Matthew says: "A high school sophomore suspected a teacher was stealing students’ money, so the student set up a camera in one locker, hid in another locker, and caught the thief."

  • Gilbert Wham

    “Betti showed the video to the school principal who said he’ll look into the matter. The principal also asked Betti to delete the clips” Jesus tittyfucking christ…

    • Antinous / Moderator

      Surely he can be charged with attempting to destroy evidence or suborning perjury or something.

    • Brainspore

      Good thing she was smart. If you get video footage of criminal wrongdoing by an authority figure, make sure you’ve shared/distributed/copied/uploaded that video before showing it to other authority figures. (See also: Oscar Grant)

    • jimh

      Who else have you told about this?
      (puts on gloves….)

  • crummett

    Very brave of her. I can imagine the school system trying to make her life a living hell for the rest of her HS career. Drew on!

  • Work_Watch_Buy_Repeat

    Tomorrow’s headline:

    “Area teen charged with felony wiretapping, trespassing, and disorderly conduct.”

    Or at least it will be, if the school administrators follow the now-standard US playbook for handling citizen-videotapes-corrupt-authority-figure incidents.

  • http://twitter.com/MoFro13 Mostafa Alattar

    I like how she went from being a mastermind to being a masternind midway through the video.

  • http://newnumber6.livejournal.com Peter

    I miss Veronica Mars.

  • Brainspore

    The city of Stockton exists to keep California from feeling too good about itself.

    • Donald Petersen

      I thought that was Barstow’s gig.  Or Santee’s.

      • Antinous / Moderator

        Hemet.

  • Timothy Krause

    And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids.

    A great argument for the rights of school-aged kids and young people to their digital devices in school.

  • Petzl

    If this goes according to the Abu Ghraib playbook, the school will institute a policy banning cameras and recording devices..

  • http://twitter.com/spookiewon Pjay (Patti) Pender

    She actually says she suspected a student was doing it and was shocked to discover it was a teacher.

  • http://redesigned.com redesigned

    meanwhile the boy hidden in the locker next to her with his mobile phone camera was sweating bullets and glad he didn’t get caught!

  • http://redesigned.com redesigned

    also i like how they always say the teacher “was well liked”…yeah up until the point where everyone found out they were stealing from all the students.  heck, charles manson was “well liked”, kind of irrelevant to the crimes committed.

  • cameronhorsburgh

    The photo caption:

    “A California high school hid in a gym locker to catch her teacher stealing kids’ money.”

    Just how big are the schools and/or lockers in the US?

    • Promethean Sky

      Well I doubt she had room to stretch out. In my experience, most students could fit in a standard locker, but it would be cramped, and require a little crouching.

      • cameronhorsburgh

        I can imagine a high school student fitting in a locker, but not a high school.

        In Australia we put lockers in our schools, not the other way around.

    • Ean Moody

      “What is this, a school for ants?!”

      Sorry. Obligatory.

  • wygit

    I saw this earlier on abcnews, and nobody in the comments could believe that the reporter passed so lightly over the principal ordering her to delete the video.
    About as lightly as the reporter in this story treated it. (It looks like this is a rewrite of the abcnews story)
    On second read, this story says the principal “asked” her to delete the video.
    I can’t believe that neither reporter thought it was a big deal.

    • Antinous / Moderator

      I saw this earlier on abcnews, and nobody in the comments could believe that the reporter passed so lightly over the principal ordering her to delete the video.

      But they do tell us 60 or 70 times that her decision to figure out who was stealing her money was “not an easy one”. If only the police had such delicate consciences and respect for the privacy of serial thieves, what a world it would be.

  • cservant

    Is this a rich school or something?  I generally thought highschool students don’t have enough money worth stealing.

    • Ean Moody

      Yeah, but a dollar per student per day can add up quick, and if these are high school students some of them will have jobs and extra cash as a result.

      Since most schools I know do gym with two classes at once and a teacher of each gender for supervision purposes, this teacher probably has access to 15-30 students per class period (assuming classes are 30 people, co-ed, and gender is randomized) for six class periods a day.

      If you assume an average of $1 per student, that’s about  $90 per day with a 15 person pool to steal from. I’ve worked full time jobs that didn’t pay that well…

      Plus, the teacher would have time to talk to the students, see what they wear and how they act. She’d know which ones have jobs and are likely to have more cash on hand. Her average is probably higher since she only goes after the promising targets.

    • http://abrightcontainer.tumblr.com/ manybellsdown

      My daughter’s old school only took cash for lunch, so sometimes I’d give her a $20 for the week because that’s what comes out of ATMs.  It was kind of a shitty school too, so this wouldn’t have surprised me much.  Fortunately we moved to a good school district.

  • Brusyur Soksow

    yeah, those PE teachers are all paid so much money that how could this possibly be a crime of desperation. and semi-anonymous internet users everywhere have every right and reason to judge her based on a couple of skim read paragraphs and a minute or 2 of video.  I wonder what an appropriate punishment would be in the United States of Humiliation for being poor…

    • Antinous / Moderator

      If she’s been in the same job for 30 years, she’s making over $70K plus benefits. Stealing from her students is indefensible.

    • Ean Moody

      Her reasons really don’t matter: She was stealing from children in her care. If you’re going to assume that the teacher is desperate, how many children might themselves be poor, desperate, and working at minimum wage after school for their money? 

      And then their teacher swipes it while they’re forced to attend class. Even prison guards are expected to be above that kind of treatment to their prisoners.

    • dculberson

       Oh yes, poor people that have full time jobs always steal, and it’s definitely okay for them to steal since they’re desperate!!

      Seriously, you’re as bad as the “rich people can do no wrong” sort.

    • http://abrightcontainer.tumblr.com/ manybellsdown

      I taught for 10+ years, and I agree, what we pay our lower-grade teachers is laughable.  But stealing from your students is still wrong.  It’s not their fault.  And how many of the students she stole from are lower income?  How many of them lost their lunch money for the week or the few dollars they earned at an afterschool job?