Mom Outraged After Teacher Takes Child’s Phone and Uses It as Their Own for a Week
One teacher took confiscating their student's cellphone to the extreme after allegedly keeping the device — and using it! — for a week before returning it.
A woman took to Reddit to claim her daughter's teacher not only confiscated her phone, but kept it for an entire week. To make matters worse, once it was returned it appeared as if the teacher had been using it for personal use.
"My spouse and I have a child that we'll call Hannah (15f). Last week I picked Hannah up and she said that one of her teachers, we'll call her Ms. K, took her phone for looking at it during class," the mom wrote via Reddit. "I told her she needed to keep her phone in her pocket during class, then Hannah tells me that Ms. K still hasn't returned it."
"Every day after Hannah tells me she asked for it back and Ms. K refuses. On Thursday I sent her an email asking when we can expect the phone back and that I would like her to have it for when she works this weekend. No reply," she continued, noting that after "a whole week" passed she took matters into her own hand.
"Today, Hannah gets in my car and tells me she asked and Ms. K didn't even answer. She just ignored her. I lost my patience and went into the school," the mom wrote. "I found Ms. K standing outside her classroom and told her it was time she give me the phone back."
The woman noted that Ms. K told her Hannah needs to stop using the phone during class, to which the mom agreed. But then the two women got into an argument.
"I made a scene, students and teachers alike were staring, but she relented and said she would get the phone out of her office and came back with it about three minutes later," she said. "I feel like an idiot for not checking the phone when she handed it to me. I didn't give Hannah back her phone from my purse until she was done with her assignments for today and a couple minutes after she comes back to me in a panic."
According to the mom, "two things were wrong."
"One, the screen was cracked and it wasn't before. Two, she had to re-log into her apple ID which we thought was odd. She then looked at her account settings and saw a second apple ID, with Ms. K's full name and avatar."
The mom believes the teacher "may have merged the data or something too because there are contacts we don't recognize on the phone."
"I lost it, told Hannah she can't use the phone for now because I'm worried if Ms. K has access to anything on her end, and sent an email to her demanding an explanation. There has not been a reply," she wrote, noting she has considered reporting the teacher to the school's principal and making her pay for the cracked screen.
On the other hand, her husband feels as if she should let it go as it might cause the teacher to "retaliate" against Hannah.
"He also thinks it's possible she may have made a mistake and accidentally thought she was on her own iPhone or something, and that his IT guy could help with separating the ID's," she continued.
Reddit users agreed with the mom and insisted she report the teacher.
"REPORT THIS. The teacher took the phone for a week. Damaged it and HAD THE AUDACITY TO LOG THEMSELVES IN IT AS IF THEY OWNED IT. And they even refused to hand it to you initially," one person wrote.
Another commented: "You need to report her immediately. Teacher refused to give your daughter's phone back, because she was using it herself. In fact, I think in many places it is actually illegal to not give back the confiscated item, at the end of the day."
"Yeah she was obviously ignoring OP [original poster] and her daughter because she stole it, and was probably hoping OP would blame her daughter instead of investigating the teacher," a third commented.
Yet another user weighed in, calling the situation "very, very suspicious" and writing, "At the bare minimum it was a serious violation of privacy and respect. But there is also a very real possibility that it could be much worse than that."