Lunches seized from kids in debt at Salt Lake City elementary

[RandySF]

Up to 40 kids at Uintah Elementary picked up their lunches Tuesday, then watched as the meals were taken and thrown away because of outstanding balances on their accounts — a move that shocked and angered parents.

"It was pretty traumatic and humiliating," said Erica Lukes, whose 11-year-old daughter had her cafeteria lunch taken from her as she stood in line Tuesday at Uintah Elementary.

Lukes said as far as she knew, she was all paid up. "I think it’s despicable," she said. "These are young children that shouldn’t be punished or humiliated for something the parents obviously need to clear up."

Jason Olsen, a Salt Lake City District spokesman, said the district’s child-nutrition department became aware that Uintah had a large number of students who owed money for lunches.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57468293-78/lunches-olsen-lunch-district.html.csp

[TDale313]

1. Seriously f'ed up.

So wrong on so many levels.

[warrant46]

61. The Repuke sheep are cheering

They think "Poor People" are Lazy and if their kids are hungry that will spur the parents on to WORK.

WE see this all the time on FaceBook

[Mnemosyne]

2. What have we become? nt

[freshwest]

10. Robots.

[Mnemosyne]

126. Too many are, sadly. nt

[arely staircase]

111. what? nt

[arely staircase]

112. there was a similar story somewhere recently

The school admin got in a lot of trouble.

[Mnemosyne]

127. Taking food from the hands of hungry children is heinous, imo. nt

[arely staircase]

131. agreed but where is the "we" part coming from? nt

[Mnemosyne]

132. We, as in, this country. Nothing personal, arely. nt

[arely staircase]

133. I doubt most people agree with this

This happened recently somewhere else and the school got in trouble.

[Mnemosyne]

138. The fact that it happened at all, and more than once, is reprehensible. nt

[BobbyBoring]

149. And throwing it away???????????????

What the fuck did that accomplish?

SICK FUCKS!

[Lunacee_2013]

125. A country without a soul?

Hyperbolic maybe, but why even do something like this? What's the point?

[Mnemosyne]

129. I agree. I guess they wanted to show those kids that there is no free lunch,

beyond sickening.

[Barack_America]

3. Children do not have debt.

The debt I see here is a debt of compassion amongst school officials. To humiliate children in such a fashion is hideous.

[freshwest]

9. +1

[neverforget]

12. You got that right! +1000

[roguevalley]

32. scars forever. I can remember when lunch for us and it was a good one was only

25 cents but the folks had four kids and finding a dollar a day was hard. I remember charges piling up. I remember my parents struggle. IT never leaves you, this stuff. Ever.

[Hekate]

44. 25 cents; 1/3 of a full days' nutrition for a growing kid. You KNOW it was subsidized.

The whole school took turns serving, so no one was singled out. Two or three times a year each student spent a whole day in the cafeteria helping the cooks from prep to clean-up. The "pay"? A free lunch. It was just what everybody did. I know there were some kids who served every day for their lunch, but they never stood out to me because everybody took their turn.

There were 4 kids in my family too, and one time Mom told me the reason she scraped together a buck a day for the lunches was because she knew she couldn't feed us cheaper than that herself. Every week she filled a jar in the kitchen with quarters and dimes -- quarters for the lunches, dimes for the school bus.

When I read about schools today who do what the Uintah district just did, words absolutely fail me. Someone should face public shaming, but not the kids or their parents. Someone should fry in Hell.

[Deep13]

102. bingo nt

[jsr]

4. What country is this?

WTF.

[villager]

5. Good ol' "Christian" Utah!

[demwing]

66. That didn't take long

I thought it might take at least a day to box up an entire state.

[WinkyDink]

82. Utah IS as close to a theocracy as we have.

[demwing]

97. According to some Christians

Utah's Mormons are cultists, and there aren't very many Christians there at all.

Also, a 2013 Gallup poll shows Mississippi as the most religious state, with Utah 2nd. Worthy of note though, the % of Utahns who say they aren't religious at all (27%) is greater than any of the other top 10 "most religious" states. In short, Utah is the "least religious" of the "most religious" states. Utah's religious demographics aren't as cut and dried as we might think.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/160415/mississippi-maintains-hold-religious-state.aspx#2

More importantly, how can you locally and rationally attribute a behavior to all Christians in an entire state based on the actions of one school in one district in one county?

Forget Utah's religion. Can you use critical thinking skills to justify the original comment?

