Disappointed....

The night of our homestudy, Deidra asked if she could be asked her questions before the caseworker talked to us so that she could go play with her friends. The caseworker said that was fine and talked to Deidra and then Deidra went to her friend's house. She was over there for a little bit and then came home. We were still talking to the caseworker. The caseworker left and about 10 minutes later there was a knock at the door. I thought it was the caseworker saying she forgot something, but I found Deidra's friend, her brother, and their Mom. Their Mom asked if she could talk to me privately and so I went out on the porch. Their Mom said that her daughter's cell phone was missing and the brother had said that Deidra had been playing with it. I called Deidra out and checked her pockets and found the phone. Deidra said that she forgot it was in there and their MOm said that stealing wasn't cool with her. I honestly didn't know what to think. Deidra burst into tears and ran in the house and I told Deidra she was grounded. Their Mom kept saying "I didn't want to come over here and accuse of her anything and it's ok." I told her that Deidra's never done anything like this before and I didn't know the whole story, but that it would be dealt with. Deidra told her that she forgot that she had put it in her pocket when they got called to play the Wii and then when she came home she realized she still had it and she was going to give it back to her friend at school in the morning. Their Mom said that she had told them to put it up and then the brother said that Deidra had gone back in there to get it because she wanted to play with it. They left and Andy and I talked with Deidra and she just wouldn't talk. She wrote to us a little bit, but wouldn't talk about much. She's grounded for a week, we're going to have her write a letter of apology, and I think when she does start playing with her friends again, it's going to be supervised here for awhile. She's got some friends who have some behaviors that I don't like and I think it's time to nip it in the bud now or she won't be playing with them any longer. I know that no kids are perfect, but I want her to be the best that she can be and I've been seeing some things lately with some of her behaviors that I think are the result of hanging around with certain people. How they deal with their kids is one thing, but I really want Deidra to understand the difference between right/wrong and what is unacceptable behavior. She's a good kid, I really don't know if she took the cell phone intentionally or if what she said is true that she put it in her pocket and forgot that it was there when she came home. But regardless, their Mom told them to put it up, she should have listened and with all that happened, I want this to be a learning experience for her.