Texas school tosses 6th grader’s breakfast in trash after he can’t pay 30 cents

[Playinghardball]

Texas school is standing by its policy after cafeteria workers threw a sixth grader’s breakfast in the trash when they realized his account was short 30 cents.

Jennifer Castilleja told KTRK that she offered to come to the school Wednesday morning and pay for the breakfast but Barber Middle School in Dickinson ISD refused to feed her 12-year-old unless it got the money first. As a part of the reduced meal program, Castilleja’s son pays only 30 cents for each breakfast, but his account had run out of money.

“My son called me and asked me if I could bring him some money because they took his breakfast from him and he needed money for breakfast,” she recalled.

“I said, ‘Well, I’m on my way, I’ll pay for it,’” Castilleja told the school. “And she said no, I would have to bring some money before he could have breakfast.”

“There were kids all around him. I think he may have been a little embarrassed and upset and, of course, hungry.”

Dickinson ISD explained to KTRK that Castilleja should have known her son’s account was running low.

“Dickinson ISD’s procedure is that we do not allow student charges for breakfast,” the district said in a statement. “Many school districts follow this same procedure. Students get verbal warnings to let parents know once the account starts getting low. Written warnings are sent home to parents before money runs out.”

But Castilleja felt like there was more the school could have done.

“Telling the child, we are going to feed you, but go to the office and call your parent and let them know that you need money,” she said. “Anything than sending them to class hungry.”

Watch this video from KTVT, broadcast Nov. 6, 2013.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/07/texas-school-tosses-6th-graders-breakfast-in-trash-after-he-cant-pay-30-cents/

[onehandle]

1. America. Fuck Yeah! nt

[jberryhill]

2. He probably asked for "more"

[Journeyman]

3. …and telling him the day before was entirely out of the question, as that would require competence…

[uppityperson]

16. From the link.

“Many school districts follow this same procedure. Students get verbal warnings to let parents know once the account starts getting low. Written warnings are sent home to parents before money runs out.”

[Journeyman]

21. And did the District send home the written notice they claim they send out?. . .

They don't provide evidence of it. They just tell what their policy is, not how or even if it was implemented.

[RandiFan1290]

4. Texas. nt

[leftynyc]

5. Fucking Texas

Every single day there's a story about how fucked up that state is.

[Playinghardball]

6. Here's the school's website in case someone wants to contact them...

http://schools.dickinsonisd.org/default.aspx?name=07.homepage

[Journeyman]

7. For a school incapable of keeping track of pennies, I suspect reading will be a major problem . . .

[foo_bar]

67. holy shit! @their menu

This is some Brawndo, post-privatization dystopia: "Popcorn Chicken Salad w/Cheez-Its (TM)" (do they sprinkle 'em on top?), "Eggo (TM) Mini Waffles" 5 days a week ('Maple' Flavored!) ... so-called-vegetable choices include "Sweet Potato Stix", "Roasted Tators", and the official vegetable of Texas, "Burger Salad" (source: http://tinyurl.com/l5tqzgh)

Maybe I'm being a snob, and I did grow up eating some nasty processed shit at school when my single dad wasn't cooking up Chef Boy-How-Dee Ravioli in Unspecified Meat Sauce, but everything on their breakfast menu seems to be a variation on cattle feed with added high-fructose flavorability enhancer.

[txliberal2016]

8. wow

i went to that school back when it was Barber Elementary. Dickinson has always been a crappy little place.

[Playinghardball]

20. Welcome to DU txliberal2016

[FSogol]

9. Don't they have a PTA? The PTA at my son's elementary

schools (5+ years ago) kept a fund of $50 in the cafeteria at all times to pay if someone didn't have money in their account. They asked for small donations to keep the account filled. Whenever I stopped by the office, I'd pour my change into the jar for it.

[Wait Wut]

10. This is a great idea.

There are plenty of solutions to this. It's disgusting that NO ONE at the school could figure one out.

That poor kid. I hope those fucking adults are proud of themselves. More importantly, I hope Karma kicks their asses.

[joeybee12]

14. Are you kidding me! Charity!

That goes against the Bible!

[kmlisle]

41. Every kid at my title I k-8 school got a free lunch per district policy

And we had a backpack program where kids took food home for the weekend. We also had sandwiches for kids who did not have money for hot lunches and the cafeteria staff and secretaries would help parents who did not read fill out their paperwork so their kids got to eat. There is no excuse for a child in the richest nation on earth going hungry!

[FSogol]

42. Agreed. n/t

[dmr]

72. My son's school, too. Also, they gave the kids

peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and milk at no charge. This was back in the 90s.

I could never be so cruel to trash perfectly good food when there was a hungry child standing before me. I could never knowingly let a child go hungry, nor would I ever embarrass him in front of his peers, or privately, for that matter.

I would be in search of solutions rather than punishments.

[Berlum]

11. Republicon "Family Values" strike again.

[phantom power]

12. everything's a morality play with conservatives, and not the generous kind of morality

It's the pinched, calvinistic kind of morality.

