DC having stuff 'stolen' in secondary school - school don't want to know.

[PissedOffandPayingForIt]

DS's (Yr9) coat has gone missing from school. He left it in a classroom and it had disappeared when he remembered to get it. Been looking for it to turn up in lost property for over a month now. Have had to pay for another one.

This happened last winter and happens with PE kit, calculators, planners etc.

I can understand uniform being taken home mistakenly as it is generic but coats?

School not interested, says DCs fault for leaving them.

My argument is that if my DC forgets something, he should reasonably get them back. Just because it is unattended, does that give someone the right to take it?

Would an office blame staff for leaving coats/bags unattended and getting things nicked?

AIBU?

Have YOU been into school to look for it? All I know is I seem to have a lot more success at finding kit than my DC who have supposedly loked for it.
Another thing I have done is bought a combination luggage lock for DCs PE kit .At their school if they have forgotten an item of PE kit, they borrow it from a bag in the cloak room (which is where they have to leave PE kits)
DS had this lovely umbrella he got from Jodrell bank with all the constellations on.I have very strong belief that it now belongs to a member of the science department

We've been having similar issues with DD3 (Y7). I have even gone in to school myself and gone through lost property, PE cupboards, and even the department office in one case. Everything has eventually turned up somewhere completely different to where it was left. In one case, in a room that DD has never even been in. I spoke to her form tutor in the end, because I was/am convinced that someone has been moving her things. Strangely, since it was brought to the form tutor's attention it has all been fine.

What do you suggest school do? If a coat or whatever gets left in my clasroom I check for a name but there never is one. If another student picks up the coat how am I to know? Secondaries are huge places with a lot of movement. Your son needs to be responsible for his own stuff. Teachers have enough to do.

I also keep stuff in my room if found and take it to lost property after a few days if I remember. Often stuff is left for months and not claimed.

The number of times I had to "help" tutees (yr7) look for lost property, that they said was nicked, was incredible. Normally we found it.
Sometimes a combination of it Gaven been hidden, or accidentally picked up and carried on to another classroom, but most frequently due to the student just not looking properly!

Email their tutor for help, and ask if you can look in lost property yourself. Hopefully it is legibly named! :)

Thanks for the replies.

I have been in to check the lost property personally numerous times expecting that it may have been found and been put in there at some point. I think that over a month later, it's not going to turn up. Actually more than a month because it was before the Feb half term that it went missing.

DS2 has learning difficulties with memory issues.

I am most pissed off because the coat was less than a week old and I spent quite some time finding the right one which was thin enough to shove into his bag and waterproof/warm enough and it cost a bit.

Just went to have another look for it and also for DS1's PE kit. We found the PE bag with trainers but the logoed socks, shorts and Tshirt had been taken out of it. All named. So that's another £25 to shell out.

I do not believe that they fell out accidentally.

AIBU to suggest that this is brought up in assembly, re: theft.

Yes absolutely. It sounds like you've done all you can, and it does unfortunately sound as if it has been taken. School now need to have a little assembly on respecting other people s property IMO

DS managed to lose the left trainer of not one but two pairs of trainers! Has also lost PE tops, ties etc. Everything is named but when he goes to look in lost property, no luck. so he tells me
I think its part of growing up and learning to look after his belongings, we did make him contribute pocket money towards the 3rd pair of trainers, and funnily enough he's managed not to lose them!

Just read about your DS special needs, that puts it in a different light and yes in those circumstances I think the school should try and help.

Is he being bullied?

At the start of the year we brought all the lost property in to the hall during assembly, now we just bring out the 20 or 30 bags and other assorted new stuff from the last week.

It is very surprising how many children manage to lose one shoe, one sock, and underwear.

Once stuff is gone it's gone - you are not going to get it back. Given your DSs needs you need to work with the school and him to get a strategy in place to PREVENT him forgetting or losing things (what I don't know but it will be more effective in the long run).

This happened to me in my last year at primary. Things went missing only to turn up in weird places, for eg my coat in a ditch.

I also lost a lot of stuff too because my memory is pretty bad so I tried to hide as much as I could from mum as I didn't think she'd believe me.

I also worried I was loosing my mind as I started to wonder if I was moving things and not remembering.

I think it's worth looking into this as a possibility.

On the up side, I made a pact with myself never to worry about material things-I still loose shit loads of stuff but no longer give a fuck

Sorry, I was brilliantly unclear...not suggesting you should look into if your DS is loosing his mind, but if he's being bullied.