Head of School's Blogs
Not at ISB
by Bill Gerritz 11 October, 2007
Over my lifetime, I have been held up twice at gunpoint (
Over the past several years, our students have been victims of theft at ISB. Cell phones, iPods, electronic dictionaries, money, bicycles, cameras and shoes have been stolen. A number of approaches have been implemented to stop the thefts but with little evidence of success.
Over the summer, as I thought about what I wanted to work on this year to improve ISB, the theft problem kept coming up in my mind. Perhaps because I have been a victim myself, the more I thought about it, the more infuriated I became. I don’t want our students to worry about theft. When it happens, the resulting feelings are awful. Worrying about it, distracts students from their learning. It is completely out of sync with the values we teach in our character education programs.
I decided on two targets: 1) We will reduce theft to zero; and, 2) Make ISB – a school where students need never worry about theft.
As soon as school started, we began working to better understand the reasons and circumstances of these thefts and to implement measures that would eliminate it. As with other problems at ISB that have been solved, I knew it would take time and persistence for success. We would need a good monitoring system. We would need to try out many actions to find the ones that worked and those that did not.
We have formed a Theft Think Tank consisting of 6 students, 2 parents, and 3 staff members to shape our efforts. This group has met twice so far seeking to identify effective measures, both preventative and reactive. The following lists some of the actions that have been taken or will be taken shortly. If you have suggestions or ideas that would help us solve this problem, please contact me by responding to this blog or by phone +66-81-845-7397 or by contacting our Headmistress Usa Somboon at +66-81-937-0069.
- Talking to and with students and staff about why theft is so destructive and detailing consequences. (Consequences are severe. For example, a staff member who was caught stealing about 3 weeks ago was immediately arrested by Thai police and dismissed.)
- We now carefully investigate each occurrence of theft or missing items. Students report to Mr. Baron-Toaldo in Middle School or Mr. Doug Helgeson in High School. If there is any indication of theft, Khun
Usa interviews the students to understand all the circumstances and to follow-up. - We have established sole use e-mail address where thefts can be reported by parents. ISBtheft@isb.ac.th
- We have purchased four portable, inconspicuous video cameras to survey areas where thefts have occurred.
- Implementing “sting” operations.
- We will be arranging an “engraving station” where students can have their names permanently written on their cell phones and iPods.
- We have put in place a reward system for staff and students who find items that have been left out in public places making easy theft targets.
- We will be setting up a system so that students or staff can anonymously “rat on a rat.”
- We need to work on helping students to understand that theft has no place in a school like ISB. This work will take place in synergy and com groups. Also we are considering student productions and prestigious guest speakers for student assemblies. We also need to help student understand their roles in preventing theft, for example, not leaving attractive items out in public places.
There are other measures that we are considering. So far this year, we have had 7 confirmed thefts from students and 1 from adults. We think these numbers are substantially lower than last year but they are still much too high.
This is an evolving story but I am certain that with the involvement and support of everyone in the ISB community, we will achieve our targets.
Read more post from the Head of School's BlogsAbout the Author
Bill received his Ph.D. at UC Berkeley. He has written over 20 journal articles and has an abiding interest in learning improvement. Prior to ISB, Bill headed schools in Holland and South America. He and his wife Marcia have 3 sons.
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