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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:
QueenUnicorn · 13/10/2017 14:47

I don't get people saying that it's not worth the fuss over £1. It's not about the £1 it's about the teacher taking it. Of course it can be easily replaced but she had no right to do that.

EasterRobin · 13/10/2017 14:48

How unfair for your DD. I would give her a replacement pound and leave it at that.

BarbarianMum · 13/10/2017 14:48

There is no way you can bring this up without sounding totally daft so agree. Just let it pass.

Scabbersley · 13/10/2017 14:49

I wouldn't say anything to anyone but I'd buy your dd the fidget spinner and lay off the money dropping.

Willow2017 · 13/10/2017 14:49

Koala
Yes perspective the teacher TOOK money from a pupil and thought she had then the right to do what she was yes with it. At least the child only found it in a path she didn't denand it from someone else.
Pot and kettle?

MyLittleDragon · 13/10/2017 14:52

To those who think teacher was right - If it wasn't the dd's money then it wasn't the teacher's to take for the charity box either.

If dd said she had found it in school premises then teacher should have put it to one side in case someone had lost lunch money.

Outside of school - not teachers business. She could have suggested dd contribute to charity but that's not the same as taking it off dd.

Nikephorus · 13/10/2017 14:52

I found 1p on the path when I was out walking the other day - if it belongs to anyone let me know. I will of course require proof that this particular coin was yours so that I don't give you the 1p that someone else dropped at a different time.
I mean, seriously? The rhyme doesn't go "see a penny, pick it up, all day long you'll be hunting for the owner" does it? If she'd found it in the classroom fair enough, the teacher should hang on to it all day in case someone else discovered their loss. But anywhere else & for that amount.....

TroelsLovesSquinkies · 13/10/2017 14:54

Teacher was bang out of order. Not her money to take of your Dd no matter where it came from, and especially seeing it was found off school property. I'd go back in and ask for it back. But not in front of Dd, I'd also tell the teacher she has no right to decide what happens to money found off school property.
I found a pound when I was a small child, outside the post office. Went in and told the man behind the counter . (small village PO) He was going to take it from me, when his wife told him, it's not yours to take, she found it it's hers. So I kept it.

FrustratedTeddyLamp · 13/10/2017 14:56

It may sound daft, but you may disagree that the money belongs to the DD but she “found” it and with the rest of the money there’s little to no chance of finding it’s the owner. The teacher pressured the DD to give the money away. In effect in a way stealing it when it had a identifiable owner

CorbynsBumFlannel · 13/10/2017 14:58

Is it a policy they have that any money children have on school premises goes in the charity box? Some schools don’t allow the children to carry money around due to it being a pita what with fidgeting with it in lessons, losing it, people taking it etc.

miller77 · 13/10/2017 14:58

I quite agree with the expression 'finders keepers' and the teacher had absolutely no right whatsoever to ask your daughter to take the money from her bag and donate it to charity.

Go get it back!

bunbunny · 13/10/2017 14:59

I would go in to talk to the teacher and be awfully nice, but explain that I thought there was a mix up, as your dd had picked up your pound that you'd dropped on the bike path well away from school, but that it had been stolen taken off her in school. And that you are very upset by this, not only because your dd has had your pound taken off her, but that it has meant that your dd, in finding it, hasn't had the chance to return it to you or to decide what to do with it, that it's something that you and her have been discussing recently and that it was not the teacher's place to take the pound from her, so please can you have the pound back and an apology from the teacher to your dd, to restore harmony to the universe to ensure that you can teach your dd the right way to do things, and that teachers cannot just demand money from pupils, particularly when they don't know the full circumstances.

If the teacher told you her side of the story and didn't listen to you, and refused to give the pound back, then I would be that parent and go to the head. Because, as others have said, it's not about the pound. It's about the teacher demanding something that's not hers and that she has no right to, and linked in with that, that the dd did not feel comfortable enough to explain to the teacher why she shouldn't have to hand over the pound. At best the teacher should have ignored the pound (or if they don't allow money in school, kept it safe in an envelope or in her drawer until the end of the day when she could have handed it over to you). Instead, she did a perfect 'at worst' scenario.

paxillin · 13/10/2017 14:59

Of course you should demand it back and tell the teacher exactly what you thought of her theft.

wheresmyphone · 13/10/2017 15:00

I agree with the teacher.

Just because you find something, it isn't automatically yours.

Coconutspongexo · 13/10/2017 15:01

Wheresmyphone by that logic it's not the teachers to decide what to do with it either

HostaFireAndIce · 13/10/2017 15:03

I think this is all a bit weird. You drop money so your 8yo DD can think she has magic money-finding powers? If you'd just given it to her for being good, she might not have been telling her friend about it in the first place and the teacher would never have known. Yes, the teacher didn't technically have any right to tell her what to do with it, but, meh, it's difficult to get worked up about a teacher suggesting a child give a pound that she found by chance (or so she had been led to believe) to charity.

Justgivemesomepeace · 13/10/2017 15:04

OMG I think we need some perspective here. The child is collecting pennies and saving them. Her mum dropped a pound to humour her. It's just little kid having bit of fun. Totally different than finding large amounts of money and handing it in. Common sense prevails and all that. And no the teacher had no bloody right taking it off her.

ItWentInMyEye · 13/10/2017 15:05

I'd speak to the teacher and explain it was 'found' nowhere near school etc and ask for it back.

user789653241 · 13/10/2017 15:06

I once found about 30 pounds on the street. There was no way I can find who dropped it. No nearby police station to take it to.(I doubted anybody claiming losing 30 pounds anyway.)
If I was on my own, I may have tempted to put into my pocket. But I was with my ds. So naturally, I gave him a choice, either give it to charity shop or school, since it wasn't our money. He chose school fund.
Having a child makes you a good person. Grin

MyLittleDragon · 13/10/2017 15:07

Hosra - it's no weirder than saying there's a fairy for teeth who comes to collect teeth in the night, or a man who comes into the house with presents.

MyLittleDragon · 13/10/2017 15:07

*Hosta

Katedotness1963 · 13/10/2017 15:07

I would explain to the teacher that you had dropped the coin for your child to find, so it wasn't found money at all. I used to do the same for my son as it made his day to find a "penny". Even when he was still in single digits he knew paper money had to be handed in for the person who lost it. He once found £20 in the playground and went round the mums standing about till he found the person who lost it. He got a £2 coin as a reward.

I don't believe people are getting wound up over a child finding a coin in the street!

LonginesPrime · 13/10/2017 15:09

It's unfair to blame the teacher as she wasn't aware of all the facts. However, it's a bit out of order for her to force your DD to donate the money, if that's what happened. I can see her thinking, though.

I always try to persuade my kids to donate money they find to charity (assuming there's no prospect of finding the rightful owner), but ultimately, if they find it, my view is that it's their decision as to what they do with it although they will have to deal with a very heavy guilt trip if they try to keep it.

bigfatbumfreak · 13/10/2017 15:09

Self induced trauma.

DillyDilly · 13/10/2017 15:10

Maybe the teacher thought from what your DD said that the money was found on school property??

Personlly, I think it’s a silly game to be playing with an 8 yo, dropping coins for her to find them or encouraging her to be going around collecting dropped coins to fund her pocket money! Might be better to teach her to donate found coins to a charity box.