Mom Pays Off Every Student's Balance Following Son's Denial of School Lunch

[joeybee12]

When Amanda Keown got a call at work from her son last week, the news she received made her furious. Dominic Gant, a junior at Dowagiac Union High School in Michigan, told his mother that he had not received his hot lunch that day because of an outstanding balance. But instead of just fixing her son’s situation, she decided to help the rest of the students dealing with the same situation.

Keown, a single mother who holds two jobs to support her family, didn’t realize there were insufficient funds in Dominic’s account (a total of $4.95 was owed on his tab). Though he offered to pay $2 of the $2.45 tab that day with the money he had on him and then bring the remainder in the next day, his offer was turned down and his lunch was thrown in the trash by a school official. Not only was the 16-year-old humiliated in front of his peers by the very public incident, his name was also posted, along with lots of other students, on a list in the cafeteria naming those with delinquent expenses for everyone to see. "I was very angry to the point I was sick to my stomach," Keown tells Yahoo Shine.

Upset that Dominic went the day without eating based on an outstanding bill totaling to less than $5, Keown immediately rectified the situation. She paid the balance and full bill but, concerned about others like her son, offered to settle all the other kid’s late fees, writing a check that included an additional $200 to be divided between the 19 teenagers named. But she knows there are more children to help, so she didn’t stop there. “I kept picturing the elementary kids and what they have to be thinking going through the same thing,” she says. Keown aired her grievances on Facebook and friends and acquaintances sounded off with corresponding stories. Then, she posted a petition to Care2.com to bring more attention to the issue.

Mark Daniel, the superintendent of Dowagiac Schools, explains that there are current policies in place throughout the district to avoid instances such as these, especially for the younger students. If someone doesn’t have enough money to pay for a meal then they’re instructed to talk to an administrator on duty, who in most cases will arrange to get them a lunch. “It would be a very rare situation for a student not to receive their lunch,” he tells Yahoo Shine. But, Daniel adds, he is very grateful to Keown for bringing this circumstance to his attention and for her donation. “We were doing some things that probably needed to be corrected and I personally want to make sure that we’re consistent throughout the district.”

https://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/mom-pays-off-every-student-s-balance-following-son-s-denial-of-school-lunch--184851942.html

[frylock]

1. ffs why can't they give the kids their lunch and tell them they can't have another..

till the outstanding balance is paid? this throwing away of the food and Scarlet Lettering of these kids is fucking shameful.

[joeybee12]

2. I know...both are so wrong...

and these are allegedly educators sending this message?????

[frylock]

3. and why do they have to talk to an administrator?

can't these dumbshits instruct the servers to just give them the lunch?!

[joeybee12]

6. God forbid the kids shouldn't learn the capitalist system...

That's much more important their health, after all.

[frylock]

15. sorry, timmy, you can't have your lunch..

but do enjoy your complimentary bootstraps.

[joeybee12]

20. You're scarily close to the truth...

Sounds like it's from a speech Randy Paul might make.

[DhhD]

100. By the time the student or students talk to an administrator the lunch period is over. And if they

get a lunch plate they have to dump it at the bell which allows administrators to tell the public that the student has no respect for the public giving a free lunch. What next? Refusal of a restroom pass after lunch. What about tomorrow? Don't give a free lunch because the students will just dump it.

And a posted list could be cell phone photographed and placed on the internet. That is bullying, IMO.

Glad this was made public. There should be a plan in place to prevent every aspect of this entire situation. It should not happen.

[1monster]

109. No. The teachers don't have anything to do with the lunch room in most cases. That would be

either the cafeteria manager or the businiess officer.

[kardonb]

55. lunch

"policies " be damned,here is a hungry child ! Feed it ! Did they make any money throwing his lunch in the trash ? This is "policy ' gone insane !!!

[treestar]

92. I agree; throwing the lunch out is just wasteful

It is not the kid who didn't pay the balance per se, but the adult. Add late charges - do something else to enforce this.

[jcamp27]

111. For Profit companies.....

In some cases these are private companies that have the contract to provide lunch for profit. That is what happens when you allow the profit motive in our school system. You end up with people and organizations that don't give a shit about kids.

