Thanks EEma,
Unfortunately, I have had most of my colleagues fall into the category of being intimidated by students like this. It is usually because the teacher is teaching out of their subject area, or as Grinity suggests, have so little exposure to other ways of thinking and experiences than what is right around them that they can't cope with out of the box thinking.
I think one reason I love these sorts of kids is because I was one of them when I was in school, and then living outside of the US for 11 years opened my eyes to an incredible amount of new and different ways of thinking.
