At an elementary school in Utah, about 30 students had their lunch trays taken away and dumped in the trash. Instead, they were given fruit and milk. Students had their trays taken because they had negative balances in their lunch accounts. The districts spokesman said, "We don't ever let kids go without any food entirely." One child had plenty of money in her account and still had her lunch thrown away by mistake. This was mostly done by one employee who went against district policy. Many parents were outraged at the way the situation was handled.
Analysis: In Dallas ISD, the percentage of students who fall into the category of "free/reduced lunch" was so high, they decided to provide free lunches to every student so we don't have to deal with these instances. Instead of allowing the students to eat the lunches, they were wasted and thrown away. Fruit and milk is not a fully balanced meal, and should not be treated as a replacement of an actual meal. You absolutely cannot just take food out of a child's hand and throw it away like that. They are not the ones responsible for their own financial needs, its their parents. I am sure that the employee who threw away the lunches was not the only employee there, so someone else should have done something to rectify her actions. The school is going to have to do better in apologizing to the parents and students other than just apologies on their Facebook page. I also hope the employee will be properly disciplined as well.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/utah-school-snatching-kids-lunches-article-1.1598258
This is terrible! Young children aren't responsible for their own finances. The school should have had a better way to deal with the situation. In the future, they should allow the children to continue eating and address the parents later.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Camille that there should have been a warning before they started trashing lunches. I also feel like their is more to the story and not everything has been told.
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