Anonymous wrote:I would push to get it settled at school and get the parents involved. I would suspect that if you pressed charges your child would never recover socially.

And I think your kid needs to learn a lesson about keeping a lower profile with his expensive stuff.

ITA

Not sure what “pressing charges” means but I would pursue every avenue that the school provides to resolve the situation. If the school administration decides to get the police involved, that would be on them. Assuming that this boy did it, return of the device and suspension/detention would be enough for me. At DS’s MCPS MS, they have security cameras in every hallway so it would be easy to catch a locker breaker.

And for all those criticizing the MS kid having an iPod, I wonder if you really are in tune with the MS environment. At my DS’s MS, most of the kids in his grade have iPods and cellphones and they are allowed to use iPods before and after school and at lunch. My DS has DH’s hand me down iPod Touch. I teach my kids not to flaunt anything they have or be careless with their possessions, but it still does not give anyone the right to steal their things. I am just not a “blame the victim” type person when it comes to intentional acts.

Anonymous wrote:OP,

I feel sorry for this child. Do you know anything about his home life? He's in big trouble. I do not understand why you are gloating over your crimesolving over a silly expensive gadget when there's a young teen who's clearly at risk. Also, you are in violation of Facebook's TOS if your son is not in high school. http://gcn.com/articles/2011/11/21/cybereye-facebook-terms-of-service-federal-law.aspx

You don't have a middle-school age kid, do you? If you did, you'd know that 99% of them are on FB. You'd also know that many kids take their ipods to school and take phones to use after school. You must be the type that keeps their elementary school child rear-facing and in a 5 pt harness. I feel sorry for YOUR children.

OP, I read this whole thread and I think people are being really hard on you. I don't think it's unreasonable to wonder about pressing charges. You didn't say you were going to do it - just looking for feedback on one of your options. I also don't think it's unreasonable to try to figure out what happened with your son - so long as you are not encouraging vigilante justice or otherwise taking matters into his own hands. Finally, I don't think it's unreasonable to let your son take his itouch to school. I wonder if many of these responders actually have middle school and older kids, especially the ones who think that having an itouch is flaunting wealth. Most of my son's friends have much better electronics than he does despite the fact that their families have it more difficult than we do financially. Electronics are simply not a measure of wealth at that age. And, everyone takes them to school along with their cellphones. I am in the camp of teaching your kid how to be responsible so I let mine take his cellphone to school knowing full well that at some point we may have to deal with a broken, stolen or lost phone and/or violation of the cellphone-in-school rules. But, that's part of growing up.

One last thing is that I do hope that the kid who stole his ipod does get caught and handled through the justice system. He's traveling down a path that's not good and clearly his family isn't aware or able to control it, so he needs some intervention if he's going to grow up to be a productive member of society. For this reason, I do think you should report it to the school at the very least.

Wow.....you all are truly representative of what DC stands for....empowering criminals. Good luck with those thug-children you're fostering.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. New information has emerged....Gawwwd, I love FB!!!

DS logged onto FB and started chatting with some friends. We already suspected a certain boy and it was confirmed by a FB friend. This kid was spotted with 3 ipods on the bus yesterday because it was apparently "bring your ipod to art" day. Seriously, why would a school promote bringing an ipod to school?...that is a recipe for theft.

I would seriously hate you as my mother. You seem like the type to attack a child over any and everything and then as your child, get teased and picked on at school for having the crazy mother.

Thanx for your vote of confidence here. Actually, my son loves the fact that we were "sleuthing" together to figure this out. And I think we did quite well together on FB.

It truly takes all kinds.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. New information has emerged....Gawwwd, I love FB!!!

DS logged onto FB and started chatting with some friends. We already suspected a certain boy and it was confirmed by a FB friend. This kid was spotted with 3 ipods on the bus yesterday because it was apparently "bring your ipod to art" day. Seriously, why would a school promote bringing an ipod to school?...that is a recipe for theft.

I would seriously hate you as my mother. You seem like the type to attack a child over any and everything and then as your child, get teased and picked on at school for having the crazy mother.

OK...if your kid's $300 itouch was stolen and was crushed, wouldn't you do everything you could to find out what happened and who did it? Or are you the type to take it in the ass silently?

What idiot would give their child a 300 plus electronic to take to middle school?

This.

How can you not have the find my iPhone App on the device? You can locate it anywhere. Or you could just contact your service provider and they could track it. This thread sounds suspicious. People who give their kids expensive mac devices and then wring their hands when something like this happens --you are so foolish! Maybe your foolish child can learn a lesson from this. But probably the wrong one.

Anonymous wrote:I would push to get it settled at school and get the parents involved. I would suspect that if you pressed charges your child would never recover socially.

And I think your kid needs to learn a lesson about keeping a lower profile with his expensive stuff.

+1

OP,

I feel sorry for this child. Do you know anything about his home life? He's in big trouble. I do not understand why you are gloating over your crimesolving over a silly expensive gadget when there's a young teen who's clearly at risk. Also, you are in violation of Facebook's TOS if your son is not in high school. http://gcn.com/articles/2011/11/21/cybereye-facebook-terms-of-service-federal-law.aspx

If your child goes to a FCPS, there is a school resource officer that you can contact with the information that you have. If the kid gives up the ipod and doesn't have any other record, the office will likely not file a petition against the kid. If the kid has an existing juvenile record, the officer may well file.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. New information has emerged....Gawwwd, I love FB!!!

DS logged onto FB and started chatting with some friends. We already suspected a certain boy and it was confirmed by a FB friend. This kid was spotted with 3 ipods on the bus yesterday because it was apparently "bring your ipod to art" day. Seriously, why would a school promote bringing an ipod to school?...that is a recipe for theft.

I would seriously hate you as my mother. You seem like the type to attack a child over any and everything and then as your child, get teased and picked on at school for having the crazy mother.

OK...if your kid's $300 itouch was stolen and was crushed, wouldn't you do everything you could to find out what happened and who did it? Or are you the type to take it in the ass silently?

My kid doesn't bring $300 possessions to school. Asking for trouble, and it isn't polite to flaunt your wealth.

At least with the iphone, they can track it. I learned this because someone in our row of homes stole one and the police officer knocked on all the doors and asked if a student from X school lived there, if so, did they know about the iphone b/c GPS tracking had identified it within a few feet...

You probably have a community officer- I would call them. I doubt they are going to throw the book at a 7th grader, but a little reality check might keep that kid from doing worse down the road...just my opinion.

The same idiot that would even consider pressing charges!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. New information has emerged....Gawwwd, I love FB!!!

DS logged onto FB and started chatting with some friends. We already suspected a certain boy and it was confirmed by a FB friend. This kid was spotted with 3 ipods on the bus yesterday because it was apparently "bring your ipod to art" day. Seriously, why would a school promote bringing an ipod to school?...that is a recipe for theft.

I would seriously hate you as my mother. You seem like the type to attack a child over any and everything and then as your child, get teased and picked on at school for having the crazy mother.

Thanx for your vote of confidence here. Actually, my son loves the fact that we were "sleuthing" together to figure this out. And I think we did quite well together on FB.