[lpbk2713]

4. "It would be a very rare situation ... "

Apparently this "administrator" isn't paying attention because it just happened on his watch.


Too busy playing golf are we?

[joeybee12]

5. I know...his was the lamest cya response! nt

[KurtNYC]

14. Also he calls her payment of all the other bills a "donation" as if he is running a charity

that can do what it wants with "donations."

[Crunchy Frog]

70. Or he's just lying through his teeth. n/t

[mopinko]

7. we need to just feed kids and dump all this bureaucracy.

so many of the schools in chicago have upwards of 90% eligible for free lunch. why do we have to process all this paper? stamp these kids as poor or not poor?
the fed could easily just subsidize schools by census tract. but every school should just be expected to feed the children who are SUPPOSED to be in their care. in parentis loco.

[joeybee12]

12. You'd think if they just did that, the cost of the other 10%

would be less than the paperwork.

[CrispyQ]

13. Yes. Every child in school gets a free hot lunch. Every single one.

How many free martini lunches have the taxpayers paid for the fucking banksters?

[demigoddess]

85. I was thinking the parents should get together

at the beginning of the next year and prepay ALL the kids lunches for the whole year. So no kid will ever go hungry. The rich parents can add in a little extra and the others can just pay what they usually would. Or have a mother on duty at the lunchroom with cash for the kids who are in arrears. Also she can give the idiot in charge a dirty look every time he threatens to take a lunch away from a kid.

[frylock]

18. not only would it save money, but it would save a lot of kids from the humiliation..

of getting a free lunch because of their family's financial situation. I speak directly from experience on that front.

[My Pet Goat]

19. I completely agree with you...

as a taxpayer I would be totally willing to fund free lunches at public elementary and secondary schools period. Yes, there will be children getting free lunches whose parents can easily pay, but free school food isn't what I would call a windfall. It really wouldn't be that expensive of a item either for school budgets (I don't think).

Edit: added elementary schools too!

[Louisiana1976]

37. I would too, as a taxpayer.

[homegirl]

103. Ther is no free lunch

unless you live in Scandinavia. Every school in Sweden serves a hot lunch to every person in the building at lunch time. At the end of the line there is a basket with a fresh fruit for the taking. No one is questioned and the lunch is healthy, tasty and enjoyed by all.

[MADem]

90. I agree. Why not just look around the system--and by that I mean the ENTIRE system, the whole

town/city, not just the "school system," where ever the pile of money is initially coming from, and do a little economizing. It wouldn't take much, there's pork EVERYWHERE and we all know it. Use those savings to just fund the frigging lunch program. NO ONE will then have to pay, because the taxpayers pay.

If kids are hungry, they aren't learning.

[mopinko]

91. here it is all big food service companies

its pennies a meal. compared to the paperwork hours, its just an exercise in mean.

[TBF]

97. ^^ this is the only humane answer. K&R nt

[quakerboy]

125. Yup

lunch should just be a part of school.

Its good for academics. That's the first point. people who have eaten a decent meal learn better.

Then the social side of things. Why stigmatize kids who's parents make less. What 8 year old has power over how much their parents make? Its been a while, but I recall lunches as least as integrated with social status as clothing. Who has a lunchables and coke vs who has a cheese sandwich and generic cola makes a difference in the "who's who" of elementary school.

And of course then you have the busy working parents. Why should there be a worry about whether you get to eat if your mom forgot to pack something or didn't have cash in her wallet this AM when she dropped you off. Its silly.

[oldhippie]

8. Why do they have to pay for their lunch?

Why isn't it in the school budget?

[joeybee12]

17. It should be...it can't be that expensive...

but that would mean we'd have our priorities right!

[oldhippie]

24. The school should probably also ...

... feed the kids breakfast when they arrive in the morning, and dinner before they go home. Parent's can't be trusted to feed their kids if they can't figure out a simple lunch tab.

They might want to think about giving the kids a place to sleep in case of a parental anomaly of some type.

[glowing]

34. In many places, Title 1 schools, all breakfast is free and many kids qualify for free lunch.

Why? Because families are poor and broke and can't make ends meet on their min wage job. For many children, breakfast and lunch at school may be the only meals that they will eat the whole day. I guess you really don't have a clue just how horrific it is for these kids who didn't ask to be born to families that are poor. AND now that food stamps have been cut, things are even more grim at home, if they have a home to go to. Many schools in these poor neighborhoods will actually open up during the summer so kids can come in and get a meal to eat.

