‘My son’s school are asking what I intend to do about lost project – I won’t replace it’

The woman was saying that if the item was that important, the school should’ve warned her beforehand so she was able to look after it herself, or encourage her son to

Kids are forever losing things, so that’s why it came as no shock to one mum that her son had lost something during the summer holidays that he needed as part of a project. The mum has been refusing to replace it, however, because she said the school did not notify her that her son was bringing such an important piece of equipment home.

The mum took to Mumsnet to explain that the school was continually contacting her about a micro SD card needed for a project, asking her what she intended to do about her son losing it – but the mum intended not to do anything because she was not told that her son would be undertaking this responsibility for seven weeks.

Get the news you want straight to your inbox. Sign up for a Mirror newsletter here

She wrote: “Before the summer holiday, my 14-year-old participated in an event for a competition where a group of students designed balloons which were sent into ‘space’. On the balloons were recording devices logging the altitude the balloon reached and views from their balloon.

“The data was recorded onto a micro SD card. The data was to be analysed at the start of this term to then be submitted to the hosts of the competition.

“The SD card was given to my 14-year-old on the last day of term, and he’s lost it. Micro SD cards are so small that finding it is a nigh-on impossible task, and we’ve looked everywhere but cannot find it.

“Obviously, this is my child’s fault, he’s misplaced it, but school have called, three separate teachers infact have called, asking me what I intend to do about it…? What can I do? I didn’t know he was being given the SD card or asked to bare any responsibility of keeping it safe for 7 weeks!

“And even if I had been asked, there’s nothing I can do now it’s lost, I can’t magically recreate data and images of the balloon. And to be honest, I think the school/teachers involved in the competition have been a bit irresponsible in handing a micro SD card of data to a kid if that’s the only place it’s stored and is irretrievable if lost.

“Am I being unreasonable to simply ignore any further communication regarding this and have absolutely no consequences for my child at home? I don’t think this is a punishable offenc, my child made an accidental mistake over misplacing something he should never have been solely responsible for if it was that important!”

Other parents understood the mum’s frustration, expressing that they would feel the exact same.

One wrote: “Why didn’t a teacher take it if it was so important?”

Another quipped: “Tell them you’re going to give them some advice: Do not give tiny, precious items to children. Also, don’t attach things to balloons.”

Someone else commented: “What an oversight on the part of the school and crazy to then try and blame you. I’m guessing someone is very stressed!”

Another said that they are a teacher and always ask students to back things up in other places, writing: “Yeah that’s stupid. I work in higher education and constantly remind my students to back up data or assignments. Storing information on a single losable device is a recipe for disaster.”

One Mumsnetter commented: “I try to see the schools side as much as possible but on this one I think I’d be pointing out that they made no agreement with me to take responsibility for the card, that the data should have been backed up, and that this is a failure of planning on their part.”

Another said it was concerning that three teachers had called as they wrote: ” Three teachers have called? That’s bordering on harassment! Not only would I not be doing anything about this at home, I’d not allow school to impose any consequences either. They are absolutely bats*** – kids lose stuff, especially tiny little things.

“A sternly worded letter to the head might be in order.”

What would you do in this situation? Let us know in the comments.