[Nanjing to Seoul]

98. Utah refused to get rid of polygamy until they were told they could not become a state

Theocracy run by a fake church started by the town alcoholic and pushed forward by a megalomaniac.

And everything I've said is historically true.

[demwing]

99. So they're not Christian at all?

Then the original comment was baseless. Got it!

[Moonwalk]

122. What makes this one fake compared to others? Aren't they all saying they know a truth...

...that can't be proven and must be taken on faith?

[Manifestor_of_Light]

130. You are correct.

Reynolds v. U.S. 1879.

The Mormons banned polygamy in 1890. They were told they could not join the Union until they banned it. They joined the Union in 1896.

[villager]

106. Not every citizen in it -- but its official apparatus, and what it claims to be

The entire point being -- not very Christian at all.

[Judi Lynn]

107. And here's good ol' Jason Olson, the spokesman for this genuine atrocity.

[center]

Jason Olsen, with the Salt Lake City School District [/center]

[democratisphere]

155. NOW we know where the lunches went......

[cyberswede]

6. Good lord. Feed the children, FFS.

[URL=http://s116.photobucket.com/albums/o39/cyberswede/misc/?action=view¤t=c0bbe7b0fcbb6a705a04cc9522a68ce6.jpg][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[TheKentuckian]

7. Pretty evil shit.

[Brother Buzz]

8. Son, as my old pappy used to say...

if you're ever served a rare steak that is intended for someone else, don't bother with ethical details - eat as much as you can before the mistake is discovered. - Beauregard 'Pappy' Maverick

[Waiting For Everyman]

11. Whoever did that should be fired.

[demigoddess]

150. fired!!!

I would recommend the stocks, perhaps a lashing, and a few bushels of ripe tomatoes thrown at him/her.

[SomeGuyInEagan]

154. At the very least, fired.

This is the act of a gutless coward, who should be forever be banned from working with children in any capacity again.

[Dawson Leery]

13. America number 1!?!

[Art_from_Ark]

14. This is just so messed up on so many levels

[ck4829]

15. Even Oliver Twist got to eat, he did say "Please Sir, I want some more."

Not very often you get to say something is 'Hyper-Dickensian'.

[WillyT]

16. First Women, Now Children...

Is that what they meant by women and children first ???

[Jamastiene]

70. Yes. That is exactly what they meant.

The more I pay attention to how some people do things, the more I really think that is what they meant by women and children first.

[Skittles]

17. heartless

assholes

[Drunken Irishman]

18. I spent my whole life attending school in the SLC school district...

This is shameful.

[JDPriestly]

19. How awful!

[Phlem]

20. American Exceptionalism on full display.

USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!



-p

[Whisp]

21. o.m.g.

these sick fuckety fucks are the ones who we should be fighting, not the President and his 'props'.

for gawd fucking sakes wake the fuck up y'all.

[cui bono]

57. Some of us can multi-task.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

22. They didn't shove their faces in the butter?

[defacto7]

23. Yep...

I live here. I've run out of explicatives that express my frustration with this place.

[RandySF]

36. This is the opposite of my first impression of SLC.

I always heard that SLC and the rest of Utah was quite compassionate. I guess I was wrong.

[defacto7]

45. Just like everywhere, not all are alike,

but Utah has a lot of problems stemming from religious and corporate controls. There's a lot of fluff on the outside but it's what's in the background that's devastating. RW is totalitarian here and the rest is show. There's a lot of frustration on all sides of the issues of politics, race, labor, Church and State, women's rights, the rights of immigrants, and the privileges of money. There's a hell of a lot of money here well tucked into the hands of the few... namely the Mormon Church. The LDS Church is trying to create a prohibition of sorts on alcohol again. SLC has progressed in the last 10 years but the church both Mormon and Catholic are beginning to feel a tug in the favor of the progressive agenda in the city... just the city not the state. The state is secure in the arms of the Mormon Church. But this is creating a boiling undercurrent in the political field and personal flairs are the passive aggressive side of it all.

A first impression of SLC is one of squeaky clean with methodical order. Once you have lived here a while you find it's not squeaky clean, it's disinfected for your protection. It's too clean. And that usually means there's something not quite real going on. Then finally it dawns on you.... you are actually living in purgatory and didn't know it.

[lpbk2713]

24. Assholes

Obviously they think they work in a stockyard. They regard
their students more as cattle than as children with feelings.

[azurnoir]

25. what the ........... what is this teaching kids?

give them the food and then take it away and throw it-"we'd rather make it garbage than see it go down you little deadbeats gullets" ya quite the social lesson there

[Nye Bevan]

26. In my town the kids get a cheese sandwich when their balance is zero or below (nt)

[WinkyDink]

83. The food equivalent of a neon light.

[hunter]

117. In my town all the kids get free lunches.

If you don't want your kid to participate, you send them to school with a lunch.

It felt awkward to me at first, but it was obvious how well it worked.

Nobody differentiated between kids. Even kids who have little or nothing will bring their own lunches sometimes. Lunch is not a mark of status one way or another.

A secondary consideration in our school district is that so many kids qualify for free lunches it would cost too much to set up a system to account for the kids who can afford lunches and collect money from their parents.

[Jenoch]

27. The 'nutrition manager' who made the decision

to do this should be fired. If tbey cannot fire her, she should have to apologize in person to every parent who had a child treated this way.

[magical thyme]

77. the apology should be to the children. they are the ones where were needlessly

shamed and left hungry.

Children cannot enter contracts. They did not own any debt. And they are dependents. It is abuse to leave them unfed.

[Jenoch]

101. I thought of that but then I realized the

the children do not want any more attention drawn to themselves. It would just be a repetition of what happened in the cafeteria.

[Abq_Sarah]

159. Agreed

If the parents have the means but have neglected to pay, take it up with them but do NOT single out the kids.

[Warpy]

28. At least they got cheese sandwiches here in NM

although you'd think from all the knee jerking from mama bears that they'd been poisoned.

The bottom line was that kids were not going to go hungry at lunch here. They just wouldn't get fed hot lunches if their parents could pay but hadn't.

Taking a kid's food away and then binning it is unconscionably cruel, not to mention wasteful and stupid.

Then again, it's Alabama.

[RandySF]

37. There were a few occasions we forgot to send lunch money with our kid.

They fed him anyway and contacted us to square up. They would never let a kid go hungry.

[Fumesucker]

40. Alabama?

It thought the school was in Salt Lake?

[barbtries]

50. actually it's Utah

Alabama is where they're considering a law that will let you die if you're having a miscarriage.

[lib87]

29. How Horrible!

They could have done like other schools and withheld grades at the end of the school year until debts were paid versus scarring children by taking away their food in front of their peers.

[warrant46]

62. It's the NEW --If the parents don't Work the kids don't Eat !!

[Moonwalk]

30. One thing is certain: the kids won't forgot, and they won't forgive....

I note this one part of the article:

And her daughter’s best friend was so upset that she went home Tuesday night and made lunches for all the students who had theirs taken, she said.

Not saying there's a silver lining-- this was seriously fucked up and the whoever made the call to throw out the lunches should be fired. Likewise, their shit-for-brains spokesman there, Olson, who tried so hard to make it seem like no big thing until backed into an apology. What a tool!...HOWEVER, when such incidents happen, the kids not only remember, but they hold onto it. As do their friends and witnesses to it.

These are future voters and leaders. They have just been given a very strong impetus to vote and lead and make changes to this system whenever they are old enough to do so, to make sure it never happens again to them or any other kid.

We'll be seeing them on this forum in a few years. And they won't be letting anyone take anything from them. Mark my words.

[daleanime]

34. Amen....

[mackerel]

31. But that guy Jason Olsen, he gets paid and gets his lunch

regardless of whether your kid gets his lunch or not.

[3catwoman3]

33. If this school perchance has...

...a zero tolerance policy about bullying, should it not also apply to the administrators? This is utterly despicable.

[Beacool]

35. Let me get this straight, they took the children's lunch away from them and THREW IT AWAY???????????

What kind of sick son of a bitch takes hungry children's food away from them, and then to add insult to injury, throws that food in the garbage???

[dionysus]

103. are you back in the cold yet, Bea? just in case, i brought extra!

[Beacool]

104. Oohhh, a posse of bankies!!!

ALL MINE!!!!



Thank you, sweets!!!

[Moonwalk]

119. They threw it in the garbage because once it's been given out...

...it can't legally be given to another kid. It's like if you order something in a diner and you then say you don't want it, they can't give it to another customer. Food safety rules.

The original aim was to not give these kids the lunches at all. But they fucked up and it was too late. The kids already had their lunches. So. Choice #1—let the kids eat the lunch, swallow the minimal loss of the cost of those lunches, and tomorrow give them fruit and milk instead if the parents still haven't paid up OR Choice #2—take the lunches away and throw them out in front of everyone making yourself, the school system, etc. look like total assholes and making both parents, kids, cafeteria workers hate you.

Hmmm. Let me think about this.....

Either they hired an idiot, or they hired an asshole, or they hired someone who is too wimpy to make decisions and just stuck to the letter of the law (no money, no lunch). In any case, whoever made this decision should be fired.

[Beacool]

120. The humane choice would have been to let the kids eat the lunch.

It was cruel to take the food away from them. They wasted it anyway, so why not let them eat it and deal later on with the parents. I'm sure that most of them wouldn't have minded paying for that meal.

I hope the woman who made that stupid decision gets fired. No child should go hungry.

[Moonwalk]

124. Heh. Never mind humane—though, yes, that would have been humane—why not just the smart thing to do?

The woman should be fired for rank stupidity. I mean, didn't she think of how taking away and throwing out those lunches would look? Be talked about? Go viral on the internet and bring down a shit storm on her, the school system and, heck, Utah?

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

38. When I was in school, we paid cash for our lunch every day

True, it was only 50 cents, but there was no question as to whether we had the money or not. It was also possible to get a hot dog or a hamburger for 25 cents.

Having a debit system makes it easy for accounts to run out of money without the parents or kids being aware of it.

[SoapBox]

39. I'm surprised they didn't follow it up with a good old fashioned

public beating of the children.

...these people shold be fired and jailed.

[Lordquinton]

41. I'm remembering now

in elementary school my second grade teacher would stamp my hand with the other kids to gt the school lunch. I didn't realise until now how much that effected me throughout my life.

[EC]

42. Did they actually give the kids the lunch

knowing they were going to make of show of taking it away from them?

[kentauros]

43. I don't know why all school lunches aren't free for everyone anyway.

It's not like the raw materials are all that expensive, or that the meals have to be gourmet. Just don't buy the fast-food crap, and have kitchen staff that knows how to cook good food from scratch. The kids, and the adults, would be better off with better food, and any problems of "debt" would not go to the either the kids, their parents, or the teachers and administrators.

[2naSalit]

48. Those folks don't know anything about

nutrition. I have been around this sect for many years in different states and they starve their kids, or many of them do. They have so many of them that they seem to be thought of as cattle. Two anecdotes...

Living in an 89% LDs population community for over a decade I saw people with eight kids, all under fifteen, on a cold day in Idaho wearing T shirts and sneakers with no socks, no coats. This was common. There was one woman whose daughter was kidnapped and found dead, raped and gruesome mutilation. A few months after the tragedy, her response to those of us who knew her and spoke with her about it was, "Well, we have other kids and we'll probably have a couple more to make up for it." That floored me. She was quite passive about it and I thought, well of course you have the other five kids to think of but there was no mourning there prior to the conversation, it was just bizarre.

Another time during college I was a member of the concert choir and we went on tour every year. On one of the early tours the new director had a grad student set up our housing and arrangements for food stops etc for our tour. The first night we had an evening performance after a full day of classes, we were housed by community volunteer families in an even more concentrated LDs town - honestly, I don't think they let you live there unless you belong to the church. Four of us were at the place I was housed at... the family had eight kids. We had little time between our arrival and our concert for dinner. What they served us was pizza (or that's what they called it) made of the dough that came out of a popping roll like those Pillsbury biscuits with ketchup thinly painted on it and a couple slices of velveeta on top, nothing else on it. Just one for all four of us. It was like dried shit on cardboard. They made a jellocake for our desert that we weren't allowed to have until we returned from the concert... only to find that all the kids ate it for us. I'll don't think I'll ever forget that.

We had to sleep two to a bed in a 1st floor room underneath the TeeVee room where there was thumping and banging until about 3am. We had to be up and on the bus by 5am to get to our next engagement. And they don't do coffee so there was none of that in the 5am rush for the bus either. And they wanted us to write nice things in their lacy guestbook before we left.

And that was the start of a week long series of horrible accommodations this LDs gal set up for us, many of our food stops were at Mcd's with ten minutes for three bus loads of us to get our swill and back on the bus.

I vowed never to allow myself, even on a class venture, to ever be at the mercy of one of them again. I would take my own vehicle and bring my own food at my own expense if need be.
-------

So I can see where the ill treatment of these children wasn't considered offensive or inappropriate in the eyes of the perps. I think their worldview that taints their value of children is way different from what most of the rest of the culture in this country would find acceptable. It's really sad for any children who have to be exposed to or left in the care of these folks. And I'm willing to bet money that these kids weren't from "member" families.

[Jamastiene]

71. Thank you for the insight.

It is very hard for those of us outside the area to understand why and how that type of injustice happened. Seeing what the mentality of many in that type of community is toward children, that explains why they thought that horrid crap with ok to do. It's still disgusting, but your insight into the mentality of the LDS bunch helps. Thank you for sharing.

[kentauros]

140. That's really sad to hear that they're like that.

I think they need to revisit the definition of "saint" because I've never heard of anyone vaunted to the level of saint that would be that way toward their fellow humans, much less toward children!

Thank you for the enlightening expose.

[2naSalit]

145. Probably why

they had to make up their own bible and were run out of many a town before they got to the great salt lick. And it's misogyny all the way, baby, with these folks. Makes you sorry just to be in the same room with some of those women sometimes.

Sorry, I don't acknowledge organized religions for numerous reasons. there is, in my reality, a spiritual element to life but it isn't defined nor described in any sacred text I have ever found, and I've explored many trying to see if anyone could describe what I acknowledge.

Anyway, when you live among them you learn what they are about and who skewed it can get relative to what the rest of the country sees as the parameters of our social contract. Maybe it's why they strive to get their own planet after their penance here...?

[defacto7]

46. If they would just call me

I'd have paid off those damn lunches so he kid could eat... or at least not have to carry such an ugly warping memory of human cruelty for the rest of their lives.

What I'd like to know is who would possibly follow those orders? Were the workers that crass? Or maybe they thought it was fun. So help me I'll see them loose their jobs.

[Alamuti Lotus]

47. What the damn hell?! Forget Syria, Yemen, and Somalia--get the drones over to Utah, STAT

[barbtries]

49. starve and humiliate

it's a two-fer. fucking mean world we have going on here.

[bravenak]

51. This is why our children will be liberals.

How shameful.

[Duer 157099]

115. Not necessarily

Quite often they grow up to be bullies to repay society for what happened to them, subconsciously of couse. It's why so many red states are red.

They can't wait to get in a position of power so they can hurt other people, just like someone hurt them.

[bravenak]

118. Well that too bad.

My kids are terribly sweet and kind. They would throw their own lunch away if they saw that happen to their classmates. Our schools don't do that though, they give the left overs out to kids for free and if you don't have a lunch or money they'll give it to you anyway and sign you up for free lunch. But my child is special needs so I think it's illegal to deny them meals.

[Duer 157099]

121. I agree, most kinds are kind. But some are assholes.

and some kids that start out kind becomes assholes after years of mistreatment and abuse.

And then they vote Republican.

Agree that it is egregious beyond compare to deny kids food.

[sabrina 1]

52. Unbelievable!

Every time I think I can't be shocked anymore, I turn out to be wrong.

Whoever is responsible for that should be FIRED.

[Niceguy1]

53. for the record the children were given food

So they didnt go hungry.

[LuvNewcastle]

59. They were given milk and fruit, nothing close to a meal. n/t

[joshcryer]

74. ie, scraps.

[WinkyDink]

84. FTR, yours is an incredibly asinine post.

[anneboleyn]

116. I agree. Reminds me of Faux.

[LanternWaste]

136. It does seem to beg the question, though...

It does seem to beg the question, though-- Precisely what was the net benefit gained from throwing away nutritious food?

(Insert rationalization here...)

[Niceguy1]

137. none and the school

Even apologized.

[JI7]

54. schools should provide meals to all students no matter what their financial situation is

[LuvNewcastle]

60. I agree. A lot of the kids are on programs, anyway, and it's an extra

headache for the teachers to keep up with who has paid and who hasn't. Give them all good meals and let them eat all they want while they're in the cafeteria. It takes good food to keep those kids healthy and keep their brains working so they can learn. Food is as important as anything in the learning process.

[spinbaby]

72. +1

Lunches should be included with schooling at no extra cost. In a civilized country they would be. And kids would get enough time to eat, too, instead of having to wolf down their food.

[Phentex]

110. I also agree...

it's so basic I can't understand why it doesn't happen everywhere.

[Are_grits_groceries]

55. I can promise you one thing.

If this had happened in a school where I was teaching, I would have blown a gasket. I know other teachers who would have been right there with me.

I was not a shrinking violet. I would have been raising holy hell and trying to help those kids. In addition, I would have pushed different solutions.

If you think I am blowing smoke, I handed in my resignation once when I was being hounded by gawd and everybody to give a kid who cheated a retest. I don't play.

[warrant46]

63. Its actually criminal

And many people are cheering this behavior by the school administrators

Fascism and Slavery are on the March== It's being justified as Biblical

( If Mom and Dad don't work their kids deserve to go hungry)

[joshcryer]

75. They have more than 500 students.

You probably wouldn't have noticed this miscarriage of justice. The cafeteria managers may not have even noticed. It's all raw numbers. Assuming 40 kids a class, that's just 'one' student. Would you go off over one or two students not being fed? Would you even know?

Obviously something in place should trigger people to recognize this bullshit (actually meals should be free), but we gotta teach our kids to be good consumers and pay for their meals, because to do otherwise would not be sufficiently capitalistic.

[WinkyDink]

85. They don't all eat at once. You'd apparently be surprised at how much monitors can and do obsrve.

[joshcryer]

87. Would they have caught this?

If so they are just as culpable as the cafeteria managers and the principle, imho.

You do raise a point, but I'm under the impression lunch time is in a short time frame of and hour or two, so I thought it was possible this miscarriage of justice would go unnoticed.

[WinkyDink]

88. Trays of food being dumped by adults? Heck, yes! One monitor (I taught and had this duty) is always

near the trash cans (so the trays themselves don't get thrown away, for one thing).

And no, monitors would not have been as culpable. The most that we could have done in this VERY HIERARCHICAL SYSTEM is to report the incident to our immediate supervisor, in my case the principal.

[joshcryer]

90. Would anything have been done?

I mean, in this instance, cafeteria workers threw away food, would the monitors side with the workers or the children?

I feel that this is an institutionalized behavior where the workers are the final say. This "child nutrition manager" appears to have the final and total say. If a cafeteria worker was approached by a "child nutrition manager" I believe they would cede.

[Moonwalk]

128. The cafeteria workers noticed. The article says one of them was in tears over it....

I don't know about managers, but those who work cafeteria are often the most caring and committed of people; they do everything they can to feed all the kids and I've heard stories of some creating suppers that they packaged and gave to kids who they knew wouldn't be getting any dinner.

I'm sure not all who work in school cafeterias are good and kind, but I give most the benefit of the doubt.

[Turbineguy]

56. This is why we need more republicans.

Because fucked up is how we roll.

[cui bono]

58. This isn't the first time I've heard of this happening.

And sadly, it seems it won't be the last.

What kind of adults would do this? Where's the compassion and humanity?

[exboyfil]

64. Putting this stuff online

impacts those families who are the most vulnerable. It presupposes you have a computer and internet access. The same applies with the heavy use of online for school work. That puts the most vulnerable at even a further disadvantage (and those with resources at an advantage). I pay $40/mo. for a high speed internet and everyone in my family has a laptop (since my girls received Chromebooks we know have six computers in our house for four people). The Chromebook is useless for families who cannot afford internet though.

Given the recent court decisions regarding the internet, this could become an even bigger problem.

[warrant46]

65. Read the comments in the article====Unreal hrere is one

I'm sorry but this isn't as harsh as all of you are taking it. I work at a place like this and a lot of the kids that have negative balances don't pay for weeks and then when they do it's back in the negative a couple days later. For elementary kids it's a little rough taking there food, so we rarely do. Instead, we'll give them a cold lunch.

A Bunch of Thugs posing as Christians in the LDS Church-- SICKENING

[liberal N proud]

67. BULLIES!

The instigator of this incident as well as those who carried it out are cruel people

The only reason they did this was to humiliate the kids in front of their classmates.

What can a kid do when the teachers and school officials are the bullies?

[Jamastiene]

68. That is truly disgusting.

The ones responsible for doing that should be shamed by the public to show them what it feels like. Give them some tough love back. See how they like it. And don't even get me started on the fact that they wasted that food and left the children hungry for the rest of the day.

[MadrasT]

69. USA! USA! USA!

Go 'Merika.

[joshcryer]

73. Welcome to intitutionalized US education.

Where if the children aren't taught a lesson in hierarchical authority, they are to be punished.

Get in line. Sit down. Shut up.

And if you don't your food goes in the fucking garbage.

[FarPoint]

76. This is one of those moments to say...

"What would Jesus do?"...That said, I'm not religious. It's the hypocrisy I so detest in such outrageous acts.

I myself would of paid for the child's meal before ever humiliating an innocent victim. Plus...it only food! This is not an American value.

Wonder how often these thing happen across the country?

[WinkyDink]

86. It would be "What would Joseph Smith Do?"

[FarPoint]

142. True....I couldn't think of his name this morning...

Regardless...this behavior ...throwing away food and denying children that food is utterly obnoxious.

[WinkyDink]

146. It is 100% immoral.

[Lars39]

78. Would love to be a restaurant owner and see Jason Olsen

in my restaurant.

[TBF]

79. The fact that this OP doesn't have more recs

is ridiculous on a democratic party website. Maybe because it was written at night? This one should have many more than the random cartoons, cats, and rantings about the issue of the day. This is actually important.

[eridani]

80. French public school lunches

http://karenlebillon.com/french-school-lunch-menus/



In my opinion, the French approach demonstrates what can be done by communities when food–and teaching children to love eating healthy food–is a priority. Note: unlike the United States, there is no national school lunch program in France. All of the lunches you’ll read about here are funded by local municipalities. Three-course (or even four-course) freshly-prepared hot lunches are provided to over 6 million French children in the public school system every day. Even without national subsidies, these meals cost, on average, $3 per child (and prices for low-income families are subsidized), not significantly higher than the lunches provided through the National School Lunch Program in the US. So the French don’t spend much more than we do, yet their kids eat seem to eat, on average, better than ours do–even in the smallest villages and poorest towns of France. (For an interesting comparison, you can check out the Fed up With Lunch blog, where teacher Sarah Wu photographed lunches in her kids’ school for a year, sparking a fascinating debate about school food).

Why do the French put this much effort into healthy lunches? Because it makes sense–socially, economically, and nutritionally. Here’s a quote from the website of a school near Paris: “Mealtime is a particularly important moment in a child’s day. Our responsibility is to provide children with healthy, balanced meals; to develop their sense of taste; to help children, complementing what they learn at home, to make good food choices without being influenced by trends, media, and marketing; and to teach them the relationship between eating habits and health. But above all else, we aim to enable children to spend joyful, convivial moments together, to learn a ‘savoir-vivre’, to make time for communication, social exchange, and learning about society’s rules–so that they can socialize and cultivate friendships.”

[jsr]

105. The French also have free child care.

[WinkyDink]

81. Let the Pentagon run our schools. Then our schools will get the budgets they need.

*kiddingonthesquare*

[Demo_Chris]

89. And we just voted to slash their food stamps at home...

[Renew Deal]

91. I bet those balances are paid today

But that's the wrong thing to do.

What should the school do in this situation if the parent is non-compliant? I guess they could suspend the kid, though that's not a great solution either.

[grasswire]

153. I doubt they are paid today.

It's the end of the month. Those families are broke, most likely.

[SummerSnow]

92. Truly fucked up...something is horribly wrong with U.S.

[deutsey]

93. Done in our blind zeal to serve our great God, Moloch

What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination?

[Javaman]

94. In other news Uintah officials have instituted workhouses so the kids can pay off their debts.

these people are dispicable.

[CFLDem]

95. WTF

[Blue Diadem]

96. I hate those lunch accounts

Yes, it's all well and good that parents can usually access them online to put money in, but what the schools aren't saying is that kids can spend that money not only on their regular lunch but on any of the extras. It's very easy for a child to use up a weeks worth of lunch money in 3 days. We went through it with our granddaughter a few times and I've talked with others who say they resorted to packing lunches for their kids because the extras were depleting the lunch account funds. Elementary kids sometimes don't understand the idea that there is an account with money in it and the extras aren't included with their meal.
I certainly hope whoever made the decision to humiliate those children gets fired. It's one thing to give them a snack if they don't have the money to pay for their meal but it's incredibly cruel to take their food and throw it away. Humiliate the child and waste the food. Doesn't make sense.

[TBF]

100. On our accounts we can limit

whether the kids can have the extra snacks (popsicles or whatever) - but sometimes you have to call the school to let them know. When I heard that some kids abuse it I talked to my kids about only one dessert and no buying extras for friends. They are both doing great with it. You can also set e-mail reminders in case they get low.

But I am overall for feeding people - especially children. If a parent is busy and forgets it should not mean a hungry child.

[Octafish]

108. State of Utah needs the money.

Tax breaks, you know.

http://business.utah.gov/programs/incentives/

Schools? As if we needed 'em!

tag for the culturally deprived.

[frwrfpos]

109. are there no workhouses, are there no prisons

[LeftinOH]

113. The "child nutrition manager" who made this call is an asshole; and the workers

who followed the orders are ass-lickers. What kind of f*cked up adults work in this place?

The district's response to the outrage was.. "This situation could have and should have been handled in a different manner. We apologize." ..NONE of the "adults" involved in this clusterf*ck had the gumption to stand up and say 'hey - this is wrong; we should not be doing this.' ???

[anneboleyn]

114. Appalling. More of the "Christian" treatment of children and the needy. Jesus would be

so proud (not). What is the sick point of shaming children? This is just appalling.

[clarice]

123. In Texas,

If the child's account is overdrawn......we feed them anyway and the child brings home a note
to deposit more money in the lunch account.

[Swede Atlanta]

134. Whoever took the food away needs to be checked for competence....

First of all we need to have a serious discussion about poverty in this country. I am so tired of conservatives blaming poverty on the poor rather than asking themselves why we have poverty and why we have so much poverty in relationship to other developed nations.

Their answer might be that the nanny states of those countries have done a Robin Hood and given all the wealth of the rich and given it to the poor so of course there is less poverty.

But being poor isn't about laziness. Of course there is a small minority of poor who have no motivation and love to milk the system. But that is a very very small minority.

It is about life circumstances. It is as many have said, "birth lottery" where if you are born into a relatively well-off family you have a much better chance at "success" than if you are born into poverty.

But back to the specifics of the posting...the lunches were already made and served. So the expense of purchasing, preparing and serving the food were already spent. What was the purpose of taking the food away from these hungry students and throwing it into the trash? That is the worst of immorality. First you take food away from poor students and then you throw it away. That is the height of ignorance.

If they wanted to address the problem then make attempts to contact the parents, identify the means of the students and look for solutions. Throwing food away is wasteful and solves nothing.

I'm sure these were all good "Christians", especially Mormons who believe they are the cat's meow when it comes to being the best Christians in the whole wide world.

[RandySF]

158. I don't think they were even poor.

The parents just forgot to renew their lunch accounts.

[Enrique]

135. Arnold's next movie

Kindergarten Repo Man.

[Liberal_in_LA]

139. omg.

[TNNurse]

141. Shaking down schoolchildren for money

And throwing away perfectly good food...... those are their "family values".????

[Liberalynn]

143. Whoever authorized this needs to personally apologize to each and ever kid

Then apologize publicly in the media then be fired ASAP without severance pay.

[Lancero]

144. The school deserves to be given a gift...

Yes, I am serious. We should send them a gift.

But, don't worry! I've already found the perfect thing to send to them!

Well, not exactly. I can't decide on what they should get - But really, anything from www.shitsenders.com will be good.

[Aldo Leopold]

147. Degrading and despicable!

Fucking assholes!

[DebbieCDC]

148. That Olsen guy looks like he never missed a meal

or had one taken away from him.

Fucking bastards

[Ned Flanders]

151. My kid, too

That happened to my kid, too. 2nd grader at Rock Creek Elementary, Placer County, CA Bastion of conservatives in northern CA. I had two other kids with credits on their accounts, but the lunch lady wouldn't transfer any funds over. She really did take his tray and toss it in the trash. I couldn't do anything about it except transfer my kids to a different school, because I was looking for work with the local schools and didn't want to get blacklisted. Jerks.

[RandySF]

157. The total opposite happened here.

There were a few occasions a couple years ago when we simply forgot to send lunch money with our kid when he went to public school. They just fed him and sent a note asking us to pay the $3.00. And last week, when he forgot to put his lunch box in his backpack, his current Catholic school fed him and called us to let us know we forgot, and did not ask for anything even though we offered to pay.

[meti57b]

152. Bless the beasts and the children......

For in this world they have no voice
They have no choice

Bless the beasts and the children
For the world can never be
The world they see
------ snip--------

[mackerel]

156. This has hit Australian news and a couple of my friends over there are asking

me if this is a wind up. They just can't believe it.