But yes, put it on the kids heads to pull up their own bootstraps.. Maybe they can get a job at that school doing janitorial services so they can pay their own way?

[oldhippie]

101. What are you talking about?

Where do I blame the kids for anything? It's the parents that are being irresponsible. Having kids they can't afford, for one thing. And don't give me all the excuses. They are just excuses.

[moriah]

102. Please tell me you've been sarcastic, because you sound remarkably Republican there. Edit to add...

.... I mean, those irresponsible parents daring to have children when they're poor. Only the rich should get to have kids, right? Then we wouldn't need food stamps at all!

[oldhippie]

108. So you think it's good ....

... For poor parents who can't make ends meet to have more children? Well, OK then. But I kinda feel sorry for the children.

[moriah]

110. You didn't say "more" children at first, you said "children". And I presume you're pro-choice?

I'm quite pro-choice.

Which meant that when my young friend got pregnant at 18, I supported her un-coerced decision to have her child vs abort it (she was also pro-choice, and made hers for herself.) They got married, they worked hard, until the husband was the driver of a van (for work) that got hit head-on by a cement truck that crossed the line. He's on disability now. They're on public assistance, live in public housing, are on food stamps, and their daughter gets free lunches. When their birth control failed again eight years later, they also elected to keep that child vs abort it. Their second daughter is a year old now, and unfortunately the mom had severe complications from that pregnancy and hasn't been able to work herself since -- but she is taking care of her children and her husband, which is a full time job in and of itself.

They were on assistance when their birth control failed. To suggest that they shouldn't have had their second daughter is to step very clumsily into an area that anyone who is pro-choice hopefully knows better than to judge -- the extremely complicated decision about what to do when you have an unplanned pregnancy.

Now, if you're talking planned pregnancies and public assistance, that brings up another whole can of worms that is a huge Republican talking point -- no, their situation wasn't made any better insofar as the assistance they got when they had their second child, aside from getting to move to a slightly bigger apartment to accommodate the size of the family.

You see why I was really hoping this was sarcasm on your part?

[Fla Dem]

114. Perhaps when they had the children, they thought they could afford them. You do know we recently

went through a recession, where many people lost good paying jobs. While the economy has improved, many people have had to take lesser paying jobs and some are still not back to work. To paint all parents who are struggling economically as dead beats (not your words, but what you were implying) is not right. As stated in this story, the single Mom worked 2 jobs. And I don't get the impression she couldn't afford to pay for the lunches, after all she ended up settling all the kid's accounts with deficiencies. Probably just a case of her son overspending the account.

[moriah]

124. To me, it doesn't matter. Rich and poor, women have the right to control their bodies.

That includes having children, or not having children, as they choose. As much as some families stretch that argument (think the Duggars), it's not up to me to control someone else's fertility.

The whole argument about the poor having "too many children" is long-standing. Jonathan Swift had some well-known words to say on the matter.

[oldhippie]

127. This whole sub-thread pretty much confirms what I thought

So I will say no more on this subject.

[glowing]

126. Please, with all the things that our politicians do to keep people

from getting ahead in this country... They offshore good paying jobs. They don't have sex education in many places. And there is limited access to health services for young women. And even when you are as responsible as possible, pregnancies still happen.

And just look at what happened in 2008 when the economy crashed and so many people lost good paying jobs. Those jobs haven't come back-- the jobs that are around are McJobs... And we have the wealthy still pillaging the village that is nearly decimated. So, even when parents got a college education, had a decent job and lived in a decent neighborhood, they were in trouble.

No one in this country who wants to work and can work should have to sit idle. We all see work around us that should be done, yet politicians are in some crazed idea that A govt of, for, and by the people shouldn't make jobs.

I really think you took a detour off the wrong page here. And even if the parents forget to put lunch money on the kids card, the kid shouldn't go hungry! Heartless me, me, me.. Grow up, selfish person.

[pipoman]

27. Maybe it should be in the budget

And maybe they should be free, but food and food preparation are not free or cheap...it would have to be paid by someone or something. ..

