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  Case: Poor and Innocent
I made one of the biggest mistakes in my professional life as a teacher about a week ago. I teach middle school English. We collected money for a breast cancer awareness event, and I put the cash and the checks in separate envelopes. After lunch time, I could not locate the envelope with the cash. I looked everywhere, but I could not find it. I asked my students if anyone took the envelope by mistake but nobody came forward. So, the cash was lost. Apparently, someone stole it, I thought. I have a good mix of students in my classroom; different religions, races, cultures, and rich and poor. Steve is the poorest student. Sometimes students make fun of Steve for wearing the same pair of shoes or the same pants all the time. The day after the money had been lost Steve came to school wearing a new jacket. Automatically, everyone, including me, started thinking he stole the cash. I took Steve to the principal's office to have a conference with him about the lost cash and his new jacket. We told him why we were having the meeting and asked him to be truthful. He said he had nothing to do with the lost cash. When we asked him about the new jacket, he said he had worked in his uncle's mechanic shop past weekend and made some money. Then, his father gave him some money to make up the difference for him to buy the jacket. We called his father and he confirmed everything Steve had told us. At that moment I thought I had never been so embarrassed in my life. But the more embarrassing moment came when Steve asked me if I had questioned Greg, a student from a middle class background, because he happened to come to school wearing a new jacket that day also. How can I fix the broken trust between me and Steve? How would you react to this situation—lost money and a poor student wearing a new jacket the next day? What would be the most appropriate way to respond to this situation?
Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!)
Obviously, the first mistake was that the money was not secured. With that being said, mistakes do happen. However, even if you assumed that it was Steve because he suddenly had a new jacket, you could have questioned each student rather than singling him out because of his social status. I am sure he felt embarrassed and singled out. The theft should have been reported immediately and students not allowed to leave until the money was found (this could be handled by the principal or school resource officer). It will be very hard to gain Steve's trust back, if it is even possible. The first thing you should do, without a doubt, is to take him aside and sincerely apologize for accusing him when you really did not have any evidence. Depending on the type of personality that Steve has, this could be a very difficult situation for him to forgive, especially if he is already self-conscious about his home situation.