Utah School denies children food

[disneydude]

Not sure where to put this....but this is absolutely OUTRAGEOUS!

Uintah Elementary School Begins Damage Control after School Lunch Mishap | KUTV.com

First of all, you don't embarass children the way this idiot did. Secondly, a child should NEVER be denied food. The correct policy would be to provide food for the child and go after the parent, including a civil remedy, if you believe the parent has the ability to pay.
The "apology" by the school is just as bad. You don't deny lunch to a child and "give them a piece of fruit/milk".

Someone needs to be fired over this

 

[disneydude]

BTW...here is a link if you want to voice your outrage in an email to the Superintendent:

Salt Lake City School District :: Departments : Office of Communications : Editorials

 

[Johnson]

Wow, I just read this article. How in the world do you make an elementary school child bear the consequences for their parents' mistakes?

 

[American]

I hope they really don't depend on notifying the students that their balances are low, as a primary path to a remedy. Can you trust a student to notify their parents of a low balance, I sure as hell wouldn't bet on it. Anyway, they should have served the lunches, but told the students that they would need to make an arrangement after that, followed by a call to their parents.

 

[disneydude]

Here is the email to the director of the salt lake city school district child nutrition director: kelly.orton@slcschools.com

People need to speak out and let them know that this is not acceptable.

 

[Blue_State]

Who had the balls to take food away from a child? There are more things going wrong in that community than school lunch. Wow.

 

[Ockham]

Agree it could and should have been handled better - but, I don't see a big issue here. No they cannot serve the lunch to some other kid once it was already served to the original one so of course the food had to be trashed. The kids however were given fruit and milk so they at least ate something.... not that outrageous. I went to school when I forgot my lunch and had no money, and wasn't given anything and survived just fine. In fact it taught me and my parents to double check before running out the door to either have a few bucks or my lunch in my hand.

Other than the mishandling of the accounts, the schools badly handling the served lunches that then had to be wasted.... I don't see a problem.

 

[americanwoman]

Not sure where to put this....but this is absolutely OUTRAGEOUS!

Uintah Elementary School Begins Damage Control after School Lunch Mishap | KUTV.com

First of all, you don't embarass children the way this idiot did. Secondly, a child should NEVER be denied food. The correct policy would be to provide food for the child and go after the parent, including a civil remedy, if you believe the parent has the ability to pay.
The "apology" by the school is just as bad. You don't deny lunch to a child and "give them a piece of fruit/milk".

Someone needs to be fired over this

Holy crap and after all that they threw out the lunches they took back after some students were served!!

 

[americanwoman]

Agree it could and should have been handled better - but, I don't see a big issue here. No they cannot serve the lunch to some other kid once it was already served to the original one so of course the food had to be trashed. The kids however were given fruit and milk so they at least ate something.... not that outrageous. I went to school when I forgot my lunch and had no money, and wasn't given anything and survived just fine. In fact it taught me and my parents to double check before running out the door to either have a few bucks or my lunch in my hand.

Other than the mishandling of the accounts, the schools badly handling the served lunches that then had to be wasted.... I don't see a problem.

If they can't serve the lunch to another student common sense and decency should make them realize they should just let the original kid eat the food instead of throwing it in the trash.

 

[Blue_State]

If they can't serve the lunch to another student common sense and decency should make them realize they should just let the original kid eat the food instead of throwing it in the trash.

Taking the food away from a kid after you gave it to them is the part I can't understand. I am guessing they were in the lunch line and when they were at the checkout, it showed they were delinquent. People were going to have to work overtime that night to get it straightened out with the parents, or you just take a kids food away.

I can't believe the decision making.

 

[ttwtt78640]

Agree it could and should have been handled better - but, I don't see a big issue here. No they cannot serve the lunch to some other kid once it was already served to the original one so of course the food had to be trashed. The kids however were given fruit and milk so they at least ate something.... not that outrageous. I went to school when I forgot my lunch and had no money, and wasn't given anything and survived just fine. In fact it taught me and my parents to double check before running out the door to either have a few bucks or my lunch in my hand.

