Do NOT tell me to be RESPONSIBLE

There is no point dissecting and analyzing and grieving over the Php 1,000.00 that was lost. What’s worth one grand today? A Victoria Secret panty?!

I got over my loss instantaneously the moment I realized that a crisp one thousand peso bill was missing in my wallet. I texted a few friends from school that I lost one thousand and that was it. I didn’t maul over it like someone like Dolphy has just died. But you have no idea how vitriolic my curses were for the person who stole the money. “STOLE” the money: I am confident that it was stolen after a horrible series of missing one-thousand-peso bill haunted the hallways of my dear school lately. It must have been stolen.

I lost the money in school. SCHOOL! Faculty Room to be specific. I don’t have a pile of money such that I will not be able to notice what’s gone; or how much is gone.

Do not ask me if I have just misplaced the money. I am a teacher, for Christ sake. I don’t have a plethora of bills in my wallet. I only have to get by for a week. My money does not come in fountains and springs that I won’t notice a single cent misplaced. Hullo.

Do not ask me if I have spent it somewhere else. Yes. There are moments when I’d splurge silly stuff but wanna look at my expense list? It’s obsessively scribbled with notes on expenses. You would easily trace where my last .35 cents went.

Do not tell me to be responsible enough to bring my important belongings everywhere. Yes, I get your drift, dude. Being responsible for your things is a rule of thumb. I am not a dumbo. But, THIS IS A SCHOOL, the last time I checked. School is synonymous with SAFETY. So this series of unsolved cases of thievery? Whazzup?!

This is a school. I spend 8 hours of my waking hours here. It is here that I toil for my family, for my students. I spend more time here than my baby’s.  I forget about my wallet for forty friggin’ minutes within the 8 hours and the 1 grand disappears? How’s that for a fact? Where is my sense of safety? Do you mean to let me run my lesson and at the same time carry a garbage of paranoia on my back? Am I not allowed to demand my right to be safe here? If we can’t be safe with our money---loose change for that manner---just what else are we unsafe of?!

 “Be responsible enough for your things.” Was the only thing told to me by the administration; attempting to put a sense in my head that it was, stupidly in fact, my fault that I lost my money. Thank you very much!

The mortifying cases of stealing is for the very obvious is UNSOLVED and for your blurry information, still lurk in the dark waiting its perfect timing to prey upon the unsuspecting, underpaid, overworked teachers (and students who by the way, also lost their baons while the Holy Mass was going on!)

Yes, I will carry my wallet, cell phone, laptop, along with my class record, books, test papers, visual aides, to every possible classes I will have because the thief is very much within the school campus, having his/her great time watching, studying and calculating his moves to pounce on his/her next victim.

The thief will be perfectly comfortable on his spot, probably enjoying his stealth mode and enjoying his stolen cash. He quips this grin as he contemplates the sequel of his overture. No CCTV cameras, in spite of the law that provides establishments to have respectable CCTVs. No added security measures; not even a harried or imagined or even pretended investigation. The CCTV camera won’t come in this year anyway, he bets. It’s too expensive for the school thus it will not spend for it.

He is very positive that he will do it again and can still get away with it, because, the admin says, just “Be responsible for your things.” And the poor teachers are too darn stressed to bring their pamasahe up inside their bras for safety and in their try to install their own security measures.

Harharharharhar he laughs off a hair raising, guiltless smirk on his face. For in his mind, the next victim is, of course, YOU!!!