Petty stuff

I see no fundamental difference between these two situations;

Staff that throws out/takes home aluminum cans

Staff that throws out items on the lost and found table at the end of the year.

In neither situation the items are the districts, nor does anyone have the permission from the real owners to take/dispose of the items. It's a case of abandon property, covered by common law.

Again the real issue is making a mountain out of a mole hill = admin not having better things to do.  Really all that comes from this is distrust with your supervisors. 

In both situations it costs the district money to deal with the abandon property.  They pay to get rid of their recyclables/trash and or take the stuff somewhere.

In neither case; can the district claim theft.  The didn't own the stuff, and suffered no economic loss from the stuffs removal.

It reminds me of a situation a few years back where an employee had permission from the wood shop teacher to take home scrap wood to burn.  The "director of buildings and grounds" gets on the guy about this.  And then takes the scrap wood home himself.

At least in that case the wood might be the districts property (though that can maybe argued as most of that is paid for by student project fees), where as the aluminum cans were not.  Either way its all pretty stupid.  As if these admin are saints and never borrow district property etc.