean kill” from a sword between the shoulder blades. In practice, however, most matadors miss and instead injure the lungs, causing the animal to choke up blood and suffer even more.

In Indian bullfighting, or jallikattu, the ordeal is no better. Here, in a country famed for its alleged love of cows, crowds of men taunt and torture a bull — beating it with nail-studded sticks, throwing chili powder in its eyes, and forcing alcohol down its throat. 

Bulls are no pushovers, though, even with the odds stacked against them. Bullfighting is as dangerous as it’s ever been, and participants frequently get their just deserts. One Spanish bullfighter, for example, tripped in the ring and was gored by the bull, while another was gored in the lung. These are just some of the most recent incidents. In India, participants dying is pretty normal. Even spectators don’t get off lightly. Several people die every year running from bulls in Pamplona, Spain, and, in India in 2023, more than 100 people were injured between just two events.

3. Baiting

Baiting has involved all kinds of animals, but in Shakespearean England bears were all the rage. The unfortunate animal would be chained in an arena by its leg or neck and pitted against bulldogs or mastiffs. 

Seeing an opportunity to monopolize the evil sport, Sir Sanders Duncombe filed a patent for “the sole practisinge and making profitt of the combatinge and fightinge of wild and domestick beasts within the Realm of England for fowertene yeres.” Once he’d received it in 1639, he immediately set to work on a “bear garden”. But it didn’t go according to plan. 

Not only did the unfinished structure get blown over by the wind, humiliating the knight and putting his project on hold; but Duncombe also hit the papers when his bearkeeper was killed by a bear. It happened during feeding after the animal broke out of confinement. There were thousands of horrified eyewitnesses. And while they weren’t sympathetic to the bear, killing it in revenge, Duncombe’s reputation was ruined.

2. Cockfighting

Somehow, cockfighting — the pitting of roosters against each other in an enclosed pit to fight to the death — remains popular around the world, including in the US. Defenders argue that cocks are natural fighters; but rarely in nature do they fight to the death or, as is often the case in cockfights, mutual destruction. Only by humans are they deliberately bred for maximum aggression.

This is to say nothing of the ways that humans have embellished the sport, such as outfitting cockerels with knives — attached to the legs for a little extra thrill. Unsurprisingly, this has proved not to be wise. In India, knife-wielding roosters killed two men in just one day. The first, a handler, was killed when his bird, frightened by the crowd, flew over and slashed his leg, leaving him to bleed out. And the other, a spectator, bled out from a wound to the hand.

In America, one of the biggest cockfighting operations — which also featured knife-wielding roosters — was publicly shut down by law enforcement. By December 2022, seven members of the cockfighting family had been federally charged and jailed for violating the Animal Welfare Act.

1. Alligator wrestling

Alligator wrestling was supposedly a way of life for the Everglades-dwelling Florida Seminoles. But really it was just another packaged “tradition” exploited by whites who built “Native villages” and paid Seminoles pennies to perform to white crowds in the 1930s and ‘40s. Surprisingly, they’re still at it today. And while modern performers claim a respectful, almost spiritual dimension to the sport — feeling at one with their reptile opponents — the truth is the alligators are kept in cramped and disgusting conditions. 

So it jerks no tears — even crocodile tears — when things go wrong for the wrestlers. 

In 2011, for example, a retired alligator wrestler was showing off to a crowd, holding an alligator’s jaws open and putting his head between them, when he accidentally brushed against the roof of its mouth. Snapping out of its trance, the alligator snapped its jaws shut with the wrestler’s head still inside. Although handlers rescued the man before the gator rolled over and snapped his neck (a so-called “death roll”), he later described hearing his skull crack beneath the “full weight of a Harley-Davidson”.

Everyone has a story to tell about when they got an undeserved or uncomfortable punishment from a teacher, but are they as ridiculous as these?

From six-year-old kids being arrested to being placed in a mental facility, with these stories, you may even feel a bit better about your high school experience!

