An attempt by a 12-year-old girl to pay for her school lunch sparked a counterfeit money investigation by police. Danesiah Neal used a $2 bill at Christa McAuliffe Middle School in Houston, Texas and apparently the school cafeteria worker felt the girl was trying to pull a fast one in the cafeteria. The worker used a counterfeit detection pin on the bill and when the pen did not work, she had the school call police. Her grandmother, Sharon Kay Joseph, was called and she informed school officials that the bill was given to her at a local store as change.
That did not stop the police from detaining Danesiah at school and telling her she was in big trouble. In the meantime, police questioned the store owner that gave the bill to her grandmother. They also went to a bank to check out the bill. It turns out the bill was real and the reason that the pen did not work was because the bill was printed in 1953, before counterfeit measures were included in US currency. Then, according to Sharon Joseph, the police came back to her and she stated, “He brought me my $2 bill back. He didn’t apologize. He should have and the school should have because they pulled Danesiah out of lunch and she didn’t eat lunch that day because they took her money. It was very outrageous for them to do it. There was no need for police involvement. They’re charging kids like they’re adults now.”
Danesiah was not charged with any crime but she was not able to eat lunch that day. Surprisingly, the use of counterfeit money at schools is on the rise in the area. According to police, there have been at least 40 cases of fake bills used by students since 2013 in the Houston ISD, Fort Bend ISD and Cy-Fair ISD. Very few of the students were arrested and some were sent to an alternative school while the police investigated. However, only Black and Latino students have been accused of using counterfeit money.
