"my lunch box was on the floor..."

My class uses cubbies that are around the corner from our classroom...out of sight.

They are in prime traffic position, because they are right by the staircase.

A lot of times, when we walk by, we see that our coats, hats, boots, etc. have gotten knocked out of our cubbies by all the people who walk by every day.

But that's not a huge deal.

Yesterday, something happened that WAS a big deal.

Before lunch, we line up outside the bathroom to do our business and wash hands before I take them to the lunchroom.

When we are about to leave, I send the students who packed their lunches to grab them.

After I'd sent them, one of my little girls comes back with wide eyes and says in her tiny little voice, "Mrs. Miller, my lunchbox was on the floor. I opened it up, and the only thing that was left in there was my water."

I instantly saw red.

Someone had come to our cubbies in the middle of the morning, taken her lunchbox out, opened it up, and took her food.

I explained to her what had happened, told her how sorry I was, and that I'd have to give her a lunch card to buy a hot lunch instead today so she'd have something to eat.

Again, the tiny voice: "But Mrs. Miller, I don't know how to get a lunch with my lunch card. I don't know what to do."

Her mom packs her lunch every day, and she's never gotten a hot lunch before. She was clearly worried about doing something new. I assigned her a buddy that would help her, and she seemed fine the rest of the day.

But I wasn't.

It made me absolutely sick to my stomach that someone would think to steal from a 5 year old.

They're babies. How can you steal from a baby?

I have the sweetest kids in the world, and to think that someone would purposely take something from them makes me so mad.

I wrote a note to her mom to explain the situation, and told her that from now on, I'm going to let my students bring their lunches into the classroom, to prevent things like this from happening in the future.

If I have anything to do about it, this will NOT happen again.

Not on my watch.