School is much more than just a place of learning—it’s a central part of childhood and a nurturing environment where memories are made, friendships are forged, and both academic and social growth is fostered. Whether it’s the carefree laughter at recess, the thrill of field trips, the magical moments that unfold at school dances, or the organized structure of classroom assignments and projects, these everyday moments shape the school experience as a whole. They are an integral part of growing up.

However, within the familiar routines that school days provide, students, teachers, and parents alike can often forget the delicate nature of everyday moments and the sense of normalcy we take for granted.

In this list, we will explore how even the most ordinary aspects of school life can set the stage for unexpected tragedy and sorrow. From a fatal accident on a playground slide to a teacher’s tragic death in the parent pick-up line to a mother’s devastating final act at her daughter’s graduation, this list explores ten common school events and activities that were transformed into heartbreaking, tragic events no one could have expected.

Related: 10 Bizarre (and Tragic) Food-Related Deaths

10 Recess

Recess is a cherished part of the school day, giving children a much-needed break from their academic routines and an opportunity to engage in free play and interact with their peers. Unfortunately, this much-anticipated part of the school day was marred by a tragic accident, leaving a Utah community in mourning.

Shortly before 10:30 a.m. on February 6, 2023, the Tooele County Sheriff’s Department responded to an injury report at Rose Springs Elementary School in Erda, Utah. Upon arrival, deputies discovered that as eight-year-old Dallin Cunningham came down a corkscrew slide on the school’s playground, he “flew out” 7 feet (2.1 meters) above ground, landing on his head in an area of “frozen rock-hard” ground.

When the recess monitors initially found Cunningham, he was unconscious but breathing. However, Cunningham later stopped breathing, prompting the recess monitors to perform CPR until a patrol officer arrived on the scene and took over. Cunningham was rushed to a local hospital but, sadly, never regained consciousness. He died on February 7, 2023, due to blunt force trauma to his head.

While the slide was removed from the playground, Cunningham’s parents, Kathryn and Timothy, also went on to sue the Tooele County School District for negligence, seeking $90,000 for their son’s medical expenses. Cunningham’s parents stated that the school district not only failed to properly supervise the use of the playground equipment but also allowed “unreasonably dangerous” conditions on the playground.

Aside from the circular slide being “excessively fast and steep,” the structure also had an excessive slope, lacked guardrails on the side, and lacked high banking “to keep children inside the slide instead of flying out.” In addition to the safety standards not being met on the slide, the playground also contained an inadequate amount of playground mulch to cushion Cunningham’s fall—just 1 inch (2.5 cm)—and was frozen solid underneath. Per standards, there should have been 12 inches (30 cm) of mulch filling the area below the slide.^[1]

9 Lunch

The Mid-Day Meal program was first introduced for poor and disadvantaged children in Chennai, India (formerly Madras) in 1925. It has since become one of the world’s largest school nutrition programs, reaching 120 million children in 1.2 million schools across the country. While the program was intended to put a dent in India’s chronic malnutrition problem by providing an incentive to poor families to send their children to school, nearly two dozen children lost their lives after consuming food served through the national campaign.

On July 16, 2023, two cooks, Manju Devi and Pano Devi, began preparing a meal of rice, lentils, soybeans, and potatoes for children at the Dharmasati-Gandaman Primary School in the eastern Indian state of Bihar. Devi, however, noticed that the mustard oil used to prepare the food looked and smelled bad, but when she raised concerns with the school’s principal, Meena Kumari, Devi was told to use it anyway.

Soon after their first bite of lunch, the students began fainting and vomiting, and within hours, they began dying. In total, 23 children between the ages of 5 and 12 died, and more than two dozen others became sick as a result of eating the free meal. Both Kumari and her husband—the owner of the grocery store where the ingredients were sourced—fled as soon as the students became sick.

Naturally, with dozens of innocent children dead and dozens of others hospitalized from a school meal, angry allegations of blame and violent protests throughout the region became widespread, with many refusing to eat food from the program.

Scientific tests later revealed “very toxic” levels of monocrotophos—an organophosphorus compound used as an insecticide—in the meals, specifically high contamination in the vegetable oil used to prepare the food. Investigators also later discovered that Kumari’s husband, Arjun Rai, stored pesticide at the school for use at his farm and that the chefs had cooked with it by mistake.

On July 24, 2023, 36-year-old Kumari was on the way to turn herself in when she was arrested. Both Kumari and Rai were charged with murder. However, they both denied any deliberate act on their part in harming the children. Kumari’s husband was later acquitted by the court, but on August 29, 2016, she was sentenced to a total of 17 years in jail for culpable homicide and negligence. She was also ordered to pay a $4,476.69 (Rs. 3.75 lakh) fine.^[2]

8 Parent Pick-Up Line

Parent pick-up lines are a common feature at most schools and are designed as a way to not only streamline the dismissal process but also keep children safe. These lines offer the convenience of remaining in your vehicle during pick-up, shielding parents from inclement weather and eliminating the need to navigate crowded hallways in search of students. However, these lines also bring their own set of challenges—long waits, traffic congestion, and, at times, frustration for both parents and staff alike.

Despite such a well-intentioned system, one kindergarten teacher in Missouri lost her life in a tragic incident while assisting with the school’s parent pick-up line. On September 5, 2018, 48-year-old Angel Hayes was guiding students and cars as rain fell in the parent pick-up line at Benton Elementary School in Neosho, Missouri. Eighty-eight-year-old Erwin Parker was in line that day, waiting to pick up his 12-year-old granddaughter from school.

Unfortunately, Parker’s foot became caught between the gas and brake pedals of his SUV, causing the vehicle to lurch forward and hit Hayes. The SUV continued moving through the parking lot, dragging Hayes an estimated 20 to 25 yards (18 to 22 meters) before striking another vehicle and finally coming to a stop.

Neosho Police officers were called to the school, where emergency personnel used an airbag inflation device to raise the vehicle and free Hayes from under the front right wheel well. Despite their efforts, it was sadly too late, and Hayes was pronounced dead at the scene. No charges were filed against Parker.^[3]

7 Physical Fitness Testing

For many students, physical fitness tests are the ultimate schoolyard nemesis—a rite of passage filled with push-ups, sit-ups, and the dreaded mile run. Although these tests are designed to gauge endurance, strength, and overall fitness, they often strike fear into the hearts of even the most athletic students.

However, for one young boy in Singapore, a physical fitness test proved to be much more than just adaunting school activity when it tragically claimed his life.

On May 2, 2024, 14-year-old Lu Xuanzheng was participating in a 1.5 mile (2.4 km) run as part of a physical fitness test at Woodlands Secondary School when he collapsed. Xuanzheng was rushed to the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, where he fell into a deep coma. Xuanzheng remained in a coma for 24 days, and on May 25, 2024, doctors declared him brain dead. After losing her husband to liver cancer in 2022, 52-year-old Su Yanfen had to make the difficult decision to say goodbye to her youngest son.

While Yanfen claimed there was no family history of heart conditions, it is believed that Xuanzheng experienced cardiac failure due to the intense exercise, leading to arrhythmia and then a coma.

Despite another family tragedy and the grief of Xuanzheng’s death, Yanfen stated that “her son’s greatest dream was to help others.” Therefore, given the hundreds of hospital patients waiting for organ transplants, Yanfen decided the best way to make Xuanzheng’s dream a reality was to donate his organs.^[4]

6 Graduation

On May 5, 2024, 53-year-old Larissa R. Brady, her husband, and their 12-year-old son went to The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio to attend the graduation ceremony. Brady’s daughter was one of the 12,555 Buckeyes set to graduate that day, earning her bachelor’s degree.

