Honesty pays for 9-year-old
Tamarac Elementary student finds $20 and turns it over to school.

By C. Ron Allen
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Michael Kochinsky has proof -- in the form of a $20 bill -- that honesty is the best policy.

Nearly one month after finding the cash in a bag at Tamarac Elementary School and turning it over to the main office, Michael, a fourth-grade student got the money back and was recognized with an award.

"I was so excited about it," the 9-year-old Tamarac resident said after receiving the money. "I have never had $20. I wasn't really thinking about it."

Michael and his friend were walking in the hallway earlier this year when he stumbled upon the money in a plastic bag. Faced with several options of what to do with it, Michael told his teacher about his find.

"[My friend] was tempting me to keep it in my pocket, but I knew it wasn't mine so I turned it in to the office," he said.

One month later, guidance counselor Brian E. Dektor told Michael, who was new to the school this year, that the money was his since no one claimed it.

"He was here, maybe three weeks, and he already is making good choices such as the one that he made with the money," said Dektor, who also teaches character education. "I'm glad he made such a choice."

In addition to the cash, Michael's homeroom teacher rewarded him with a trip to the prize-filled treasure box.

For his honesty, Michael was recognized recently as a South Florida Sun-Sentinel Kid of Character in the Broward County School District's Character Education program. He received a certificate.

Instead of spending the $20, Michael put most of it in his vacation bottle to help pay his airfare so he could attend his sister's Sweet 16 party in California next summer, his mother Inez Kochinsky said.

"I was amazed," she said. "No one told him to do it. He did it out of the kindness of his heart. He didn't just take it and spend it."

The Kochinskys teach their children that honesty is the best policy, she added.

"My son is always an extraordinary and well-rounded boy," she said. "He did the right thing and he felt good."


This is one in a series of stories on students who best exemplify the Broward County School District's eight character education traits -- cooperation, responsibility, citizenship, kindness, respect, honesty, self-control and tolerance -- and patriotism as part of all eight.

C. Ron Allen can be reached at crallen@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7917.