Problems in Paradise

I received this email from Ve's teacher today:
Ve came in from recess unable to find a mitten. She went back out and looked, but couldn't find it.

Also, yesterday she took a cupcake from our custodian without permission. She took it and then ran away from him. It occurred before school and when she came in she showed me the cupcake and I said, "Where did you get it?" She said, "G." That is the name of the custodian.

This all came back to me because G mentioned it to another teacher and the teacher came to me to let me know. Ve and I talked about it, then she went down apologized to G. Just thought you'd like to know.

This is the email I sent in reply to hers:
Hello,

Thank you for letting me know these things. She told me about the mitten as soon as she arrived home.

As for taking the muffin, I asked her about it once I received your email and she denied the whole thing until I put her on the naughty step. It was then she finally admitted to me that it was true. I have been working and talking with her for some time now about not taking things that don't belong to her and grabbing things from others. It is slow going in getting her to overcome bad habits that she has acquired from being at the orphanage fighting for every little item to call her own.

Thank you for making her apologize and please let others know that we do want to correct and help her change these bad habits. She isn't doing this because she is bad, it is just because it is all she knows thus far. I feel it is all still instinctual from her prior life in Haiti, but that does not mean we should let these things go. I want her to learn that that type of behavior is VERY unacceptable here. I wish G would have talked with you directly rather than let it go and complain to others (I know him from PJ's and he did the same thing there). That won't help her change her ways, rather it may cause others to think negatively of her rather help her overcome this habit.

She came home from school today with a plastic dog that she says she received from you. Is this true? She also came home with 3 bags of popcorn that she told me Brennan gave to her. Is this true, I don't know. I tell you these things because I am still under the belief that it takes a village to raise a child and McKinley is part of her village and the more people to help Ve the quicker her habits will change.

I think the more comfortable she becomes, the more her habits may be showing up. We have really been dealing with certain behaviors in a greater way within the last few weeks at home and I think it will intensify before she has learned some things aren't OK to do.

Thanks for your help and keeping me informed.

I am not too pleased that Ve lied to me about taking the muffin. She absolutely refused to change her story until I put her on the naughty step. I am not sure where these other items came from either. I knew this caching, claiming item problem was something that I would have to deal with in Mim, but since I didn't see any sign with Ve while visiting with her in Haiti, I really had hoped she didn't have this problem. I was wrong. Any good suggestions beside what I plan to do which is place her on the naughty step when she lies and then take privileges away from her whenever I find out that she has taken any thing from others.