Whose Lunch Money Is It?

Memphis City School Teachers
Memphis, Tennessee
89046

ABSTRACT: In a situation familiar to many classrooms, one student is suspected of taking another's lunch money. Questions lead students through a discussion of the school's authority and prevention of similar problems.

UNIT: Criminal Law

GOAL: To show how criminal law has developed and changed to maintain an organized society

CONCEPT: Every person has the right to own property.

OBJECTIVES: The students will be able to:

1. Define property.
2. Tell what legal issues arise when there is a dispute over lunch money. VOCABULARY:

PROPERTY - thing or things owned

DISPUTE - a difference of opinion; to argue, to discuss, or to debate

STEAL - take something that does not belong to one

CASE STUDY - a story telling an everyday conflict

SKILLS: The students can:

1. Develop law-related vocabulary.
2. Listen for details in a case study.
3. Find two points of view.
4. Respond to oral questions.
5. Hypothesize a solution to the missing lunch money. STUDENT ACTIVITIES:

1. Read the case study to the students.

Doodle has been caught with dollar bills twice in the last month. Tweedle gets ready to pay for her lunch and finds her dollar missing. Tweedle tells the teacher. The teacher asks Doodle to empty her purse and discovers a dollar bill. Doodle says quickly, "But my mama gave me this for ice cream!"

2. Teacher asks the following questions:

                a. Does the teacher have the right to ask Doodle to empty her purse?

b. What should the teacher do now?

c. If the teacher believes Doodle and lets her buy ice cream, what will Tweedle do about lunch money?

d. If the teacher thinks Doodle took the dollar, how should it be handled?

e. Should the teacher call Doodle's parents to verify her story?

f. How could the teacher protect lunch money in the classroom?

  
                g. How could the students protect their lunch money in the classroom? EVALUATION: 1. Have students illustrate how they would solve the problem by drawing a picture.

2. Have students vote on the question "To whom would you give the dollar, Doodle or Tweedle?" and use their pictures as proof.