As her daughter entered the stadium, Brady told her “that she loved her and would always be her mother.” Little did Brady’s daughter know that this would be the last time she would speak to her mother and that a day meant for celebration would be filled with mourning instead.

From there, Brady proceeded into the stadium with her family to watch the ceremony. Once they were seated, Brady claimed she wanted to move higher in the stadium, but eventually, her family lost sight of her. Brady, however, made her way to the last row of benches, and shortly after the ceremony began, she climbed over the stadium’s concrete wall, falling 136 feet (41 meters) to the pavement below.

Brady, who had a history of bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, and anxiety, was said to have been non-compliant with her medications. At 12:25 p.m., she was pronounced dead by medics who arrived on the scene. Her death was ruled a suicide.

The graduation ceremony carried on as planned following Brady’s death without any mention of what happened. The university later contacted all graduates and staff who volunteered at graduation to offer counseling services.^[5]

5 Field Trip

Field trips play a crucial role in the educational experience, offering students a unique opportunity to engage with the world outside of a traditional classroom setting. These excursions allow for hands-on learning, where students can explore, discover, and connect what they’ve learned in the classroom to real-world experiences. While these school trips offer endless opportunities for learning, one field trip in England led to a heartbreaking disaster.

On May 22, 2024, 10-year-old Leah Harrison was taking part in an outdoor education forest walk as part of a school trip at Carlton Adventure in North Yorkshire when a mudslide occurred.

Emergency services flooded the scene, with police paramedics and the Cleveland Mountain Rescue Team dispatching 30 volunteers in a desperate attempt to save Harrison. Sadly, the “happy, bubbly little girl” who dreamed of playing soccer for the Lionesses did not survive the tragic incident.

All outdoor activities in the area, which had been under a Met Office yellow weather warning for heavy rain, were temporarily suspended while the North Yorkshire Police and the Health and Safety Executive began a joint investigation into the incident.

After hearing the devastating news of Harrison’s death, the Lionesses paid tribute to the young girl on their Instagram page, stating, “To Leah, you will forever be a Lioness.” They also asked their fans to come together in the 10th minute of their game against France on May 31, 2024, in recognition of Harrison’s life and in support of her family.^[6]

4 School Concert

The Monster Concert has been a tradition at Austin High School in Austin, Texas, since 1987. The concert, which is held every October, features the school’s own various orchestras as well as orchestras from various elementary and middle schools in the area. In addition to the Halloween-themed concert, the annual community event and fundraiser also includes games, contests, food and beverages, and a haunted house.

Unfortunately, halfway through the event, on October 21, 2023, a fire started after a gas-powered generator got too close to a propane tank while it was being refueled, causing an accidental flash fire. Three people were hurt and taken to the hospital—Sam Herrera, the husband of orchestra director Ana Solis-Herrera, her son Gabriel, and Paco Guajardo, the father of two orchestra students.

Guajardo was later released from the hospital, and Solis-Herrera’s son, Gabriel, was also expected to make a full recovery. Herrera, however, suffered burns on 60% of his body, and sadly, on November 8, 2023, he died as a result of his injuries.^[]

3 Sports Practice

School sports provide students with a wide range of opportunities- physical exercise, personal growth, and learning the value of teamwork. However, beyond the physical benefits, these athletic programs also provide a sense of community and belonging among students, which also becomes an integral part of their identities. The thrill of competition and the camaraderie with their teammates often defines a student’s high school experience.

Sadly, the promising future of one high school baseball player in Gainesville, Georgia, was cut short due to a devastating accident during practice.

On November 20, 2023, Jeremy Medina, a senior at Gainesville High School who played both pitcher and catcher on the school’s baseball team, was attending a routine practice session at the school’s on-campus batting cages. However, as another player followed through on his swing, Medina leaned into the net and was struck in the head by a baseball bat.

Medina lost consciousness and was rushed to the Northeast Georgia Medical Center, where he was diagnosed with a subarachnoid hemorrhage involving the left temporal lobe, a depressed skull fracture, and other trauma-related injuries. Medina remained in a coma, and on December 6, 2023, he was declared brain dead. Medina was later taken off life support and was pronounced dead on December 11, 2023.

Medina’s parents, David and Yasmira, went on to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the school system and the coaches, seeking a sum of $722,208 and a jury trial for the school officials’ negligence.

The lawsuit, which names the high school principal, assistant principal, athletic director, and multiple baseball coaches, stated that the baseball season did not officially start until January 15, 2024, but the coaches decided to call a mandatory practice. Medina’s parents described the practice as “illegal,” arguing that it violated the Georgia High School Association’s code.

Medina’s parents also claimed that no adults or school employees were present during the practice, leading to a slow response. The filing alleges that it took three minutes for an adult to arrive at the batting cages after the accident, seven minutes to call 911, and over seven minutes for the school’s athletic trainer to begin CPR. The lawsuit also claims that the athletic trainer did not have keys to access the AED, which was located in the school’s softball concession stand.^[8]

2 Back to School

Each new school year brings with it a sense of excitement and anticipation for both teachers and students alike. Teachers spend countless hours preparing their classrooms, ensuring every detail is perfect to welcome their new students. However, behind the scenes of such meticulous work lies the story of a devoted teacher whose preparations for the new school year took a tragic turn.

On September 1, 2026, 41-year-old Lynsey Haycock, a “much-loved” science and health teacher at Valley Forge High School in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, was putting up a display in her classroom in preparation for the return of her students when she fell and broke her leg. Haycock was taken to the hospital but sadly died on September 2, 2026, as a result of medical complications.^[9]

1 P.E. Class

Physical education is a cherished part of the school day for many students, offering a chance to engage in physical activity and enjoy a break from academic pressures. For those passionate about sports and fitness, P.E. class is often one of the best parts of the school day.

However, for some students, particularly those who are not as confident in their athletic abilities, P.E. can be a much more daunting and less enjoyable part of the day, filled with challenges and anxieties that overshadow the fun of physical activity. Tragically, a P.E. class that was a routine part of the school day became the setting for a gruesome freak accident.

On April 27, 2023, 16-year-old Brayden Bahme, a sophomore at Cheney High School in Cheney, Washington, was running during his 4th-period P.E. class when he fell into a goal post and was impaled through the eye.

First responders arrived at the school within one minute, and Bahme was transported to Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital but later died from his injuries.^[10]

The ancient Romans are well-known for keeping an abundance of written records about their society. Sometimes, it almost seems as though we know more about them than we do about ourselves.

Of course, World History and History of Western Civilization courses and textbooks always cover the history of the Romans. After all, so much of modern society and politics mirrors their achievements. However, some facts never seem to come up in class, many of which are quite strange. Some even border on the fantastical.

10 The Romans Closely Guarded Books That Foretold Events To Come

Locked away from prying eyes were books written in spidery Greek that spoke of the future of Rome and her citizens, including its inevitable end. These tomes were kept within the Temple of Jupiter where only the most skilled interpreter was permitted to trace his gnarled finger across the faded lines to determine what was to happen and how best to prevent it.

Legend has it that an old lady approached King Tarquin way back when Rome was still ruled by Etruscan kings. She offered him nine books at an absurd price, which he promptly refused with a hearty “Harrumph!”

She proceeded to burn three of the books and then returned with the remaining six, still demanding the same price. Once again, he refused. But this time, he began to question what he was turning down.

When she returned with three books after burning three more, he quickly bought the tomes. Upon perusing the battered manuscripts, it was apparent that they were books of prophecy for they told of Rome’s imminent rise and fall.

