Isn't the involuntary confiscation and redistribution of a students schools supplies, tantamount to larceny?

Question

We bought the higher quality plastic 2 pocket 3 pronged folders for my son to use in his 3rd grade class. No request of specific colors was ever mentioned in the supply request form which was signed by his teacher. He picked out orange and green folders(which I wrote his name in). Well the teacher decided that she wanted all of the boys to have blue folders and all of the girls to have orange folders. She had all of the students pass all of their folders to the front, she separated the folders by color and then in Marxist fashion redistributed them to the children. Two other little girls got the orange folders that I bought that had my son's name in them and were told to scratch his name out and write theirs in it instead. My son was then issued a lesser quality paper folder. The original folders that I bought cost signifigantly more than the one my child received. Parents were not forewarned that the personal property of their children would be confiscated and redistributed in a such a manner. This happend to several other students whose parents are LIVID about the situation. How are we to teach our children to respect other peoples belongings when the teachers are stealing their school supplies and giving them to other students?

Answer 1

That teacher sounds like a stupid *****. Its outrageous how some teachers behave.

I had a similar experience and one of the problems my wife and I had was that the teacher may take it out on our son if we came to tell her that what she's done is pointless and unfair.

I think one suggestion may be to transfer your child to a different 3rd grade class if there is another one at his school. Beyond that I don't see what we parents can really do.

And to think, the public school teachers where I live have been having a number of strikes recently because they want a 21% pay increase. They are actually surprised that people don't have much sympathy for them.

UPDATE:

In Legal terms, 'Theft' is when someone without consent appropriates property belonging to someone else with the intention of permanently depriving them of it.

In this case it was involuntary, and the child was put in a position where they felt they couldn't disobey the teacher, so it is without consent. It was with the intention that your child would be deprived of the folder permanently, so technically, it could be argued that this is unlawful (But you'd have to check your local laws).

But, I have never heard a case of a teacher facing penalties for something like this.

I really question why the teacher would want to do this. Why would she want girls and boys to have certain colored folders? Why does it matter to her? It just seems pointless to me.

Answer 2

Wow such big words used by you with such poor rhetoric!

And so few paragraph separators, which are free no matter how many you use!

How about being a concerned parent who participates in your kid's education instead of counting dimes at the dollar store, and go talk to the teachers and even the principal, and see what you can do best this year to make sure your kid does great!

otherwise, I see anger and juvie ahead for this kid if he learns from you!

Answer 3

I think this is common practice (at least where I live). We finally learned to just buy the lower quality folders and supplies because we knew they would be collected and redistributed. This also applied to crayons and pencils. I agree that it is not fair and the school should at least forewarn parents so that this discrepancy won't happen and everyone will spend the same amount and receive the same quality of supplies. You could make a big deal about it but it probably won't change things especially if the teacher wants specific colors for each gender.

But this should be specified on the supply list not a last minute decision made on a whim by the teacher.

Good luck.  

Answer 4

Where I live, Walmart has the school supply list from each school and grade and the supplies are also there. This solved a lot of problems. In your case, I would send a note to the teacher requesting the folders be returned and replace them with the same type your Son received.

Answer 5

I'd snatch my kid out of that class so fast the teacher's head would spin.  You have just been sent a shot over your bow that your kid is in trouble before the school year has had a chance to start.

Ask for a reassignment for your child's sake.