Character Attack

At work, everybody has one number for the copy machine with a limited number of copies. Someone--wonder who--repeatedly runs out of copies and hunts and pecks for another number. This leaves someone else with no copies. I have been a victim of this despicable practice, but never would I stoop so low as to steal another person's copies.

The other day, my principal accused me of doing this! I was highly offended and hurt that someone could even think me capable of doing something so dishonest. I may have faults but dishonesty is not one of them.

So I investigated to see why I was accused, and it turned out to be a misunderstanding. As a special education teacher, we have four special numbers that we use to copy IEPs for parents. When one runs out, we move to the next one. One day at the machine, I was trying to copy an IEP for a waiting parent. The first number was used up, so I moved to the next one and found the same problem. Apparently I said, "I've got to find a number with copies." The person behind me interpreted this as copy stealing and reported me to the boss.

Now, couldn't they have said something directly to me at the time? Sometimes the adult world is not that different than childhood.