Many associated the old lady with a sibyl who had foretold the fall of Troy. From that day forward, the books were kept secret and closely guarded, only to be brought out when Rome was in peril and in need of answers.^[1]

9 Crassus’s Fire Brigade Was The Most Corrupt Fire Department Ever

Rome’s First Triumvirate consisted of three very powerful men: Julius Caesar, Gnaeus Pompey, and Marcus Crassus. Due to the overwhelming shadow of Caesar and Pompey, Crassus tends to fall by the wayside in most history classes. This is a shame because he was a veritable misanthrope whose avarice and lack of humanity were legendary.

One of the lesser-known stories about him concerns his fire brigade. After all, what great municipality would be complete without emergency units to respond to catastrophes such as a raging fire threatening to engulf one’s home?

Except this unit would arrive on the scene only to refuse their services until the owner sold his property cheap to Crassus. Imagine seeing your home lit up like a bonfire, just begging to be doused by the firefighters standing not 5 meters (15 ft) away, and your only options are to let it all burn away or sell it for far less than it’s worth.^[2]

8 The Publicani Were Basically The Mafia Of Ancient Rome

Ah, the tax collector. What a thankless occupation. Especially if your sole purpose in life is to bleed others dry while you reap the benefits. Believe it or not, tax collectors today are far more benevolent than their ancient counterparts.

During the second century BC, Roman businessmen called the publicani dominated the ancient world. Arriving at newly conquered provinces, they would engage in tax farming with many of the hapless provincials. As has been the wont of the upper 1 percent throughout human history, they absolutely adored squeezing as much money as they could out of the poor and downright stomping on the poorest of the poor.

The wealth amassed by the publicani led them to control trade, banking, and shipping. They became notorious for their brutal tactics as they strong-armed Easterners (including the Greeks, who were Easterners to the Romans). The publicani would collect a tax called the decuma (10 percent harvest tax), much of which went to the Roman government.^[3]

As a portion of this wealth found its way into the pockets of Roman politicians, the actions of the publicani were largely tolerated, even if they were tacitly condemned.

7 A Man Infiltrated A Festival Exclusively For Women

It’s December. Pine trees are in your house, carols are in the air, and specials such as Charlie Brown and the Grinch are on TV. You guessed it. It’s the festival of the Good Goddess.

This was a time in ancient Rome when the women would gather together to celebrate the rites of the goddess while the men hid away. Men were not permitted to partake in this festival. Even statues of men were to be veiled.

However, that did not stop Publius Clodius Pulcher from dissembling as a flute girl (or a harpist, according to some accounts) and creepily surveying the multitude of ladies in his midst. Of course, the women grew suspicious of the flute girl whom none recognized.

Their suspicions were duly confirmed when the woman, once questioned, answered in a deep voice that smacked of masculinity. Naturally, the rites were suspended, a trial was held, and Clodius was left to nurse his irreparably damaged reputation.^[4]

6 King Mithridates Grew Up In The Wild And Was Immune To Poison

Although technically not Roman, King Mithridates VI of Pontus played an enormous role in the history of Rome. He was one of the greatest threats to the Roman State, easily rivaling the likes of Hannibal of Carthage.

As a child, Mithridates was maliciously persecuted by his mother. Forced to take refuge in a forest, he lived there for seven years, where he battled wild beasts and subsisted on deer. He also developed a fascination with toxicology, repeatedly ingesting sublethal doses of poisons until he became immune to them.

Unfortunately, this strategy backfired when he was blockaded in his bedroom by sympathizers of Pompey. Mithridates’s attempt at suicide by poison failed, and he was forced to ask one of his loyal guards to take a blade and run him through.^[5]

5 Sergius Orata Invented The ‘Hanging Baths’

Much like today, many wealthy city dwellers in the ancient world vacationed at resorts to escape the poor. For the Romans, Puteoli was the place to be. They quickly bought up property so that those awful poor people would never be able to set foot in that region.

A resourceful entrepreneur named Sergius Orata was renowned for his oyster beds. He served up the tastiest oysters this side of the Rubicon. However, he was also known for a popular invention called balneae pensiles (“hanging baths”).

Interestingly, they are called “hanging baths” due to a literal translation of the Latin words. But to this day, historians cannot agree on what they were actually meant to be. Some have argued that these were hot showers, while others believe that they were underfloor central heating systems.

The first argument doesn’t work because balneae means “baths,” not “showers.” The second explanation also seems unlikely because there was already a term for such a system: “hypocaust.”^[6]

So, what were they exactly? Showers? Baths? Hypocausts?

4 Emperor Caligula Appointed His Horse As A Member Of The Senate

According to the historian Suetonius, Emperor Caligula adored his horse Incitatus. In fact, he loved that animal so much that he named the steed as a member of the Senate.

Was this a sign of madness?^[7]

Well, many scholars have argued that this was done to insult and humiliate senators and other elites. Caligula’s relatively brief reign was characterized by a feud between himself and the Roman Senate and efforts by the emperor to enhance his power within the empire. By bestowing a high public office on his horse, Caligula made it clear to his underlings that their work was so meaningless that an animal could do it.

3 The Romans Worshiped Gods Of Excrement

Sterculius was the Roman god of manure and fertilizer. He was merely one of a seemingly countless number of god-spirits that early Romans believed had to be bribed and worshiped if all aspects of life were to proceed smoothly.

This included prayers to Cloacina, the sewer goddess, as well as Crepitus, the god of toilets. Cloacina was the patron goddess of the main drain of the city of Rome, which was known as the Cloaca Maxima.^[8]

The Romans came to regard Cloacina in a variety of other ways. For example, they eventually referred to her as the goddess of purity, the goddess of filth, and the protector of sexual intercourse in marriage. Over the ages, she came to be affiliated with Venus, the goddess of beauty and love, and gradually became known to many as the Venus Cloacina.

2 Handful Of Women Were Accused Of Mass Murder By Poisoning

The subject of poisons and poisoning is often broached in Roman literature. The crime of poisoning seems to have occurred much more often in ancient than in modern times. The first record of this type of offense in Rome tells of a high mortality. Although this likely resulted from a pestilence, it was attributed to poisoning.

After many prominent citizens had perished from the same ailment, a slave girl informed the curule aediles (formal magistrates) that the sudden spike in fatalities was due to the poisons prepared and administered by the Roman matrons. Twenty matrons, including patrician ladies, were discovered in the act of brewing poisons, which they argued were salutary.

How did the authorities prove their guilt?

By forcing the women to drink their own concoctions. In the end, they all perished from their own brews. Following this, 170 more were found guilty of the same offense.

Was this some form of ancient terrorism? Who were these women, and what was their motive? Well, some argue that the deaths were caused by a pestilence, not by poisoning. Unfortunately, we may never learn the truth.^[9]

1 Rome Was Ruled By A Transsexual Emperor

Although Emperor Elagabalus is well-known by historians, most people have never heard of him. Not surprisingly, most schools that teach ancient Roman history will avoid this subject as it features an emperor who was transsexual.

The topic of Elagabalus’s genitalia occurs often in many accounts of him. Sources maintain that Elagabalus was circumcised as required by the priestly profession. There are claims that his penis was infibulated.

According to the Roman historian and statesman Dio Cassius, Elagabalus desired castration, though not for the sake of religion. In fact, according to Cassius, this was done for the sake of “effeminacy.”

Many historians today interpret this to mean that the young emperor was transsexual. Although initially supported by the Roman army, Elagabalus was despised by the powerful men of the Senate. In the end, Elagabalus was murdered and his mutilated corpse was dragged through the streets, ultimately to be tossed into the Tiber.^[10]

Something true for almost everyone reading this is that our everyday lives as children were defined by going to school. We learned new things, manners, and how to live with other people, and we made new friends. Fun, right?

