Personal items stolen from me by a pupil in my class

[annieprue]

Valuable items were stolen from me (4 USBs with personal/school info on) by a child whose class I taught. She admitted the theft eventually. Nothing was done. My contract ended shortly after and I wrote to the head - nothing! I have since written to the Chair of Governers to ask what has been done and apart from one short reply I have heard nothing and my emails and letters go ignored.

This school is in special measures, the original head was ousted out and the place is in a shambles. I was loath to report it to the Police but considering the way they have handled it (rudeness to me, the child not reprimanded in any way, lack of support, extreme stress for me) I am now considering doing so. What so others think?

If ever there's a time to seriously ask yourself AIBU?, it's when you are sending numerous emails and letters to an organisation you used to work for and not receiving any reply, and considering calling the police on a child who is not responsible for that organisation's conduct in retribution for this...

If you still haven't got them back and are chasing to retrieve your stolen items, yanbu.

If you HAVE already got them back then in the words of Elsa...

A female teacher had her phone stolen in school

Unfortunately for her it had erm intimate/erotic pictures of herself on it. I swear every kid had those pictures or had seen them.

Nothing happened to the kid, and she was fired for behaving inappropriately with a student(s) is jn the end. As was her colleague in the same department. dodgy school
Kids were banned from talking about it, which made it worse- nothing like taboo!

If you left your car unlocked accidentally and it was stolen would you like the police to do bugger all?

I would expect the police to do whatever they can to recover my car and catch the culprit but I wouldn't be hopeful of the insurance company paying out if my car was not recovered or was damaged upon recovery.
I used to work in insurance (not motor insurance) and we wouldn't pay out if a house was burgled due to not being locked up properly.
Call it victim blaming if you like but I think it's more a case of making people responsible for looking after their belongings the best that they can and then helping them if something happens despite their best efforts to protect their stuff.
If OP did her best to protect the usb sticks then she has my sympathy and I would expect the school to take action. If the OP left the usb sticks lying around without being password protected then she really has some answering to do.
I hope she comes back to tell us the circumstances surrounding theft of the usb sticks because I would expect most kids with a habit of stealing to take a purse or phone rather than a usb stick. I'm guessing they didn't take those because those things were taken proper care off. Maybe I am wrong.

My wife used to be a teacher, she had her phone stolen from her desk draw one time by one of the pupils in her class, once apprehended (the act caught on CCTV) the pupil was suspended for two days......two whole fucking days........ despite the fact he had previous form when caught stealing a classmates ipod. No police involvement. Just a quiet word with one of the disinterested parents. The headmaster explained to my rather pissed off wife that a policy of 'forgiveness' was in the best interests for the child as the poor mite came from a disadvantaged background and deserved (another) chance to redeem himself. Despite not actually getting her phone back she had this smirking fool back in her class, showing no remorse whatsoever and strutting around the place as if he was untouchable, which sadly, short of committing physical assault on a member of staff he pretty much was. At the end of day the only thing the school was interested in was keeping the whole incident quiet and under wraps as they did not want any bad PR, when my wife mentioned calling the police given the schools lack of interest various veiled threats were made to her about how her career could suffer if she took the problem externally. Thank fuck she has now left the profession.

Good grief, I have lost many a memory stick in my time working in schools. I wasn't fired nor was I disciplined!

It would be very lovely indeed if all schools had a lockable desk, cupboard or drawer in each and every classroom but most don't. USB sticks transport work from home to school. I plan a lesson at home, I stick the USB into the school laptop for the PowerPoint; I stand near the door dismissing the class, briefly speak to a kid on the corridor and someone swipes my USB.

And I should be fired for that? Okay.

Back in the real world police is, in my view, ott, but that said it depends if you got the USB sticks back and how valuable they are to you.

I can't believe that people are blaming the OP for this, I hate to point this out but teachers shouldn't have to lock away anything not nailed down if they leave for a minute! And seriously someone show me a normal teacher in England who has an encrypted USB or laptop...get real. As a teacher my life in terms of school work is on my USB so I can plan at home and school, it has my reports I am writing etc too. Students are wxpected to respect property or be punished. I can't believe the student in the OP was on suspended at the very least

Why on earth are so many of you assuming that these usb sticks contained highly sensitive data? The usb which I cart into school has lesson plans, powerpoints etc but nothing at all sensitive.

It's some of the attitudes to this that make me despair - regardless of the rights and wrongs about how the data was stored - and OP has not clarified this eg if they were securely stored or left lying on her desk, some people seem to forget it's theft, chasten should know the difference between right and wrong and even if they were on OPs desk should know it's not okay to take them! And some people wonder why some children are growing up with no respect and an attitude they can do what they like without fear of consequences. Theft is theft.

Yes poor kiddies can't control themselves, a USB stick was left lying around and what was that poor child to do? Just walk on by and not steal something? You all expect far too much of children these days

Children not chasten!

Totally agree with last two posters!

I'm at a loss as to what you want? As you are no longer there its probable she was disciplined/parents were informed but they dont see it as your business. Also, as it was school data under Data Protection act you possibly infringed your duty to keep such data safe and not accessible. Were they on your desk in plain sight or left in PC or laptop? If so you have some culpability here. Psychologically, theft can also be attention seeking, cry for help behaviour too. If that child has 'issues' etc have some empathy and move on.

I trained and taught in a very deprived area where theft at the school had happened once or twice(unknown to me). Even not knowing this i didnt leave anything lying around and never carried cash or cards in my bag: which was locked in my desk drawer if i was in the classroom. The only thing 'out' in the classroom were resources for the children to use like coloured pencils, paint etc.

I am absolutely disgusted by the people criticizing the OP. The student is the one to blame, not the teacher at all. No wonder teachers are leaving the state schools in droves!

If the USB sticks were on the teacher's desk and a child took them from there, would you class that as "theft" or "the OP carelessly left them lying about"? Any supply teacher in an area with a wide range of schools knows that in some children respect teachers' property while in others they will steal the USB stick out of the class laptop when the teacher isn't looking. If a teacher is at the back of a classroom helping a student and another student goes up to her desk and takes the credit card out of her purse in plain view of everyone, the teacher can only ask the student to please return it. (You can't restrain, lock the school down etc. for this.) If the student then runs out of the school with the credit card, all the teacher can do is phone the bank and cancel the card. I used to do supply in a low socio-economic area and in some schools I would leave my valuables in the car because they were safer there than in the school building. The OP's property has been taken. It needs to be returned. This is primarily the HT's responsibility, but if s/he does not deal with it, imo it is appropriate to inform the police.

As I said before, an insurance company would not pay out if a person left their front door unlocked and got burgled. It isn't about 'the poor burglar man just couldn't help himself because an opportunity presented itself', it's about the property owners negligence being contributory to the loss (but we don't know if she was negligent as she hasn't yet confirmed what happened). If she fud leave them lying around and not password protected then she was very foolish. It is very easy to password protect usb sticks.

I think the poor girl should be sent to Disneyland for three weeks, treated to as many data sticks as she can fit into her pockets and sent for counselling on return as she will obviously be traumatised by having to own up to the theft.

The OP should be banned from ever owning a data stick again and made to do 250 hours community service whilst wearing a notice around her neck which says 'I am a careless person'.