Lessons Learned

One of the hardest things about being a parent is watching your child learn a hard lesson.  Kids are cruel and disrespectful and have no regard for consequences.  My son learned a valuable lesson during school the other day.  He has been in a class for eight weeks and never thought twice of someone stealing from him.  He was in PE and the high school he goes to has the open face lockers in the PE rooms so in order to protect their valuables the kids must give them to the teacher to lock in a closet.  None of the kids had a problem until one kid was transferred into their class.  My son lost $27.00 and two other kids lost $10.00 together.  I know what you are thinking....why would a kid have that much money in their wallet just to go to school?  Well, he wanted to buy a school sweatshirt and it cost $25.00 and they are only sold during lunch.  There was a school investigation but of course the money was not recovered.  The kids know who did it but there is no way to prove it.  It wasn't until a certain kid was transferred into the class that the thefts began.  The class he was transferred from had thefts but as soon as he transferred out, the thefts stopped.  HMMM, sounds a little suspicious to me.  I think the part that makes me a little angry is that the teacher and the assistant principal made it my son's fault that it was stolen.  The assistant principal called me late in the afternoon, hours after the theft occurred and told me that an investigation had been done but they were unable to find the money or the person who stole it.  Of course the money was not recovered the kid had already put it somewhere that it would not be found and there are legal parameters to searching a child anyway.   Seriously, the school knows they have a problem when they call the parents to let them know "we had a little trouble this morning".  O.K., I understand that my son should have given his wallet to the teacher to be locked up but it is not his fault entirely.  That is the problem with society today, it is the victim's problem not the suspect.  Kids learn this at a young age and know there is a higher percentage that they will get away with it than not.  We are not strict enough on our kids which makes them lazy adults. So at the end of the day one child is $37.00 richer and three other children are $37.00 poorer.