Hi I am a 17 year old high school student living in Ontario Canada. Recently, I have found an unattended purse in the hallway and I took it and stole $5 and than threw the purse somewhere randomly in my school.

My principle caught me on camera and I was suspended for 10 days, also because I have a record of incidents over the past 2 years. They called the cops and I was charged with theft under 5000 and my court date is in March 20 2007. I am worried right now because I am looking for a job and also applying for university.

Also, is there a chance I can get expelled from school. I was thinking of going to a pschologist and lying saying that I am depressed.

Also I have 2 WARNING from the cops before because I stole bikes and I forged my dad's cheque but that was like 2 years ago and I didn't get charged.

Kuoyang,

First lying will ONLY complicate this more, DON'T DO THAT.

Second, you have NOT been convicted of a crime, you do NOT have a criminal record.

No job nor university will be able to know you were arrested.

On March 12, that is your trial.

Talk with your lawyer, most likely you will just plead guilty, pay some fine or something.

Since you are only 17, when you turn 18, your criminal record will be destroyed.

But as of right now, you do NOT have a criminal record, not until you plead guilty or are convicted at your trial on March 12.

Thank you for using the site,

I am sorry but you can not delete your post. Posts are not deleted unless they violate a site rule. I reviewed your post and it does not violate any rules

You don't have any record from school acts in the past and the things you did before that were not taken to court.

So this new crime will be the only thing you are going to court for. You need to get an attorney and see if you can work out a plea deal that will allow you to take a diversion program.

This will allow you not to have a record after you complete your probation.