I hate to be
the one to break the news to you, but illegal activity will happen in your room
from time to time.Keeping close
supervision over your class will dramatically cut down on the number of
incidents, but you will not be able to eliminate them altogether.As an administrator, I spend a significant
portion of my day “solving mysteries”, like who stole David’s cell phone, or
who wrote graffiti in the boy’s bathroom.Over the course of my eleven years as an Assistant Principal, I have
developed a system for finding out who did what in the least amount of time.When something goes missing in your room,
follow these steps in order:
*Approach the “trustworthy” students
in your class and ask them who perpetrated the crime.Do this with students in private (and
individually), not letting any other students know you are talking to
them.At this point, no one knows
that YOU know what has happened.Make sure you let the student know that you will never reveal your
source…because if they don’t trust you, you will never get any information
out of anyone.
*If Step 1 doesn’t work, announce to
the class that an object has disappeared from your room, and you are
launching an investigation to find out who took it.Tell the class that if the perpetrator
comes forward privately and confesses to taking the object, you will give
the student a reduced punishment.
*If Step 2 doesn’t work, begin
interviewing students (starting with the student that you have the most
suspicion about).Make sure to interview
them individually, while the other students are working on an
assignment.Tell each student you
interview that the only thing worse than committing the crime is lying
about the committing the crime.Let
each of them know that you will find out what happened…and if it comes out
that they lied to you, they will face an additional disciplinary
consequence.Here is the speech
that I use when interviewing suspects, feel free to use it yourself:
“Henry,
I have received reports that you took my phone.I don’t know if you took it or not, but I am giving you the opportunity
to tell me the truth now.If you took
the phone, and you tell me you did and give it back, it will save me the
trouble of interviewing people, collecting witness statements, and carrying on
with a long, drawn-out investigation.For saving me all of that time and effort, I will be very grateful.Of course, we will still have to deal with
the decision you made to take the phone, but we will take your honesty into
consideration when determining your disciplinary consequence.If you took the phone, but tell me now that
you didn’t…and I spend a whole bunch of time and effort conducting the
investigation which ends in me finding out that you DID take the phone…I will
be in a much less forgiving mood the next time we talk.”You would be amazed at how many times the
speech has worked.It gives the student
the opportunity to confess while still “saving face”.
*If Step 3 doesn’t work, tell your
class that you will allow them to leave the stolen object on your desk, or
they can leave an anonymous note on your desk telling you who perpetrated
the crime.They can do this after
class, inbetween classes, or after school.
*
*At this point, you need to assess
how badly you want to solve the mystery.I can tell you that I wouldn’t follow four steps to find a stolen
stapler or tape dispenser…I will just tip my hat to the thief and say,
“You got away with it”.Each crime
is as insignificant or severe as the victim thinks it is.I do follow all of the steps when I am
searching for a cell phone stolen out of a substitute teacher’s purse, for
example.The important thing to
remember is to not let the class think that the crime is negatively
affecting you in any way.If you do
that, you are letting them win!If
you do that, prepare yourself for more stuff to happen in your room.Once students see that you are still
going to be positive and carry on with your life and teach your lessons…the
illegal activity will taper off.The illegal activity will also taper off when you are successful at
solving the crimes.If you are
still wanting to solve the crime, there is one more step – offering a
reward for the item or information leading to the conviction of the
perpetrator.I would recommend
using a reward only as a last resort, and only after you have followed all
of the previous steps.If you skip
steps and begin your investigation with offering a reward, students will
begin stealing your stuff just to turn it in for a reward…you don’t want
that!
*
*Things not to do – Here are some
strategies that usually backfire…yelling at the class about what terrible
people they are is at the top of the “Don’t” list.Why yell at the entire class when it is
one or two people who are making you mad?This also feeds the negative behavior because students are
entertained by your rant.Most of
the kids in your class will think it is funny that you are so upset.Another no-no is conducting a search of
the students in your class.I
discuss this in the “How To Not Get Sued” section of this website.If you really must search the kids, ask
an administrator or your campus security officer to conduct the
search…they know more about it than you do.Also, don’t get cute and pull the “No
one leaves this room until I get my phone back” ultimatum.Most kids don’t want to go to their next
class, so they will be more than happy to sit and stare at you as you lose
control of yourself.You will not
endear yourself to the administration or your fellow teachers by using
that technique, either.The
ultimate slap in the face would be the administrator who enters your room,
asks what is going on, then releases your class without your
approval.Your authority and credibility
is up in flames at that point.Finally, don’t accuse anyone of the crime until you are almost 100%
sure that they did it.And by 100%
I mean that you have one or two students who saw the perpetrator commit
the crime.If you accuse a student
of something, then find out later that he/she didn’t do it…you will have
trouble with that student (and his/her parents) for the rest of the school
year.