Other than the mishandling of the accounts, the schools badly handling the served lunches that then had to be wasted.... I don't see a problem.

Really? Hopefully the child is not the one responsible for paying the school lunch account so why are they suffering for it? Would you advocate suspending them if their parent owed back taxes or had an outstanding traffic fine? Holding the parents responsible for either providing their kid(s) a bag lunch or paying the school lunch account for them is not a problem, making it the "contract responsibility" of a minor is simply insane. Not only did the already made lunch get tossed, it was replaced with an additional snack, costing the school even more.

 

[TheNextEra]

Agree it could and should have been handled better - but, I don't see a big issue here. No they cannot serve the lunch to some other kid once it was already served to the original one so of course the food had to be trashed. The kids however were given fruit and milk so they at least ate something.... not that outrageous. I went to school when I forgot my lunch and had no money, and wasn't given anything and survived just fine. In fact it taught me and my parents to double check before running out the door to either have a few bucks or my lunch in my hand.

Other than the mishandling of the accounts, the schools badly handling the served lunches that then had to be wasted.... I don't see a problem.

I'm more against this because it's on the lines of embarrassing the kid. The simple fact is they could give the same meal to the kid and then take it up with the parents later. You don't do that to a kid in school, I'm sorry. I find no situation where that is acceptable.

 

[iacardsfan]

We complain about the food our children are being fed (or lack there of) but we don't complain about the straight BS that is being drilled into their heads. Amazing. At one point or another they are receiving food, it just might not be a luxurious meal. I remember times in school when I was given bread with cheese and water to eat because I didn't have enough lunch money. It is no different here. It is quite disgusting they throw the food away instead of using it, but other then that I see no problem here. Obviously if there was a child in any danger of food deprivation action would be taken. You might say "don't take it out on the kids" but they are the ones in the schools. The school has no jurisdiction over the parents, only the children.

 

[Lutherf]

I'm really not particularly outraged. The kids did get fed and what they got was probably better for them than what was on their tray to begin with. If I was making the decisions I probably would have handled it differently but it's not something that really irks me.

 

[Ockham]

If they can't serve the lunch to another student common sense and decency should make them realize they should just let the original kid eat the food instead of throwing it in the trash.

Agreed, but since they made the first bad decision, they had to follow it up with another bad decision (throwing it out).

 

[Risky Thicket]

Not sure where to put this....but this is absolutely OUTRAGEOUS!

Uintah Elementary School Begins Damage Control after School Lunch Mishap | KUTV.com

First of all, you don't embarass children the way this idiot did. Secondly, a child should NEVER be denied food. The correct policy would be to provide food for the child and go after the parent, including a civil remedy, if you believe the parent has the ability to pay.
The "apology" by the school is just as bad. You don't deny lunch to a child and "give them a piece of fruit/milk".

Someone needs to be fired over this

Amazing! This is simply more proof that there are too many people out there who are educated way beyond their intelligence. That and the fact that a growing segment of America has lost its goddam mind.

What educational system produced a dumbass who would do such a thing as the nutrition counselor did? What educational system produced the dipships who would stand around with their fingers up their butts and allow some dumbass to do this to children? There is something fundamentally lacking out there. Why are these food fascists allowed to be working around young impressionable minds?

What Risky would have done: paid for those kids to eat that day out of my damn pocket and then I would have trotted the "nutritional counselor's" waddling ass down to the principal to get the situation sorted and the nutritional counselor sacked.

 

[Ockham]

Really? Hopefully the child is not the one responsible for paying the school lunch account so why are they suffering for it?

The kids got fruit and milk. You call that suffering?

Would you advocate suspending them if their parent owed back taxes or had an outstanding traffic fine?

Irrelevant to the discussion but of course not.