However, nowadays, high school has taken on a whole new meaning for teenage students. There are a number of reasons why high school in the United States can be quite harmful for a student’s mental health, and we will be covering ten of them in this list.

10 Bullying

Just about all of us probably knew at least one kid in school who deserved a good lesson in manners. Well, the American Society for the Positive Care of Children has found that 28 percent of all children aged 12 to 18 have suffered from bullying.^[1] Bullying is a great nuisance for students, for it turns the school from a healthy learning environment to a scary no-man’s-land. If a student cannot evolve in a threat-free school, how can he learn? To make matters worse, with the rise of cyberbullying, the threat is greater than ever.

If a victim is physically bullied, he may fear for his immediate safety. Plus, alerting a teacher or adult can be scary, especially if the bully threatens to be even more cruel if an adult is involved. A young student can easily be intimidated by the class bully. And if the bully turns the school into a place associated with being beaten or getting their money or food stolen, why would a child want to go, let alone go there to learn and work?

9 Fatigue

If you walk through a high school’s hall, you’ll probably see a bunch of drowsy students with endless bags under their eyes. This can be explained by students’ answers to an online survey conducted by researchers. When asked how they felt in school, 39 percent of the students simply answered that they were tired.^[2] Indeed, following classes all day is hard enough without having to wake up at 6:00 AM to catch a 6:30 bus. Add to that extracurricular activities, stress, homework, and deadlines, and you can end up tired pretty quickly.

Fatigue in students can lead to decreased performance in tests and sleeping in class (which means falling behind in the class), and it becomes a vicious circle of having to catch up at home and missing even more sleep. A healthy amount of sleep for a teenager in high school is actually 9.5 hours, but on average, they only get 7.5. Not getting enough sleep can make a teen irritable, tired, and depressed, which leads to a downfall in grades.

8 Panic Attacks

Agoraphobia can be a major cause of panic attacks, and if we take a look at schools, they are packed with seemingly endless masses of students scurrying from one class to another. Panic attacks can come from drug use or other factors, too, and two to three percent of teenagers will have a panic attack during a given year.^[3]

Panic attacks can be extremely frightening, and obviously, a student who regularly experiences them cannot study efficiently. Students suffering from panic disorder are often distracted in class or carried away by their thoughts, which is why they can easily be overwhelmed if overloaded with information. Panic attacks can also be spurred by the fear of an upcoming event or overthinking something, such as a test, the consequences of a bad grade, and so on.

7 Psychiatric Disorders

High school has undeniable effects on teenagers’ mental health, and the factors are almost unending: stress, anxiety, fear, bullying, etc. It’s no wonder that more than six percent of teenagers are taking prescription psychiatric drugs.^[4] These can be for anything from depression to ADHD, which can cause a student to easily get distracted and lose track of what is happening in class, making it dreadfully easy to fall behind on their notes, making it harder to prepare for tests or assignments, further digging a hole in their grades.

A student with ADHD will find it more difficult to succeed in standardized testing, for example, but also to do basic assignments and homework since they may have difficulty listening and paying attention in class. This leads to them having a lower view of their intelligence compared to other students when, in reality, it is not related to their mental capacity. Often, the problem is not related to their intelligence but rather to a lack of motivation to keep up and pay more careful attention. Instead, they decide to give up because of the difficulty they encounter while trying to concentrate.

6 Standardized Testing

Grades are scary, and school is harder than ever. How better to test students than to put them through a series of stressful tests that may or may not define their future? Well, let’s have a look at how many students aged 13 to 18 report having test anxiety: 25 percent.^[5] One student out of four will freeze, sweat, or feel nausea when they find themselves in front of their blank test. It only gets worse after that because of the importance American high schools give to grades and results. If a student fails their final exams, it can have consequences for their higher education and eventually their career.

When such an emphasis is put on a test, so easy to fail if we get the answers wrong, it’s only normal to be stressed out. Standardized testing is a major academic fail for many reasons, one of which is the fact that not every brain functions the same way. Just because one student has better memory than another, it does not define his intelligence.

5 Anxiety

Students can be exposed to a great deal of worrisome situations in high school, such as deadlines, social relationships, fear of failure, and so on. The overwhelming amount of things students have to think of, remember, and hand in is simply scary. And it is not getting any better; anxiety is on the rise among teenagers.^[6]

Stress makes it very difficult to work, deal with school, and have healthy social relationships, which we often forget is critical to a child’s development. In many ways, the challenges that face students in high school only make matters worse, with social relations at school being more and more difficult and many subjects requiring oral presentations. A student with anxiety will often be very distressed by the idea of presenting his work in front of the whole class. And, let’s be honest, even for those who do not already suffer from anxiety, speaking in front of a crowd is not always easy.

4 Depression

Being a teenager is hard enough without having to face difficult times at school; it can lead to a student feeling sadder and sadder for weeks or even months. Many students can feel crushed by the workload and pressure and resort to giving up, feeling the emptiness consume them. They detach themselves more and more from school, the teachers, everything, impairing their mental health and, of course, their grades.

The exhaustion often felt by teenagers at school only makes matters worse. As many as one teenager out of five experiences depression before entering adulthood.^[7] In extreme cases, depression may lead to self-harm or even suicide. Financial problems can also be a cause for some cases. However, it is difficult to get an idea of exactly how many people suffer from depression, because many depressed students don’t actually seek out help or even talk about it to anyone. Depression is a recognized mental disorder, is more common than we think, and is not limited to students. If you feel depressed, talk to a specialist. Don’t stay alone.

3 Homework

Ah, homework, a mandatory exercise demanded by many teachers in high school. It is not a fun activity; more often than not, it mostly consists of exercises to train the student for upcoming tests. A survey led by the University of Phoenix reveals that high school students have to deal with an average 17.5 hours of homework per week.^[8] This amount of homework may often result in late nights, stress, and fatigue, not to mention the pressure to do well, hand the assignment in on time, etc. And if students fail to hand in homework, they will get a bad grade, so they can’t allow themselves to just leave it. Everything must be done, or else . . .

Many believe homework is bad for children, simply because they need time to get some rest for their developing minds. A student who has spent the whole day at school should not go straight back to work when they get home. It’s unhealthy and very tiring for a young mind. Plus, overloading children with homework is only counterproductive because they will be working all evening and tire themselves out, leaving them fatigued the next day at school.

2 Stress

Stress in high school is very frequent. It has many occasions to manifest, and the overall pressure of “do well in school, get a good job” can be very crushing for students. And then there’s the amount of important life choices that arise during high school, such as finding a college and what a student wants to do afterward. It goes on forever and can be pretty stressful. Then come the deadlines, homework, social anxiety, grades, and more.

A research study from NYU found that 49 percent of high schoolers felt a great deal of stress on a daily basis.^[9] Stress can make it very hard for a student to think straight, perform well in tests, or even function. Elite high school students are driven to aim for the most prestigious colleges, putting even more pressure on them to be successful and to get better results and grades. But stress will only make matters worse and wear them out, especially the effects of stress that will follow them throughout adulthood.

1 Social Integration

An important factor for any worker in any working space, not only students, is the feeling of belonging. Feeling out of place somewhere is very bad for a person’s well-being, and students need to feel like they are a part of the school to be happy and safe. Otherwise, it can impair their work, mental health, or both. So imagine if, on average, more than half of high school students did not feel engaged at their school. That would be catastrophic, right? Well, a Gallup poll says that only 44 percent of high school students felt engaged with their school.^[10]

School is not just a place to learn about scholarly subjects; it is also a place where students learn to coexist, make friends, and cooperate with others, and if teenagers do not feel at ease in this environment, how can they learn the social skills required to live a healthy life? High school is often described as hostile for those who are not the “popular” type, and if only 44 percent of students feel at home and safe at school, then it is not the students’ faults; it is the schools’ fault.

