posted on May 3, 2007 07:44:27 AM new
Story on http://www.oregonlive.com (also just showed on cable news channel...
Teacher accused of stealing coat from 3rd-grader
Hillsboro, Oregon - The Jackson Elementary teacher allegedly tried to sell the jacket online
Thursday, May 03, 2007
HOLLY DANKS and MELISSA NAVAS
HILLSBORO -- "I told her, 'Be sure not to lose this coat,' " the third-grader's mother remembers reminding the girl.
"It's expensive, and I usually didn't let her wear it to school. But it was cold."
The 8-year-old promised. But on Jan. 10 she came home in tears. She had become warm during recess on the Jackson Elementary School playground and took off her gloves and the $114 navy blue Columbia Sportswear Tectonite coat.
When she returned without the coat, her teacher immediately sent the girl to look for it. The gloves were where she had left them, but not the ski jacket her grandmother had given her.
"A staff member found her crying by the lost-and-found," the mother said.
The jacket would turn up, but only after the girl's mother tracked it to an eBay auction and took her suspicions to police. On Friday, Elizabeth Lucinda Logan, a Jackson Elementary teacher, will be in court. She faces charges of stealing the coat and trying to sell it.
Two days after the coat disappeared, the girl and her mother blanketed the school with fliers showing a photo of her wearing it. For days, they searched classrooms, checked the school's lost-and-found boxes, asked teachers and staff whether anyone had seen the jacket.
"Things don't disappear into thin air," the mother said. "I just wanted an explanation. I just wanted the coat back."
An avid online shopper, the mother decided to check out eBay to find a replacement.
"I was scanning them on the off-chance that it was there," the mother said. "It was just a gut feeling."
What she found Jan. 18 she described as a punch to the gut.
The photo of the jacket that had been auctioned for $46 first caught the mother's eye. When she opened the site, she realized that the 7/8 size, colors and model perfectly matched her daughter's missing coat. Digging further, she saw the seller was from Hillsboro and the jacket was posted for sale the day after her daughter's disappeared.
The seller's eBay ID matched a name on the Jackson School Web site.
The mother made an appointment with the principal on Jan. 22, when she presented "all the coincidental information." Mysteriously, the jacket reappeared at the school that morning, ripped to pieces.
The Oregonian is not identifying the girl or her family because of her parents' concerns about their children who still attend the school.
Police were called and took up the case. Investigators connected the eBay account to Logan, a Jackson Elementary first-grade teacher.
Logan, 41, will be arraigned Friday in Washington County Circuit Court on a secret grand jury indictment. The teacher was arrested Feb. 6 and cited for theft by receiving and criminal misuse of a computer.
In a prepared statement, Krista Shipsey, Logan's private attorney, said: "Ms. Logan deeply regrets the impact that this allegation has had on her community, especially the children at Jackson Elementary. She has been a devoted and caring teacher for 20 years and truly misses working with her first-graders. Ms. Logan has been devastated by this allegation."
Lt. Michael Rouches, Hillsboro police spokesman, said Logan told investigators she found the jacket in the school's lost-and-found bin and was auctioning it on eBay until her dog tore it up. Rouches said Logan has made more than 1,000 eBay transactions.
She was still selling Wednesday under the screen name logan6921, with a 99.9 percent positive feedback rating.
Logan told police she routinely buys bulk clothing at Goodwill for $1.39 a pound, goes through the pile for hidden treasures and sells what she can on eBay.
Hillsboro School District officials said Logan was placed on paid leave Feb. 7, the day after her arrest.
Nicole Kaufman, district spokeswoman, said administrators are conducting their own internal investigation.
Logan began teaching in the Hillsboro School District in 1987 as a student teacher at Mooberry Elementary School. In 1998, she went to Jackson Elementary, where she was earning nearly $69,000 a year when she went on leave.
Jackson School principal Janis Hill said she made a "measured decision" to call or meet with only the parents in Logan's 25-student class to tell them the teacher was on paid leave during the investigation. Other parents at the 600-student school were not notified, even though the alleged crime victim was not in Logan's class.
Leana Garrison, whose 7-year-old son, Nate, is in Logan's class, said parents were left in the dark about the reason for Logan's leave. She learned about the alleged theft through school rumors.
Since Logan's departure, Garrison said her son is not as excited about school. It has been a jolting experience, she said.
"He's constantly writing to her," Garrison said. "He just misses her and really liked her as a teacher."