Holding the parents responsible for either providing their kid(s) a bag lunch or paying the school lunch account for them is not a problem, making it the "contract responsibility" of a minor is simply insane.

Well the parent isn't paying for their own lunch - I'd think it was more of the parents fault for not keeping up on paying for their kids meals. Parents are off in your view, scott free and it's all the schools fault?

Not only did the already made lunch get tossed, it was replaced with an additional snack, costing the school even more.

Yes that was my previous post which said they could have done a better job handling that.

 

[Ockham]

I'm more against this because it's on the lines of embarrassing the kid. The simple fact is they could give the same meal to the kid and then take it up with the parents later. You don't do that to a kid in school, I'm sorry. I find no situation where that is acceptable.

The kid will live through the embarrassment - the issue isn't embarrassment at all the OP makes it out to be all the schools fault when in reality, if the parents were concerned about their kids eating they'd have either made sure the school was paid or provided the kid a bag lunch so they can eat. The school handled it badly no doubt, but ultimate responsibility falls on the parents.

 

[TheNextEra]

The kid will live through the embarrassment - the issue isn't embarrassment at all the OP makes it out to be all the schools fault when in reality, if the parents were concerned about their kids eating they'd have either made sure the school was paid or provided the kid a bag lunch so they can eat. The school handled it badly no doubt, but ultimate responsibility falls on the parents.

Again, it is not acceptable for the school to embarrass the kid like that. Plain and simple I won't be losing any tears for someone getting fired.

 

[ttwtt78640]

The kid will live through the embarrassment - the issue isn't embarrassment at all the OP makes it out to be all the schools fault when in reality, if the parents were concerned about their kids eating they'd have either made sure the school was paid or provided the kid a bag lunch so they can eat. The school handled it badly no doubt, but ultimate responsibility falls on the parents.

That is true, yet the school decided to act on the students - not the parents. The school also seemed to treat zero and negative lunch account balances equally and only after serving the lunch trays, indicating a very sudden change in policy.

 

[Ockham]

That is true, yet the school decided to act on the students - not the parents. The school also seemed to treat zero and negative lunch account balances equally and only after serving the lunch trays, indicating a very sudden change in policy.

It would be interesting to find out what were the policies concerning lunch credits before and after. I'm going to sound like an old coot here but in the 80's when I went to school, no money and no bag lunch meant no eating period. It seems something with the current system loses the lessons learned from going hungry during lunch period.

 

[Ockham]

Again, it is not acceptable for the school to embarrass the kid like that. Plain and simple I won't be losing any tears for someone getting fired.

The parents own any embarrassment, not the school.

 

[TheNextEra]

The parents own any embarrassment, not the school.

right, so it is an imperative that the school embarrass the kid right? :doh You'll have to show me where in the school handbook it says if a kid doesn't have money, the school is to embarrass the kid.

No, the school IS responsible for embarrassing the kid. The school did not handle it correctly.

 

[JayDubya]

This account thing is a new business , and its a good idea, but back in the day, if I went to school without any money and I expected them to give me food, I would be **** out of luck.

When you as a parent choose to use this account business, it's your responsibility to keep money in the account. Alternatively, send cash. Alternatively again, send a sack lunch.

They shouldn't have given out the food in the first place, that was an obvious mistake. At that point they should just charge the account. Food, once served, is not a returnable or reusable item.

 

[disneydude]

I'm sorry, but you NEVER deny a child food. PERIOD. If they did it to you "in your day", it was just as wrong as it is today. At a bare minimum, schools need to supply basic instruments of learning and food is one of them. Certainly parents should pay, if they can. But if a student forgets his lunch or the parent doesn't have the money, the kid should not be denied food. A child cannot learn when hungry and denying them food exacerbates the problem. At my children's school in LAUSD (Los Angeles), the kids get breakfast AND lunch, regardless of whether they can pay. In a civilized society, THAT should be the bare minimum.