School staff member took my child’s toy (for his own child) after confiscating items for sale

[Busyybee]

My DC has recently been selling squishy toys at school, he’s an entrepreneur in the making. However we told him it wasn’t a good idea and he carried on.

On Friday he got caught and his teacher gave me his school bag which contained ‘his stock’. They asked me to not allow him to bring them in as it’s not allowed. I told them I’m glad they’ve said it to him & he won’t be bringing them again. As the teacher handed me the bag, another staff member who works at the school asked to see what he was selling and went on to take 1 squishy & said ‘this will be nice for my daughter’. My DC asked him for the money & the staff member said ‘No, your lucky I didn’t take the lot’

My DC asked the staff member for the money or squishy back & he said ‘Na na your not getting it back, your lucky it wasn’t (deputy head) as she would of taken the lot’

This doesn’t sit right with me, value is only £1 but it’s the principle. What is this teaching the children?

What do I do about this?

The staff member casually said ‘let me have a look at what you’ve been selling’ I didn’t feel any way and allowed him to take a look, at the end of the day he’s a respected staff member so why would I feel he would proceed to then steal the toy?

He proceed to have a good look and then chose one and said it’s for his child, my child said ‘no it’s mine’ and the staff member replied ‘na na your not getting it back, my daughter will like this one’

I honestly thought he was pulling my child’s leg and having a laugh as the way he said it & would give it back on Tuesday when child returned after bank holiday! I approached the staff member on Tuesday and they said ‘no their not having it back, their lucky I didn’t take the lot’

He’s obviously got a bit confused and not seen that there’s a difference between confiscating items from a child and dealing with that properly; and just stealing something from another adult who happens to be in your school then refusing to give it back. He’ll have that clarified now I imagine!

Clear message here: do not become a teacher in this country. No wonder all the decent ones are going overseas - imagine a parent trying to pull this schtick in the US or Europe: ridiculous!

Imagine a teacher pulling this schtick anywhere: ridiculous!

Seriously? It's ridiculous for a parent to object to a teacher blatantly stealing? It's absolutely fine for teachers to set children this sort of example? You have to have some seriously messed up thinking to consider that the teacher in this situation is some sort of suffering martyr.

How exactly does that justify theft by a teacher? Is there something in the Theft Act that says it's OK to steal if you can claim that the owner or his parent was somehow in the wrong?

So your child's teachers are thieves also, and you've condoned it. Great example you are all setting to your child.

Decent ones don't steal from pupils. The ones who do can go overseas, they won't be missed here.

Not at all the message is teachers have to be professional. I know many teachers I was one my daughter and son in law are teachers.
They would never take a students belonging home for their own child!
The OPs child was wrong to take the toys into sell but that doesn't excuse the teacher behaving unprofessionally.

It always amuses me when people think that making teachers eyes roll should be some sort of deterrent to parents from speaking up if they do something blatantly wrong. Of course it shouldn't, and any teacher that condones what this man did is clearly in the wrong profession.

Agree - it's posted as if it's the absolute worst thing that could happen.

I don't care if a teacher/teachers roll their eyes at me - if they stole something belonging to my child or another a pupil for their own child and refused to give it back I would complain - their eyes could roll a full 360 and I would care not one jot.

I'm sure his colleague who had already dealt perfectly well with the situation before he waded in will be doing more than rolling her eyes at him in the staffroom.

However, the guidance also says that the right to confiscate is confined to goods that pose a risk to staff or pupils, are prohibited, or identified in the school rules for which a search can be made, or are evidence in relation to an offence. In this situation, at the point when the teacher returned the goods to OP's son after school to take home, they were none of these things, so the right to confiscate didn't even arise.

The right to deal with the property in this manner is conditional on it being reasonable to do so, and the guidance expressly sets out that staff are only protected from liability if they acted lawfully.

This staff member can't claim that he had any right to confiscate at all, given that his colleague had already dealt with the matter and gave the items back to be taken home; and also given that he only took one of them. He certainly cannot claim that taking a child's belongings to give to his own child is in any way reasonable.

OP, have you reported this to the head?

Yes, she's emailed the HT (yesterday, from memory).

Play silly games, win silly prizes.

It was a natural consequence to breaking the rules. I don’t have a problem with that.

The item should be returned but the school should have guidance on whether selling items in the school was appropriate. Apparently it's not. And the kid apparently takes loads of them to sell and was advised not to but carried on

Why not just ask to talk to the HT or deputy head?

Kids don't need to be entrepreneurs at ten. They need to be kids

That’s a consequence of the actions 🤷‍♀️

A teacher stealing is not a consequence of behaviour in school. Had it been a situation they were involved in (it wasn't), there is a policy they follow, alongside the law.

I don't know how someone so supportive of gross misconduct in the work place and law breaking can be so judgemental of children.

I repeat what I said yesterday. I'm reserving judgement. If the teacher did what OP says he did, and also said a dog was 'only playing' when it bit her DC in the yard, he's out of order and the head needs to take action. What I'm struggling with is that the class teacher and OP could have rectified the situation at the time by intervening to get the stolen toy back. That neither of them did stretches credibility, although it's not impossible.

OPs DS is a disobedient 10 year old, heading for teenage years…..

Get it sorted now!

Although in that particular case, the OPs parenting is questionable.

And whence your support for gross misconduct at work?

Whence?

Sorry, I don’t understand!

Look I’m not sure why you’re continuing to tag me everytime I post, it’s getting tedious!

You’ve had your affirmation that I steal from children for a living, you’re not ever going to change my mind, no matter how much you tag me. Maybe give it up? The sun is shining, get out for a walk?

The class teacher had started to walk off when the other teacher stepped in to see the items. He only asked to see them & then proceeded to say he’ll take one for his daughter! He’s a nasty piece of work & gets away with so much in our school!

He’s the HT little puppy!

The dog incident was also not dealt with appropriately even when we followed the complaints procedure, had a meeting with the governor (waste man) & got in touch with local authority! Governor point blank turned around and said ‘you can give your views of not having dogs in the playground however it’s ultimately the HT decision even over the local authority’ - they got their way! They have a dog zone in place which no one sticks to! It’s like a bloody zoo!

Why don’t you stop putting your 2pence in my post! Maybe then people will forget about you!

It’s not your post, you’ve posted on a public forum! I will respond to you if you tag me and to others.

On a public forum, you don’t own the post.