Is this harassment Punishable?

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Today in school I could not work on my work in class because it was to noise so I left. Before I left my teacher took another kids phone because they were on it in class and she told me since I was going to the office anyway to take that individuals phone to the office. So I took it to the office and went on with my day. By the time lunch came that individual and two of her friends harassed me for taking the girls phone. they said the office lady did not have that individuals phone. So they questioned me,and called me names. I walked away and called them a bad name and started crying. Me and the teacher told the vice principal after the office lady found the phone about how I was treated and he did not punish them. :(

Should they be punished?

I need for you to clarify this a bit. Am I reading this correctly, that you were disturbed by someone's conversation on a cell phone and so took their cell phone from them?

If so, I can understand your upset but it it best to either ask someone (a teacher or counselor) to intervene on your behalf or simply to remove yourself from the place of disturbance and complain to to someone in an alleged position of authority (again, a teacher or counselor) to intervene on your behalf.

Some of us do find certain sounds terribly distracting problems and don't always deal gracefully with finding a solution for these problems. That is the reason so many of us are not employed as career diplomats.

The question of punishment becomes one of fairness: do you deserve to be punished because you did not deal with the problem gracefully? About as much or little as the people who behaved like jerks because no one else who should have intervened and acted as a mediator in a difficult situation did. In my point of view, some teacher or counselor failed to notice and do their job. They DO have a job description posted somewhere, just as the Office Lady does. It is the job of the teacher of counselor to follow up in situations where harassment may occur. I believe the SYSTEM failed you AND the kids who behaved like brats, as well.

I'm unsure about the left part too, did you just walk out of school? Or go to another room?

The way I read it, he either walked out or asked for permission to leave, the teacher asked him to deliver the phone to the office.

Later, the student with the phone and his friends claim that the poster stole the phone while taking it to the office.

They called him names, he responded in self defense.

I think that your teacher was wrong to ask you to take the phone to the office. They should have been punished for calling you names.

I think whether or not they can be punished will depend on what they said to you. Did they call you demeaning names, use inappropriate language, or otherwise verbally abuse you? If they only accused you of taking the phone, then they shouldn't be punished; it is their right to be upset if they thought you had taken it (and, at the time before the lady in the office found it, there was evidence that pointed to that).

I'm not saying you were wrong to be upset. I probably would have cried, too, if someone had accused me of stealing something. However, from the other student's perspective, they also had a right to be upset because their phone was missing.

The fault for the incident mainly lies with the person in the office who lost the phone. Also, the teacher should have carried the phone to the office herself, instead of putting you in charge of another student's possession. Obviously the teacher trusts you, but it still put you in a position to be accused by the other students.

Now that the phone has been found, the other students do own you an apology for wrongly accusing you, but it is not up to you to force them to apologize. Hopefully they will decide on their own to apologize or the vice principal will make them apologize, but if not just try to let it go and avoid those people.

The way I read it, it almost seems like the OP has a special arrangement in place to go to somewhere in the office to get work done when it's too noisy - the office tends to be relatively quiet. Since the OP was going there, the teacher asked the OP to take the phone with them. The taking of the phone by the teacher was unrelated to the OP.

Being in teaching myself, I agree with thewhitrbbit that the teacher should not have had you take the phone there for a multitude of reasons. Giving you access to another student's personal property like that, especially something which is both highly valuable and could have personal information, is a terrible, terrible idea. To be honest, I am surprised that any teacher would think that was a good idea.

By your account, it sounds like girls may have actually had reason to be upset - they were told that you had taken the phone to the office, and then told the phone was not in the office. Even if it was a mistake to do so, I can't entirely blame them for thinking that you had taken the phone, since you were the last person they had seen with it.

So, with that in mind, I'd say the punishment comes down to what words were exchanged and exactly how this played out. But in deciding punishment here, I would honestly be inclined to be lenient with the girls - unless they had a history, I would likely explain how they could have handled the situation better, get both them and you to apologize for the words that were exchanged (since you say you called them a name as well), and send the students away with a warning.

In the end, the real fault lies with the teacher. The teacher didn't handle it appropriately in the beginning, which led to what happened later. I wouldn't be surprised if the vice principal has some words with the teacher later.

My advice to you: unless there's been a history with these girls, or if they continue to harass you after the fact now, just let it go as a mistake on their part. If this is a one-time incident, there probably isn't a need for punishment.

EDIT: Rachel's post wasn't there when I first clicked the reply button, but I agree entirely with everything she said.