Many things, including branded clothes, shoes, electronics, gadgets, food, and even money, are faked these days. Even adults have trouble figuring out what’s real and what’s not, so how much harder will it be for kids? Will they know the difference between the two?
The family of an honor student is upset because he was kicked out of school for using a fake $20 bill without knowing it.
Christian Philon is a boy who is 12 years old and goes to school at the Austin Road Middle School in Stockbridge, Georgia. Even though he is a good student, he had to stay in school for 10 days because he tried to pay for his lunch with fake money.
Christian says he didn’t know the money was fake, and both he and his parents can back that up. Even though they told the police about the bill, the school wouldn’t take back the punishment that had already been given.
Christian’s dad, Earvin, is a retired veteran who said that a fast food restaurant gave him the $20 as his change. Then he gave Christian this bill as money for lunch. He said, “I’ve never had any fake money in my hands. I have no idea how it looks.” He hoped the police report would clear the name of his sons.
Gwen, Christian’s mom, told WSB-TV that they wouldn’t have bought it if they had known it was fake. “But we didn’t know,” Gwen added.
Christian said that he was just as confused as his parents when a worker in the cafeteria used the counterfeit detecting ink to figure out that the bill was fake. The boy said, “I didn’t understand why the money was fake. And what my parents thought about it.”
During Christian’s disciplinary hearing, the school listened to his side of the story. However, they did not change his punishment because he broke a rule against using fake money, which is in the school’s code of conduct.
The Philons thought that if Christians were kicked out of school, it would ruin their sons’ perfect school records. Christian gets all As in school and plays a lot of sports. They couldn’t understand why the school would punish the boy even though they knew he didn’t know if the money was real or not.
Christian said that the school told him that he needed to pay for the fake money since he had it. Christian said, “The who process has been unfair.”
The school told the news stations that they couldn’t say anything about a student’s punishment, but the school superintendent says Christian shouldn’t have been punished.
Superintendent Mary Elizabeth Davis looked at the results and decided that Christian didn’t need to be punished. Because of this, the schools’ decision to punish Christian for what happened was overturned. Davis said in a statement from the school system, “The student is back in class.”
Every parent just wants the school staff to be fair and understand them. They are like the kids’ second parents, so they should be good role models. Many parents who heard Christian’s story thought it was unfair to punish the kid for something he didn’t do on purpose. Others are also using what he has learned to warn people all over the world about fake money.