Why do students keep stealing and breaking classroom supplies?
Classroom supplies and personal items are constantly damaged or stolen by students while administrators and parents offer no penalties or support. This forces teachers to stop spending their own money on class materials and continually remove items from their desks to protect them.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Stop spending personal money on classroom supplies and student materials
- 2Remove items and supplies from desks to prevent theft and abuse
- 3Use cheap alternatives like golf pencils or limit available supplies
- 4Implement strict boundaries such as taped-off squares around desks with detention penalties
- 5Using a shoe collateral system
- 6Charging PBIS tickets for new pencils
- 7Using golf pencils or giant pencils
- 8Implementing a numbered pencil parking lot or whiteboard check-out system
- 9Restricting pencil sharpening to designated times or classroom monitors
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Tagged as humor but I actually don't find it funny at all.”source ↗
“All my floor lamps. They hate the harsh overhead fluorescent lights and so do I.”source ↗
“Every glue stick. They rarely last more than one class day.”source ↗
“I don't spend a dime on my class/students anymore either. I've had too many things stolen/damaged as well.”source ↗
“Every year I keep removing more items and supplies from my desk due to student abuses and theft and no penalties from parents and admin.”source ↗
“My class this year is pretty feral. They broke my window which I had no idea was even glass.”source ↗
“They stole my smart board pens when I had a sub and I was asked if I included 'don't let students steal' in the sub notes.”source ↗
“One of the biggest challenges we are having as a grade level is with pencils.”source ↗
“What we’re having problems with are: -students sharpening the pencils down the studs because they want extra pointy tips, and then the pencil runs out faster -students taking one of our pencils because their own pencil has run out of eraser -students taking other students’ pencils when they know they’ve lost or forgotten their own -of course, borrowing a pencil, forgetting to return it, and then repeating the same process in all three classes”source ↗
“At this rate, the three of us teachers have each sharpened over 100 pencils and we are barely one month into school.”source ↗
“We have kids taking pencils in every class, not returning them, and losing them, so the kid is literally taking 15 pencils in a week.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 7What do you call students who copy or police classroom instructions?
- 4Students constantly forgetting materials, am I overreacting?
- 3Students cheating and filming with smart glasses
- 12How to stop classroom interruptions from photo and video documentation
- 2Why do students just copy worksheet text instead of answering?
- 4School retreat where students hunt teachers in the woods