Theft Won’t Dampen Teachers’ Enthusiasm

From May 8 to 10, our class of 18 special-needs high school students had the “trip of a lifetime,” going to Disneyland and California Adventure. Most of the students had never been out of our local area, let alone flown in an airplane and stayed at a hotel. The people we came in contact with on this trip were great. The weather was perfect. The kids thoroughly enjoyed every minute. Our staff on the trip made sure of this.

I did make a mistake, however. I left my carry-on bag by the swimming pool of the hotel where we were staying, after we had watched the kids enjoying an evening swim. This was right when the pool closed, and everyone had left the pool area. Inside the bag was quite a large sum of cash. When the bag was eventually found, in the hotel lost-and-found, all the cash was gone.

That money was what the kids had earned for the past three years doing fund-raisers so they could take a trip of this magnitude. They sold chocolate, pizza, popcorn and granitas. None of the money was mine personally. It belonged to the kids. It would have been so easy for the person who stole the money to return everything intact, as there was identification in the bag.

I hope the person who made the decision that he needed the money more than our kids will spend it on his children. Take them to Disneyland a few times or buy them a year pass. If the person has grandchildren, take them. I’m sure the kids will never be told the money was stolen from a group of special-needs students. We plan to continue earning money and hope to have enough to take another group of our kids to Disneyland in 2005. The actions of one person will not dampen our enthusiasm for taking less-privileged kids to the “happiest place on Earth.”

Don McCoy

Walla Walla High School

Walla Walla, Wash.