10 Banned for Being Bald

In 2014, a young girl was banned from coming to school because she had no hair. The nine-year-old girl, Kamryn Renfro, had shaved her head in support of her best friend, Delaney Clements, who had been diagnosed with cancer back in October of 2010. The young girl had walked into school that morning proud of the decision she had made. But was met with a revolting response from her charter school, Caprock Academy.

The school told her that she was suspended from school until her hair grew back in because her shaved head “violated the dress code.” The Renfro family took to social media to describe what happened to their daughter, and the public outcry led to a large wave of criticism directed toward the school.

However, by the time the news had spread nationwide, the school had already voted to allow Kamryn back in school, resulting in her only missing one day of classes. The school board voted 3-1 to allow Kamryn to come back due to “extraordinary circumstances,” with the one against only voting no because he worried it would set a “precedent for policy waivers.” Luckily, in this case, the punishment was revoked. Some of the others on this were not so lucky.^[1]

9 Forced to Eat off the Floor

In 2008, 15 students were forced to eat off the floors of their school in New Jersey. Charles Sumner Elementary School had been accused of making students eat off the floor as punishment for wasting food, but the school initially brushed off such reports as rumors.

The school in question is in Camden, an area that sees a lot of conflict between the Hispanic and Black populations. As a result, the Black vice-principal reprimanded the 15 Hispanic 5th graders when just one had spilled some water. The kids had to eat off paper tray liners on the floor while “the African-American kids were eating at tables, with trays, taunting these Hispanic kids who were forced to eat on the ground,” an attorney said.

Seven of the 15 students involved went on to file a lawsuit, resulting in them winning and getting $500,000 in a legal settlement. The children’s teacher, who had encouraged the children to file a lawsuit, was fired and also sued the school. She ended up winning the lawsuit and $75,000. The vice-principal who reprimanded the students transferred afterward.^[2]

8 The Burp Heard ‘Round the Gym

In May 2010, a 13-year-old autistic student was arrested for burping in gym class. The boy, who remains unnamed, was handcuffed and hauled away to an Albuquerque juvenile detention center after the gym teacher called a resource officer to complain about the boy “disrupting her class” at Cleveland Middle School.

The lawsuit that ensued alleges that the parents were not notified of their son being transported to the juvenile detention hall. Furthermore, the child was not even given his due process rights because he was suspended from the rest of the school year. For burping in class.

If this was not enough, another just as infuriating incident occurred at the same school in October where this same boy was carrying $200 given to him by his mother to go shopping after school. The boy was then accused of selling drugs to other students. This ridiculous accusation resulted in the child being stripped down to his underwear in front of five teachers. Ultimately, they found nothing illegal on him.

The same school district was sued a second time the same day by the family of a seven-year-old for being handcuffed to a chair after “becoming agitated in class.” So it’s not surprising that this has happened on multiple other occasions.^[3]

So, what I’m saying is, don’t go to school in Albuquerque.

7 Sent to Fake Prom

In Mississippi, a teenager named Constance McMillen was sent to a fake prom because she wanted to bring her girlfriend as her date. She had successfully sued her school for the right to bring her female partner to the dance. How did the school react? There were two proms organized, and she was sent to the secondary one that was on an earlier day, along with seven other students. The other seven students had learning disabilities and other “problems” that led to their exclusion.

The school, Itawamba Agricultural High School, had a policy banning same-sex prom dates even though, mind you, they had paid for their tickets just like everyone else had. However, the group was sent to a country club to dance rather than being able to enjoy the better and more expensive prom with their other classmates.

The teenager, along with her family, took the school to court—again. The court ruled that the school had violated her constitutional rights. The school, seeing the pressure of the media on this controversy, eventually canceled the actual prom, leaving no one to have a good prom night at all. After the case was settled, the school never did reschedule the real prom.^[4]

6 Arrested for Perfume

Here’s another case dealing with arresting children. In 2010, 12-year-old Sarah Bustamantes was handcuffed and charged with a criminal misdemeanor for spraying perfume on herself in front of her whole class at Fulmore Middle School. The child has attention deficit disorder and bipolar issues, resulting in her being very self-conscious about herself in the classroom. As she states, that makes the “other kids [not] like me.”