Overall, school is home to many students with mental disorders, and they won’t be getting any better unless American high schools change their methods soon. Many countries have succeeded in having a healthy learning environment. Take, for example, Finland, which has abolished standardized testing for their students (apart from one exam at the end of senior year) and which has gotten amazing results ever since.

I am a young freelance writer willing to earn a bit of money through writing.

School buses transport thousands of children every day. According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), they are the safest vehicles on the road. This is due to the safety advancements school buses have undergone throughout decades of service and in response to several tragedies taking place. Collectively, these advancements have helped save lives and prevent accidents. Here is a list of 10 tragedies that resulted in safety advancements for school buses.

Related: Top 10 Deadliest Industrial Accidents That Were Avoidable

10 Railroad Crossings

Utah is known for many things, but a little-known fact about the state is that it happens to be the location of one of the worst transportation accidents in history. On the morning of December 1, 1938, a terrible blizzard swept through the Salt Lake Valley. Farrold Silcox was a school bus driver who had been driving for three years. He had 39 passengers after making all of his stops. On his way to Jordan High School in Sandy, there was a railroad crossing. Farrold stopped and looked both ways, then proceeded over the tracks.

As the bus was midway across the tracks, a freight train slammed into the bus, dragging it half a mile (0.8 kilometers) north before it was able to stop, killing 24 passengers and the driver. It was determined that the blizzard had hindered the bus driver’s ability to see the incoming train. Now, whenever a commercial vehicle is carrying passengers, the driver is required to stop and open the door and window in order to listen for an approaching train.^[1]

9 Manufacturing

School buses have evolved a lot since they were first introduced in the late 19th century. Every iteration of a school bus has been an improvement on the previous one in regard to safety. The next entry is the cause for one of these changes. On the morning of May 21, 1976, Evan Prothero drove a 1950 Crown with 53 passengers. After traveling for an hour, a buzzer began going off in the driver’s compartment, so he decided to exit the highway.

As he made his exit, he realized he was unable to lower his speed. The bus then hit a guardrail and went over its side, falling off the ramp and into a dirt field below. This caused the roof of the bus to collapse, resulting in 28 deaths and several injuries. The NTSB determined that the deaths were attributed to the construction of the bus itself. Regulations later required manufacturers to build sturdier buses that could withstand rollovers and other damage.^[2]

8 Emergency Exits

The following entry resulted in an enormous impact on school bus safety even though the bus was not actually on a school activity trip. On the evening of May 14, 1988, several children and their chaperones were returning from a trip to King’s Island. Over an hour into the trip home, the bus was hit head-on by a pickup driving northbound on the southbound lanes. The collision of the truck on the bus punctured the fuel tank, igniting the gasoline inside. This set the bus ablaze instantly.

The children scrambled to the rear, which was the only emergency exit. In total, 27 people lost their lives. When the authorities arrived at the scene, it was determined that the driver of the truck was intoxicated. He was charged and sentenced to prison for 16 years. Later, the state of Kentucky, as well as the country, passed legislation that called for more emergency exits on school buses, claiming if the bus had been better equipped, many more lives could have been saved.^[3]

7 Brake Training

Like the previous entry, the school bus in question was not on a school trip, but it was transporting several children at the time of its accident. On July 31, 1991, a 1989 Thomas school bus driven by Richard A. Gonzalez Jr. made its way down a steep mountain road. The bus began picking up speed, and he was unable to decelerate. As it continued descending the mountain, the driver started honking at the vehicle in front of him in an attempt to signal something was wrong.

The bus then veered into the opposite lane, passing the vehicle up. It then came to a bend in the road, but Richard was unable to negotiate the curve. The bus skidded, leaving the road at a high rate of speed, rolling down an embankment, and killing seven and injuring 53 others. The accident was largely attributed to the driver’s inability to properly operate the vehicle on a steep grade. In light of the accident, training was improved for drivers to make sure they knew how to travel on mountainous roads.^[4]

6 Child Check System

Some accidents are a result of someone not following protocols. In this instance, that resulted in one of the greatest tragedies involving school buses. On the morning of September 11, 2015, Armando Ramirez, a school bus driver for Public Transportation Cooperative in Whittier, California, started his route, picking up his three students and then heading to school to drop them off. After dropping them off, he returned to the transportation yard as usual and went home.

Several hours later, Paul Lee’s body was found lying in a pool of his own vomit inside Armando’s bus. He had unfortunately failed to notice that Paul had never got off the bus that morning to go to school. Once at the yard, Armando failed to follow protocols and check the bus to make sure there was no one in there. It was later determined that the bus driver’s negligence was to blame for the death of the student. As a result, a new law was passed in California stating that all school buses must have a child check system installed to force drivers to check their school buses.^[5]

5 Training for Hijacking

The following entry was a horrible experience for everyone involved, but it led to many advancements in the way these situations are handled. On July 15, 1976, Ed Ray, a 55-year-old school bus driver, picked up his students from school. Once on the road, he saw a van blocking the street with a man standing beside it. He slowed down to a stop; the man then approached the bus, holding a weapon. He took over the bus and drove it a mile down the road, where he met with two other men who helped him conceal the bus and take all 26 kids and the bus driver hostage.

The kidnappers drove them around for 11 hours in two modified cargo vans, eventually arriving at a rock quarry in Livermore, California—100 miles (161 kilometers) away. There, they transferred the hostages into a moving van buried in the quarry. Fortunately, the driver and an older boy were able to escape from the now-buried and collapsing van and seek help.

The men were caught and arrested shortly after. Today, several districts and transportation companies train their drivers on what to do if they are hijacked, and many buses now have GPS and video cameras in them, which prove to be very valuable in such a situation.^[6]

4 Emergency Response Teams

It’s not always the actual accident that causes death. Sometimes, they are due to aftereffects of the accident; this is evident in the next entry. It was February 28, 1958, and John Alex DeRossett was a 27-year-old bus driver tasked with transporting students to school in Prestonsburg, Kentucky. That morning, he picked up his students and made his way down U.S. Route 23. On the road, there was a tow truck attempting to pull out a pickup from a ditch. As the bus made its way down the road, it clipped the tow truck and made a hard left. This caused the bus to go down an embankment and into the Big Sandy River.

Twenty-two students were able to escape from the single rear emergency exit as the bus was sinking. The remaining 26 students and the bus driver were then dragged down the river and disappeared. The National Guard was dispatched on March 5, 1958. The search lasted days, which caused criticism for being too slow. This brought a change to disaster response by the creation of a disaster response team for the county, making it the first of its kind and inspiring many other similar response teams across the country.^[7]

3 School Bus Yellow and Two-Way Radios

The early days of school buses were much more challenging, especially during inclement weather. The following entry is a prime example that devastated one community. Carl Miller set out one beautiful morning in March 1931 to transport his students to school. But by the time he had reached the school, the weather changed drastically, and a blizzard ensued. Carl, along with the only two teachers at the school, decided it would be best if the students returned home for the day. Carl then began down the road, but on his way, he took a wrong turn.

