The first victim was a menace that no one truly felt sorry about.
He would play tricks to the teachers and though he gets punished, he always manages to get away with it like a sly fox. He was so terrible that they tried to bring him back to the tribe, but the child returned simply because he liked how there was more food to eat at school.
Which wasn't true. There was just more food to eat for him because he bullies other children into giving their ration to him.
The Science teacher was a kind man, but he had snapped at this kid before. The troublemaker did shut up when he yelled at him. He even seemed to feel embarrassed from being told off by a bone thin and bookish white man.
This caused him to try and pull a trick on the teacher by destroying his collection of pinned-up butterflies mounted on the wall of his office.