Oh, if you only knew . . .

. . the items that high school kids lose on any given day. I am the keeper of all items lost and yet not found. My desk drawer (smaller items) and a big bin in the office are where the following can be found . . .

iPods, Cell phones (many, many cell phones), Jackets, Jeans (how do you lose your pants?), hoodies (lots of sweatshirts), tshirts, shoes, flipflops, cleats, notebooks, folders, planners, school books, library books, backpacks, watches, necklaces, gym bags, rings, purses, earrings, waterbottles, bras (yes, bras), digital cameras, sunglasses, journals, keys and wallets.

Most of the items brought into the lost and found are items left in the cafeteria at lunchtime, lockerroom (unlocked items) or items found by someone in the commons area of the school. We aren't talking about cheap stuff either, we are talking about very nice stuff. What really floors me is I rarely have a student that comes and checks for any of their missing items. Except, for the kids who have lost their cell phones or iPods, those seem to be the only things that put them into a major tailspin if they are missing. I take 2 huge garbage bags into a storage area in the back of our locker room at least every 2 weeks. It's unbelievable. After storing these items for approximately 6 months, we send them on to Goodwill. Very rarely do I have to take a student into the back storage area to try and "find their jacket" or whatever it was that they lost. I think they have either told their parents that it was stolen (not true) or that it's just lost and they can't find it, without even checking our lost and found. Now I see why everybody goes to Goodwill these days, it's where they sell all of the good stuff.