[Gormy Cuss]

57. So who pays for the lunches they dump at the cash register?

That's not free. Someone is paying for that loss.

[winter is coming]

63. It's a guaranteed loss. If they'd let the kid have the meal, they likely would have gotten paid

for it, even if the payment came late.

[pipoman]

69. The poster I responded to made a suggestion

that a food service program can't be that expensive, I know that it is expensive from my experience running 3 commercial/health care kitchens. I didn't disagree with the rest of the post.

[Scootaloo]

105. Because that might mean a few cents less on the football coach's paychecks

[NightWatcher]

9. how much would it cost to provide every kid in public school a lunch?

How much would it cost us to make sure that every kid gets at least one semi-decent meal a day? The same as it costs for a day or two of war against some brown country?

We cannot claim any kind of American Exceptionalism while we have kids going hungry.

[joeybee12]

10. +1

[mopinko]

25. they should get breakfast too. in a lot of schools they have breakfast in the classroom

they walk past a big buffet, bagged up ready to go breakfast, and eat it in the room..
they can very easily listen to the daily boot up while drinking their milk.

it helps a lot.

[Mondavi]

98. Strongly agree

[KittyWampus]

26. Any kid that needs a lunch in school gets one BUT THE PARENT HAS TO DO THE PAPERWORK.

[oldhippie]

30. That penalizes the kids who have parents ....

.. that are not capable of reading or comprehending the paperwork.

[My Pet Goat]

32. Yep..or kids who have parents....

that don't do the paperwork for the wrong reasons (e.g., irresponsible) frankly. Still not the child's fault.

Edit: just a hypo...I don't think the child's "fault" is relevant either.

[Gormy Cuss]

58. Damn straight.

I knew kids whose parents wouldn't do the paperwork for reduced/free meals because it would be admitting they were too poor to afford it. Same parents never had much around the house for packing lunches either.

[mopinko]

99. or time if they are working 2 or 3 jobs.

yeah, just lift these families up, and stop putting up hurdles to prove they are
'deserving'.

[knitter4democracy]

64. It's in the school's best interest to get that paperwork, so they do.

I've seen cafeteria staff fill out the paperwork just to have a parent sign it after the parent gives them the numbers they need, and I have seen principals and office staff do the same.

[GeoWilliam750]

46. Let me know if you find an answer to how much it would cost

It would make for very interesting reading.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

52. looking at the headcount

for a single school system in GA... $62,056,800.00 per school year.

That school system has 169,000 students.
My assumption was $1.20 for lunch and $.84 per student for breakfast...

sP

[Scootaloo]

106. If we took every dollar thrown at killing foreign people, and spent it on school lunches...

Our kids would be eating those stupid hundred-dollar burgers every day from Kindergarten to college.

We throw a lot of money at convincing ourselves we're still a superpower.

[My Pet Goat]

11. Shouldn't providing a nutritional lunch...

be a fundamental feature of a sound education for growing children? This should be every school's starting point: a good lunch will be provided to you regardless. We go from there in terms of payment issues.

[joeybee12]

16. I bet it is in other western countries...

Just googled and couldn't find out anything, though.

[laundry_queen]

54. I'm in Canada

and I'm not sure how it is in other areas, but I've lived in 2 different provinces, in mostly small towns and not one has provided lunch. Every kid brings their own lunch. The office does have some snacks and so on for kids who forget their lunch, but there isn't much provision for those who don't HAVE a lunch every day - that said, I don't know of anyone who couldn't afford one, though I probably wouldn't know since it's not like that is advertised. I currently live in the burbs of a major city and I do know that there are a few 'high needs' schools that do breakfast and lunch for all of the kids. I think it is funded by donations for the most part. (found an old link: http://www.teachers.ab.ca/Publications/ATA%20News/Volume%2038/Number%207/In%20the%20News/Pages/Edmontons%20School%20Lunch%20Program%20celebrates%2010th%20anniversary.aspx )

That is the exception though rather than the rule. Most schools don't have lunch programs in my area (or other areas I've lived in).

[surrealAmerican]

21. "a list in the cafeteria naming those with delinquent expenses for everyone to see"

Who on earth could have considered that a good idea? That's just sick.