At one point, the bus fell into a ditch, and the engine stalled, stranding the bus driver and its 22 passengers. Carl decided to leave the two older children in charge and set out on foot to look for help. That afternoon, two men found the bus and rescued the children. Unfortunately, the tragedy claimed six lives, including the bus driver’s. After the event, it was determined that school buses should sport a uniform, highly visible color, which became the school bus yellow we know today. In addition, two-way radios were integrated into all school transportation vehicles.^[8]

2 Fire Suppression System

It’s easy to think that school buses are so advanced today there is no possible way to make them any safer. This next entry shows that it is far from the truth. Megan Klindt was a 16-year-old student who attended Riverside Community High School. She left her home to wait for her school bus on December 12, 2017. After boarding the bus, the driver, 74-year-old Donald Hendricks, attempted to turn around on the street. He backed up, but unfortunately, the road was narrow, and he went too far back, resulting in the rear of the bus falling into a ditch. Hendricks attempted to get the bus out of the ditch by accelerating, but to no use; the bus wouldn’t budge.

Moments later, the bus was engulfed in flames. The fire was seen by Megan’s family, who quickly called 911. Unfortunately, the fire killed both Megan and Hendricks. A team was sent out by the NTSB to investigate the accident. They concluded the bus driver was unable to safely operate the bus while backing up, and the fire was determined to have developed due to the ignition of fuel on the engine’s turbocharger after it overheated. After the accident, the recommendation was to have all school buses outfitted with a fire suppression system.^[9]

1 Responsibility of Operator

Most school bus accidents can be blamed on a malfunctioning bus or an incompetent bus driver. Unfortunately, some accidents happen from sheer bad luck. Royal J. Randle was a 24-year-old World War II veteran who worked for the Lake Chelan School District. On November 26, 1945, Royal did his usual route consisting of picking up students on the west side of Lake Chelan. As Royal drove his school bus through the lakeside roads, it began to snow. Since there was very little snow on the pavement, he didn’t bother putting on snow chains.

The falling snow quickly accumulated on the school bus’s windshield. This caused the windshield wipers to stop working. As it kept accumulating, it caused visibility issues for Royal, and he decided to pull the bus off the road in order to clear the obstruction. As he pulled the bus over, though, he hit a rock, which caused the bus to veer into the 30-foot (9-meter) embankment, rolling over twice and coming to rest with the front end of the bus 5 feet (1.5 meters) underwater.

Five students and one adult were able to escape before the shifted weight of the bus caused it to sink into the lake headfirst. Within six days, divers found a total of seven bodies, including the bus driver’s. The search for the remainder of the passengers was called off shortly after, leaving nine children’s bodies unaccounted for.

The accident was investigated by the Washington State Patrol, who concluded that the poor visibility caused the driver to crash and veer off the road, ultimately driving the bus into the embankment. They went further by saying the school district had the responsibility of discontinuing the operation of the bus when there was inclement weather. Today, bus drivers, as well as the school districts, are responsible for judging when weather conditions are unsafe for pupil transport.^[10]

Science may seem daunting, but it’s really just the process by which we understand our world’s mechanics. It’s worth noting that science and science as taught by humans are two very different things. As much as we like to pretend science is monolithic, in practice, humans, for various reasons, tend to leave things out of the textbooks. Reasons range from scientists not fully understanding emerging discoveries, being afraid to go against the mainstream, or hesitant to bring up uncomfortable truths. Here are the top 10 scientific facts they don’t teach in school.

10 Most of the Cells in Your Body Aren’t Even Human

The bacterial makeup of your gut is its own biome. It does everything from making you crave sweet, salty junk food to influence your mood. And, your bacteria outnumber you. It might not be comforting to hear, but you have a bona fide ecosystem in your body, with nearly 10 to 1 more bacterial cells than human cells. While bacterial cells are much smaller than your average human cell, they dominate our makeup with sheer numbers, while also possessing an eerie sway over your brain. In recent years, scientists have discovered the extent to which our gut’s health controls our bodies. This has led to groundbreaking procedures such as (warning, this is really gross) fecal transplants, which have weirdly shown very promising effects on weight loss and hormone balance. 

9 The Molecular Material Need to Create Benedict Cumberbatch Costs an Estimated $150,000

Here’s a question a bored scientist might ask himself: How much is a typical human worth? Not their effect on society, or the value of their soul. Rather, how much for the raw materials? The most comprehensive, in-depth conclusion on this likely came from the British Royal Society of Chemistry, who, as part of the 2013 Cambridge Science Festival, quantified the cost of all the atomic material necessary to build the actor Benedict Cumberbatch.  

They took what scientists already knew about humans’ makeup (61% Oxygen, 10% hydrogen, 2.6% Nitrogen, etc.), applied it to the mass of a Cumberbatch, and started working out the cost for each raw element. Their conclusion: $14 for the oxygen, $26 for the hydrogen, a measly forty cents for the nitrogen, a whopping $69,550 for his 30 pounds of carbon (not just any carbon will do, only the purest of carbon for the British Royal Society’s Cumberbatch) and many thousands more for all the trace elements. This leaves us with a confoundingly precise $151,578.46 as the cost for the 59 elements needed to make a human, to the specifications of one Benedict Cumberbatch. Labor not included.

8 “Spontaneous Generation” Was the Prevailing Theory Among Scientists For Over a Millennium

Spontaneous generation is the idea that living creatures could come into existence from organic, but ultimately dead, matter. According to the theory, certain substances, such as cuts of raw meat, would spontaneously generate flies and maggots if left in the “proper” conditions. Another example was the sudden existence of mice appearing on pieces of cheese or bread left out in dark, isolated spaces. 

It seemed the great Aristotle first proposed the obvious explanation for the appearance of flies and mice. But by the 1700s it was pretty clear that complex, higher-order life doesn’t originate from dead material. Still, even great minds like Darwin dodged the question. In a professional showdown with biologist Felix Pouchet, it finally took Louis Pasteur to put that last nail in the coffin of spontaneous generation with his famous Swan-Neck flask experiment in 1861. This was a major win for Pasteur, Science, and the development of modern germ theory.

7 Water Can Be “Supercooled” Below its Freezing Point

Everyone in science class learns about the boiling and freezing points of water. Water stays liquid between 32 and 212°F (0 and 100°C for you Canadians). Water is also a uniquely weird molecule: it expands in solid form, has a molecular polarity, and even has its own type of bonding called hydrogen bonding. The polarity of the H2O’s famous Mickey Mouse shape is what causes ice crystals to form in a high volume, lattice structure. Like snowflakes, these ice crystals need something to latch on to in order to grow, such as impurities floating in the water. Pure, distilled water doesn’t have such impurities, and as a result, pure water can be “supercooled” to well below its freezing point.

What’s the point of supercooling your water bottles, you say? Snap freezing of course! That’s where the water freezes instantly once any impurities, or even air bubbles, are introduced. That’s right! Just tap a supercooled water bottle for it to turn into solid ice. Cool right?

6 There’s a Microscopic Animal That Can Survive in Outer Space

That unearthly being would be a tardigrade. What are tardigrades you ask? They go by many names: “water bear,” “moss piglet,” tiny sentient marshmallow overlords, etc. While these eight-legged freaks aren’t as immortal as hyped, tardigrades do have several hibernation processes at their disposal that allow them to survive extreme situations. 

With cryobiosis, they can survive several days at -200c by lowering their metabolism to <0.01% of normal. Through anhydrobiosis, they can survive without water by creating a glass-like sugar called trehalose. Trehalose replaces the water in their cells, preventing cell damage. And with anoxybiosis, tardigrades can do the unthinkable. They can survive extreme pressure without oxygen in places like outer space by swelling their bodies into a rigid, near-dead state, called Tuns. Scientists tested this in an experiment by the European Space Agency in 2007 where 3,000 water bears survived in a space vacuum for over a week.

