From: AlterNet
Photo Credit: SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
April 5, 2013 |
School lunch is often the only reliable meal for many of our
country’s poor youths. But rather than make the school cafeteria a safe
space for struggling students, one Massachusetts middle school forced kids
with negative pre-paid lunch accounts to learn a lesson in frugality;
just five cents of “debt” on a pre-paid card led cafeteria employees at
Coehio Middle School to tell their pre-teen debtors to dump out the food
they would have normally eaten and go hungry. About 25 students left
the cafeteria with empty bellies, the company that runs the cafeteria
said in a statement.
Needless to say, parents were outraged by what one mother described as “bullying” and “neglect,” and “child abuse.” But the
principal of Coehio Middle School deflected responsibility to Whitson’s,
the private company that runs the cafeteria. "My expectation is that
every child, every adult, every parent, every student, every teacher is
respected in this building, and that didn't happen yesterday because of
Whitson's," he told WJAR.
Whitson's apologized and said it has no policy to deny
meals to in-debted children, adding that that it has no policy at all
for what employees should do if a child cannot pay for lunch.
"Employees had taken it upon themselves to institute this
change; it was not condoned or approved," said Whitson spokeswoman Holly
Von Seggern. "We had absolutely no idea." But
the principal, who said Whitson employees work on a contract, maintains
that Whitson’s made the call to punish youths with low accounts.
If Whitson's is to blame, hopefully the company that supplies 80 schools in New England with lunch meals has learned a lesson. According to CNN,
a negative balance usually lands kids "a cheese sandwich, a fruit and
vegetable, and milk” before the company contacts parents about payment.
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