VHS teachers arrested for embezzlement

Over $1,000 worth of Science Fair money in order to fund Thai Food Feast.

In an effort to avoid controversy during a pending trial, teachers’ names will not be revealed. Back in Feb. 2020, many VHS science students signed up for the county science fair. This sign up included a permission slip and a $10 entry fee. Soon after the students registered, the science fair was called off due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.

However, when the fair was canceled, students did not receive a refund of any kind. This led junior Sleuthy Sherlock to look into where the hundreds of dollars worth of science fair registration money went. “I just was getting all my ducks in a row for the transition to online school, and I was wondering if I would get my science fair registration money back? I asked around to some fellow classmates if anyone else got their money back, and no one had. This raised some red flags and I began to investigate," said Sherlock.

While on social media, on March 17, Sherlock discovered a male VHS physics teacher had posted a photo of himself on Instagram, along with a male and female chemistry teacher eating loads of Thai food. The post was captioned, “Free from school! Happy quarantine! #sogladsciencefairiscanceled#treatyourself #ajobwelldone.” Sherlock thought the situation was peculiar, “So many science teachers, the ones who had science fair students, were all hanging out, eating so much food and the post was captioned in such a cryptic way, I couldn’t just let this go,” stated Sherlock.

This led him to look closer. He noticed the boxes were labeled “Lucky Thai,” so he headed down towards the beach to interview the staff of Lucky Thai. After a short conversation with the Lucky Thai staff, Sherlock recorded a conversation with the manager of Lucky Thai on tape on March 19. Sherlock has generously given access to this exclusive interview.

“Well, a few days ago, there was a pretty interesting group who picked up some food. They came in giggling, whispering amongst themselves, ‘The kids won’t know what hit ‘em. They won’t notice if we use it,’ and things like that. They definitely bought some of the best and most expensive food on the menu too. They said they would be back again soon and that they had lots of money to spend,” said the Lucky Thai manager. Sherlock also was given the receipt from the order, which consisted of: seven boba teas, six pad see ew, four pad thai, one tom yung goong, three yellow curry, 10 fried rice and 20 sticky rice with mango. The order totaled $456.73.

Sherlock decided that this was just too crazy, so he contacted the school, “I went to administration and was surprised to find out that they had actually had over $1000 of science fair registration money go missing. They decided to look into it just as a precautionary measure. Turns out it was the science teachers!” said Sherlock. The school decided to take the case to court. The verdict is set to be revealed in May.

The teachers have since been put on paid leave. When asked for a comment, the teachers released a group statement, “We were just partying being let out of school and we were hungry. We thought no one would notice the money was gone. We just love Thai food so much! We take full responsibility and regret the decision fully.”