School staff taking away students’ phones until after classes are over is nothing new, but letting any confiscated phones get stolen is a whole other can of worms. That said, a middle school student in North Carolina was forced to turn in his smartphone to the staff, like the rest of the students. However, when the time to go home arrived, his phone was nowhere to be found, and now, the school refused to take any responsibility for it.
The student’s concerned older brother has now taken to Reddit, wondering what exactly can be done about the whole situation. They claim the school has a policy “stating that students are liable for their phones being lost, and that the school isn’t responsible,” even if the staff were the ones who took it away. The mother and brother tried reaching out to the teachers and principal, but none of them were of any help. “They said they were busy and cannot do anything about it anyway,” OP said in disappointment.
According to the younger brother, the owner of the missing phone, his school used to have everyone’s phones locked away in a locker or somewhere that had a safety lock. However, now the older brother says he’s seen the phones stored in plastic baskets in a room “that’s just out in the open.” It’s no wonder his brother’s phone was stolen! And the fact that the staff let it happen yet claims they’re not responsible is infuriating, to say the least.
People in the older sibling’s Reddit post about the matter say that he should stop trying to get the school staff to help and instead contact the cops. “The phone isn’t lost, it’s been stolen. File a police report,” the top comment reads. “They’ll cooperate real quick once police get involved,” another adds. “File a police report and identify the person who took the phone in the morning [and] hold them liable,” suggests a third.
One person in the comments says that the middle schooler’s parents likely signed something that had them agree to letting their child turn over their phone while not holding the school responsible for it. But I agree with one reply saying, “That doesn’t legalize theft, unfortunately.” Hopefully, the police get to the bottom of who the thief is, and the boy gets his phone. Maybe the school will think twice in the future before just leaving students’ phones out in the open instead of securely locking them away.
