I-Pods targeted in school thefts

Elizabeth Troxell
Staff Reporter

   Ms. Sutton’s gym class comes back to the locker room to change out of their gym clothes.  When they’re done changing, one of the girls realizes that her iPod is missing.  She becomes outraged and begins to accuse the other students of taking it.  But who really took it, and why?

  The source of the crime is often hard to track down.  In-school theft is somewhat of a problem every year at Grafton High School, “but it varies from year to year,” according to physical education teacher Paul Sidhu.  Students can have their valuables stolen, whether they are at lunch or outside on the field.

   Physical education teacher Laura Sutton said the teachers and administration “go back and look at videotapes of who goes into the locker rooms, or whoever has the stolen item usually comes to us.”

  “We also question people

who were in the area at the time,” assistant principal Jeff Jackson said, “but we have to have probable suspicion in order to search someone.”  He also said that the administration searches for evidence and that the stolen valuables aren’t always returned.  

  “If you don’t want your valuables stolen, then don’t bring them to school or lock them up if you do,” he said. 

“What happens is, students bring their book bags to the locker room and leave their valuables in their book bags instead,” Sidhu said.  He also said “they [students] might not put their stuff in their locker because they are lazy or they’re forgetful.”  

  According to Jackson, most of the students at Grafton are honest, but sometimes “desire overrides good decisions.”

  Sidhu said that students are told to lock up their valuables

in their lockers to prevent theft. When they don’t do so “students [may] either get money, iPods, or cell phones stolen.”

  Freshman Caitlin Hayes is one of the victims of such a theft. “It’s my baby and I was really mad. 

My iPod is my main possession,” Hayes said.  She admits that the incident was her fault.  “I didn’t put it in my gym locker before I went to PE because I was too lazy,” she said.  She didn’t tell the administration. “They would have blamed me for not having my stuff locked up and probably wouldn’t have done anything about it,” she said.

  “It’s not the school’s fault that people don’t lock their stuff up and it’s not their fault that kids are stealing,” Hayes said.

  Sutton said that a school theft at Grafton High School usually happens “once every three weeks; but compared to other schools, that’s not that big.”

  Mr. Jackson, on the other hand, said that he has “at least one [person] a week during the busier sports seasons” come to him for stolen items.  The best way to prevent theft is to not bring valuables to school at all.  If valuables are brought to school and they must be left unattended, then they should be put in a locker.  

  The PE teachers used to lock the locker room doors to keep kids from stealing “but the problem with that,” Sidhu said, “is that we have students who come in late or students who have early dismissal or have to go to SOA.”  That means that the PE teachers have to leave their class outside on the field to unlock the doors for the students who need to get their gym clothes and belongings.

  “If a student needs to go home early, that means I have to give them my keys and they are the master keys to the school so I would have to leave my class to unlock the doors,” Sutton said.

  “I haven’t had anything stolen when I was in high school that I can remember,” Sidhu said.  “Even at home, I lock everything up, including my car doors; if I get anything stolen, I think I would be pretty mad,” he said. 

  Sutton has never had anything stolen either.  “I always locked my stuff up,” she said, “and if I ever did get anything stolen, then I would blame myself because it wasn’t locked up.”