to ask school to replace shoes

[NCshoess]

4 year old ds is in reception, he got shoes for Christmas that he loves and has been wearing them every day. they are light up superhero shoes which is allowed, many kids have them.

Friday he comes home crying in his gym shoes saying he was kicking his feet to make the shoes flash so the teacher took them away. I was going to ask about it yesterday but my sister picked him up.

Today I asked his teacher she said she took them away, but then looking in the classroom she can't find them. I asked where they were and she said they might turn up.

am I being unreasonable to ask them to replace his shoes if they can't find them...these were shoes he was asking for for ages, was so happy when he got them for Christmas and has been crying about having them taken away. I can't afford to buy him new ones atm...I understand taking them away for the day but not to give them back and then lose them is too far.

I have a question: do the teacher take the shoes off your son or send him to change his shoes?

The first scenario means they were in the teacher’s care so should be replaced.

The second scenario could mean he was supposed to put them in my gym bag/ correct shoe place but put them somewhere else. In which case, it is normal lost property.

Again, depends on your financial position and how easy it would be to replace them.

Oh and make sure you put the teacher in the guillotine

One way or another they need to give you a pair of shoes. Yanbu.

She swapped them for his PE shoes. Maybe him stamping his flashing shoes was upsetting a child nearby with ASD?

OP, did you check his PE bag?

You could easily think it was a Rolex going by some of the comments here.

This time, it's shoes. I dread to think what the coversation will be over a confiscated phone in secondary.

A teacher, whose kids' posessions have got lost and who has to confiscate things on a daily basis, to then deal with the parents on the phone.

Really? You can't just take someone's property and get rid of it, because you don't agree with them wearing it.

I'd be extremely surprised if this was the case.

put out feelers

No. But at least admit that it's the teacher's fault - and not just say "they might turn up" - at least show a little concern. She must know where she put them when she took them off ds.

If you’ve got 30 kids all wearing the same sweatshirt and only 15 of their parents have had the sense to write their name in, then it’s absolutely no wonder things get lost.

@ThrallsWife

So you think it's ok if the shoes can't be found?

If a teacher confiscated a phone in secondary school and then lost the phone, I know who would be replacing that phone, and it wouldn't be the pupil or the parents!

Oh missed the gym shoes thing, I still think it's bizarre why didn't she put them in his bag?
I'm in Ireland and we don't really do gym shoes so I just find it bizarre!
Of course she needs to replace them.
I would email and Copy in the principal

Perhaps it was the irrational suggestion to take legal action over a pair of shoes?

But the point is that the teacher took the shoes off the child, not that they were lost by the child.

Sounds like theft to me. Take something from someone and not give it back, that’s a crime. Of course the teacher needs to buy new ones.

No, that's why I said it's important to establish where the shoes went thereafter. There would be way more liability if the shoes had been left lying around somewhere compared to them being stored away.

Either way, the school will have insurance. The teacher won't cover it personally.

I am also tired of the arguments over possessions. Or maybe it was a parent claiming a Pandora charm got lost from the bracelet I confiscated and had put in the safe today that pushed me over the edge.

If you’ve got 30 kids all wearing the same sweatshirt and only 15 of their parents have had the sense to write their name in, then it’s absolutely no wonder things get lost.

but the teacher lost them not a child.

@Soontobe60

Yes of course that's no wonder jumpers get lost if parents don't write names in. But this isn't a school jumper, of which there are probably 30 identical ones.

This is a single pair of distinguishable shoes that nobody else has got. I doubt many pupils leave their shoes behind in the classroom, they have them on their feet. So should not be too difficult to find.

It’s a crime to take something from someone.

It's not irrational at all. They were the OP's property, removed under duress from the care of the OP's son, and lost. The OP is therefore owed their value by the school, if they are not returned.

Stand your ground and demand the shoes back and don't leave the school without either the shoes or a gift voucher so he can buy a new pair

When something significant of my DGC went missing (her coat), I was collecting and together with her teacher, looked everywhere in the classroom, and where they hang them up, my DDIL was advised by the school to raise a fairly innocuous message on their whatsapp group '(if anyone has seen it', kind of thing). It was subsequently returned a few days later, and found on her peg.
The implication being that another parent had taken it. This may have been a genuine mistake, as the coat was rather distinctive, but there was also the suggestion that many things go 'missing'.

Tell me the cost of the issue fee for the value of the shoes? Show me that they have followed pre action protocol and then reevaluate whether your suggestion is rational. (Clue - it still isn't).

Things definitely shouldn't "go missing" when they've been taken by a teacher in the first place.

That’s a point - were they ‘confiscated’ - or was the child told to go and change into his PE shoes, and he put them down somewhere instead of putting them into the gym bag ?

I’m surprised that a school allows shoes like that as part of their uniform policy.