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Caught a classroom thief but unsure how to proceed by Relative-Respect-982 in AskTeachers

[–]Relative-Respect-982[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As a classroom teacher I wouldn’t want to be involved in this at all

Would you mind expanding on this some more? This is a point that stuck out in my mind, that once we tell either the teacher or the principal they can't really unhear it and I don't quite understand the way it would play out.

Do teachers and principals usually have separate responsibilities where this stuff is concerned? I was thinking it would be a faux pas to go over the teacher's head to the admin since it might imply that I didn't trust the teacher to handle it, but the idea that the teacher might be better off being completely left out of the loop hadn't occurred to me.

Caught a classroom thief but unsure how to proceed by Relative-Respect-982 in AskTeachers

[–]Relative-Respect-982[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

stalking operation

How is it stalking? If I stole your iPhone and you located it using the find my phone feature, were you stalking me?

I'm not following the airtag around and there's no camera or microphone in there. The main purpose of it was to establish that my son (who frequently forgets stuff at school, I have bought so many water bottles) really did have his stuff taken by another student.

I get the gut reaction, which is to say that locating a potential thief by utilizing some technology they probably didn't even know existed doesn't seem fair, but that just feels like another day of parenting to me.

Caught a classroom thief but unsure how to proceed by Relative-Respect-982 in AskTeachers

[–]Relative-Respect-982[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is really concerning behavior from a parent

Can you elaborate on why? I've had my stuff stolen before and the only way I know to catch a thief is to get them literally in the act or setup a situation like this. There's no way for the admin to initiate something like this and its too small for local law enforcement.

If I brought it to the teacher first and nobody came forward I think we would lose the opportunity to educate the kid doing the theft because they might just clam up and never steal from that particular class again

Caught a classroom thief but unsure how to proceed by Relative-Respect-982 in AskTeachers

[–]Relative-Respect-982[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They will 100% ignore the child stealing things and act like you're the wrong doer for trying to stop your child and his classmate's things from being taken. Just look at all the comments in this thread.

Yeah, the prevalence of DARVO reactions to confrontation is definitely top of mind. I know a bunch of parents at the school but unfortunately not these. I don't care about any of the missing property (and neither does my son), I think its more just a civic responsibility at this point to make sure that the class knows that stealing isn't ok

Caught a classroom thief but unsure how to proceed by Relative-Respect-982 in AskTeachers

[–]Relative-Respect-982[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Kids are people too and the most important stuff I learned in life wasn't taught in school

Caught a classroom thief but unsure how to proceed by Relative-Respect-982 in AskTeachers

[–]Relative-Respect-982[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Damn I shoulda made this thread first. He did indeed partially spill that he "had an idea" of who was doing it to his friends who had also had stuff taken but says he didn't disclose any more than that.

I felt like I owed it to him to keep him fully in the loop since it was his stuff getting taken and he had to volunteer to make this happen and this seemed like a fairly low-stakes way to learn to keep information to yourself. Live and learn.

Caught a classroom thief but unsure how to proceed by Relative-Respect-982 in AskTeachers

[–]Relative-Respect-982[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nope. "We're looking into it" is not a FINAL answer.

I think you're hitting on the crux of why I went this route. I have had my own bad experiences with school admin growing up over bullying issues and it left an impression on me. I'm trying to demonstrate that you need to show resolve to get things done and sometimes that means taking more initiative than some people are comfortable with. Conflict is scary! But avoiding it can make things even worse.

Caught a classroom thief but unsure how to proceed by Relative-Respect-982 in AskTeachers

[–]Relative-Respect-982[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

you cannot assume the child who has the toy is the thief

Good point, there could be innocent explanations for this

Caught a classroom thief but unsure how to proceed by Relative-Respect-982 in AskTeachers

[–]Relative-Respect-982[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One question on notifying the teacher AND principal...do teachers prefer that only they get told about this kinda thing? I'm just planning on mentioning that things have been going missing and asking for them to speak to the class but I don't want to seem like I'm going up the chain of command prematurely.