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AIBU?

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Original poster

Teacher 'donated' Dds money!

435 replies

WoWoWorrier · 13/10/2017 13:55

My daughter has a knack for 'finding pennies'. She is 8. She collects the 5ps/10ps she finds for sweeties and the 1ps and 2ps go in a piggy bank until it's full. She find a them outside on the floor.

On the way to school yesterday she was saying that she wanted a mini figit spinner from the machine outside our local newsagents.
She had been super good this week and I was already planning on giving her £2 as a reward but she said 'I might find a pound!' So to humour her 'abilities' I dropped a pound a few minutes later and she spotted it.

She was super excited.

When I picked her up from school she was quiet and when we got near the ship I asked her if she wanted to get her toy she told me she had been telling her friend she had found a pound on the way to school and the teacher said it wasn't hers to spend and told her to put it in the classroom charity collection box!!

Aibu to demand it back and be quite pissed off?

OP posts:
Slaylormoon · 13/10/2017 19:58

Hasn't everyone got a memory of the time they found 50p/£1/£2 etc on the street as a child?

Yes we teach children, if you find a wallet/money in note form you hand it in somewhere, for example my niece ran across the playground once when I collected her to pass back a my little pony she had seen another child drop!

I think taking such a hard line on things is a bit mean. OP I would be asking for that £1 back and use it as an opportunity to teach assertiveness and explain the difference between finding £1 on the street and keeping it, and where the line is on finder's keeper's.

Slaylormoon · 13/10/2017 20:00

Think it was
"See a penny pick it up, all the day you'll have good luck" that my grandma used to telll me Smile

Ta1kinPeece · 13/10/2017 20:00

Pengg
tis other way round .....
the "theft" legislation was posted up thread by others
you reiterated that picking up a coin is a crime
if you have the SLIGHTEST evidence for that , please provide it
because it ain't in the case law I've ever seen

Pengggwn · 13/10/2017 20:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

JustanotherJP · 13/10/2017 20:06

There is in fact a crime of ‘theft by finding’ but it would not occur in this case.

I know Wikipedia isn’t the best source but it gives some examples of cases where it has and hasn’t been found to be ‘theft by finding’

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theft_by_finding

Ta1kinPeece · 13/10/2017 20:09

Justanother
Indeed, that is the exact link that is up thread
which makes it clear that private locations or identifiable chattels are involved

coins are NOT
nor was the £50 note I found in the 80's and lived on for two weeks

MaisyPops · 13/10/2017 20:14

Slaylormoon
Of course. We can all recall doing that.
It's part of being a kid.

I have to admit, 'ooh look a pound at the park and it doesn't seem it's anyone around here's' is different to 'playing a game where you scavange for pennies on the floor throughout day to day life' and then just to make the bizarre game more exciting throw a quid on the floor to be picked up. Each to their own but I think it is strange.

Willow2017 · 13/10/2017 20:18

If the money is in a sealed charity box then it is 'gone forever' the school have no right to open it to get the £1 back.

The teacher had no right to take it and dispise of it without asking the parent what they wanted to do with it. She should have kept it until home time and given it to op if she was that concerned about it.

She was more guilty of misaporopriating the £1 than the child ever was.

Willow2017 · 13/10/2017 20:21

Nobody has yet said what to do with the odd 5p you find on the ground.

Would you really go round all the shops in the street asking if someone has handed in your lost 5p?

youarenotkiddingme · 13/10/2017 20:25

I don't walk past money in the floor!

At ds last swimming gala I found 90p in the car park during 5 different walks to cool off from the poolside sweat!

5x 20p and a 10p!

Paid half my coffee Grin

Slaylormoon · 13/10/2017 20:27

MaisyPops, I can see what you mean, but then I remember as a child I used to collect smooth stones I found on the way to school just because I liked them Blush and I realise I probably can't get too judgy. At least you can spend odd pennies, not a lot of vending machines accept stones 😂

Pengggwn · 13/10/2017 20:30

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

honeyroar · 13/10/2017 20:32

The teacher was trying to teach her that you can't keep money that you find

but she didn't teach that at all - she just snatched it, made no attempt to find out if anyone had lost it and simply did what she wanted with it. There was no lesson there. If she'd have said "we'll keep it safe until the end of the day, see if we can find out who has lost it", actually done that, then put it in the charity box because they hadn't found the owner, I'd think that was ok.

