My friend phoned earlier pretty upset. Her 5 year old son and a friend had gone into their empty classroom during break to put something away and decided for whatever mad reason to pocket a couple of calculators. When the class returned to do maths the teacher noticed the calculators missing and asked the kids if they knew anything. Everyone stayed quiet. Cue a massive hunt with the three kindy (reception) teachers searching everyone's bags and lining up the kids individually to ask if they knew anything. One child eventually told on the two boys who had done it and they got hauled off to the deputy principle's office for a severe bollocking. The kids were apparantly shouted at by the deputy and two of the teachers for some time by which point they were shaking and crying their eyes out (as told by the teacher afterwards). They were then isolated for the rest of the day and made to do some punishment task away from their class. When my friend's OH went to pick up his son he was brought in and told what had happened. The teacher then said "it was just as well that X told us who it was as we were just about to call the police".
Ok, stealing is wrong. Absolutely wrong with no excuses and they totally deserved to be in big trouble, and there had to be consequences, I'm not saying otherwise. BUT, calling the police for theft by 5 year olds? They've only been in school since February and last week my friend was told how pleasant and well behaved her son was - it's not like he's the class troublemaker. The whole thing seems a bit OTT to me. Also, I really don't agree with three adults standing in front of two small children yelling at them - surely there are better ways of telling kids off than lots of big people shouting at them?