By Roshwitha Buduri, Staff Writer
At River Hill, rumors of items from the lost and found being stolen have been circulating across chatter, resulting in unease about the security around it. River Hill’s Lost and Found has been the home of items from golden necklaces to leftover water bottles and jackets. Over the course of a school year, students lose many of their items during practices, transitioning through rooms, and during lunch. After the school year ends, items still left at the white table in the front and in the cafeteria are donated to charity.
Senior Advik Rai has heard of the stealing from the lost and found, but doesn’t know of any real cases. He says, “I haven’t really seen a concrete case, but I’m guessing that’s what happened to my water bottle from personal experience I guess. I don’t think most people would do that.”
In his third quarter of freshman year, he lost a water bottle that led to the purchase of another. But it didn’t stop there. Over the course of high school, he has lost many of his water bottles.
“I think someone took it,” he notes.
While unable to find his original water bottle, he’s had luck elsewhere. “I did see my replacement water bottles. The ones I got after the water bottle. I didn’t find the original one though.”
Gilead Ola, a junior at River Hill, however, has heard that people have attempted to steal from the lost and found. He can’t confirm or deny due to possible joking undertones.
“I’m not sure if they were joking or not, but I’ve heard people attempt to do it. I’ve heard it from a distance, I never actually saw them do it,” Ola says.
He has also lost several important items during his time at school.
“I actually lost my TI-84 Plus and I also lost one of my gold necklaces.”
Even though he’s attempted to search for his necklace and TI-84 Plus, he has not found any success. With that in mind, he had to purchase a new TI-84 calculator.
His gold necklace had great significance attached to it.“It’s actually a very valuable necklace. It was a necklace that my grandpa gave to me before he passed. It was just unfortunate the way I lost it,” he says.
When asked about the effectiveness of the lost and found, both Rai and Ola expressed different opinions.
Ola said that the lost and found is standard for any organization. “I wouldn’t say that it’s out of the blue in some type of way I guess. I’d just say it’s pretty ordinary for a high school if that makes sense.”
In terms of improvements, he believes separating valuable items from regular items would help. He says, “There could be different stations of lost and found because I know they just pull everything together.”
On top of stations, he thinks each item should get a look through before being put into the lost and found.
“Seeing if there’s a label or something on the lost and found or seeing identification of somebody [could] free up space in some type of way.”
Rai notes that more security would help in making sure students don’t take what isn’t theirs. “If there’s like a person standing next to it or a camera, then people wouldn’t take stuff [that] isn’t theirs.”
When asked if it is possible that students have been taking items not theirs from the lost and found, Mr. Robb, an assistant principal at River Hill, has acknowledged, “I would agree with that, yeah.”
However, he raises a problem with heightened security. Because many items in the lost and found do not have any identification, and students may not be able to prove what is theirs, a system that enforces strict checks wouldn’t benefit the school as a whole.
“I think that’s the struggle is that it’s very hard for a student to prove what is in the lost and found is theirs. It’s too ambiguous,” he says. “We’re relying a lot on the honesty of students.”
Mr. Robb states that for those stealing items, “that’s more on them and their character.”
Furthermore, for a case scenario where a student may have taken another student’s belonging, Mr. Robb explained that the student would first be interviewed, and find both the time and place where they lost it, and narrow it down with cameras. River Hill has over eighty cameras to track it down. After that point, the other student is interviewed and the admin has to decide to bring a parent in if they are a suspect.
Overall, students in River Hill feel as though certain improvements could be made, but they find that the lost and found has done a decent job of displaying lost items, even if they haven’t found what was personally theirs, and donating items that students have left.
Ola says, “I’d just say that it’s gone to the point where people either forgot or they just don’t care about it anymore so I said that it’s beneficial in some type of way because it goes to somebody that actually [might] need it.”