[cyberswede]

17. +1

[hatrack]

22. . . . which occasionally, spasmodically craps out some beneficence . . .

But not very bloody often.

[TBF]

13. This district is just south of where I live -

Brazoria County (south of Houston, home of Ron Paul). In the new areas of the country we are making headway but this area is full of tea party hell. And they all call themselves Christians as they let children starve ...

[TxGrandpa]

36. Most schools in this area gives them...

a grilled cheese or similar if they forget their lunch money, etc.

Dickinson is in Galveston County...having Ron Paul in Brazoria County should be bad enough!!

[TBF]

55. LOL -

Yeah I didn't know for sure where the line was. I am up in Pearland. I do think Pearland ISD would give a sandwich or something - I'd be surprised if they didn't. The on-line system also has an email alert they send when an account is low but the mom could've just missed that. You'd think they'd make an allowance for one day (especially if they are going to throw the food in the trash ...).

[TxGrandpa]

68. I fudged and..

looked it up!!! My wife has worked for several school districts in southern Brazoria county. That was her answer when I asked what their policy was.

I believe that the policy for most of the districts in this area has the same policy.

Shame on Dickinson for allowing a child go without breakfast.

[Erose999]

15. I had a similar situation when I was in school. Our school kept a ledger and you could borrow for

a meal if you didn't have the money that day. We bought tickets each monday for the weeks meals up until I was in middle school and it was all electronic (and I got on to the federal free lunch program). Sometimes I'd lose a ticket and have to borrow for the day.

When I was in High School Dad and I took apart the clothes dryer and we found a giant wad of meal tickets, coins, and dryer lint inside from where I'd left them in my pockets and mom had forgotten to empty the pockets before she'd washed my clothes. lol

[MyOwnPeace]

29. Wait............

"MOM" forgot to empty your pockets?

Really?

[uppityperson]

40. Seriously. What a bad mom, didn't empty the high schooler's pockets.

I mean, really! What did she think would happen? A teenager might be able to empty their own pockets before putting clothes in the laundry? Next thing we will hear is about those awful moms like me who encouraged their kids to do their own laundry by high school and take responsibility for emptying their own pockets.

That part struck me also. I mean, what?

[Erose999]

71. I lost the tickets in the wash when I was in grade school. Grades 1-5. And we found them 10

years later, when I was in High School. By that time I was doing laundry for the whole family.

[SalviaBlue]

18. Fucking Assholes!

[cyberswede]

19. Stories like this make so angry I want to break things.

How on earth can they be that worried about fucking 30 cents...and then throw the food away?!?

(...the story also reminded me to go replenish my kids' lunch accounts post haste...)

[Beacool]

23. Ahhhhh, Texas.........

Why am not surprised? Home to Bush, Cruz, Gohmert and other a-holes of the same ilk.

[Tikki]

24. I worked as a public school lunch cashier for many years…I can tell you that after 5th grade….

most students, yes and especially boys, are growing at a rate that burns up a massive amount of calories.

I can remember a few times when the doors opened at lunch to the cafeteria and a student standing by the door
smelled the hot food and passed out.

You can joke about it but they passed out from hunger.

No child or school aged student should ever be denied food. If someone wants to argue about students and food
let them sit down with nutritionists and economists and work out a basic substitute minimum cost meal to
give to a student whose pre-paid lunch card is dragging for a day or two.


Tikki

[eqfan592]

25. I'm willing to bet that if the cafeteria worker had given the kid food...

...the administrators would have punished them. Add these bastards to the list of administrators too heartless and/or incompetent to do anything more important than wash cars for the rest of their lives.

[MyOwnPeace]

30. You'd lose........

your bet with me.

I would NEVER let a child go without food (principal - 11 years) - and I can't imagine being in a place that would allow that to happen.

[eqfan592]

64. Sadly, you seem to be the exception these days..... but thank you nonetheless. nt

[putitinD]

56. most of these school cafeterias have been privatized (for profit). the cafeteria workers barely

minimum wage and don't want any kids to go hungry, but their FOR PROFIT employers couldn't care less.

[eqfan592]

65. Exactly. I'll admit my first instinct was to rail on the cafeteria worker, but i checked that.

They almost certainly hated having to do that. What a messed up nation we have.

[MineralMan]

26. When I was in High School, my mom worked

part time at the cafeteria as a cashier and the rest of the day as a junior high office secretary. Lunch was 50 cents. This was before there was anything like free lunch programs, 1959-63. My mom kept a pile of fifty-cent pieces stacked up on the cash register. If a kid came through and was short of his lunch money, she'd drop one of those into the cash register and that was that.

It was simple. She believed that no kid should have to skip lunch for not having 50 cents. She didn't have to use a lot of those coins, but everyone knew that she was good for a lunch if you didn't have your lunch money. The coins were stacked up where everyone could see them as they came through the lunch line, and the word got out. Nobody ever took advantage of her, but kids without lunch money knew they could still get lunch.

