There goes my first and ONLY ukulele...

It was on Friday, the LAST DAY OF SCHOOL.

I brought my ukulele to school to celebrate the last day of school before winter break. I was hoping Friday would be a nice and relaxing day...but NO. When fifth period came, which was P.E., i had no choice but to put my ukulele in my locker. I can't leave it with the teacher because they're jerks and they won't and I can't bring it out since they forbid it and someone might just take it while we're doing an activity.

So I leave it in my locker, about 20 minutes later I come back to dress back into my regular clothes. I walked in, walked towards my locker, opened it up, and it was gone...
I was freaking out so bad that before I even got dressed I ran through the whole locker room to see if someone had it or was hiding it. No luck.

So I was panting and the bell rang so I had no choice to get dressed quickly and head on to sixth period. But, before I did that, I told the teachers. They said "Sorry Levis, we can't do anything, we aren't responsible for it." Flippin' ROAR.

So I head on to my sixth period and tell all my friends in that class and everyone that sits in my table. All they could do is cuss as if the person that took it was right in front of them.

This is so sad. That was my first ukulele, ever, and my only one. I got it for my birthday, which was on November 30th. Only 19 days old and it's GONE.
I was about to cry in my sixth period class...

Well, I couldn't do anything and when I went home all my parents could do was lecture me about saying stuff like "That's what you get for taking your ukulele to school" Wow. Thanks parents, that really helps me feel better.

I just wanted to sit around and cry and punch a hole in the wall pretending it was the thief's face.

So I have nothing. My first and only ukulele is gone. Only 19 days old. Goodbye Phoenix (That's what I named her[My ukulele])

- Levis

Oh and, what do you guys suggest I do? I have no money at the moment and my parents would bother me because they just got me this for my birthday...21 days ago.

The title sounds AWFULLY similiar to mine. Dude.

-Jeff

Well, it is kinda what you get for taking something valuable to school. You shouldn't take something you care about so much unless you have a spare "beater" to take instead. I hate to say the 'rents were right, but they were.

But I also have to call a spade a spade and say that the PE teacher was a real @sshat. I'd probably have a serious talk with him about that, but you don't really sound like you could have that talk yet. You have to be calm, concise, polite, and very firm that he has a role to play in the fact that it's not safe to bring anything to school. He's a teacher, he's an adult, he has a role to play there.

And the thing that hurts the most is that those friends know who took it. And whoever took it doesn't know or care what a uke is, and they probably just trashed it.

There's nothing for it but to earn some money and replace it. Live and learn. I'm sorry for your bad luck though. Even if it wasn't the brightest thing to take the uke to school, that doesn't mean it's the victim's fault for being robbed.

/assuming the story is true of course. I mean I know how I was in HS and I would have handled the situation a lot differently, as would most anyone with some sense.

Mann I really feel for you. PE is the worst enemy for a Ukulele. I brought mine out to PE, fearing that it would get stolen. The dumb luck that I had, it got hit by a basketball and split at the neck. I suggest that you hope and pray that it turns up or save up.Mann if I still had my soprano, I would've definitely gave it to you man.

Plainsong said:

Well, it is kinda what you get for taking something valuable to school. You shouldn't take something you care about so much unless you have a spare "beater" to take instead. I hate to say the 'rents were right, but they were.

But I also have to call a spade a spade and say that the PE teacher was a real @sshat. I'd probably have a serious talk with him about that, but you don't really sound like you could have that talk yet. You have to be calm, concise, polite, and very firm that he has a role to play in the fact that it's not safe to bring anything to school. He's a teacher, he's an adult, he has a role to play there.

And the thing that hurts the most is that those friends know who took it. And whoever took it doesn't know or care what a uke is, and they probably just trashed it.

There's nothing for it but to earn some money and replace it. Live and learn. I'm sorry for your bad luck though. Even if it wasn't the brightest thing to take the uke to school, that doesn't mean it's the victim's fault for being robbed.

/assuming the story is true of course. I mean I know how I was in HS and I would have handled the situation a lot differently, as would most anyone with some sense.

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Those are some harsh words at the end there plainsong.