[joeybee12]

22. A fan of "The Scarlet Letter" apparently...nt

[mopinko]

23. honestly. the attitude is pervasive in many schools.

kids are the enemy, and must be whipped into shape, squeezed out of their natural evil natures.

this is why i dont completely accept a lot of arguments about education. they dont seem to really acknowledge that there ARE schools and teachers that are not only not helping kids, they really deform them. and allow them to be deformed by other kids.
i think it is what comes of the factory school model. they are so ofter treated like cattle.

[madfloridian]

31. So what do you think of the KIPP factory school model?

[mopinko]

61. i dont like any factory schools

survivor of 12 years of catholic schools.

[mopinko]

67. which is to say- i think that any school that does not recognize the

uniqueness and personhood of every child should be shuttered.
there seems to be an inverse correlation between the size of the organization and the respect for the child. many individual schools still maintain a high level of humanity despite being a part of a larger meat grinder organization.

it's why i am basically in favor of decentralizing the whole f'ing thing.
even pigs for slaughter are fed. what does it say that we do it the way we do?

[Sivafae]

42. This all just angers me.

kids are the enemy, and must be whipped into shape, squeezed out of their natural evil natures.

Like eating?


(joining in the sarcasm here)

[joshcryer]

45. Check out un-schooling, democratic schools.

I think the industrial school model is a failure. Unfortunately too many educators don't want to give up their power.

[mopinko]

60. did that for 8 years.

4 kids.
son is working on a phd in theoretical math, full boat and a stipend, magna cum laude.
all life long learners, and excellent students.

[joshcryer]

71. They say it only works for gifted children.

I think it's BS. It's never been tried on a large scale

We are talking Rockefeller, Carnegie, Ford, J. P. Morgan, the grand designers of industrial education.

[mopinko]

73. well, every child does not benefit from a gifted education

i really thought that what made my fson so special was what i did.
not.

i do think that all kids would benefit from more curiosity directed learning, but i also think that all kids need to grow certain mental muscles. gifted kids find most of that on their own, but you cant just hope that will happen.
every kid deserves an appropriate education and that includes the kids in the fat part of the bell.

[knitter4democracy]

65. It's their data wall.

In some schools, teachers are to post kids' test scores (without names but other identifiers) on a data wall so that everyone can see who's improving and who's not. This is just the cafeteria's data wall.

Snark aside, we have families in our district that owe thousands of dollars for their kids' lunches. It's a real problem in a lot of districts, and it's not like Dowagiac's a big district. I used to live and teach not far from there before moving up here.

[winter is coming]

78. An automated phone call to the parent would be more effective, and less shaming.

If the kid's gotten this far into the school year and the debt is only $4.95, it sounds like mom simply lost track of how much money they had in their account. That can happen pretty easily if your kid doesn't eat school lunch every day.

[knitter4democracy]

80. Oh, I know. I get emails.

There's no reason to dump a lunch, period. Let's just say, though, that I'm not surprised.

[KittyWampus]

28. Kids get a free lunch in school but the parents have to do the paperwork and keep it current.

How many freaking times do these stories have to be posted and the facts reviewed on DU?

The parents have to keep it current.

It's their responsibility.

And the schools send multiple reminders for parents to keep the paperwork current.

[winter is coming]

33. This doesn't appear to be about kids who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.

It appears to be a case of the student (and the mom) not realizing he needed more money added to his lunch account. Throwing the lunch in the trash is not a "solution": either way, the food's not going to be sold to someone else, so why make the kid go hungry?

[KittyWampus]

36. Then I apologize to the mother.

My understanding is that "free lunch" now means a card with X amount of credits on it.

Sort of like how food stamps turned into a sort of debit card.

Free lunches in schools is one of the few things we got right in the USA. It may not be perfect.

[oneofthe99]

39. why keep anything current , work it into the school budget

[KittyWampus]

47. are schools magically supposed to know how many kids want free lunch?

[oneofthe99]

50. I think you missed my point

Why not have all the lunches included in the budget.

