Destructive behavior

Several students this year decided to destroy things that belong to me. It wasn't a game or even done in anger. It was done just because.

I don't get it.

I keep telling myself that fewer than 5% of the kids I have ever taught ever do anything like this, but it is disturbing.

I know the studies that show if you want to rebuild a slum, you fix the windows and gradually the rest will take care of itself. Is this the inverse? That if you treat everything like crap we gradually reach a lower denominator?

There are stories about crab buckets (someone trying to better himself encounters others who want to drag him down) and maybe these kids honestly don't know any better. But they also accept no responsibility for anything - including their own destructive behavior.