Unclaimed school items are donated to charity

Hundreds of items abandoned at local schools are finding a second life through clothing closets and community donations.

Backpacks, jackets, textbooks and water bottles line the tables of area schools following the conclusion of each school year — items students have left behind.

The most common unclaimed items across schools are T-shirts, hoodies, shoes and report cards.

Russellville City Schools superintendent Tim Guinn said most abandoned items are used school supplies left in classrooms or lockers that have to be thrown away.

While rare, some of the strangest items that have ended up in the lost and found are cellphones, electronics, car keys and eyeglasses.

Brooks Elementary School bookkeeper Barbara O’Daniel said staff posts unclaimed items on their social media accounts throughout April and May for parents and guardians to identify items their students did not retrieve.

Valuable items, like eyeglasses, are the reason items are posted to view, she said.

Most schools give students opportunities multiple times throughout the school year to reclaim their items.

L.E. Wilson Principal Dr. Jill Johnson said items are left in the lost and found for at least a semester before they are sorted.

“We usually have teachers parade students through the items so they can claim what is theirs,” she said.

While some staff members are confused how so many items get lost, many have pinpointed a common denominator — gym class.

“Our gyms get cold,” Phil Campbell High School Principal Bart Moss said. “Students may wear a hoodie to gym class and eventually take it off.”

Russellville Middle School Principal Monica Moon agrees gym class is where a majority of lost and found items are left.

“We see some crazy things sometimes, like just one shoe.” she said.

Items that remain unclaimed prior to the beginning of the next school year are donated or laundered to serve as a resource for students in need.

Moss said unclaimed items at Phil Campbell High are often saved to be donated to during Christmastime.

Schools across Franklin County donate unclaimed items to A Place of Grace, local churches and various donation droboxes.

Schools across Lauderdale and Colbert counties donate some of the unclaimed items to local thrift stores and churches.

Some area schools, primarily middle and high schools, plan to wash and launder any unclaimed items before storing them in their clothing closets.

Those closets serve as a resource for students in need of additional clothing items, or students who violate dress code and are unable to retrieve a change of clothes from home.

Alongside unclaimed items, these closets are stocked with donations from staff and faculty, local businesses and stores that have misprints or surplus items.