While tardigrades aren’t actually immortal (lifespans vary from 2 weeks to 100 years), their uncanny ability to survive extremes astonished even unflappable Israeli scientists.

5 Nikola Tesla Had a Plan to Provide Free, Wireless Electricity to the World

Nikola Tesla was that rare kind of genius that was leaps and bounds ahead of his time. Often misunderstood in his own time, today Tesla is generally known for his advancement of Alternating Current (A.C.), his rivalry with Thomas Edison, and being the future inspiration for some pretty awesome cars. His work in Colorado Springs, where he created his Tesla Coils and proved he could wirelessly power light bulbs, was a warm-up to his grand idea. 

With J.P. Morgan’s financial backing, Tesla directed the construction of the giant 187-foot Wardenclyffe Tower (anchored 300 feet down into the New York soil). This feat of engineering would have been the mechanism to transmit power freely across the world. Sadly, it wasn’t meant to be. As money ran out for the tower, J. P. Morgan, fearful of the financial damage-free energy would cause, refused to further fund the project. The tower was never finished and was razed to the ground in 1917.

” It is not a dream,” Tesla said, “it is a simple feat of scientific electrical engineering, only expensive—blind, faint-hearted, doubting world!”

4 Medical Mistakes Are the Third Leading Cause of Death in the U.S.

On the CDC’s list of leading causes of death, you’ll find heart disease, cancer, accidental injury, and respiratory disease at the top. You won’t find medical mistakes listed. If deaths caused by medical mistakes were listed accurately, they’d be a solid third, year after year. 

According to a John Hopkins study, upwards of 250,000 people in the United States die every year because of medical mistakes. Other sources, such as Dr. George Stanislaw, report 195,000 yearly patient deaths from preventable mistakes. Some estimates are as high as 440,000 preventable deaths each year. The uncertainty over figures arrives from the fact that doctors, nurses, medical directors, and coroners rarely note the human errors and systemic problems involved in these fatalities. This creates a problem for accurate mortality rankings, as death certificates are what the CDC uses for death counts. The John Hopkins study’s authors, led by Dr. Martin Makary, define death due to medical error as one caused by inadequately skilled staff, error in judgment or care, a system defect, or a preventable adverse effect.

“Top-ranked causes of death as reported by the CDC inform our country’s research funding and public health priorities,” says Makary. “Right now, cancer and heart disease get a ton of attention, but since medical errors don’t appear on the list, the problem doesn’t get the funding and attention it deserves.”

3 Radiometric Dating is Not 100% Accurate

Radiometric dating estimates the ages of rock based on the decay of the radioactive elements in them. Radioactive elements decay into more stable elements over a generally predictable amount of time. We use this method to determine the age of anything prior to ~50,000B.C., which is considered the point beyond which Carbon-14 dating can reliably predict. If radiometric dating were an equation, it might look something like Decay Rate + Backward Calculations = Rock Age. 

One problem with this method is the assumptions baked into the cake of that analysis. For example, it’s generally assumed that the decay rate of radioactive elements trapped in rocks remains constant from the time the rock formed. This assumes that no outside forces changed the rock’s radioactive makeup and that the initial conditions of the rock were always typical. We now know that these idealized conditions are rarely the case, and therefore it becomes apparent that historical context is needed in order to get a more accurate geological assessment. Thus, accurate dating methods require both observational science(such as decay rates) and historical science(initial conditions) to make accurate age estimates.

2 Seventy Percent of the U.S. Needs More Vitamin D

Whether you consume Vitamin D in foods or receive it indirectly from the sun, you’re probably not getting enough of it. Even the name “Vitamin D” is something of a misnomer, as it behaves much closer to a hormone than a vitamin. In the body it’s converted to a steroid hormone called calcitriol that affects several vital functions such as bone density, muscle growth, immune system vitality, aging, and even improves your mood.

While the Endocrine Society defines vitamin D deficiency as a blood serum level below 20ng/ml, anything below 30ng/ml is considered inadequate, and you may experience significant symptoms. Shockingly, the global average vitamin D level is around 20ng/ml, according to a meta-analysis of several studies. In the U.S., about 70% of us have levels below 30ng/ml. Overall Vitamin D serum levels have dropped in recent years, with possible causes including increased sunscreen use, decreased outdoor activity, and obesity. During a global pandemic, it should be especially concerning that we have a global deficiency in a hormone that’s necessary for a strong immune system. 

It’s also worth noting that darker-skinned individuals living in northern, gloomy climates are at a much-increased risk of vitamin D deficiency.

1 Incandescent Light Bulbs Made a Century Ago Lasted Much Longer Than They Do Today

Ever heard of the Phoebus Cartel? They introduced the concept of “planned obsolescence” into their business model. Designing their products to fail early, thereby forcing you to buy replacements. It’s as messed up as it sounds. In 1924, the leading light bulb manufactured of the day banded together to form the Swiss corporation, the Phoebus Cartel. 

These once rivals, Philips, Osram, Tungsram, ELIN, and General Electric, conspired to fix prices and limit competition by controlling the market. They even re-engineered their own products to create bulbs with a shorter lifespan, thereby driving up price and demand. Prior to 1924, light bulbs could be expected to last 2,500 hours, if not longer. There are instances of these early bulbs lasting over a hundred years. The Pheobus Cartel decided to shorten all bulb-life to an average of 1,000 hours, and that’s what we’re still stuck with today, a century later.

The current “core curricula” of public schools in the US are comprised of the following subjects: (sciences) biology, physics, chemistry; (mathematics) arithmetic, algebra, pre-calculus, basic statistics; (language) literature, humanities, composition, foreign languages; (social sciences) history, government, economics, basic political science; (physical education) baseball, basketball, football, general exercise

Here are ten other subjects that all students from the ages of six to eighteen should be required to study:

Ask any elementary school student, and he or she will affirm that making up stories is fun.  And since Stephen King is quite wealthy from doing so, education and practice in fiction composition is not irrelevant to society.  College students across all majors admit that fiction writing courses, whether electives or required, are among their very favorite. After all, you finally get to write what you want to write, not some tedious, insipid essay about how Holden Caulfield is some brooding intellectual, an essay thoroughly devoid of anything interesting precisely because your teachers require you to examine the facts and draw your conclusions like a robot.

Hamlet can teach us a wealth about morality, human nature, existentialism, and politics.  Shakespeare is showing us what happens if we give free rein to vengeance: our whole lives and those of all who are close to us are destroyed.  When students in high school finish reading Hamlet—provided they have good teachers who can help them understand and appreciate it—most of them are sufficiently enthralled to try writing fiction—as well they should be.  But most of them give up when their first stories turn out to be less great than those of Shakespeare.  This is not due to middling talent, but an absence of instruction in fiction writing.

Why not?  Students are typically thought of as having naturally gifted minds for either liberal arts or math—but rarely both together.  That’s probably not true, however.  Pure mathematics prompts the liberal arts-minded to ask, “What in the world is the point?”  In public school, students aren’t forced very often to apply mathematics to their daily lives.  Those word problems about Trains A and B leaving the station don’t help at all.  So let’s talk calculus: why is it such a great thing to know?

This will sound ridiculously ironic, but Newton and Leibniz invented calculus as a means of making geometric and algebraic operations easier.  Johannes Kepler plotted the courses of the sun and the planets, and hypothesized that a sort of weight must hold them in orbits around each other.  It took him about twenty years to do this, largely by watching the night sky through a telescope.  Newton did all this in a single afternoon—thanks to calculus.