If a child wants to bring money with him to buy some thing extra fine but a basic school lunch should be included
in the cost of the budget, Where the hell does all this money go to? I have been told by my town hall almost 85% of property taxes go to the school budget in every town

[herding cats]

44. Even in the cases where the parents are negligent in keeping the records current

How is it acceptable to shame the students by posting their names on a board for all to see? It's not the children's fault if their parents don't fill out the paperwork. Public shaming of children for their parents mistakes is inexcusable.

[mopinko]

68. they could base it on census tracts.

especially since schools are mostly geographically based.
new york city is doing it.

[morningfog]

74. Fucking unbelievable. You have let go of all pretenses, I see.

[KittyWampus]

86. wtf? one of the few things this country managed to get almost right is free school lunches.

[Wait Wut]

29. Disgusting, but...

...to Ms. Keown,

You are an inspiration. You have just shamed every 'entitled' rich asshole out there that claims that single mothers are lazy welfare queens and embarrassed the suits of the school district. Happy Mother's, Day!!!

[Louisiana1976]

35. Kudos to the mom for paying off every outstanding balance owed by kids in her son's school.

I think humiliating kids whose parents owe by throwing the kids' lunches in the trash in front of their classmates is horseshit of the lunch servers.

[oneofthe99]

38. I pay $5800 a year in property tax and that's considered very low

where I live , many home owners pay much more.

I would like to know why every school doesn't just work it into the budget ?

Are school lunches really that expensive now?

I use to pay .35 and a nickel for a half pint of milk

[elias7]

72. Well, if you had a 2000 person High school

So at about 700/class, then k-12 would number 8400 kids in the school district, multiplied by 180 days of school and you get 1.5 million lunches for the year. At $2/lunch that comes to $3 million. Last school budget I've seen was in the $27 million range. Not sure if the school district paying for lunches would be feasible.

[Sunlei]

40. that sucks!! the school humiliates the children and posts their names on a list in public.

American schools need a totally free lunch & breakfast for all public schools.

[herding cats]

41. Heartbreaking. Shaming children for not having enough money to pay for their lunch is wrong!

As is throwing away their food in front of them. It's as if these schools are trying to find the most humiliating method to force parents to pay up. I'm pretty sure almost all of these parents would pay if they had the money, and for the ones who wouldn't how is shaming the children going to help them?

This mother is a beautiful person! I hope she inspires more people to pay attention and become active in these horrific deeds being done by school districts.

[winter is coming]

83. If $200 were sufficient to pay the debt for 19 kids and school lunches are $2.45,

that works out to about 5 lunches per kid. In some school districts, parents set up an account that they add money to and their kid has a card with a magnetic stripe on it they use to buy lunch. Being an average of 5 days behind sounds like parents who either didn't realize their kid had spent all the money in their account or parents who are waiting for a paycheck to catch up. Either way, denying food to someone who's only a week behind is pretty damned harsh and throwing away a lunch that's already been taken is pure waste, since you'll never get paid for it.

[Sivafae]

43. I can't believe they just threw it away rather than using it for what it was intended for...

feeding a child.

That is the part that really gets me.

[Faygo Kid]

48. Koch brothers would've paid that $200 if they had their names on the lunches

Otherwise, way too expensive for them.

[heaven05]

49. money before everything else

america at it best. This happened in romney land not so long ago. i wonder how much this money before anything else and the shaming incidents goes on in this country. This is one sad incident for the child. Growing up in a shame based environment scars for a lifetime.

[knitter4democracy]

66. It's really bad in Michigan right now.

Well, it has been for 3 years with this MI GOP-controlled government in Lansing.

It's money before all in most districts in MI these days. Trust me, these are dark times in education here.

[heaven05]

93. snyder the snake

Last edited Sun May 11, 2014, 08:21 PM - Edit history (1)

how in the hell can't people see through these types when voting. For the life of me, I really can't understand. And if they do see through them and vote for people like this, I feel sorry for the evil that resides in their hearts. Snyder/Bush/Romney/Fallin types, yeah RW ass..... who have just their own narrow views just don't belong in office. The Democratic Party in Michigan is weak!