However, what makes this arrest even more concerning is why she put the perfume on in the first place. Her classmates were bullying her in front of the teacher, saying she smelled. Sarah said they “were saying a lot of rude things to me,” and yet the teacher did nothing to help her. But, soon after she sprayed herself with perfume, the teacher called the police officer patrolling the school to take her away.

Unfortunately, this charge was not dropped and was filed as a Class C misdemeanor under Sarah’s name, as the act of disrupting a classroom was made a criminal offense in Texas, where the child lived. The law was altered to only affect children over the age of 12 and is still in effect today. It can result in fines, community service, and even jail time.^[5]

5 Strip-Searched

When Savana Redding was 13 years old, she was strip-searched for allegedly possessing prescription-strength ibuprofen. A student who did have pills on her earlier that day pinned the blame on Savana, leading the principal to give the order to a female secretary to strip search the student.

Before being searched, Savana was called to the office, where she was asked about having any pills on her. She replied no. The principal asked if he could search her bag, to which she said, “Sure, go ahead.” But after doing so, the principal told her to follow the secretary into the nurse’s office, where she was ordered to strip down to her underwear while they searched her belongings, something she did not say yes to. Graham Boyd, an ACLU legal counsel, described how this event “violates, under any normal sense of what ought to happen under the Constitution.”

The mother described her daughter after the incident as “withdrawn,” and she was absolutely outraged and upset with what had happened to her daughter. She called the school immediately and got no response. Then she called the sheriff, and they supported the school’s choice to do so and did nothing to help. The mother asks parents to learn what the schools they send their children to can and cannot do and make sure that it does not violate any students’ rights.

Redding’s mother sued the Safford Unified School District in Arizona and the school officials who searched her daughter, arguing that they had violated the Fourth Amendment. The case eventually made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where part of the case was affirmed, and another was reversed and remanded. Ultimately, they decided Savana’s rights were violated. However, the school was not held responsible due to a question about the wording of the law at the time of the search.^[6]

4 “I’m not special”

Alex Barton, a not-quite-yet-diagnosed autistic five-year-old boy, was punished in an absolutely infuriating way that would make anyone want to rip the teacher’s head off. In 2008, Morning Side Elementary School’s kindergarten teacher, Wendy Portillo, stated that Alex’s behavior was affecting the other students. This offensive behavior consisted of Alex pushing a table up with his feet off the ground. Alex was removed from the classroom by a resource officer while the teacher spoke with the class to organize what would happen next.

Portillo stated that “she felt that if (Alex) heard from his classmates how his behavior affected them that it would make a bigger difference to him,” so she brought Alex back and stood him in the center of the room and let the other children tell him all the things they didn’t like about him. After allowing the students to ostracize the boy, Portillo led a vote on whether they should kick him out of class for the rest of the day. That resulted in a 14-2 decision: he was kicked out.

Along with Alex saying his fellow students said “disgusting” things to him, he also said Portillo said, “I hate you right now. I don’t like you today,” and that she scratched him, stepped on his shoelaces, grabbed his leg, and pulled his shirt collar while yelling at him. But the class and Portillo denied this. The mother told the police officer who was involved later in the investigation that Portillo prevented her from getting her son for five minutes while he was visibly still upset from the experience. Once Alex was home, he repeatedly said the phrase “I’m not special” to himself while putting his head down.

What’s further upsetting is that the students and her fellow teachers stated that she was a kind and “caring” teacher when she was investigated. She was eventually suspended from teaching for a year, and the school fired her and stated that they would never rehire her ever. However, Portillo did not stop here. Once she had passed her year of suspension, she was hired by Allapattah Flats K-8 School. There she was accused of discriminating and yelling and screaming at a partially deaf girl, for whom Portillo would never wear the required microphone for the girl to hear her.^[7]

So everyone agrees that she’s a horrible teacher now! Hooray!

3 Duffle Bag

Nine-year-old Christopher Baker was stuffed into a duffel bag at Mercer County Intermediate School in December of 2011. The boy, who is autistic, was placed in the bag as a form of “therapy” to treat his autism, a practice used on other students multiple times.

