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.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Stop spending personal money on classroom supplies and student materialsDid this help you?
- 2Remove items and supplies from desks to prevent theft and abuseDid this help you?
- 3Use cheap alternatives like golf pencils or limit available suppliesDid this help you?
- 4Implement strict boundaries such as taped-off squares around desks with detention penaltiesDid this help you?
- 5Using a shoe collateral systemDid this help you?
- 6Charging PBIS tickets for new pencilsDid this help you?
- 7Using golf pencils or giant pencilsDid this help you?
- 8Implementing a numbered pencil parking lot or whiteboard check-out systemDid this help you?
- 9Restricting pencil sharpening to designated times or classroom monitorsDid this help you?
- 10Switching to golf pencilsDid this help you?
- 11Not leaving pencils to share in the classroomDid this help you?
- 12put a little chain and lock on your cabinetsDid this help you?
- 13put your name on itDid this help you?
- 14Stopping the provision of classroom supplies altogetherDid this help you?
- 15Using a number system to assign specific supplies to individual students for accountabilityDid this help you?
- 16Applying collective punishments to the entire classDid this help you?
- 17Using golf pencils or cheap alternatives so students are less inclined to break themDid this help you?
- 18making students clean up the pieces before they leaveDid this help you?
- 19stopping the provision of free pens and pencilsDid this help you?
- 20limiting students to a maximum number of writing utensils per periodDid this help you?
- 21making students put extra supplies back in their backpacksDid this help you?
- 22Giving students a guilt-free deadline to return items anonymouslyDid this help you?
- 23Hiding a remote-controlled alarm inside personal items on the deskDid this help you?
- 24Taking all extra or fun items out of the classroomDid this help you?
- 25Stopping the purchase of treats and rewards for studentsDid this help you?
- 26Assigning a student the specific job of watching the item to enforce responsibilityDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, 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 ↗
“One disappeared on Tuesday, but I just thought I misplaced it. The other disappeared on Wednesday. I knew that one was stolen because it was new in box and never moved from its spot.”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 ↗
“I have an ninth grade class that is constantly damaging school property. Damaged books, broken pencils, highlighter caps thrown across the floor... And I don’t know exactly who is responsible ruining things.”source ↗
“This is true. But that’s an entire class consequence and what I really need to figure out is who is responsible for this behavior.”source ↗
“Last year it was broken pencils. This year I switched to golf pencils, and they pull the erasers off. Any handout I ask to be returned has parts ripped off. Erasers are broken into pieces.”source ↗
“Someone is stealing paper from my classroom.”source ↗
“Last week, I had a full bin (think two reams) of lined paper. Yesterday afternoon, I noticed it was all gone.”source ↗
“I had one group like this. I just finally put anything I supplied with my own money (as a courtesy) away and told them they’d have to figure it out.”source ↗
“Almost every period I get 2-3 kids who'll just starting destroying pencils and pens as soon as class starts.”source ↗
“Stolen from my classroom since beginning of August: 4 chromebook chargers, 3 c block chargers with cords, 11 dictionaries”source ↗
“Bro, my first year of teaching, I put a remote controlled alarm in a framed photo of my family cause it was the only thing that hadn't been stolen from my desk 😭 Kids really have some audacity”source ↗
“Ask the teenager who shattered my desk lamp yesterday. I'm still finding bits of glass around the room, and the kid didn't even apologize.”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 ↗
“Last week, a kid went into my desk and stole the $20 bag of candy I have to give to kids as prizes when we play the review game at the end of class on Friday.”source ↗
“Today, someone hid my Yeti mug/canteen thing during indoor recess when I was looking away.”source ↗
“I think it's fucked I can't even bring a cup of tea to work and not have to worry about some little shit fucking with it.”source ↗
“Realized today while organizing that I’m missing several chargers, lab supplies, and other classroom items I had.”source ↗
“Went into my storage room to dig out student supplies I loan out only to find it’s a bunch missing.”source ↗
“I numbered all my books and supplies. I taught 4th and 5th grade but to me this seems reasonable if the kids are damaging your things and it’s the only way you will know who is damaging what.”source ↗
“My 10th period has two kids who immediately start destroying pencils.”source ↗
“I had four door stoppers that I bought all put away in the cabinet over the summer. All four disappeared when I got back to 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 ↗
“For a few years they have just been snapping pencils on me. Walk around at the end of the day and it looks like pencils of spontaneously exploded all day”source ↗
“I gave a 10th grader a sharpie to make a basic name tag on day one, she proceeds to drawing a big blob of something on the table with it.”source ↗
“Today I had one boy who brought out 20 and layed them out on his desk and started destroying them.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 73What do you call students who copy or police classroom instructions?
- 4What tools detect cut-and-paste and LLM cheating on assignments?
- 3Why won't the school explain how stolen property was recovered?
- 9Should I let students eat snacks in class?
- 5Students constantly forgetting materials, am I overreacting?
- 3How to stop jobsite tool theft and mix-ups