Calculus, as it should be taught, is the study of change with the aim of predicting it.  Sounds a little cooler that way, doesn’t it?  You can predict the future with calculus.  But what could be more dull than algebra and pre-calculus in high school?  Not much, if the teaching is conducted entirely theoretically. It would be a fine idea to give the students some hands-on experience inventing gadgets—using technology for what it does well, instead of merely learning about it on a chalkboard.  Who wouldn’t want to invent a time machine?  “Can’t be done,” you say?  Well, it can still be a lot of fun trying, and in the process you’ll enjoy seeing just what the higher mathematics are capable of doing.

Many public schools do offer drama classes as electives—but these usually focus on stage performance.  As important as it is for any serious actor to know how to act in live shows, many of these students would very much like to try their hands at making motion pictures, yet don’t have an outlet for it.

A lot of high school students would love to be directors, and most of them idolize Steven Spielberg.  He’s about as close to god as you can get in Tinsel Town.  Spielberg did not formally study filmmaking until college.  But imagine how much faster he would have progressed in his filmmaking abilities, had he been able to receive instruction in middle or high school.

To be fair, geniuses of his caliber are typically self-taught—but proper instruction from a good teacher, along with diligent study, are far more reliable and desirable than raw talent and trial and error.  For the mere mortals among us, enrolling in a filmmaking class in middle or high school is the most logical choice if we wish to pursue the dream.  Such enrollment also offers us a fair chance of getting noticed by any of the bigwig connections the instructor may have.

Forget Spanish.  Forget French.  Spanish is particularly important to learn, but students have plenty of time to do that in college—and frankly, the amount of linguistic instruction they receive in high school doesn’t really prepare them for a collegiate education in that language.  This lister chose French in high school because it sounded more beautiful—but by the time college rolled around, he had forgotten about eighty percent of it.  When he took College French level one, the first half of the course was effectively a refresher of high school.  So is it a waste of time trying to learn a language before college?

Not necessarily.  Latin is bit more difficult than French or Spanish, but not by much.  Of all the Romance languages, Italian is probably the trickiest—but if you’ve got a good foundation on Latin, any other Romance language will be a walk in the park.

This lister didn’t bother going back to French in college until he had four years of Latin behind him.  Then he needed only one summer to master reading and writing French.  Speaking it, of course, requires listening to it for a few years, but once you reach that point it’ll be locked in very well.  So if the goal in learning foreign languages is to master as many as possible, why not start on one of the largest foundations available?

No, the lister isn’t looking for controversy on this one (hence, the word “multi-religious”).  But many of us—whether still in public school or college, or out working for a living—remain in the dark about the finer points of most of the world’s major religions. Many of us would be hard-pressed to point out a New Testament verse against homosexuality, for example (it turns out there are three—and a possible fourth.)

If we are to have long, heated debates about the merits of this or that religion, or of having no religion, it is only fair that we should familiarize ourselves with the ins and outs of each—and we should do this in depth.  Who do Shintoists worship?  And why?  What are the founding tenets of Satanism?  If religion is such an integral and insoluble aspect of our species, it would be better if we understood the content of as many as we can learn.

We must be realistic about how much complexity and abstraction teenage students can be expected to digest and comprehend.  In most schools, only one Shakespeare play per year is typical; the diction is too difficult and the literature too heavy to permit a full understanding of A Midsummer Night’s Dream or Othello in a single semester.

Philosophy—complex as its ideas may sometimes be—is very important and relevant to our daily lives.  But it isn’t dwelled upon much at all in public school, most likely because the teachers don’t really understand it.  Nevertheless, a fairly brief history of philosophy’s progression is certainly pertinent to life today.  It will, at the very least, give the student a profound respect for the glory that was Ancient Greece.

All of Western politics, as well as a large portion of its history, can be traced back to geniuses like Zeno, the Seven Sages, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.  Eastern philosophy incorporates Confucius, Gautama, Mozi, Sun Tzu, and many others, all highly significant.  To learn the history of philosophical thought, the student cannot avoid learning just a little about each school of it; and almost all new ideas are built on the backs of the old ones.

Public schools in the US require “physical education,” which simply means forcing the students to exercise for a little while on a daily basis.  But the sports to which they’re treated vary considerably: dodgeball, basketball, track and field, calisthenics, and so on.  They are not required to learn all the rules of basketball; they just have to take their place in the group (sometimes being chosen last) and run around for an hour or so.

Those who wish to really learn basketball can try out for the team, but they’re not likely to be accepted unless they’ve already developed the necessary skills. Sport (as opposed to P.E.) is not a requirement of many curriculums, but if students had to play at least one sport during middle school and high school, they would all become much more physically fit—and happier at the prospect of not being chosen last.

Most of us are at least vaguely aware of the moves of the game, while those with any impressive aptitude for it number perhaps 150,000 in the United States.  There are only about 1,000 International Grandmasters in the world. Chess organizations, like the US Chess Federation, or the International Federation of Chess (FIDE), employ rating systems to show a player’s approximate skill level.  The average novice plays at about 500, while the average veteran tournament player might be rated anywhere from 1000 to 2200.  Grandmasters must be rated 2500 or more at least once to get the title.  These days, the world champions are usually rated around 2800.

Above are plenty of examples of what makes chess fun—in particular, the possibility of feeling a sense of constant improvement—but they leave out the most important one: chess is a great tool for exercising the mind.  The regular and serious chess players almost always perform better on tests in any subject area, because they’re used to sitting patiently, looking for the right answer, and especially thinking critically.

When you lose at chess, you have only yourself to blame—and provided that they have a good instructor, students between the tender ages of five to eighteen can find in chess an excellent source of humility, duty, responsibility, and fair play; in short, chess enables them to mature much faster.

Not just good music—like Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven—but all the way down to Justin Bieber, if that’s what you want.  To be proficient in musical history is of prime importance.  Music is already taught in public schools, but it isn’t required.  It’s an elective, and sadly, it’s often the first subject on the curriculum to be cut when money is tight.  But what is the purpose of learning to read and write if you aren’t given anything to read or write about?  In history class, you may get a single paragraph or just a sentence about Beethoven—perhaps even a picture—but no attention is paid to what “sonata-allegro form” means.  Most high school students graduate knowing loads about WWII, and virtually nothing about Rachmaninoff.

The problem, of course, is that you can’t really teach music without making the student perform it.  You don’t learn to play the violin by reading a manual, and you don’t become truly familiar with exposition, development, recapitulation, and coda until you’ve listened to many examples of it.  Only then will students appreciate the complexities involved in its composition.

This is set apart from sports in general, since we think of sports in public schools as consisting of baseball, basketball, football, track and field, and so on.  But martial arts should be taught not as a regular sport, but as a means of self-defense.  It would certainly put a stop to bullying.  Most fights these days go the bullies’ way, since they are almost always bigger and stronger; that’s why they’re bullies.

And some of the bullied outcasts—whether nerds, goths, or generally “unsociable”—resort to firearms, in order to give themselves some desperately needed relief from the agony of bullying.  The real shame in all this is that fighting a larger, stronger person really isn’t that difficult.  You just have to know how to do it—and anyone can learn anything, given the time.  The first step to winning a fight is to attain confidence in oneself.  With confidence comes that magic knowledge of when name-calling has gone far enough.  But you won’t attain that confidence until you know how to fight.

Unfortunately, many of the jerks we have to put up with also learn martial arts, just to be even crueler.  But martial arts are a great equalizer, and they also tend to have the effect of reducing, rather than increasing, the violent impulses in children. We should therefore consider starting lessons while the students are still in elementary school.

FlameHorse is a writer for.  None of the above subjects were ever offered during his public schooling.

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]