School throws out kids' lunches over owed money


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SALT LAKE CITY ?  Parents say about 50 elementary students in Salt Lake City had their school lunches thrown out because money was owed on their food accounts.

The lunches costing about $3 were taken from the children on Tuesday as they arrived at a pay station after cafeteria workers had given them the food.

Parent Erica Lukes said the action was humiliating and demoralizing for students.

The Salt Lake City School District said the move came after it realized a lot of students at Uintah (Yoo-IN-tah) Elementary owed money for previous lunches.

District spokesman Jason Olsen said cafeteria servers were not able to see who was in debt until lunches had already been given to students in line.

He said the lunches were thrown out because they couldn't be served to another student. Students whose lunches were taken away were given fruit and milk. :/

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let this be a lesson to those kidsand those with kids, pay your debts or people will take your ****.

 

Bull. It's always unacceptable to steal food from a child and throw it out.

 

except that nothing was stolen.

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Bull. It's always unacceptable to steal food from a child and throw it out.

 

There has to be a limit.  I would never take food away from a kid.  But if parents refuse to pay their bill after they are notified, then schools lose money and it takes away from the other kids.  That is just the harsh reality.

 

Said it before, school system in the US sucks and schools need to be better funded so things like this dont happen.

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There has to be a limit.  I would never take food away from a kid.  But if parents refuse to pay their bill after they are notified, then schools lose money and it takes away from the other kids.  That is just the harsh reality.

 

Said it before, school system in the US sucks and schools need to be better funded so things like this dont happen.

 

But in this case, the school lost money anyway as they threw the meals away.

 

Does that make ANY sense to you, at all?  Wouldn't it have been more sensible to just give them the lunches, and fix the account checking problem for next day so you can see BEFORE issuing it, who's paid up?

 

Now the school has a loss for the thrown away lunches that they can't even bill the parent for, because their kid didn't get that lunch. A -worse- situation.

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Does that make ANY sense to you, at all?  Wouldn't it have been more sensible to just give them the lunches, and fix the account checking problem for next day so you can see BEFORE issuing it, who's paid up?

 

 

I agree.  Should of been done before the food was served to them.  A waste and costs more money.  But if the system was set to notify parents before hand, parents dont pay, and kids get notified by school officials before they go to lunch. 

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WTF.

 

If I was a school employee ordered to do that, I would have walked off the job and quit.

 

Let them use my paycheck to feed them.  What kind of scum does that?

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I agree.  Should of been done before the food was served to them.  A waste and costs more money.  But if the system was set to notify parents before hand, parents dont pay, and kids get notified by school officials before they go to lunch. 

At which point the parents need to be beaten with a baseball bat.

 

I don't disagree with this though, as schools are hurting for money enough as it is.  50x3x5 days a week....it adds up.

 

Throwing it out after they were served though, that is just malicious and cruel.

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While the school is responsible for a student's safety and education while at school, the parents are responsible for their basic needs; food, clothing and shelter. When a parent allows their child to go without food for a certain period of time (varies by state) then it could be interpreted as child neglect.

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except that nothing was stolen.

The school gave the students a lunch. Whether or not it was paid for, a lunch was willingly given. Perhaps a payment was expected, but that's between the school and the parents, not the school and the students. The students had their lunches, and then someone took it from them without the students consent. That sounds to me like theft.

 

 

 

3) the school was within their legal rights to deny the students and hold their parents accountable.

While the school is responsible for a student's safety and education while at school, the parents are responsible for their basic needs; food, clothing and shelter. When a parent allows their child to go without food for a certain period of time (varies by state) then it could be interpreted as child neglect.

So if a school takes a students' lunch away and doesn't provide an alternative, wouldn't that be the same sort of neglect? This sounds to me like the children are getting punished for something they have nothing to do with.

 

Now if the school had simply refused to provide lunch, that would be a different story.

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The school gave the students a lunch. Whether or not it was paid for, a lunch was willingly given. Perhaps a payment was expected, but that's between the school and the parents, not the school and the students. The students had their lunches, and then someone took it from them without the students consent. That sounds to me like theft.

 

 

 

So if a school takes a students' lunch away and doesn't provide an alternative, wouldn't that be the same sort of neglect? This sounds to me like the children are getting punished for something they have nothing to do with.

 

Now if the school had simply refused to provide lunch, that would be a different story.

Not that I agree with what happened, they did give them an alternative.

 

Ironically, them throwing away the lunch and giving them the alternative was more costly than simply letting them have their lunch.  As a parent, I find this all very infuriating.

