Recent Stomp Article - HCI teachers taking valuables of students to teach them a lesson

Indeed, the students are at fault for not locking their classroom. Then again, is it justifiable for teachers to take the belongings of students “to teach them a lesson” just because they did not lock the door? For this case there are two perspectives. One as an angered victim and another as a teacher merely wanting to let students learn their lesson and not to take things for granted.

From a victim’s perspective, this may be more of a traumatizing experience than learning a lesson (I was a victim once so I can understand how it felt like). Imagine your laptop (whether or not it’s your personal computer or shared) which costs possibly more than 1k suddenly vanishing from your class. The charger and mouse were left behind and only the laptop was taken away, what would be the first thought? Obviously it would be theft – someone must have came in, bagged all the laptops and left seeking for a place to sell them for cash.

Imagine the loss of all the compilation of notes (especially in future school classes), project information and costly programmes…the grief and hopelessness the victim is subjected to is immeasurable in a sense. All that time after losing my laptop, my mood was really bad, I felt like I could kill – the feeling was horrible. At one point, I even wanted to let the police handle this supposedly theft case but thinking rationally eventually changed my mind.

The victim's argument would probably be “If someone robs a bank to prove that the security of the bank is low and wants officials to improve security, is that considered a crime? If someone stabs another in the back and claims it is to teach the victim a lesson for not being wary of his back, is that not a crime? ” It is similar in this scenario, “If a teacher takes (it can be regarded as stealing as the items are taken without permission from the owner) the belongings of students to teach them a lesson for not locking the classroom, can that be classified as a crime?” Logically, the answer would be yes as teachers, no matter what, indeed have no right to remove items of students from classroom.

Nevertheless, we have to consider the perspective of the teachers who took the items. In order to teach students not to take things for granted, warn them of possible theft cases and teach them a lesson for giving thieves an opportunity by not locking their doors. In a way, their actions can be justified. It is all for the good of the students. In fact, having teachers who actually care about the welfare of the students is, beyond any doubt, better than teachers who don’t give a damn.

If the teachers did not “perform” a theft case scenario and chose to lecture the students about the importance of guarding against theft, would the students actually bother to listen or even take it seriously? It is only after experiencing such a case would one truly understand the harsh reality of the world that theft can happen anywhere, anytime as long as there is an object, a thief and the opportunity. The only way u can guard against theft is to not leave any opportunities.

Hence, I believe that what the teachers did was right. After it has occurred to me previously, I truly learnt my lesson. If the teachers had not done as such, I would probably still take things for granted. If my items do get stolen one day, who would I have to blame but myself for giving the opportunity.
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do pardon me for my pathetic vocabulary - i will try to improve