Story Archive

Counterfeit Responsibility

If you’re attending public school in Texas and you’re thinking of buying lunch with cash, be warned: the cops stationed at schools take counterfeiting seriously. An investigative journalist found 40 police reports dealing with suspected counterfeit money at school cafeterias in the past three years. Students can face felony charges or — even if not charged — be sent to alternative schools because of money their parents gave them. In one case, a student was denied lunch because the $2 bill her grandmother gave her seemed fake. “They gave it to the police. Then they sent me to the police office,” said Daneisha Neal, then 13. “A police officer said I could be in big trouble.” After taking the bill to a bank, authorities determined it wasn’t fake, just old: it was dated 1953. (AC/KTRK Houston) ...Next time you see a $2 bill and you think it is fake, hold it up, look closely at the portrait, and say: “Mr. Jefferson, does what I am doing make any sense at all?”