I believe 100% that authorities should be called in. Everytime. I'll give you a few reasons:
1. It's a crime. It's a huge crime. It's worse than stealing -- it's stealing field trips and school supplies from kids.
2. Embezzlers are really good liars and parent groups are really bad investigators. I hate to think of the hundreds of thousands (perhaps millions) of dollars that have gone unrecovered because well-intentioned parent groups have kept the investigation in-house and missed all kinds of purloined dollars. Detectives have the training and the tools to get much closer to the bottom of these things than parent groups can.
3. Embezzlers tend to keep on stealing until they are truly caught (and sometimes even after). A group's allowing the embezzler to get off quietly or just make restitution (for what the group *thinks* was stolen) means there is no record. This person may be hired as a bookkeeper for another company, may become the treasurer of another nonprofit (we've seen this several times), etc.
I'll stop. I feel pretty strongly about this.
That said, I also believe that the -- like JHB notes -- groups should collaborate with and keep school officials in the loop on the situation. JHB is right that the school will be affected by this. Average readers/listeners won't make a distinction between group and school. But that doesn't mean, in my opinion, that you abdicate your fiduciary responsibilty to the school authorities. As a leader you've been entrusted to protect the group's funds.
Final note: I've seen several instances where legal authorities have gotten involved, investigated, and where moneys (closer to *all* moneys) have been returned without prosecution or conviction. Authorities can make wise choices, too. In fact, there more well-trained to make those calls, too.
If someone takes company funds or takes funds from a public entity, it is called embezzlement. It is illegal. You will find that 90% of the time it is reported, especially in the amount mentioned. The 10% who do not report it fall into a couple of catagories. The "we've got something to hide" catagory, the "we don't want to hurt anyone's reputation" catagory, the "I don't know what to do now" catagory, the "this will hurt our organization" catagory, and the "we're so embarrassed it happened to us" catagory. I'm sure there are other catagories, but those are the big ones, and my favorites as well.
We had a treasurer help herself to the group money for two years. I was the one to find the problem when I won the pres election in May. I did not want to report it, but I did. Not only is embezzlement illegal, but so is knowing about it and not reporting it. Sort of a Guilt By Association kind of thing. Our district office personel also reported the embezzlement because once they knew about it, they too had to report it.
Even though I didn't want to report it, I did. As I stood there answering the police questions, something one of the detectives said hit me pretty hard. She said that I "shouldn't be the one feeling bad. This person is a thief. And a big one. This person is a liar. And a big one. She did this for two years without feeling the least bit sorry. She is only embarrassed that she got caught".
When considering the feelings of the embezzler, ask yourself this: Did they take anyone's feelings into consideration while stealing money earned by children for children? Ask yourself about the answer you'll be giving at the beginning of the year when parents say "did you report this"? Think of the explaining you'll have to do when you say "no, we didn't report it. We didn't want to ruin anyone's reputation".
If you commit a crime, part of the cost of doing it is knowing you could be caught and that if you are caught, it is going to reflect personally on you. It is going to be an embarrassment to you and your family. It is what you should have been thinking about before you took the money.
Morally, you did the right thing. You also did the right LEGAL thing. It really is a crime not to have reported it. Check with your police department... they'll tell you the same thing.
I tend to agree with Serendipity and JHB. If the person was willing to make retribution then you should have explored those options first. There are reputations to consider and especially if the person in question has a child at the school. (kids can be very cruel to one another sometimes)
Filing charges should be the final option. After all is said and done, I would look at your financial handling policies and see what you could have done to deter this from happening (and sometimes even the best precautions can't stop it...)
If nothing else, I would have consulted your school principal in your course of action, regardless of the final decision. This does not just effect your PTO.
Legally - if the PTO is an independent enity, then I would think it can act independently. But I personally would tend to agree with the school/superintendent. All avenues should have been considered and all parties consulted.
We faced the issue of missing money several years ago. Independent organization or not, our PTO would never have proceeded without conferring with the principal and school district on how to move forward.
They have as big a stake in this as you do (maybe more so) as far as reputations. And they often have experts such as legal, public relations, auditors that can help.
In our case, even though many people were certain as to who took the money - there were too many holes in the cash-handling process at the time to have prosecuted. So there was no point moving on to file a complaint with the police.
I agree with Serendipty. Is there a way to scale this back now or is it too late?
The bottom line is in getting the money back and if the person were agreeable to paying up then I certainly would be willing to do that. It saves the town & school from a scandle and embarrasment to the family memembers and children of the person who did this.
Can the charges be dropped? If so It may benefit you all and save you legal costs.
In a recent audit of the financial books, our PTO Board found over $10,000 missing. The PTO Board brought the information to the local police and filed a formal complaint. The Superintendent of the school felt the PTO over reacted, and could have set a payment plan in place to reclaim the missing funds. The person in question is also a School Board member. Legally did the PTO Board have to report the missing funds to the authorities, or could the PTO have set up a payment plan?