Oliversmumsarmy · 13/10/2017 20:32

The teacher is right that it's not okay and not legal to just keep whatever you find

What was found was a £1 coin which is not identifiable . If it was a mobile phone or a piece of jewellery I can see the difference

Ot is theft in my book taking money off someone and putting it in a charity box. It was not the teachers money to donate.

.

jwpetal · 13/10/2017 20:35

I think that the teacher was right to take the money aside and hold it for a child that may have lost it. but the teacher was also wrong for putting it in the charity box. If we follow the reasoning of some of the posters above. If you find money, try to find the owner or give to the office to hold. It does not go to the charity box. That is just as wrong as the child keeping it.

Oliversmumsarmy · 13/10/2017 20:40

Why would the teacher think a child had lost it when it as found no where in the school

bimbobaggins · 13/10/2017 20:43

Was it an old pound or a new one ?

Shiftymake · 13/10/2017 20:56

Almost wondering if Peng is said teacher. You are very defensive of this teachers actions, which is good as p.o.v. can be explored and tested. The problem here is that regardless of how that pound coin was found, the teacher did not have the right to take it and use it. She took it by demanding that her student retrieves the money from a bag and proceeds to demand that it be spent on the teachers choice rather then confiscating it until later. That has more of an abusive flare to it rather then the implications that keeping coins found on the street being theft. You can take coins that are laying on the street, but not if you see the owner drop the money. That person has ownership, and you know who the owner is. If you proceed to take the money when that happens, then that is theft. If someone dropped a coin minutes and hours ago, then you can keep it as no one can make claim to it as it is near impossible to prove ownership. Notes are different.

SoNouveau · 13/10/2017 20:58

bimbobaggins

I thought that.

tombstoneteeth · 13/10/2017 20:59

The teacher is attempting to impart a principle - that you keep NOTHING that is not yours.

bimbobaggins · 13/10/2017 21:02

Ha ha sono, great minds.

permatiredmum · 13/10/2017 21:07

whether or not the child had a right to spend it is open to debate, whether the teacher had a right to it is not!

MyWhatICallNameChange · 13/10/2017 21:08

So who is going to phone the police to tell them they saw a child pick up a coin and keep it?
It's getting bloody ridiculous on here!

I've found money on a completely empty path, and kept it. I've also found money outside a group I go to, and knew one of the members had probably dropped it, so handed it in and they were so glad to get it back as they thought they'd lost it.

I'm pretty sure the police have better things to do than log loads of coins people have found on the pavement!

I think the teacher is wrong for taking the money off your DD, whether you decide to take it further is up to you.

becotide · 13/10/2017 21:11

Nobody is going to phone the police because the police don't care.

They didn't really care when an acquaintance of mine took out catalogues in my name and ran me into several grands' worth of debt either

they didn't care when some useless cunt friend of my ex's tattooed my 7 year old child with a dirty needle.

The police not caring about something does not mean it's not reprehensible behaviour.

Shiftymake · 13/10/2017 21:12

And to who does those random coins on the street belong to? Nature? No one owns those coins when the person who had them are long gone on the other side of town. And how would the "owner" recognize the coin as theirs when they do not know where or when it went missing? Say there is 5x 5p coins dropped on one stretch, another 2x5p on the next stretch and another 3x5p coins on the last stretch. All spread out, dropped by different people and you dropped one. Would you be able to identify that one coin you dropped? No. But you pick up a 5p coin, thinking it might be yours. It was dropped by someone else but no one is any wiser as no one can recognize or know if it is their coin or not. Is that theft? To me it isn't but for some of you it is. There is loads of small change around, I know I have dropped some, no idea where and think it is ok for those that find it to keep it. We are not talking about notes, most people do not loose notes easily.