Private Property Theft: Is This Teacher Guilty?

This confrontation with a teach has gone viral. A mother visits a teacher’s home looking for her son’s phone. The mother alleged the teacher took her student’s phone away and brought it home because he uses it too often in school. Is the teacher within her rights or guilty of private property theft?

Miss Green Was a Legal Guardian

When a parent leaves their child in a teacher’s care, they are delegating the teacher as a temporary guardian. The teacher gains some control over the child. They can also be responsible if something goes wrong.

Miss Green was acting as a legal guardian for the woman’s son. Like a parent, she had the legal right to take the phone away.

Advocates say teachers should not adopt a zero-tolerance policy toward their students. If they are not behaving appropriately, the teacher should issue a warning. If one warning is not enough, the teacher may issue a second warning or stop the child from engaging in inappropriate behavior.

Miss Green took the phone away from her student to stop him from engaging in inappropriate behavior. She was legally permitted to do so. However, she was not within her right to take the phone home with her. The phone is required to remain in the custody and control of the school.

This teacher could potentially become guilty of a crime by taking this student’s phone home.

What is Private Property Theft?

Private property theft involves taking personal property from another with the intent to deprive the owner of that property. It may also involve fraudulently stealing another person’s property or defrauding another person.

Authorities determine various degrees of petty theft based on the property value. For instance, stealing property worth less than $950 in California constitutes petty theft. It is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1000.

If you steal property worth over $950, authorities may accuse you of grand theft. Grand theft is a felony, punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and three years in jail.

Other circumstances may extend or reduce your sentence. For example, prior convictions may result in a more severe sentence. You may also receive harsher punishment if the theft involves violence, forgery, embezzlement, or other forms of theft.

To charge this teacher with private property theft, prosecutors would have to prove she intended to deprive this student of his property. This would be an uphill battle as the more common scenario is she mistakenly took the phone home with her instead of turning it in to school authorities.

However, conversion does not require the intent to permanently deprive a student of their property. Simply preventing the student from accessing his phone when he is legally entitled to is enough for conversion charges. The deprivation can be through intentional conduct or neglect.

Teachers as Legal Guardians

A teacher has some responsibilities when a student is in their care;

The Student Injures or Damages Something

The teacher could be responsible if a student injures someone or damages something while under a teacher’s supervision.

However, the teacher is not responsible if they prove their supervision was adequate but could not stop the child or if the child acted unpredictably. They may also be excused if they prove the child was not under their supervision when the damage or injury occurred. Additionally, if the child were involved in a risky activity, like sports, and an injury or damage occurred, the teacher would not be responsible.

A Student’s Actions Outside the Classroom

In most instances, teachers are not responsible for a student’s actions when the child is not under their supervision. However, they may face accountability if evidence proves the child’s behavior resulted from the teacher’s poor education.