Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         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!) First you must apologize to Steve, admitting your mistake will show your sincerity to the student and you may be able to fix some of the damage you have done. Secondly, when a situation like this arises one must take a step back and think about the situation before acting. I think that this teacher was so freaked out about losing the money they grabbed on to the first student they thought may have a reason to take the money. This teacher did not know for sure if the money was even stolen, they just assumed it was. The money was gone and their panic had started to set in. It is a good practice to turn in money to the bookkeeper as soon as possible. I always keep my collected funds in a locked cabinet until I can turn the money in. I never keep the money overnight. If I had lost the money, I would just come clean to my administration and offer to replace the money that was lost. I would not interrogate my students or start to judge them. Even if the money was stolen without concrete proof one cannot blame any student.