But dude you just gotta hang in there. I was on the basketball team and i brought my shorts to school for a game. I forgot to bring my pe shorts so i threw on my basketball shorts. I came back, changed, put my shorts on top of my bag, went to go to the showers, and i came back with my shorts not there.

A week later, it shows up in the lost and found.

So maybe someone saw your uke, thought someone misplaced it, and put it in the main office. Just keep checking when you get back. If you're absolutly sure it's gone, get a new one, by a uke case, then write "Anyone who touches this case instantly dies of a incredibly rare and painful disease. Except I can touch it. I am immune."

good luck =D

It's harsh, but from what I've been reading, there's been some concern lately of folks taking advantage of the kindness of some (one) of the community ukesters.

I mean no offense. Someone being honest has no offense to take. I'll assume it's true and say that was a tough life lesson. Regarding handling it differently, maybe we were just more mature in my day, but yeah, I and any friend of mine would have handled that a heck of a lot differently. The teacher does have his role to play in the safety of his class. The OP has a role in deciding to take the risk.

That's great. I'm glad you would've handled it differently. Of course, if it's launching a super investigation while sending your secret ninja assassins, I must say, you'd probably get that uke back. But out of "kindness", he did what he could do. Who got taken advantaged of?

I'm sorry to hear that. Some people are pretty low. But don't lockers have locks?

JKoval said:

The title sounds AWFULLY similiar to mine. Dude.

-Jeff

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I just read yours and wow...that sucks :/ I should have read yours before posting mine...and hopefully changing the title. Sorry about that....

Plainsong, I guess you're right...I gotta be careful on what I bring to school now...I mean it was the last day of school and barely anyone dressed and went in the locker room. But then again my school does have a bad reputation, thanks to all of these "gangsters" and what not. I guess all I can do is wait until I'm old enough to get a working permit or find a job that would hire me at this age and get enough money to buy myself an ukulele...

Misguided Musician, I feel bad for you too...knowing that happened... I can't really tell which one is worse. Getting it stolen or actually seeing it get destroyed...

Jack, I'll make sure to continuously go to the main office and the P.E. office. I hope it's there...

Plainsong again, I haven't been on the forums a lot lately so I can't tell what you're talking about. Then I started reading the other threads on the forums. Now I know what you mean. Wow, I feel as though I should have left this story with my friends in the real world and not complain about it online.

Sorry guys. Shouldn't have complained...

EDIT: Oh and haole, I did have a lock. It was closed and every time I leave the locker room I triple check the lock to make sure and my friend checked it too (he shares lockers with me)

And it couldn't have been him since we left the locker room at the same time and neither of us went back and when we came back to dress I came in before him.

Jack said:

That's great. I'm glad you would've handled it differently. Of course, if it's launching a super investigation while sending your secret ninja assassins, I must say, you'd probably get that uke back. But out of "kindness", he did what he could do. Who got taken advantaged of?

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How I would have handled it is to sit down with the PE teacher after class in the office. Eye-to-eye, face-to-face say that I understood all of the disclaimers about valuable stuff at school, blah blah blah. However, it's not an unreasonable request to keep something backpack sized in the office, and this isn't a 10,000 Rolex, but a musical instrument that's priced about the same as a starter band trumpet or clarinet or something, something not unreasonable to have at school.

The thing is not to be a whiney little teenager, but by 15 you should know that the whiney voice gets you nowhere anyway.

If the teacher blew off his own role in the safety of stuff in his class, then I'd take it higher. Yeah, I was on good terms with the principles. Most of us goody-goodies were.

And if I went home and said it was stolen, I could expect to be frakking grounded, and I'd have to pay my parents back, and I'd be on my own buying my next uke. On top of the humiliation of realizing that my friends weren't my friends, of feeling violated, of being to not trust some crap teacher only in the job for the vacations, I'd get yelled at and grounded.

So no secret ninja tricks, just mature frank confrontation. I'd done it before, but in order for it to work, you can't be one of these who is always whining to the teachers. High school is preparation for college, and in college, you will have to confront and deal with professors who make no secret of their biases.

