DS damaged a child's blazer at school, parents demand cash.

[InMySpareTime]

DS (Y11) was messing around, pretended to cut another child's blazer with scissors. They moved, and DS accidentally actually cut the blazer about 1cm into the bottom seam by the pocket.
School phoned me because child's parents want £30 for a new blazer, and they are now giving the parents my phone number to work it out between us. They have shown neither school nor me any pictures of the damage, though the child was apparently still wearing the blazer to school each day since.
I've offered to either mend the blazer, or replace it with one of DS's own Blazers. Given the blazer was not damaged maliciously, and is still perfectly wearable, am I unreasonable to think that's enough, and not pay them £30?
I don't think they'll spend it on a new blazer anyway, they're likely pulling a fast one IMO

Can you buy a new blazer and have the damaged ome as a spare for your son? Then they don't gain but don't lose either.

No way I'd give them cash if they want money for the blazer they get a replacement not a nice £30 in the pocket.
The school would be in for a big complaint passing on your personal number without consent

You should give them the money for a new blazer. I'd be mortified, not arguing the toss. I would be docking pocket money & ds only gets £5 per week so it would hit him hard.

I would pay it. If it happened as an accident I would think repair but your son was messing around. I would not be happy with my details being handed over without my consent.

I would pay it. If it happened as an accident I would think repair but your son was messing around. I would not be happy with my details being handed over without my consent.

give them the money, but ask for the damaged blazer so your ds has a spare

I takes quite a bot of force to cut a blazer with a pair of ordinary scissors. Your son cut the Blazer. You should pay the £30 so that they can take their son to buy a replacement. Your son damaged someone else's property, he should pay for it. It might be a harsh lesson but he's the only person responsible for what has happened.

If my car was written off a new one would cost about £25k. My car is 8 years old and only worth about £7k. That's what my insurers would pay.

Although you are lucky to have a blazer for just £30 they are being unreasonable but I'm not sure I'd have a row over it. If I had £30 I'd pay it.

DS was once thrown in a pool with his BlackBerry in his jeans. The boy who did it gave him a second hand BlackBerry the following Monday. DS and I were made up.

I would ask to have the blazer, have it mended like you said, tell them if it cannot be mended you will buy another.

Yes definitely ask them for the damaged blazer and take it somewhere to see if it can be mended before you splash out for a new one.

It was a silly thing to do that's already been recognised.
Was the damaged blazer brand new this school year?
My sons had all sorts happen to their uniform and I'm quite sure they held their own in things happening to other uniforms but no one ever made the issue of buying new.
Maybe you should get a £10 gift voucher for local uniform shop.

The car analogy is silly. Where are the parents supposed to find a replacement blazer for a small proportion of its original value? Buy them a new blazer but get the damaged one for your son to use.

Teaching your son that you'll contest and defend criminal damage in his name is very wrong.

Be a decent person.

I wouldn't be giving them cash either. I would tell them the options are;

1. they give you the size of the boys blazer and you will purchase a replacement and keep the original as a spare for your son
2. they can take you to the small claims court.

Of course you should pay for a new blazer.

I'm sure stuff like this happened to ds's blazers, but it wouldn't have occurred to me to demand cash to replace it

This is exactly the kind of tomfoolery teenagers get up too, including those who knew not to play with scissors when they were three. They are regularly as daft as brushes, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Cash-demanding parents are trying it on.

"Messing about with scissors" in this context is an oxymoron.
You are focusing on totally the wrong thing here. You should be apologising profusely, paying up and teaching your kid that you don't guck around with dangerous objects like scissors.

Their story stinks. The school are very wrong to pass your details to another parent without your permission. I am really horrified at that.

one inch cut??? If it was my DS I'd patch the blazer myself & not ask the other parents for a penny.

To keep peace for my DS I might pay for new blazer & of course I get the other one to patch & use/resell.

If they hand over the blazer for op to do whatever, in the mean time the other boy doesn't have a blazer. I can see their reluctance to hand it over.

The blazer might not be old. I remember the growth spurt in year 11.

Why shouldn't he pay? He damages soneones property he needs to realise there are consequences

I think the right thing to do is to pay for a new blazer. So what if the parents pocket the money. Your child was unfortunately the aggressor here and it's a tough lesson for him to learn. My ds recently lost a £60 new blazer and I'm docking £5 from each month's pocket money for a year. Children need to learn to look after their own posessions and other people's.

Messing around with scissors in year 11? Would take an awful lot of focused 'messing' to cut through thick blazer material . I'd want to see the teacher who was taking the class as sounds like your son was being a right pain in their class
Yes you should pay for it

I agree the school should not be handing over your details. And I do think it's odd that they won't give you his size to buy a new one.

Surely if they feel the damage is so bad it requires a new one, then they should be fine to have you buy it for them?

If this happened to one of my dc I'd roll my eyes at bloody teenagers and either sew it myself or get dc to see it.
Unless your ds did it through an act of bullying which doesn't sound like he did.
That said if the other parent asked for the money I would give it.

I think you should pay, surely your DS saw the damage he did?

He was being a tit and it resulted in the damage of someone else's property. Poor parenting on your part not to teach him actions have consequences.