School charging for broken equipment

awkward_aunty

Hello,
My 14 year old nephew was in a maths class and broke the screen of a netbook. He squeezed it too hard and was surprised when it broke he immediately told the teacher and took responsibility. The teacher marched him off for punishment and questioned him to find out if he had a job. My nephew was told he would have to pay for fixing it. The school did not contact his parents to discuss this matter and a couple of months later (yesterday) they received an invoice for £115.

My sister was never informed that her son was using netbooks in maths classes (or any other classes) and did not realise she would have to pay for it being repaired. I am surprised that the school is not responsible for equipment in their classes because as parents if you are not present all the time how can you control anything. There was also no opportunity to opt out of using netbooks.

Can the school charge my sister? I'd welcome feedback.

Thank you

newcook

I would have thought that the school would have insurance for this sort of thing?!

has she spoken to the school yet?

heretolearn_2

I doubt they can make her pay for it if she doesn't want to.

On the other hand, never mind he 'squeezed it too hard' - why was he squeezing it at all? Secondary age children use all sorts of IT equipment all day long, (probably primary too these days), it sounds like mum wants him to go back to just pen and paper, well that's not going to be possible. He needs to learn to treat things with respect.

Mysterious1

if it was his own netbook would he have squeezed it too hard

misty x

Alikay

Although it was an accident, the screen still needed fixing, and since it was your nephew that broke it, it seems fair to invoice his parents. Sadly it's also the case if you accidentally hit another vehicle in your car or drop an item in a shop.

The suggestion that they had no option to opt out of netbook use is plain silly: Would they seriously deny their son the chance to use school equipment simply because there was a risk they'd have to pay for breakages? If so, I'd warn them that if he studies any sciences there will be some costly equipment in the labs. I seem to remember we had to sign a home/school agreement that covered stuff like breakages as well as the behaviour policy etc. I don't think that an invoice out-of-the-blue a few weeks later is the best way of informing the parents, but maybe they expected your nephew to tell them himself, and then phone school to discuss payment?

Hopefully the school will agree to accepting payment in installments.

carolineb23

Sorry but I think they're well within their rights to do this, and if I were the parent in question, I'd support it! Surely a 14 year old would know squeezing the screen of a netbook isn't going to do it any good? I actually think asking him to pay for the damage is good practice as it may make him think about the consequences of his actions in future. Regarding your point about not being advised that netbooks were being used, nor being able to opt out of using them, I don't see what difference this would make? Would your sister have opted out on the offchance something like this would happen?
I agree with the other poster who said it's not been handled in the best of ways by the school, but I still stand by the fact it's been broken by your nephew, and therefore the responsibility to repair it should be his.

HappyMJ

awkward_aunty wrote: »

Can the school charge my sister? I'd welcome feedback.

Thank you

Yes they can charge your sister but your sister does not have to pay. I used to work in IT in a school. We would send an invoice to parents if a child maliciously broke something but payment of the invoice would never be chased. Repair of the laptop was covered by the insurance so we could not have proved to a court that a loss had occurred but we still sent an invoice anyway as some would pay it without questioning it.

heretolearn_2

Yes, the complaint that they should have been told he'd be using netbooks is ridiculous. Do they need a list of every piece of equipment in the school he might use, let's see, netbook, PC, laptop, projector, 'smart screen' on the wall that most classrooms now have replaced blackboards with so probably x about 20, maybe sound and lighting equipment, musical instruments, sports equipment, desks, chairs (and kids break loads of those), windows, blinds, cooking equipment, woodworking tools, electrical stuff, chemistry lab equipment etc etc etc.

mizzbiz

Question is - why are the school charging when it's covered by insurance? Getting paid twice hmmm?

Also, what makes people think that all parents can just whip out over £100 at random? What if the netbook was already faulty etc etc. If it was a car accident likely your insurance would cover it. The school want cold, hard cash!

It's a tricky one as it's good the kids get to use the technology however it is a lot more fragile than poen and paper ever was and the risks seem much higher of breaking it - hence not so fair on the kids.

TooSad

As someone in charge of IT in a secondary school I can say that we charge for deliberate damage done to equipment by students. Having said that we have to catch them doing it.
It's about the students taking responsibility for the equipment they use, as an earlier poster said, he wouldn't have squeezed his own netbook too hard would he?
£115 is probably the full amount if the repair, we would look at a student paying 1/2 the repair bill.
In my school a large comp, we have probably about £2000 of damage done each academic year on 650+ machines, we don't catch every student who does the damage, but believe me when I say every teacher could think of better things to spend 2k on.
Laptops are the most expensive equipment to repair, but maybe this is a lesson learnt albeit an expensive one!

Schools don't generally have an insurance policy that covers malicious damage of IT equipment, even our equipment that are still under warranty don't have malicious damage cover.

Teddy_KGB

TooSad wrote: »

As someone in charge of IT in a secondary school I can say that we charge for deliberate damage done to equipment by students. Having said that we have to catch them doing it.

So the moral of the story is don't own up! :rotfl: