Serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis. © James Conner.
There are enough people working in education that some will fall off the low side of the bell curve on commonsense and decency. The latest example, described by the Salt Lake Tribune, comes from Utah:
A cafeteria manager has been placed on paid administrative leave as the Salt Lake City School District investigates the seizure of school lunches from up to 40 young students with unpaid meal tabs.
The lunches were taken away Tuesday at Uintah Elementary, a move that has sparked outcry from parents, lawmakers and outraged observers who have created a sensation on social media.
That’s right. They weren’t quietly told they couldn’t have lunch. They were served. Then, their food was taken from them and thrown away. At high noon. In public.
After the children had been thoroughly humiliated and frightened, they were served fruit (an apple?) and milk (water might be healthier) in a patronizing act of mitigation
The incident brought together at least one Republican and one Democrat in Utah’s legislature, with the Republican calling for firing the lunch thief, and both men vowing to find a legislative solution so that something like this never happens again. A good idea, that.
There’s a foolproof way of preventing such sadistic stupidity. End the practice of charging students and parents for school meals. Hunger impairs learning. Therefore, feed everyone, pay for the vittles with tax revenues, and forbid co-payments.
I have no idea, incidentally, how school districts in Montana handle these matters. But I would not be surprised to learn that what happened in Utah could happen here.