[knitter4democracy]

51. Keep in mind, the school food program is a different part of the budget.

Many times, they are outsourced and don't work for the district. They have to break even or make money for their company or the district, so delinquent students hurt that bottom line. There are some school food companies that take that money out of their employees' checks or penalize them in other ways. I know that my kids' old school district definitely reprimanded food workers who fed kids whose parents hadn't paid and threatened to fire them so that they had to hide it as best they could.

[YOHABLO]

53. If it is a problem then contact the parent(s) don't humiliate a young person ..that's so wrong.

[Submariner]

56. deleted

[malokvale77]

59. Before responding to this...

I had to walk away for a good while. I don't think I have been this angry in my life time.

I paid off my mortgage 13 years ago. I haven't had children in school for over 25 years. I pay a property tax bill every year to live in the house I have paid for in full. The largest portion of that tax bill is for the "school district".

FFS, feed the damn kids. You damn sure are not educating them.

And for those who want to suggest that it the parents fault for not filling out the paper work, fuck that shit. There shouldn't be any paper work to feed children. This bullshit about about the sins of the father being visited upon the sons has freaking got to stop.

The heartlessness in this country is appalling. Feed the kids, damn it!

[morningfog]

76. Same here, my blood boiled.

[malokvale77]

81. It is sick...

it is senseless, and it is inhumane. This nation needs a collective slap upside the head.

[Liberal_in_LA]

62. wonderful act

[TeamPooka]

75. If you throw out their food to punish a child you should lose your job.

[Major Hogwash]

77. They should fire the person who posted that list of children in the cafeteria.

They would have known better than to do that sort of humiliating thing 20 years ago before being a total jerk at school was an acceptable form of behavior.

[Initech]

79. This shit wouldn't have to happen if we started taxing the damn rich!!

[JI7]

82. they need to end this and just offer every student lunch based on them attending the school

[McCamy Taylor]

84. Any teacher who throws food in the trash like that should be forced to get it out and eat it.

There are people starving and they waste good food. If they don't get the food out and eat it, they get fired.

[femmocrat]

94. Why are you assuming it was a teacher?

The OP says, "school official".... unless I missed it somewhere.

[Warpy]

87. Any martinet who would throw lunch in the trash in front of the student needs to be fired.

That's all.

[Skittles]

89. please post online the names of the school officials who created / sanctioned that list of students

yes INDEED

[Starry Messenger]

95. I agree this is appalling.

I would condemn it if it happened at my school.

Why are people blaming teachers for this policy? Food service is not teacher-run.

Two, other people condemning this should rec the threads about charter school theft and corruption. It is the starving of public resources to public schools, which partially leads to tight-fisted budgets for things like food. Which I agree should be provided to all kids for free.

[DesertDiamond]

96. I'm trying to suppress a string of swear words that wants to come out of my heart and into this post

right now. HOW CAN THEY TREAT CHILDREN THIS WAY????????????????????

I would say, fire those cafeteria workers, but but I know those people themselves scrape by on minimum wage. But put whoever did that somewhere in the back where they never directly contact the children. That would prevent future abusive incidents. Also the children who were affected by that kind of person's actions might be deterred from even going into the cafeteria again because of the discomfort of seeing that person.

[Sheldon Cooper]

104. I guess I wouldn't last long as a lunch lady.

I would never throw a child's lunch away because he or she didn't have money in their account. I'd pay out of my own pocket before I did that.

[L0oniX]

107. This is an example of what is praise worthy ...as opposed to some rich famous kid getting a PHD.

[Harcourdt Fenton Mud]

112. No soup for you! NT

[Nine]

113. Disingenuous.

In my child's school, and I expect most other schools, you pay for lunches before they are eaten - either by having the child bring money that day or by keeping funds in an electronic account. If you go the electronic route, they send you e-mail reminders when the account gets low. So it's a bit disingenuous to say that this family's account was only $5.00 "behind" as though it's an overdue bill. What happened is that this kid, who is probably 17 if he's a junior in high school, came to school three days in a row without any lunch money. The first two days they gave him a hot lunch anyway and I'm sure reminded him to bring money next time. The third day they decided not to keep giving him a meal he hadn't paid for. This is not an impoverished family because if it were, the boy would qualify for free or reduced lunches. And the mother herself doesn't claim that they couldn't afford to pay.

