'Tis the Season to...

Nail it down. That is, if you want to still have it at the end of the day. The frenzy of the season and the state of the economy has trickled down to the youngest consumers. The season of “must have it” has yielded to “just take it.” Morals and values are being unwrapped quicker than any gifts under the tree.

A few examples…

I had a nice big bag of Hershey’s dark miniatures, not just the Special Dark, mind you, but Krackle dark and Mr. Goodbar dark, on my desk the other morning and it just disappeared. Of course we found the culprit through a trail of wrappers. I certainly didn’t need any more chocolate, even if it is the cholesterol-lowering dark stuff, but we still can’t send the message that stealing is okay. It didn’t faze her that she stole from the principal; nor did it faze her mother. In any case, she has a bit of community service to do this week.

A mother called to tell me her son’s boots were stolen out of the classroom by a certain student and she could not afford to replace them. I had spoken to her son the evening before about it and told him to look in the lost and found before accusing someone of stealing and that we’d continue our search for the boots in the morning. Well, that evening his mother called the mother of the student whom her son accused of stealing and ranted at her, using every obscene word not even in the dictionary. Of course the boots were in the lost and found, but the mere thought of having to lay out money that was already scarce to replace boots sent this normally rational mother into an irrational tiz.

Here’s probably one of the most unconscionable examples. One of our students, unfortunately known by his teachers as “sticky fingers” “found” a very nice cell phone just laying on the ground that he proceeded to pawn for just about anything he could get. He eventually sold this phone to his schoolbus driver for $25.00. Now, our ground is covered by several inches of snow right now so just about anything dropped would sink into the white abyss pretty easily. And this driver gave a 10-year-old $25.00 for a used cell phone that was “found” God only knows where. The bus company is now dealing with this incident and the kid is rich from, in all probability, stealing. And guess what, his mother thought nothing of it because he now has some money to spend.

We had a student who saw another student wearing his sweatshirt. The one wearing the stolen sweatshirt swore he bought it at the store just the night before. However, upon closer observation, the other child’s name was written on the label. We also had $90.00 stolen out of a social worker’s purse, but I fault her for leaving it anywhere in sight. “‘Tis the season,” I said. Lock it up or nail it down.

May your holidays be merry and bright!

Comments

[Charlie A. Roy]

We have a problem with items being stolen from our locker room on a periodic basis. The sad part is that all the items stolen were left on the floor not inside of an actual locker. We do our best to recover missing items and usually one thief can do a lot of damage. But it has always seemed odd to me that our student athletes don't use the lock and locker we provide them with and then wonder where theri ipod went.

[Ruby Alvarez]

re: We also had $90.00 stolen out of a social worker’s purse, but I fault her for leaving it anywhere in sight.

Huh?????

[Jan Borelli]

I have worked in low socio-economic schools for most of my career. These examples are not new to me; my students and their families have been living through tough times their whole lives.

And, yes, it was her fault. You don't leave anything out in the open when needy people are about. They survive through tactics such as these; why would anyone tempt the temptable? It's easy to have morals and integrity when your belly is full and your clothing is at the very least neat and clean and available. But, when you are hungry ( over half my kids get a backpack full of canned food for the weekends because they are chronically hungry ) and there will be no Christmas this year (or maybe ever) and those "rich" teachers (yes, we are rich to the generationally poor) have enough money to not protect it... then yes, we are responsible for not being feeling enough to share what we have.

Just for today or this week or maybe even this season, give what you can ill afford but do it anyway... you'll be better for it. And try not to judge... if you were in the same panicky situation, you might not do what they have done but someone else can judge... not you.

Not perfect by any means, but feeling a need to share just how desperate poverty can be.

[Brad]

As an Assistant Principal in a large middle school, I too spend a lot of time dealing with "stolen stuff." You are lucky that in the cases you described the item had a name on the label or turned up in the lost and found. In the last four years I haven't been that lucky once! Maybe my kids are better thieves. I have, however had that pleasure of listening to the irrational tirade of a "victims" parent before though. I will say that in my experience, the stealing starts off as a practical joke or something to that effect and turns into something that the student can't get out of anymore.
I am in a district where the kids can afford to buy what they want and the parents can afford to replace things many times over, but the kids still take from one another. I think that the line between wrong and right has been horribly blurred and we are seeing the affects of that firsthand.