Detecting at my school today

I work at an elementary school ,which is directly behing my house. I walk out the back gate and I'm on school property. I have permission from the principal and talked with the county school security officer last weekend.
The security officer was eyeballing me at first so I walked over and introduced myself, showed them my school ID badge and explained that I was looking for coins and taking out any metal objects that I find on the playgrounds (there are two playgrounds at our school).
So I ended up with $3.24 in coins, nothing old though. BUT I was happier about the pieces of metal I got out of the woodchips. I'm not sure where they get the woodchips from but good lord, some of these pieces were just under the surface. None were deeper than 4", and trust me these kids can dig a respectable hole during recess.
I think if the school administrators knew that we are actually helping to keep the kids safer by removing these dangerous objects, they would welcome us to their schools with open arms.
I do not dig on the ball fields or cut plugs in the grass, I actually have gotten fairly good at coin popping with a screw driver to avoid making any noticable disturbance in the ground.
Thank you to all that have provided all of the good advice, tips and techniques that have helped me out as I continue to learn this great hobby. I started detecting about a half hour after opening my Christmas present this past Decemeber!

Great job at keeping the play areas safer. There a lot of sharp objects in the last photo.
Congrats on all the clad.

Look at all those sharp items in the woodchips :shocked04: I wonder how many lawsuits you prevented? :lol: Just nice to get out there and swing for a while. Clad adds up.

I was shocked at all the junk metal. The kids I work with are K-3rd and it gave me chills to think of the little kids getting one of these stuck in their knee or hand. I think they get the woodchips from the landfill (for all the schools here), as it is free from their recycling program.

Great work and nice day of glad. congrats

Great haul you got there :thumbsup01:

Is the key tie-dyed? Nice haul even if clad. I was at a school yard that was near the site of an old school from the 1800's. I was hoping to find something old but instead I ended up with clad like you. I figured I would find some of the change that fell out of kid's pockets while running, and I am sure thats what some of the people looking on thought that was the main intent of hunting. Thats prob the first assumption of others. Just as trying to find an old saloon, people hiking saw me with an MD walking and make the joke about gold in the hills. When I tell them there was an old saloon they seem shocked....There is no "foot in mouth" emoticon.

coinnut said:

Look at all those sharp items in the woodchips :shocked04: I wonder how many lawsuits you prevented? :lol: Just nice to get out there and swing for a while. Clad adds up.

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Good point. I didn't think right away from pic as I was scrolling down to see comments before processing info. When I was at the school yard for elementary school and seeing many many pull tabs, I was thinking they were drinking. Not making shanks out of pencils. Lol

Yes, the key has a tye dye paint job.
One of the kindergarten teachers told me today she lost an expensive bracelet on the playground, and could I look for it.
I asked her when she lost it, and it was about 9 years ago! I explained that it was most likely found soon after losing it.:shocked01:

yes I agree both parents and educators would be shocked at all the sharp dangerous things we hobbyists remove from school yards and parks. I've personally found rusty nails , razor blades , hypodermic needles and live bullet rounds , just to name a few. we definitely do more good then the public realizes and it just takes one idiot who doesn't fill their holes properly to get them to condemn us all. keep up the good work Finster your bound to find some old coins or silver.

Congrats on all your clad

Great job on cleaning out all those sharp objects. What the public doesn't know could hurt them.
Your forum name....is that a character from the movie The Usual Suspects?

No:lol:
It is from the character in the old bugs bunny cartoons. I have always looked younger than my age and I got the nickname back in high school.
I was working a summer job removing and repaving high school tracks and kind of got into it with the biggest guy on the crew. He was in the ROTC and was a total a-hole, but a REALLY big guy. I knew that he would beat me to death given the chance so I popped the head off a pick and went after him with the pick handle. I chased him up the bleachers a few seats until the adults put a stop to our little outburst. I never actually hit him, but came very close. I was swinging for the fence!
We actually got along ok after that, he said I had balls for a kid that almost died that day. I was called Finster from that day on, based on the little tough guy on bugs bunny. I am actually very nice and laid back, he just pushed too hard on the wrong day.