Linden High School (Calif.) sophomore Justine Betti suspected that something had to be wrong when several of her classmates noticed things were missing from their backpacks after gym class throughout the school year, so she decided to take action. According to ABC News 10, Betti suspected someone had been stealing money and other items from backpacks. She decided to set up a hidden camera in the locker room and was surprised with her findings.
In early February, Betti hid a camera inside a locker and discovered that the culprit was the gym teacher. She later hid two cameras inside separate lockers to capture multiple angles on a different day, and the videos clearly showed the teacher going through backpacks and taking what appeared to be money.
“After all the kids left she stayed in there and went through people’s backpacks,” Betti said. “I saw her take money and then I told people and nobody believed me. Something needed to be done. Like, that’s not ok.”
Betti and several of her friends took the footage to the school’s principal, and the teacher has been placed on administrative leave while the school district and San Joaquin County Sheriff’s department investigate. No criminal charges have been filed yet as investigators await the decision of the district attorney. However, Betti says the principal initially wanted to take matters into his own hands.
“He said that he’ll investigate it and he told us to delete the video but I had already sent it to my dad,” she explained. “…I was like, oh my God, I can’t believe I got this on video and I couldn’t believe that I got it and I kept watching it over and over.”
Betti said that the decision to turn the video in was difficult because the teacher was very popular among the students. While her fellow students now believe her that their teacher was stealing from them, some of them still feel sorry for the culprit.
“Makes you feel like your privacy was invaded, but you know, you can’t help but feel bad for her, either…she was a great teacher,” sophomore Kellie Martinez said.
I don’t know the teacher personally, but I certainly don’t feel sorry for her. Had Betti not decided to set up her own personal video sting, who knows how long the teacher would have continued to steal money from students. Like the coach we told you about earlier who will be spending 15 days in jail for what he did, some people just don’t deserve to be around minors.
H/T SbB Live
