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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
Rachel0Greep · 13/10/2017 14:22

The money was found on school property and ...

No, it wasn't.

Rachel0Greep · 13/10/2017 14:23

I would speak to the teacher and explain what happened - not demand the money back.

ToastyFingers · 13/10/2017 14:24

Yanbu, your poor DD.

My nan used to plant things for me to find when I was little, I remember finding a 'diamond' ring in her back garden once.
I was sooo proud of my find and treasured it for years. I only realised it was a plant when I was about 16 but then knowing my nan hid it for me to find made it even more special.

StormTreader · 13/10/2017 14:25

"The money was found on school property"

No it wasnt, the OP has stated multiple times that it wasnt.

Coconutspongexo · 13/10/2017 14:26

Raving if you RTFT it wasn't found in school property.

KoalaD · 13/10/2017 14:27

I think the teacher was heavy-handed in her approach, but I'd let it go if I were you. It's a quid.

Schtinkay · 13/10/2017 14:28

The teacher sounds like an interfering cow. I would be seriously annoyed.

Coconutspongexo · 13/10/2017 14:29

Are some people forgetting the £1 was actually the OPs

Does no one do 'find a penny' anymore?! Or do you all leave the penny incase the person who lost it come back for it?

JonSnowsWife · 13/10/2017 14:31

If the school want to donate it then that’s their right! Finders keepers only applies on public rights of way not on private land!

RavingRoo it was on a bike path! If that's not a public right of way then what is?! Confused

Nonibaloni · 13/10/2017 14:34

When I was early primary school I had a shoe box for found pennies, I filled it twice and opened a post office account.
In a million years o wouldn't have kept anything larger than a 20p. It doesn't encourage theft it encourages keeping your eyes open.
I'd explain to the teacher what happened and hope she feels foolish.

RitaMills · 13/10/2017 14:35

Bloody hell some of these replies! Shock

This is an 8 year old child who gets excited about finding pennies on the street, the OP just wanted to make her DD smile and give her a little bit of excitement by 'finding' £1. We all do stupid little things like that for our DC from time to time surely? Not everything has to be a life lesson, I'm sure that will come if the DD does ever find £10, £20 on the street.

YANBU, explain and ask for the money back.

BlueSapp · 13/10/2017 14:39

The Teacher is a busybody, If it was a wad of cash yes report it to the police they will endevour to find who lost it but a few pennys pences or pound coins no way, unless you see the person droping the coin, people arn't going to look for it and you will find who lost it so its yours.

TheNoodlesIncident · 13/10/2017 14:39

"Who would find 50p or £1 on the way to school and would put it in a charity box OR would hand it over to the school.

Come on. No one would do that"

Er, I do that. Sometimes people leave their £1 deposit in the trolley they used. I don't keep it, I put it in the first charity collecting tin I see. What's so remarkable about that? It's a pound, it's not going to make a significant difference to my finances is it?

OP I would just give my DD another pound to replace that one. The alternative of speaking to the teacher to get it back sounds like more fuss than I could be bothered with. Obviously teacher doesn't know it was yours and you planted it, otherwise she wouldn't have told your dd to hand it over for the charity box. (I hope...!)

HotelEuphoria · 13/10/2017 14:39

I wouldn't let it go and I was absolutely not one to go into school or complain about anything, but this teacher is out of order. even if the child had found it and it "wasn't hers to keep" how did that then become the teachers to decide what to do with it?

And for those that think it wasn't hers to keep and have ever found any money can you say hand on heart that you absolutely go to the nearest police station and hand it in? I am not talking about a purse with a £20 in it, I am talking a pound coin.

Because if you say you do I am calling liar.

RatherBeRiding · 13/10/2017 14:40

Just out of interest, how on earth would you go about making enquiries as to who might have dropped a coin in a public place?

A charity shop finding an envelope of money in a donated handbag - fair enough - you could well be able to trace the owner.

Money found in a workplace etc - yes, you could make enquiries.

But a £1 coin? Take it to the nearest police station? Stick a note on the nearest tree - "Have you lost this £1 coin?". And then out of the 10 people ringing you up to claim it - how do you identify the owner?

OlennasWimple · 13/10/2017 14:41

DD shouldn't have taken it into school (OP should have looked after it for her)

Teacher shouldn't have taken it off her (unless she had had it out in class, in which case it should have been taken for safe keeping and returned to the OP at the end of the day, like any other valuable)

It definitely shouldn't have gone into the charity collection box - they have no more claim on it than the DD

DD does need to understand that finding money doesn't automatically mean it's hers, though

KoalaD · 13/10/2017 14:41

Just give her another pound, fgs.

Surely nobody is going to get into it with the teacher over one pound?! Perspective, people.

OlennasWimple · 13/10/2017 14:42

I do tend to put fifty pence or pound coins that I find into a charity box, though, rather than keep them. I tried to hand in a tenner at a police station once, and it was made clear to me that they really didn't want the hassle of the paperwork

NeedsAsockamnesty · 13/10/2017 14:42

Theft by finding is still theft by finding even if the money is put in a charity pot

Willow2017 · 13/10/2017 14:43

Teacher wasn't trying to find the owner at all she/he was being a holier than thou prick.
It was not her money to decide what to do with.
My ds finds money all over the place when we are out and about. £1 here 5p there what is he supposed to do stand on the street corner asking every passer by if they dropped 5p?

Ask for your money back and tell teacher in future to keep her hands of pupils money. If you want to donate to rhe school you will do so but she is not using your daughters money to prop up the school funds.

And I would ask her if she found £1 on the pavement on tje way home would she pick it up and keep it or leave it for the million to 1 chance that the person noticed and retraced their steps for the whole day to find it?

Sunnydaysrock · 13/10/2017 14:44

Of course she was out of order, none of her business. Can't believe there is any debate on the morality of pocketing coins found on the ground! Let us know what happens OP when you ask the teacher for it back.

Topseyt · 13/10/2017 14:44

I would not play that game with your DD. I think it sends out the wrong message.

That said though, I understand that you were just having a bit of fun. My guess is that the teacher had not understood that this was a game you and DD were playing on the way to school. Your DD didn't see you drop the money for her to find, so wouldn't have been able to explain it to her.

As it is only £1 I wouldn't say anything at school. Just give DD another one, chalk it up to experience and stop these games.

If you do want to say something to the teacher then you will have to go in and explain about the game and ask for the money back. Is it worth it for just £1 though, as it could come across as mean?

That would be my take on it.

TroubleinDaFamily · 13/10/2017 14:45

If it had a picture of the Queen on the back it is mine. Grin

ElegantDream · 13/10/2017 14:45

It may not be the child's money, but it's not the teacher's either Confused. The teacher doesn't have the right to donate it. The teacher could have had a chat with you, but really it's for you and your child to decide what happens with the money.

TroubleinDaFamily · 13/10/2017 14:45

In all seriousness, you need to do an Elsa.