Christopher’s mother, Sandra Baker, reported coming to school that day on December 14 and seeing a green duffle bag drawn shut and lying next to the teacher’s aid. On getting closer, she said she could hear Christopher ask from inside of the bag, “Who’s out there?” The mother then became more upset: When asked to open the bag, the teacher’s aid struggled to open the tied drawstring for a few moments before letting a sweaty Christopher climb out. Once the bag was opened, Christopher and dozens of plastic balls fell out of the bag together.

Lydia Brown, an intern with an autistic lobby group, started a petition to implement laws against schools being able to restrain or isolate students in schools. It received 18,000 votes in just two weeks and was closed about ten years ago with 204,709 signatures. There is no evidence of anything being done about this by the Mercer County Board of Education, and the special education director was banned from commenting on the matter.^[8]

2 Mental Facility

A six-year-old Florida girl was committed to a mental facility without parental consent for two days after throwing a temper tantrum in school. The young girl, Nadia Falk, was given antipsychotic medications. As Nadia describes to her mother, “Mommy, they locked the door. They wouldn’t let me out. Mommy, they gave me a shot” when asked what had happened to her.

Love Grove Elementary School had called a licensed state mental health counselor to evaluate the child after she had thrown a giant temper tantrum and had begun to throw chairs around her room. Nadia, who had been diagnosed with ADHD and a mood disorder, was then determined to need to be committed to the mental facility under the Florida Mental Health Act of 1971, which allows teachers to legally commit children two and older to mental facilities without parental consent.

The school stated that they did try to de-escalate the situation in several different ways before the counselor was called as was required and did not make the decision. The Child Guidance Center, which sent the counselor, is the organization that approved the commitment.^[9]

1 Isolation Room

In Buffalo, New York, several children were locked inside what was deemed the “isolation room” as punishment for various acts, the youngest being five years old. The room was described as barren: “jail-like” and “cold cinder block.” However, the room did have two windows and objects for the students to play with and use.

The students were locked and isolated from the other students in the room for hours at a time. Additionally, there was an eye-witness report of one mentally disabled student being “dragged by her arms” down the hallway to be locked in the room. The child was reported to still have nightmares about the day, while the teacher who ordered it only blamed the child for her misbehavior. Children locked in the room were banging on the glass, banging their heads, and screaming to be let out while the enforcing teachers stood and watched.

Jay Hall, the assistant director, was very open with reporters and stated that he had been fighting against the placement of children in this room. For providing descriptions and telling people exactly what happened there, Hall was placed on leave and received a cease and desist letter to prevent him from legally talking further about the isolation room. That very aggressive approach took away the only source that could thoroughly provide information about the process. The education department could not confirm nor deny the “existence of [any] investigations” for fairness and integrity.^[10]

Throughout history, human beings have created extremely cruel torture devices designed to cause huge pain. While some of these devices were designed to face a slow, painful death, many inflicted so much pain and left such damage that the victims died of blood-loss or infections. Many torture methods and contractions, like the head crushers, breast ripper, or crocodile shears, which were designed to deform the victim, but ended up killing the victim. But many torture devices left the victim to deal with lifelong agony and deformity. Let us take a look at Cruel Torture Devices Designed to Cause Huge Pain.

10 Most Cruel Torture Devices of All Time:

10. Scold’s Bridle

16th century Scotland and England used Scold’s Bridle on women considered as witches, shrews or scolds, particularly for public humiliation. It was an iron mask which attached to a helmet. The contraption was attached to the head of the woman, and the bridle-bit, which measured 2” long and 1” wide, and was studded with spikes, would be inserted into the mouth. This effectively stopped the person from speaking or even moving the tongue, or she would undergo cause immense pain.

9. Tongue Tearer

A Tongue Tearer looked like an extra-large pair of scissors. It was used to cut off the tongue of the victim without any effort. The mouth of the victim would first be forced open using a device called a mouth opener. After that the Tngue Tearer, made of iron, would be used to firmly clasp his tongue with the rough grippers of the device. The tongue of the person being tortured would then be twitched uncomfortably. Then, after tightening the screw, tongue would be torn out roughly.