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But in this case, the school lost money anyway as they threw the meals away.

 

Does that make ANY sense to you, at all?  Wouldn't it have been more sensible to just give them the lunches, and fix the account checking problem for next day so you can see BEFORE issuing it, who's paid up?

 

Now the school has a loss for the thrown away lunches that they can't even bill the parent for, because their kid didn't get that lunch. A -worse- situation.

Looking at it from the long tail says the school would lose less money if they throw the lunches away instead of letting the students eat it...

 

If the parents know they can skip paying for lunches and the school would continue to give the kids the lunches while only sending them letters in the mail then why pay at all? If the school throws away 1 lunch, but stops the kid from being given 30 days of free lunches they save more money throwing them away than they do letting them eat them. Obviously, my 30 days number is pulled from thin air, but you get the point.

 

The parents knew they had to pay for the kids lunches so this shouldn't come as a shock. No more than if you didn't pay your Electric bill it shouldn't come as a shock that one day the lights aren't on. It seems overly harsh that the kids have to pay for the failure of their parents, but that is the sad reality of being a kid. If you parents don't pay their bills you can end up with no food, lights, heat, water, and a host of other things. I have been through all of those. It sucks. But there has to be a limit... At one point my mom owed the gas company over $15K... Yeah if you don't pull the plug at some point people will just see the bill as a suggestion and nothing more.

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If the school pulled their fingers out of their backsides, they'd have set their systems up so they could check the student's account status BEFORE issuing the lunch, and then -nothing- would have been wasted at all.

 

So yes, the school needlessly wasted money.

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If the school pulled their fingers out of their backsides, they'd have set their systems up so they could check the student's account status BEFORE issuing the lunch, and then -nothing- would have been wasted at all.

 

So yes, the school needlessly wasted money.

The system could be improved sure...

 

I grew up in a poor Philadelphia neighborhood so I had never seen a paid lunch line until visiting a High School in another county. Wasn't aware that such as thing even existed in the US... Came off as very strange to me and still does...

 

That being said, the few I have seen are a lot like McDonald's in that you could pick multiple items that varied in cost. So it would be very hard to charge them before they have picked the lunch. Not to say this couldn't be changed...

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Serves the kids right.  As the saying goes, "there is no such thing as a free lunch" and it was good to teach them this valuable lesson.

Yes, because elementary schools are such a good place to teach that, by giving them something and then tearing it out of their hands and throwing it away.

 

Lets just reinstitute child labor and put them to work for their food.

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Yes, because elementary schools are such a good place to teach that, by giving them something and then tearing it out of their hands and throwing it away.

 

Lets just reinstitute child labor and put them to work for their food.

Since the parents knew this bill was expected I think they should be on blast. Why would a parent subject their child to this? Knowing full well that the kid had to eat before sending them off to school?

 

My wife is from Canada and went to a private Christian school. They weren't given money for school lunch, but my mother-in-law packed them a lunch every day. It is the parents that are at fault here not the school.

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There has to be a limit.  I would never take food away from a kid.  But if parents refuse to pay their bill after they are notified, then schools lose money and it takes away from the other kids.  That is just the harsh reality.

 

Said it before, school system in the US sucks and schools need to be better funded so things like this dont happen.

 

Couldn't agree more.  A lot of folks with a lot of influence do not see it that way.  There is especially an anti-public-education coming from a lot of religious groups in my area because they disagree with pretty much 2 topics: evolution and sex and STD education.

 

There really is a lot of political influence right now going against public education.  They want the education system privatized like the prison system.  IMO there are some institutions in this society that should not have a profit motive.

 

The most important investment we can make is in our education system.  Start by raising teacher wages, substantially.  That will bring more qualified people into education, and create highly competitive atmospheres that the education departments at Universities will have to respond to or else lose their own programs.  The reason why so many teachers are under performing is we pay them an underperformed wage.  Teacher evaluations are just a way to nag.

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My wife is from Canada and went to a private Christian school. They weren't given money for school lunch, but my mother-in-law packed them a lunch every day. It is the parents that are at fault here not the school.

 

My issue isn't really with the school not feeding the kids. My issue is with the sheer waste of throwing the lunches away.  That's just completely disgusting and unacceptable.

 

Better to feed the damned kids than to just throw food away.

 

And we wonder why people are staving to death? Sheesh...

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Unless notifications were  sent out warning parents of the past due amount, this is unacceptable.

I think it's unacceptable regardless.  This is an issue between the school and these kid's parents.  What they did was nothing more than bullying...

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