The Linden High School sophomore who videotaped a teacher apparently stealing money from student backpacks said she knew she had to do something. Justine Betti said students had noticed things missing from their backpacks in gym class all year.
She decided to hide inside a locker to see if she could find the culprit. She did not expect it to be her teacher. “After all the kids left she stayed in there and went through people’s backpacks,” Justine said, adding, “I saw her take money and then I told people and nobody believed me.”
Betti decided she needed proof. “Something needed to be done. Like, that’s not ok.”
On Wednesday, February 13, she hid in a locker a second time, holding a phone video camera, with another camera propped up in a second locker.
“I didn’t want to believe that she would do something like that because she was so nice, but then she did it,” Betti said.
Both cameras show her teacher going through backpacks, with one clearly showing what appears to be money being taken from a pink backpack.
“I was like, oh my God, I can’t believe I got this on video and I couldn’t believe that I got it and I kept watching it over and over,” she said. Betti and several friends took the video to the principal.