Yikes

On Tuesday, one of my girls came to school late, came to my desk and handed me a wad of cash -- a ten and a five. She said it was for the farm field trip, but then she said she wasn't sure. I told her to put it in her schoolbag and bring it back in an envelope. I never saw the money again. I actually forgot about it.

The girl's mother came to me yesterday and asked if I got the money for the trip. I said, "I don't have her checked off as paid. If I got the money, I would have sent home a receipt stapled to the envelope that the money was in." The mother said, "Oh... I didn't put it in a envelope." We checked the girl's desk and schoolbag - no money. We asked her where it was. She didn't know. "I must have lost it," she said.

This morning, there was a note in her copybook from her mother. Apparently, when they got home yesterday, she told her mom the whole story: she gave the money to two friends in our afterschool program. Our principal got involved, questioning the two kids that she gave the money to. The boy who got the ten dollar bill said he gave it to the afterschool teacher. The girl who got the five had several stories. First it fell out of her pocket. Then she gave it to her brother for snack. Then she said someone gave it to her to buy lip gloss.

At the end of the day, the afterschool teacher came in to talk to the principal. It turns out she took the five and the ten from the kids yesterday. So all the money was recovered and returned to its rightful owner.

But imagine -- all that stress and confusion, just because the girl's mother didn't put the money in an envelope. Sheesh.