Using Another’s Flute Leaves A Sour Taste In Your Mouth

(I’m a little flute girl right before a concert in eighth grade. To make sure that I don’t forget my instrument, I would put my flute with the trumpets and trombones in the back of the band room the day before. I do this because my locker is across the school, passing period is five minutes, and there were people who liked to stand in front of my locker before my elective period. The morning of, during practice, I walk over and check for it.)

Me: “Mr. [Teacher], my flute’s gone. Have you seen it?”

Teacher: “No, did you put it in your locker?”

Me: “No… I put it in the back like I always do; it was right next to [Friend]’s trumpet.”

Teacher: “Go talk to the office to see if it’s in the lost and found.”

(At this point I’m upset, because when I first walked up to the cabinets they were unlocked. It’s the teacher’s responsibility, considering there are about 20 other student’s instruments. After 20 minutes of class of me searching frantically, he drops this line.)

Teacher: “That’s why you should put it in your locker; it wasn’t safe to put it back there. You can take this seventh grader’s flute for the performance.”

(He kept blaming me for a while for my flute getting stolen. Dropped out of band after that year because it left such a sour taste in my mouth.)