8. Lead Sprinkler

A Lead Sprinkler was one of the cruel torture devices designed to cause huge pain. The device was usually filled with molten lead, though other liquids such as tar, boiling oil, water, etc., were also used, at high temperature, which could severely scald skin. The victim was tortured using this device by dripping the hot and burning content onto the stomach or other parts of the body, including the eyes. Even molten silver would be poured on the victim’s eyes, to produce the most fatal effects.

7. Knee Splitter

Knee Splitters were employed in the 12th century, during the Inquisition. The contraption had two wooded blocks with spikes. The number of spikes ranged from 3 to 20, and depended on the gravity of the crime committed by the person being punished. These spikes are driven into the flesh of the victim, and once the spikes are embedded into the victim’s leg, the blocks are drawn closer to each other using two large screws, to slowly pulverize the knee, just as the device’s name suggests.

6. Thumb Screws

Thumb Screws, also called Pilliwinks, were used in Medieval Europe as a cruel torture devices designed to cause huge pain. It was used to crush the thumb, fingers and toes of the victim, which were inserted into the contraption, with screws cranking down to pulverize the digits. Sometimes, the crushing bars would have spikes to intensify the pain. Weirdly, during Renaissance eras of England, these were used to straighten and elongate a woman’s fingers, to make them elegant.

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5. Heretic’s Fork/Neck Torture

Heretic’s Fork was metal device with two bi-pronged forks attached to a belt strapped round the victim’s neck, with one fork pointed to the chin, and the other to the sternum, while the victim remained suspended. The device prevented sleep, because, the prongs would pierce their throat and chest if the head dropped. The Neck Torture worked similarly, with a metal or wooden device studded with spikes around the victim’ neck preventing eating, lying down, or any other activity.

4. Scavenger’s Daughter

Queen Elizabeth I used Scavenger’s Daughter, also called Skeffington’s gyves, invented by a Brit named Skevington, against Protestants accused of treason. The apparatus had an iron hoop. The victim had to to sit on one half of it, with the other half crushing him further into an involuntary rigid crouch, as the screw would tighten the hinge in the middle. This would eventually crack the victim’s ribs and breastbone and dislocate the spine. It could even lead to bleeding from fingertips and face.

3. Rack/Horse/Strappado

The Rack, used in Europe, came in many forms, like the Horse. Basically, the victim would be tied down, as a mechanical device, tightened the rope to dislocate the joints, often long enough to tear the limbs off. In case of a Horse, the victim was to the top of a beam, i.e. Horse-back, facing up, while, pulleys below tightened the ropes. The Strappado, used in Palestine, does not have a base for the body to lie on, but the tied arms were wrenched out of the joints of the hanging prisoner.

2. Pear of Anguish

Pears of Anguish were metal tools, mainly for women. Different kinds were inserted into the vagina of a woman, or the mouth or throat of the person being tortured. Shaped like a pear, the device had four ‘leaves’ which were operated by a screw at the top. Once inserted into the orifice of a person for abortion, witchery, miscarriage, homosexuality, adultery, blasphemy, lies, etc., to spread it open, tearing the muscles, causing permanent internal damage, or to dislocate or break jawbones.

1. The Judas Cradle

Judas Cradle was torture device, not designed to kill, but to inflict pain and humiliation. With a steel collar attached to the victim’s waist, a pyramid-shaped tool would be impaled into his intently stretched orifice. The pressure caused excessive pain. The torturer could lift the victim with rope and pulley system and lower him again, driving the penetrative part deeper into the victim. Torture sessions lasted for days. Also, the device was rarely washed, causing life-threatening infections.

The physical conditions in which the victims were left from the cruel torture devices designed to cause huge pain would not only incapacitate them, but also screamed of their criminal history, almost always, even if the crimes were as trivial as petty theft, or they were not criminals, at all, and yet were punished on the basis of just accusation, or for alternate sexuality. Though not a frequent happening, death occurred, too. If that didn’t happen, the torturers and punishers made sure that these torture devices were supplemented with other forms of painful torture and humiliation.

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