Hill said school counselors have been available to students to help cope with emotional stress since Logan left.
"First-grade teachers are kind of like the princess, the queen, mom rolled together," Hill said. ...
posted on May 3, 2007 09:07:17 AM new
Jeez. Awful!
And, yes, why is she still selling on eBay? Do you suppose there's a chance she really DID find it in the lost and found bin? Could someone have found it on the playground and put it in the bin? Even so, the teacher shouldn't have just taken it to sell!
More importantly, how many other missing coats and jackets from that bin have been taken by her to sell on eBay?
_____________________
Dogs have owners, cats have staff.
posted on May 3, 2007 01:01:55 PM new
She is now suspended. Even if she found it in the lost and found she had to know it was wrong to sell it. It was posted on eBay the day after it was lost. This seems to me like a case of eBay addiction. We have joked in the past about seeing something and thinking "I could sell that on eBay" but I am sure none of us would steal something to sell. Would we? Naaaa
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“The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as of the pen.”
Maholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 1947
posted on May 3, 2007 01:24:14 PM new
Will the police will follow up on her current listings as well as her recent ones? She had many "new with tags" items listed; I wonder if she has sales receipts for them?
Would someone who steals from a third-grader be too morally upright to stoop to shoplifting?
posted on May 3, 2007 01:43:08 PM new
"Mysteriously, the jacket reappeared at the school that morning, ripped to pieces."
This is the part that really bothers me. Stealing it wasn't bad enough? She had to destroy it too? How on earth do you explain this to a 8 year old kid?
posted on May 3, 2007 03:07:23 PM new
Hey, Tom, I've got a true story for you about ethics.
I was in Wash. D.C. in the 90s attending a seminar on ethics in government. The room was filled with elected city council people from all over the country.
There was to be a prize drawing at the end of the seminar, and we were encouraged to put one of our business cards in a large fishbowl for the drawing.
Came the drawing: the first card was drawn and the winner guy went up and got his prize. We applauded. The second card was drawn--and it was the same guy, winning again. Talk about ethics! I found out what city he was from and was glad I didn't live there.
After that second card was drawn, the room was verrrry quiet. No applause.
_____________________
Dogs have owners, cats have staff.
posted on May 3, 2007 04:27:31 PM new
In our school, unretrieved Lost + Found items are donated to a shelter- not to an enterprising teacher. I have no doubt she picked the coat up on the playground and took it to her car.
posted on May 3, 2007 04:41:16 PM new
She had three Dooney and Bourke tote bags with tags. A couple of them were from Marshall's. She had a smattering of clothing mostly size M, mostly new with tags. I didn't see any children's clothing.
posted on May 3, 2007 05:16:41 PM new
wow...that's crazy. in shreds because 'her dog ate' it, then to have someone leave FB for it!?? means she's in a shilling situation too, i'm thinkin' ... who knows!
we are now returning to our regularly scheduled program.
posted on May 3, 2007 05:32:14 PM new
What a weird mug shot. She looks happy to be there. LIke it's her new passport pic and she's planning a tropical vacation.
I doubt she even has a dog. I don't believe the $1.39 a pound thing either. The crap they sell by the pound is just that, crap.
posted on May 3, 2007 05:34:25 PM new
no pics. I couldn't find that auction this morning fluffy - you must of gone through the already left feedback one by one. oduckie was the buyer.
"Columbia Sportswear, Techtonite girls ski jacket size 7/8. Zipper and snap front closures. Removable snap on hood. Elastic and velcro sleeve ends. Five pockets. Interior waist toggle. Lavender, navy and white. Hardly worn and in great shape. Super warm!!"
posted on May 3, 2007 05:34:27 PM new
Here's the FB the teach left:
"Thanks for being gracious about my sizing mistake!!! Happy Skiing!!!
logan6921 ( 1224 [Feedback score is 1,000 to 4,999]
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posted on May 3, 2007 05:50:13 PM new
Now she's changed her story. She bought the coat at the Goodwill. THAT explains it, somebody else took the coat and then immediately donated it to the Goodwill.
posted on May 10, 2007 08:27:25 PM new
Update: Logan plead not guilty but has resigned from her teaching position. Edited to add: I agree with Zippy - the scariest part of the story is the returned ripped-up jacket. Something is not right/safe with this lady.
[ edited by pixiamom on May 10, 2007 08:34 PM ]