It's all a moot point now for the OP, but it is a hard hard life lesson. I'm dealing out harsh words, but I'm not unsympathetic. It does suck, but this too will pass.

Ah, don't sweat it. It was just the low post count and some of the conspiracy theories lately. Not your fault.

It does suck though. And you have to appreciate the whole teacher doing his job *cough* thing.

Certainly you could earn money some way? What about allowance for chores? You could have 60 bucks for a Makala in no time. I know it's not as sexy as the Kala but it should be safe to take outside, and I was mightily impressed with the one I got my mother-in-law.

Hey Plainsong, I'm glad you're giving your thoughts on how I should act and what you would do, but the thing is I'm not you, and the teachers here can give a rat's you-know-what about what really goes on within the classes.

I didn't mean to sound like I was whining and complaining like a 3-year-old, I just needed some way to express how I felt but it seems as though just that is too much here.

I know it's all preparation for college, but when you think about it, it's not really the same. Yeah I know what you're thinking. "The teachers won't give a rat's ---? Well guess what, you think they do in College?" And no, I don't. I know no one's here to baby sit any of the kids at my school.

I know all this is preparation, I know I need to learn to shut up, I know I should learn to deal with things in a much better and more mature way, but I guess all these experiences are helping me achieve that goal.

And yes, I do realize that by 15 I know that whining gets me nowhere. But what am I to do? Hire an investigation party to search for each little fingerprint and detail to find who did it?

If I ever bring anything valuable or meaningful to me to school I'll go straight into the teacher's office to hold whatever it is I bring. If they say no I'll use what you said against them. Explain how this small things takes up not much space and won't be a bother to them in wherever place within the office. But I guess the only thing valuable I can take to school from now on is my phone. And it's going to stay like that for a long time. And if/when I do get another ukulele, I'm going to leave it at home, but if I somehow take it to school, I'll make sure that the teacher holds it for me and if I have to I'll mention what happened recently.

On one side I'm feeling terrible from your words, but on the other I feel as though you're teaching me a life lesson.

Thank you.

And I don't get money for chores. My siblings and I do them whenever we want/need to, but we never get paid for it. It's just like a tradition I guess. My parents are from another country and within their family tradition, they didn't get paid for doing chores for their parents.

My siblings and I just do them, without asking for anything, really. Maybe for permission to go out with friends, but that's all =P

I guess I'll try to find some job that takes 15 year olds, haha.

you know, your story sounds so similar to something that happened to me in freshman year of highschool. this also happened in PE. I was going away for the weekend, and was gonna get picked up after school to head out, so I basically had everything packed and whatnot, but I took my CD book with me to school. (about 40 cds, had a cd player, still a few years before ipods and such) I didnt get dressed for gym, never did either, had an "excuse" (was captain of my swim team (freshman-senior year), therefore my gym time was credited for me) and I sat out with my cd player. When it was time to head out, I noticed my text books and various papers from my locker and backpack were all over the stairs, naturally I was pretty much flipping out, cursing, making a scene etc. Some kid who I knew didnt like me and his posse had told me that my locker was open and whatnot, so after getting all my crap into my bag I went to my locker, which (of course) was busted open, lock shattered. Cd book gone, some clothes, textbooks, a set of earlier developed film, and probably some other crap that meant something to me at the time.
all in all it was about 800$ worth of cds that ill never see again, and a couple of them weren't mine. Looking back I wonder why I took my cd book with me, I didnt NEED 40 cds throughout the day, two probably would have sufficed, but we always do something stupid before we learn.

so take it as a lesson, It might suck, and you may never get your stuff back, but trust me, now you know why people dont bring expensive crap that they (or their parents, if they're lucky enough) cant replace to school, and chances are, you wont do it again either. But, also keep in mind, it could have been worse, It could have been a 4000$ uke in that case.

True, it could have been worse. But don't think for one second we don't know what that icky feeling of violation is. Not all college profs are heartless though. In fact if your HS is that bad, a small college might be an awakening in another direction.

