‘Fine, keep the money’: School demands students pay deposits for laptops, then refuses to give the money back, leading students to keep the laptops for themselves as payback

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Oct 14, 2024 9:00 AM EDT

When we were kids, we were constantly told to always listen to the adults in our lives, most importantly to our parents and teachers. We were raised in the belief that adults always knew what was right and wrong, so we should take their words as guidance through life.

Unfortunately, that is often not the case, and surely now we can all think of examples of times adults were very much in the wrong, and went as far as taking advantage of their seniority over the kids in their lives, leading to very questionable actions.

This story is a perfect example of a case in which adults tried to take advantage of kids, which taught those kids an important life lesson–to always fight for their rights. This story is of a school that tried to steal money from its students by refusing to return their $200 deposits on school laptops. After many legal debates, the students decided to take action and claimed the laptops for themselves, stating to the school that they were all stolen. This led the students to basically buy those laptops for $200 while showing the school that it should not try to exploit its students.

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10415904768
    via Getty Images

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.


     

  • 02
    Wanna keep our security deposits, we'll just keep your laptops
    via plogan56
  • 03
    Ok for context, my cousin goes to this private school that gives out these laptops at the beginning of the school year, these laptops hold the vast majority of their schoolwork and as such have
    via plogan56
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    custom software to limit their usage to said schoolwork; because of all these factors, everyone who received one was instructed to pay a $200 security deposit that would not be returned if they damaged/lost theirs.
    via plogan56
  • 05
    Onto the story, when the end of their school year came closer and people started returning their laptops, the school started claiming BS damages on the laptops and kept the deposits.
    via plogan56
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    Obviously, this didn't sit well with alot of the students and parents who knew good and well there was no damage to speak of and so they began to claim they simply "lost" them and let the
    via plogan56
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    school keep the deposit since they weren't getting it back in the first place. As more and more students did this, my cousin included, the school went full dictator mode and claimed to
    via plogan56
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    prevent students from grafuatiing if they did not return their laptops, which again went against the signed agreement/contract, and whoo-boy did that set off the powder keg.
    via plogan56
  • 09
    Several parents got their lawyaers and filed a case aginst the school for breach of contract and even the media got involved covering the corrupt school's policy, students refused to attend the class for the final weeks, parents
    via plogan56
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    were protesting in front of the school lawn, even some faculty and staff quit it was a whole thing. In the end my cousin told me it ended up settled out of court because they couldn't take the
    via plogan56
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    bad PR anymore and part of it was the return of the deposit for the laptop's return; however, she wasn't giving hers back and asked me to jailbreak the software so it worked like a normal one and i did(mostly just
    via plogan56
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    had to save her personal data then wipe the software from it). Ik some of you will comment "it's just $200 dollars, they didn't need lawyers if they were already paying for private school anyway"
    via plogan56
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    and to you i say would you be okay being blatantly cheated out of extra money when you're already paying for a service? Because seriously, what did they expect to happen, that's several
    via plogan56
  • 14
    thousands of dollars spread out among several students(idk the exact number maybe 300) of course they wouldn't just sit back and let you cheat them.
    via plogan56
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    spock_9519.18h ago • just out of curiosity how good were the computers ??? if they were just el cheapo chrome books then you were swindled out of $200
    via spock_9519
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    plogan56 OP • 18h ago • They were decent, 200 GB of storage and decent RAM
    via plogan56
  • 17
    Ok_Entertainment4959 • 18h ago So essentially $200 for a laptop. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me, especially once you jailbreak it.
    via Ok_Entertainment4959
  • 18
    plogan56 OP • 18h ago Same, i think most of the laptop's cost came from the custom software
    via plogan56
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    AlabasterSting • 16h ago • The media got involved? Must have been a big story. Got a link to the report(s)?
    via AlabasterSting
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    plogan56 OP • 16h ago • No i can't find it on her school, besides she's not going there. anymore and they've lost alot of students from that little stunt so they're likely cheaper now or lost their license (honestly i don't even know how private schools work do they have a special license or something?)
    via plogan56
  • 21
    CoderJoel 18h ago • It's the principle of it, or maybe the Principal.
    via CoderJoe1
  • 22
    dudsmm 17h ago • • Good lesson for the students to remember when they sign a lease for 1st apartment and get stiffed on the return of the security deposit.
    via dudsmm
  • 23
    bust-the-shorts • 17h ago • I think the school gave the students the most valuable lesson of all. If you're afraid to defend your rights people will steal from you. Glad the students fought back
    via bust-the-shorts
  • 24
    lurkingstar99 • 17h ago. It's not about the money, it's about sending a message. But the money is nice, too.
    via lurkingstar99

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school students malicious compliance lawyer kids malicious-compliance-reddit reddit story petty high school deposit Reddit laptop money parents
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