The meal was not thrown in the trash to be spiteful. The school cafeteria probably takes the view that if you keep giving students free food whether they pay for it or not, that doesn't create a strong incentive for families to pay. And I don't think that's an unreasonable view. Because of that view, they didn't want to give him an unpaid-for lunch a third day in a row, and once he had put the food on his tray, it couldn't be given to someone else for sanitary reasons. The same thing would happen if you went through a buffet line at a restaurant and then didn't have your wallet. The restaurant wouldn't just give you the food anyway because "waste not, want not." They would dump it and send you on your way. And the list of kids with delinquent accounts - these are not the school's poor kids and the list is not a case of "poor shaming." No kid who qualifies for free lunches would even be on that list. It's more akin to a list of kids with overdue library books, and the account delinquencies are probably all under $5 each.

I don't like having any student go all day without a lunch. In my view, schools are responsible for the health and safety of students, and it certainly can't be very conducive to learning to have a growling stomach. I'd prefer that schools always provide something for a student to eat, even if it's something simple and inexpensive, and handle the collections in the same way that collections for things like lost textbooks are handled. But this mother and her son are not the hapless victims they're making themselves out to be; they're part of the problem. I see no reason why a non-impoverished 17-year-old can't remember after three days to bring $2.45 in lunch money or tell his Mom to replenish his account. I see no reason why a non-impoverished grown woman can't manage to keep a positive balance in her son's electronic lunch account, even with email reminders and a couple days grace period, without blaming the school and everyone else for her mistake.

Public schools are already under attack from enough sides. Teachers frequently must buy supplies with their own money. People who fall delinquent on their lunch accounts not because of poverty but because of irresponsibility don't earn my sympathy. I'm sure schools have to "write off" losses all the time from parents who don't pay things they owe. And I'm very tired of every little school spat ending up in the national news. Schools can never give a proper defense to their actions because of privacy issues, and the parents' version of events is always treated as fact.

[Agschmid]

116. You should come up with a meal plan for me, I am always trying to eat healthier.

[Agschmid]

120. There always is a "healthier" option or one that aligns with a persons familial beliefs in food...

However some kid don't get any food at home so this is their best shot at any balanced nutrition. Thursday nuggets it is... FWIW I almost always ate school lunch by my middle and high schools had about 3,000 kids so there were a lot of options.

[William769]

117. Would Kale be on that list of healthy foods?

There's a heath store next to my Library.

[greatauntoftriplets]

118. No crunching of kale chips in the library!!

[Agschmid]

121. Funny my library has a Friendly's next door...

[greatauntoftriplets]

122. We don't have any Friendly's here.

But there is a Portillo's about a mile from the library!

[Danmel]

123. good for her but it isn't an isolated experience.

My son had a deficit of 4¢ in his school lunch account and we were told he would not be allowed to graduate from high school if he did not pay it off! So he brought in a nickel and told them to keep the change. The building adminstration was pretty embarrassed. They had a meeting about it to clarify the policy. At graduation the principal gave my son his diploma and said "thanks for the penny Danny." It ended up being funny but it is never OK to embarrass a child or deprive a child of food.

[tavernier]

128. I have to speak up for the lunch ladies in our town

since my daughter runs the department at the grade school level and I help out serving at the high school. This is outrageous and unacceptable. We all take pride in seeing that all the kids are properly fed, and none are humiliated or embarrassed in front of their peers. I think this holds true for most of the servers in the country: all the ladies I know carry their own change to make up for kids who run into problems.

Yes, some parents are chronically tardy in replenishing the coffers, and this rarely has to do with income but more often with bad habits. There is protocol to cover this... a call or letter to the offending parent. But never is the child deprived of meal. And yes, there are the kids who ask for double portions and wolf them down before reaching the cash register, but this is a game some of the senior pranksters like to play: Will I get caught? (You would not believe the creative things they do with a dozen plastic lunch trays and packets of plastic utensils tucked under their shirts... Everything from gladiator fights in the corner of the cafeteria to a six piece plastic rock band). But hey, we were all kids at one time and as long as it is kept to a minimum, we laugh along.

But NO child is refused a meal, and NO child is ever embarrassed for not having the price of one.

[U4ikLefty]

129. AMANDA KEOWN!!!

bow down