British teachers bragging about the theft of potentially hundreds of pounds worth of property from children. Yeah, okay.
So what’s the difference between “confiscated” and “robbed under the color of authority”?
Aren’t these items stolen property belonging to others who might have wanted them back?
If the kids were creating a nuisance then take the item, call the parents, and have them pick up the item. Keeping it teaches kids that taking things that are not yours is OK.
Wow, a Game Gear? Depending on the year of confiscation, that’s some nontrivial cash… (100 1990 GBP, obviously lower as time went on)
Our school made it clear that you’d eventually get your confiscated items back, though usually to your parents. To prove this you’d watch it sealed in an envelope, and you’d sign across the seal. (Assuming it was small enough to fit in an envelope.)
My teachers just smashed our contraband on the desk. We didn’t have to go through the trauma of losing it; it was just broken in front of our little eyes. Kids today, pshaw, forty miles uphill both ways, etc.
I’m feeling that there’s an opportunity waiting for the first person to put out bags of small toys marketed as “Floor Debris”
Seems a bit surprising that neither Slate nor Boing Boing says anything about this being stolen property. Schools are not the police or the military. They don’t steal under color of authority. This is just simple theft.
One does not simply “confiscate” a Game Gear and not give it back. That´s some next level shit and I will not stand for it.
will the next project be candy (and other items) stolen from babies ?
The Game Gear’s tag says, “Did not retrieve as boasted he was getting a Gameboy Colour” and the year was 1999.
I’m surprised you’re allowed to confiscate a Sikh’s dagger, though. Religious freedom and all that.
Edit to add: Can anyone translate the girl’s diary entry: “I am going towelling for secondary school but hacked off.”
Hacked off = fed up, or skived off? towelling = ?
(And I worked in a London secondary school for two years, still have no clue. )
The kids obviously didn’t require them back, British schoolteachers would be far less likely than American ones to keep the items, they wouldn’t be allowed to get away with it legally.It would of course be classified as theft. America is a nation that gets away with having armed policemen in schools to keep the kids in line.
Section 94 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 provides the authority for teachers in the UK to confiscate items from pupils. Of course, just because it’s legal doesn’t necessarily mean it’s right or fair…
auctoritas non veritas facit legem
(Okay, the Legal Tribune online had a set of legal sayings in latin in their last newsletter. All my other latin is from the Asterix comics. But this one just fits.)
To Welling?
Ah! Could be.
Yes I think so - “I am going to Welling for my secondary school education, I am rather annoyed by this”
The tag says the boy did not request it back, bragging that he was getting a game boy colour.
I saw a similar display in a children’s hospital, except they were objects recovered from children’s tracheas.
