Mad doesn't cover it

As a mitzvah project for our school, we are collecting items for a soldier in Afghanistan. His wife is an assistant at our school. We are also collecting money to help defray the costs of postage. I left 5 - 1$ bills, intended to be used for postage, in a clothes pin clip, on my file cabinet. They were gone when I got to work on Friday. Mad would not be a word I use to describe how I feel. This is donation money. It's like stealing from the Salvation Army bucket!

1. Everyone working at my school is entrusted with children! We trust them to take care of them, be aware at all times, and teach them the right way to do things. Stealing would not be one of those traits we would like to instill in our children. How can we trust our employees with our children if we can't trust them with a lousy $5. (the money was taken after school hours, during daycare, when there are a number of very young girls employed. Plus, my room is out of the way, in the back and not readily available to the general public. In other words, you either need a reason or a purpose to be in my room. The girls cut through my room and also use the restroom. Parents almost never come to my room because it's in the back and they generally have no reason to come back there)

2. I went up to all the young girls that work there, one by one, gave them my best "I'm not sure if you did it or not stare" and told them, "Someone took donation money from my cabinet. Tell all of your friends that if they are hungry, come see me and I'll feed them. If they need money for bills, come see me and I'll help if I can. If they want a diet coke, they are in my refrigerator. If they just took the money to have it, Shame on them!" Every "little girl" that I talked to gave me those big "ok Mrs. H," eyes....like OH MY GOSH!, "I hope she doesn't think """I""" took it!" (these little girls are all 18-19 yrs. old) This was the exact effect I wanted to have on them. The "she thinks I did it but I didn't" complex. This will get them talking to all the other girls and perhaps they will figure it out on their own who took it and admonish the culprit!

3. It's not the money, it's the principle.

4. So I figured if they were in my room once, they'll be back. I posted this "note" on paper as big as the entire wall. I plan on removing it during the school day and re posting every night before I leave. Maybe I'll just embarrass the culprit enough to not do it again. If not, at least I feel better.