Sorry, parents, but an overly generous thank you gift for your kid’s teacher won’t work this year and could land you in hot water for attempting to bribe a public official.
According to the NSW Department of Education Code of Conduct, a gift of cash is now a no-go zone, along with gift cards, vouchers and EFTPOS cards. Plus, any gift which is valued over $50 should be declined. How a teacher would know if something is over $50, unless Antique Roadshow valuers happen to be in the car park, is unknown.
Parent groups are now declaring a collective ‘ah come on’ after what has been a truly full-on year for teachers, and those thoughtful nerds -- sorry, parent groups -- just want to thank them for all the extra work they’ve had to put in via one of the most infuriating ways to communicate with kids above Morse code, Zoom.
But the message from School Principals is a clear and resounding ‘tough cookies’ (especially because the ones that cost under $50 are really tough in comparison to a $63 box of cookies).
And in what is a shocking and appalling blow to the bribery industry, dodgy people’s kids are going to have to do homework and live with the consequences of however they did on that test.
Let’s not forget all the burgeoning Ferris Bueller types who were posing as a parent and forging their signatures in a gift card for their teacher with a $100 fuel voucher that reads “Hey Sport, do the right thing and bump the kid’s mark up a notch.”
It’s certainly made me think twice about sliding a five dollar note across a table at a parent-teacher interview and promising, “There’s more where that came from” and presenting them with another $5 note with a wink six months later.
It’s been a bloody hard year for teachers, and to watch friends who work in marketing or other perk-ridden jobs with endless free products and Friday night events must be causing them to rage with envy.
Sorry, guys, all you get is free access to whiteboards and markers.