My Corner for Education

This is one of many true stories that happened in a little school here.

One lunch recess, the music teacher came to the office to report her cell phone missing from her desk. Since this was the first incident of cell phone theft at the school and it was taken from a teacher’s desk, we had a serious and lengthy discussion about how to solve this problem. Teachers didn’t usually lock their classroom door, but all the doors were usually closed with the lights out at recess. For the personal belongings, we just simply locked in the desk or the cupboard. There wasn’t any sighting of visitors that day. So, we concluded that the thief could be one of the students who just had the music classes before lunch. For four classes of students who had passed by the music room that day, how on earth were we going to catch the thief without searching all the students? The body search, of course, is a big NO-NO at school.

All of a sudden, one teacher suggested that maybe the music teacher should dial her cell phone number and call her cell. The cell phone was locked, which meant it wouldn’t be turned off just yet without her personal password, but it would still be able to receive phone calls. What a brilliant idea! Anyway, we waited till all the classes have come inside after recess. Then, the music teacher dialed the number. Bingo! The eleven-year-old kid who stole the cell phone still had the phone in his pocket. The phone kept ringing and ringing. The teacher followed the rings and caught him right there.

We had a good laugh afterwards. You might think that this would be the end of the story. Well, not yet!

The principal later called home to his parent to report this incident. The mother finally came to pick up the child in the afternoon. She yelled at the principal that it was not his child’s fault to take the cell phone. He was just borrowing it. It was the teacher’s fault because she left her phone on her desk to “tempt” the child. What?