She's 89 years old now, and that's how she is. That's how she has always been.

[okaawhatever]

51. I think what's so sad now is that the cafeteria workers probably make little more than

minimum wage and are in as bad of shape financially as these kids. It's shameful.

[Laurian]

27. As bad as not receiving food is the humiliation that child

was subjected to. These things leave a mark. What a hateful policy/practice.

[Mr.Bill]

34. Count that kid another

Last edited Thu Nov 7, 2013, 05:47 PM - Edit history (1)

compassionate Democrat manufactured by the "great" state of Texas.

[RKP5637]

28. Go USA!!! Go USA!!! Go USA!!! Ain't America Great!!! n/t

[LoisB]

46. "We're #1"!

[ReRe]

50. Oh...

... we're exceptional, don't 'cha know?

[hunter]

31. Our school district has free breakfasts and lunches for EVERYBODY.

It's simply not worth accounting for the kids who don't qualify for free food.

If a kid doesn't want want a free breakfast or lunch, food which sadly is not always that tasty (think SOS bad chipped military mystery meat or worse...) then they can bring their own food.

Many teachers buy healthy snacks for their own students using their own money. Hungry kids don't give an apple or "snack bar" to the teacher, they take one.

I think our children, OUR FUTURE, deserve "free food" from birth through college or technical school.

[jtuck004]

32. We send banks $85 billion a month to keep them from running out of money, and then do this?

And the governor of the state is running around the country trying to get businesses to move there because they can pay less in taxes.

Maybe they should be made aware that their kids will be treated like shit on the bottom of someone's shoe for that privelege.



From one of the articles about this:
"In a study published last year, researchers in the United Kingdom found that students who miss breakfast show "significantly reduced" performance in class. "

Learning. From this school district? I wonder...if they did a study about what someone learns about not being worth more than 30 cents, what it might say?

[LibDemAlways]

33. A school denying food to a hungry child is

about as low as it gets. That's shameful. There should always be a reserve in place for this situation. I'm a substitute teacher, and in the district where I teach,kids who come up short are loaned the money on the spot --no questions asked.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

47. Unless I'm mistaken, teachers in Texas also get to beat kids. They say that it is good for them,

the kids that is.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

35. Another Brick in the Wall. nt

[KamaAina]

39. How can you have any pudding if you can't pay 30 cents for your meat?

[Brigid]

37. This is by no means the first story like this we've seen around here.

Does this go on in any other "industrialized" country?

[noiretextatique]

38. hey assholes: you are there to serve those children

that should be your foremost concern.

[hibbing]

43. Ugh

Gosh the posts today are so depressing.

Peace

[MoreGOPoop]

44. This kind of crap

just shreds my head. As a mother I cannot accept that
such heartlessness exists.

[CreekDog]

45. It's not just heartless, it's stupid and financially, it's wasteful

they threw away a lunch that cost a lot more to prepare than 30 cents.

instead of being 30 cents behind, accountingwise, they prepared a meal that cost more than that and threw it away, so the 30 cents is lost and all the costs invested to make that lunch are lost.

[Rex]

48. Money. It is worth more than hunger, thirst, life, death.

America will NEVER be an advanced civilization. Not as long as we value money over well being.

[Always Randy]

49. every time I've ever seen something like this

r there is an illicit affair going on with the principal----or the administration has been on the take---or they are covering up something------so watch this school ---something big is going to pop up here

[ReRe]

52. You know...

... I always swore I could not/would not home-school my kids. But if I lived in that town and I had a kid in school there, I would either move or home-school my child. Period. If I couldn't do either, then I would be absolutely sure there was enough money in that account with extra in case any other kids came up short, they could take it out of my kid's account. Parents need to get out and picket that damn school AND swarm the next school board meeting. That policy needs to be changed, pronto!

[CFLDem]

53. What a dick move.

Where I come from its rude to waste food for any reason.

[leanforward]

54. Someone needs to be counseled.

Why was that kid singled out? Elementary kids and parents have missed communications. Sounds like some sensitivity needs to be brought to bear on the school staff (selectively). I've been told repeatedly, that kids learn better on a full stomach. Sounds like there was some Alice Henry at the cash register.

[gopiscrap]

58. welcome to DU

[Historic NY]

59. "Texas" and "Jesus" have little in common except they have 5 letters in them.

[Art_from_Ark]

60. That is just wrong

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

[NaturalHigh]

61. Unfortunately, you can't fix stupid.

[freshwest]

62. Forgetting the purpose of the lunch program? Or just shitting on a little kid? I say both.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

63. I hate to say this again

but what the fuck is wrong with Texas?

[Coyotl]

66. They better hope the mayor of Toronto doesn't hear about this.

[Enthusiast]

69. What a country!

[LeftinOH]

70. I have more than 30c in change on the floor of my car, and in the ashtray, and

in the drawers of my desk at work. I suspect every one of the adults in that school do as well. This is obscene.

[dipsydoodle]

73. Kick