Posted on 01/30/2014 5:29:36 AM PST by Wolfie
Parents upset after school takes lunches from students with account deficits
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Dozens of students at a Salt Lake City elementary school were served lunch Tuesday, only to have the food taken from them and thrown away in an incident parents said was uncalled for and humiliating for the children.
The incident took place at Uintah Elementary School when students were told there was no money in their school lunch accounts.
The students’ lunches were taken and thrown away, and the students were provided with fruit and milk. Officials said it’s school policy for food in such situations to be put in the trash.
Parent Erica Lukes said taking away her child’s lunch was “ridiculous.”
“I don’t think any child should have to feel like that over a two-dollar lunch balance,” she said. Jason Olsen is the communication director for the Salt Lake City School District, and he said in a statement officials with the school and district started calling parents with negative or zero balances on school lunch accounts beginning Monday and continuing Tuesday. He said students without money in their account were told Tuesday they would only be getting fruit and milk.
Because the children are given their lunch before they go to the computer to process payment, those without positive account balances had their lunches taken away from them.
The statement from Olsen reads in part: “This situation could have and should have been handled in a different manner. We apologize.
We are also investigating what type of notification parents may or may not have received prior to this week. The schools says they inform students when they go through the lunch line if they have a low balance. They say they also send notes home in the student’s Monday folders. However, when contacted Monday or Tuesday, many parents were surprised by the news. The district has specific guidelines for school kitchen managers on how parents should be notified, and we are currently investigating to see if these guidelines were followed correctly.
We understand the feelings of upset parents and students who say this was an embarrassing and humiliating situation. We again apologize and commit to working with parents in rectifying this situation and to ensuring students are never treated in this manner again.”
“More likely because the thugs they’re warehousing in these government camps will steal it from the other kids.”
My guess is, that’s precisely why. Don’t punish the thugs to de-incentive them, do it by not allowing the children a reason to carry money. Oy!
Um, these are little kids, not adults in a restaurant. It’s ridiculous to treat them this way, and equally ridiculous to throw the food away.
Just wasteful and sinful all the way around.
Maybe, but taking the food away from the kids and trashing ti is just wrong. They should record the negative balances and then just bill the parents for the difference, enforceable through liens or such.
Unbelievable. Feed the kids. There are other ways to get the money.
Bingo.
Because otherwise they might learn about responsibility as children, and then how can they grow into the welfare drones that society desires them to be?
Good show.
In our school’s system we can set a balance level at which we get a notification email - I think I have it set for $10.
I imagine most systems have something similar.
On the other hand, if a student is just a few dollars in the hole they are still served.
If the deficit gets larger the school contacts the parents about the free/reduced lunch programs that are available.
Regardless of who pays, no child should go without lunch.
Sounds like Erica Lukes will have to get off her fat ass and make her child some lunch. Oh... the horror!
The Government Giveth, and the Government Taketh Away.
If only the children were still in utero, these people might care.
“If you like your school lunch, you can keep it.”
How about parents make their own kids’ damn lunch.
How about auto-send email alerts triggered by the account balance. I swear, this country is becoming more ignorant as time passes.
HAHA! Excellent!! Love it!
My son got his lunch taken away the other day. like it says they have them pick thier lunch and then they go to the puter to have the cost deducted. He had a $3 deficit, and they tossed it in the trash. BTW the check I gave him two weeks ago was still in his backpack when he got home. Some time it aint the parents fault, nor the schools. I do question the wastefulness of the tossing the food though.
No wonder there is no learning going at a schools anymore. The idiots are in charge.
Of course, they threw the meals away instead of letting
the kids finish. Typical liberal “common sense”.
When will people wake up to what has happened to this once great country?
Remember the lunch box with thermos and the nickel in the hankie? LOL!
I agree...and if the child’s account does go to a zero/negative balance for some reason, the school should still ALWAYS serve the child their lunch, but the parents should have to cough up what is owed to the school.
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