Q: We’ve just been informed that our 7-year-old son has been effectively “expelled” from the private school he attended last year because of repeated instances of stealing small items from classmates and, on one occasion, from the teacher’s desk. We’re rather shocked because our son was the highest-performing student in his first grade class and the school’s administration promised to work with us concerning the problem. Through the school year, he stole at least 20 items from other children, things like pencils, pencil sharpeners, and several of these new toys called “spinners.”