I guess none of the PE teachers at my school were worth a damn either. I just got out of PE because of band. We ran EVERYWHERE, and our drill was up there with corps stuff, having done corps, I can say that. Luckily the school admins had a heart and exempted band from having to do PE also. Your Kala was a lot cheaper than my cheapest clarinet, but your Kala sounds loads and loads better than that cheapest clarinet. Have you thought about getting into band? That's generally a safe place to store instruments. Do you play anything else?

It's a shame public schools vary so wildley from one district to the next. Here I am from one of the lowest scoring states in the nation, and the standard at our high school was .. high.

But at least the parents went easier on you, just the lecture anyone in your place feels they can do without. There's always that. Hopefully UU will have some contests where you don't need to perform in order to enter.

Hobgoblin Steve, your story reminds me of my friend's. I don't remember that much detail but I'll try to tell you what I remember. Back in I believe what was 7th grade, or 8th, my friend brought his CD player everywhere with him. It was all that his family could afford to get him, at the time. He loved it so much he had a mini CD case like yours, just fewer CD's. Whether we dressed or not, he always had his CD player with him, usually in his jacket pocket. One day he finally decides to leave it in his locker because we had fitness testing that day. Instead of having his stuff all over the floor, his stuff wasn't even there! The lock was semi-on. It was smashed and it couldn't close anymore. He took off the lock from the hook (I don't know why the burglar left the lock there...) and opened up his locker to find NOTHING. They took his clothes, his CD player and his mini case, his backpack, and I believe his phone, too. He was so angry that he just cursed and cursed. He went to tell the teachers there, but, unsurprisingly, they didn't do anything. His locker wasn't the only one that got busted open. There were a few others that got there stuff stolen too. I remember these guys showing my friend how to open a lock with their shoe...But they way these locks were broken it didn't look like any ordinary shoe... Looks like someone had jaws of steel and bit it off.

In my school, there are plenty of people that bring their ukuleles, brand new phones, iPod's, etc. and nothing, or so I think, happens to them. I'm happy it wasn't a $4,000 uke...

Plainsong, I never really thought of joining band, and the only other instrument I play is the guitar. My parents don't ground my any of us (myself and my siblings) If anything the thing they say is restrictions on things such as the computer or something, but that was ages ago. I know of 2 contests going on right now. The "Bling Yo Thing" contest where you hang something random from your ukulele's headstock, but I don't even have an ukulele to start with! And there's also Aldrine's cover contest, but again, I need an ukulele for that. Hopefully there will be a contest that only involves writing or something

dude are u in high school? if so DONT EVER BRING A UKE THERE! 2 many jack offs! they just wana try it out and have no idea what the value is! but yeah sux man! old santa claus is coming thou!

Yeah I realized. When I brought my ukulele to school, when I still had it I mean, everyone kept asking me "Hey Levis, let me see your uke!" Then I hand it to them "So how do you play" or "Dude, your strings aren't in order..." Geez it's so annoying. And since my school is FILLED with pacific islanders, each and every one of them that is my friend (and some I don't even know) wants to see my ukulele. I hate how people just reach in as if it were theirs and say "let me see it" Puh-leez. You can see with your eyes, not hands. You have your own uke at home, use it. What? You don't have one? Get one. Stop bothering me. You're only talking to me NOW all because I have an ukulele.

That's one positive thing for my uke getting stolen/lost/jacked/whatever. No more people asking to play it. But then again it's winter break...either way no one would've asked...

But yeah. Like I just said, people are annoying sometimes.

Another thing.

Wow, I just read Deach's thread "People SUCK!" and I feel as though I shouldn't have posted this. I think this thread is only making him feel worse. Deach, if you're reading this, and if you thought that this post is a hope to take advantage of you, it's not. I just needed a way to just complain about what happened, is all.

After reading his thread I feel like another one of "those guys." I shouldn't have posted this...
Sorry, UU.

EDIT:
Oh and ANOTHER THING.
I've decided to start saving...starting with $9, woohoo! Maybe about this times about 8 then I'll buy myself another ukulele. Hopefully next time I'll get a concert instead =P I doubt I'll save that much though, haha. Unless I get birthday money AND christmas money put into one for Christmas this year, which is like $50 plus another $50, I believe...