To think we need more kids like this child

[ReallyTired]

I admire Tommie Rose for his ambition and entrepreneurship spirt. He is the kind of person who makes jobs in the future.

www.itv.com/news/granada/2014-11-21/schoolboy-suspended-after-making-14k-selling-crisps/

Rather than punishing him I feel that his school should be chanelling his energy. Maybe they should enter into discussion what they would be happy for Tommie to sell to his class mates.

[Idontseeanysontarans]

He's been offered an interview for an internship as a result of the story according to what's just popped up on my MEN Facebook feed

[EatShitDezza]

My brother does this. No where near that much though.

At my school the money was in the cigs and weed.

2 cigs for 50p. 1 for 30p

Ready rolled joint £2.50

I'm sure it was leaves in the joints though

God knows how much cigs are at school now. Have to be £1.00 each to cover the cost and make a profit I giess

[vienna1981]

I don't know what to believe or disbelieve here but what a great story. Just like something out of Grange Hill circa 1980.

[Wishtoremainunknown]

I used o sell cigs - was the oldest in our year.

[TheFriar]

That's not the point is it? There is a tkecatbhis school and he isn't blatantly refusing to follow it.
He is in effect working on the black market as he isn't paying tax.
Now what would you think of your co-worker selling crisps etc whilst they are at work, on the company premises? I suspect very few companies would allow that either.

It's all well and good to say it's for a good cause (Uni) but he first needs to follow basic times tbh.

As for the punishment not fitting the crime, I'm afraid this is quite common even in our everyday laws. And I suspect the reason he would be expulsion isn't the selling but the repeatly refusing to follow the school rules.

[moxon]

Why isn't he on 'The Apprentice'? Sounds just like the sort of exploitative thing some of them do. I used to make a healthy 100% profit on selling decorated cards for 5p door to door and to teachers at school when I was about seven. Of course, my mother did fork out for the cardboard, glue, felt tips, etc etc, so I guess I didn't quite understand how profit worked. Also, this was the early eighties...

[PiperIsTerrysChoclateOrange]

Why not it's over 3 years.

£14000 \ 3 years / 39 weeks is £119 per week.

There is 700 pupils so if each would only have to spend 17p a day

[PiperIsTerrysChoclateOrange]

A paper round pays less than he pays these 2 boys.

£27.50 a week is loads for a 15 year old.

£110 a month free spends is more than some adults have for free spends.

[PurpleSwift]

The kids are at school. They can't have been "working" much more than an hour anyway, with lessons and their own lunch to fit in and considering national minimum wage for that age is around £3.80, I'd say they were getting a fair wage.

I doubt he made 14k though!?

[Fullpleatherjacket]

If he does make jobs in the future I hope he pays his workers a proper wage unlike this time round.

I'd like to know how long it was going on for and how he was getting enough of the things into school to generate that level of profit. Not like he could have been secreting them about his person is it?

[sashh]

Well I might be more inclined to admire him if he paid minimum wage to his employees, paid tax and was not undermining the school.

And I don't think he will be studying business at oxbridge

[vdbfamily]

My daughter says there is a boy in her class who sells sweets and has made hundreds of pounds already this term. I got into trouble at primary school for selling 1p bubble gums.(my dad sold to newsagents and I used to buy wholesale price and sell on) You have to admire him for trying but I think once you are rumbled then you have to stop as it is against school rules!

[Ohmygrood]

'He shouldn't be allowed to use the school for commercial enterprise'

Because no organisations are making any money at all from schools in the UK.

[MrsPiggie]

Sweets and fizzy drinks are hardly on a par with cigarettes or drugs.

Of course they are not. But students have to obey the rules of the school just as adults have to obey the rules of their workplace, country etc
Selling sweets in a school that forbids it is wrong. It's not going to turn that boy into an entrepreneur, it's more likely to turn him into a sort of Del Boy.

[Viviennemary]

I'd be a bit at the £14K from crisps. I hope he was paying tax. The school was right to put a stop to this. And he shouldn't be allowed to use the school for commercial enterprise.

[ReallyTired]

He is being punished more harshly than kids who swear at teachers or throw chairs across the room at many secondary schools or bullies. I realise the school don't like him selling junk food, but it's hardly the worst that happens in a secondary.

It would have been interesting to be a fly on the wall when such a child turns up at the pupil referral unit because he has been caught selling sweets.

[Ohmygrood]

Eating crisps isn't against the law. Taking heroine is. What a silly comparison.

Schools make ridiculous rules about food. Banning foods don't help children to eat treats in moderation which is the healthiest way to eat.

[Ohmygrood]

My ds's school don't allow crisps or sweets but they sell 'healthy' drinks which are full of sugar and additives as well as chips and cakes.

It's confusing to tell children that they can't have sweets/crisps because they are unhealthy but then to sell food which is also full of sugar and fat.

[Floggingmolly]

Fourteen grand? I think the crisps were a cover... That's a hell of a lot of cutprice crisps.

[MrsPiggie]

Since when did crisps become something children should be smuggling? Attitudes like that do more harm than good. Children should be encouraged to eat treats like crisps in moderation.

Frankly, that's neither here nor there. The school decided they won't have them on the premises. It's their call, their decision. I may decide that taking heroine in moderation is good for me. The law will disagree. Is it OK for me to do whatever I want?

[littlesupersparks]

Our secondary school certainly doesn't allow crisps or sweets to be sold in the canteen!! Our healthy eating status is why cake sales are a good way of charity fundraising ;-)

Yes, very entrepreneurial, but if it's against the rules that's unfortunate. I'm sure he was warned before being 'kicked out' though.

[ThinkIveBeenHacked]

£5.50 a day to sell 23 items - all of which were probably sold during lunch hour. So £5.50 for about an hours work. Better than NMW for that age.

[ReallyTired]

Sweets and fizzy drinks are hardly on a par with cigarettes or drugs. My son's secondary allows children to go out at lunch time or buy chips in the school canteen. Healthy eating is a joke in the bulk of UK secondaries.

I don't think that running a business should be seen as entirely a bad thing. I am sure that he and his classmates have learnt a lot from the experience. I feel the school should have allowed him to continue with the proviso that stock needed to approved before being sold. I don't know if young enterprise schemes still exist in schools.

As far as tax goes, it's an area a child needs help with. I would be surprised if a child was punished for tax evasion.

[ghostyslovesheep]

he's paid his 2 mates £5:50 a DAY to help - no wonder he's made £14k - paying his workers such shit wages

seriously not sure he's much or a role model but I doubt he cares - he has money in his pocket

[Ohmygrood]

'He smuggled crisps into the school '

since when did crisps become something children should be smuggling?
Attitudes like that do more harm than good. Children should be encouraged to eat treats like crisps in moderation.