Keystone Academy deals with iPod stolen from 8th-grader’s locker

A distressed father came to talk to the Keystone Charter Academy school board at its regular meeting Feb. 12.
He began by saying, “I love this school. It has done great things.”
Then, he said he was there to tell them about the theft of his 8th-grade son’s iPod from his son’s locker.
The theft happened on Feb. 9 and the locker-mate who confessed to the theft has been put on a three-day suspension.
Joseph Shopshear said that wasn’t good enough. He wanted his son’s iPod back and he wanted more severe punishment for those who took it.
The locker-mate allegedly said another student had told him to steal the iPod and that the other student had given it to his cousin. There were three stolen cell phones found in the locker.
He said he hasn’t been able to track his son’s iPod down by FindAPad because it hasn’t been turned on.
Shopshear said he paid $250 for the iPod and with everything that’s on it, it’s worth $700-$800, so the boy who took it could be charged with a misdemeanor for over $1,000, if you included the cell phones.
“I wanted you to know how I felt about this,” Shopshear said to the school board.
“None of us want this kind of thing to happen,” said board president Vesta Losen.
Chris Caulk, the board’s representative from National Heritage Academies (NHA), said this is not a board issue and Principal Keturah Godfrey has handled it by the book.
“She did what she needed to do. It’s an NHA issue,” Caulk said. “I want to commend Keturah for the way she handled it.”
Losen said to Godfrey, “It’s a confusing issue. Stay with the police on it.”
Principal Godfrey said the iPod was brought to school on a day that was not a Tech Day, which was against the rules. It was in the locker wrapped in a towel.
It was stated the father gave his son permission to take it to school so it could be used in an after-school program.
Godfrey said three cell phones were found in the locker and all returned to their owners. They couldn’t prove who put them there, she said.
“We don’t have high instances of theft,” Godfrey said. “I called the police and talked to the parents.”
She said Sumpter Police Officer George Salajan was investigating.
“We continue to monitor the situation,” Godfrey said, in response to a board question about the students possibly fighting over this. “We’re a small middle school with lots of teachers in the halls. Kids say things. As soon as something begins, it’s over. We do a thorough investigation and make out witness forms.
“We don’t have high instances of fighting here,” Godfrey said.
The three students involved in the incident are 8th graders who are in their final semester at Keystone because the school goes only as far as the 8th grade.
In other business at the Feb. 12 meeting, the board:
• Voted to allocate $1,156 from the board’s discretionary fund to lease the The Village Theater at Cherry Hill in Canton Township for a student spring band concert May 13. The theater has excellent acoustics and seats 400. The board was informed by board secretary Susan Meland that Flat Rock schools said in the future Keystone could use its auditorium for such events, as well;
• Approved changes to the calendar for meetings in April and May. The scheduled March 12 meeting will go on as scheduled, but the meeting for April will be on the 14th and the meeting for May will be on the 26th. Then the meetings will go back to the regular schedule in June. These changes were to accommodate board secretary Meland who was in the final months of getting her master’s degree;
• Removed from the agenda a discussion on the Wellness Policy Update, as requested by the board’s attorney. Losen said the policy, which is being put in place to comply with federal law, is “insanely complicated”; and
• Heard Principal Godfrey say the recent enrollment information meetings – separate days for Kindergarten and for general information – had higher turnouts than ever before.