Help please, need advice, what would you do if this happened to your child??

[jeff of pa]

I wonder if they Contract out to a catering service Or hire Cooks.

If a cartering service the School may not have been aware
of their strict policy.

I do hope This changes things for the Better.

 

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[MD Dog]

So billky and snowdragon, you both agree that punishing the child for the parents mistake is appropriate ?
It must suck to be your kid.

 

[sparkymaster]

Wow!!

This is a sticky situation you got going here. There's always three sides to every story, your side, their side and the truth. I'm not calling anyone a liar but I'm sure somethings getting left out.

Who's to blame? The parents? The school employees? The child? The system? Everyone involved should probably share the blame equally and work together making sure it never happens again.

In my opinion there should be a policy in place in every school across the nation for these situations. If a child doesn't have lunch money at least they could do is feed them after everyone else is done eating. He could have sat there until the line was gone and then had some left overs to eat. Hell, I bet they thew away more than he could eat anyway.

I'm not saying it's right to let a kid go hungry but I completely understand the policy the school has in place about not extending any credit in the last quarter of the year.

I guess as long as you stay on top of the lunch money account and the kid knows to call his parents when things happen this should never happen again.

I hope several people learned a lesson from this unfortunate misshap.

sparkymaster

 

[truckinbutch]

Have received no reply to emails sent yesterday at this point.
Missed point here for the naysayers is that it cost those buttheads more money to throw away the kid's food than it would have to feed him and speculate that the deficit would be made up the next day by the parents.
Oh well,They will just raise next year's prices to make up for the loss.
Keep fighting and I'll be here to support you.The more public attention it gets the quicker someone at the school will have to get off the pot.

 

[Sky_Warrior]

in our school they would actually run out of food and that was it nothing but ketchup........

 

[Brett2259]

Dead horse beaten on this topic.......

 

[Goes4ever]

It's sad how far this has come. Your wife forgets to send lunch money with your son and forgets to check the balance. This could happen to anyone but as a result, your son goes without lunch. The entire school system is blamed and bombarded with emails and calls. This will result in no one getting through since they probably just put everyone on ignore. I doubt that anyone else who has a problem with the school will be able to get through to them either. I don't understand why you would want a person to lose their job for doing their job and following the rules they were given. Seems to me that if you want to change school policy that it would be easier to go to the school board with other parents of that school and discuss it like adults. Harassment and pranking the entire school system probably won't get you very far as far as changing anything. They just will put you on ignore and not answer your calls. Do you honestly feel that you and your wife should not share in the blame at all?

please re-read what I posted, I never mentioned I would like to see anyone lose their job, someone else posted that, not I. And if no one speaks up things will never change. Sure my wife and I are at fault for forgetting and we admit out mistake, so do you agree the school should withhold a child's lunch because a mistake was made? That is what upsets us, we are good people who have faithfully paid all year long. And it is not too much to ask to feed our son when he is in their care. We are talking about a couple bucks here. But instead they chose to do the wrong thing and take his food away. If you agree with them, that is your right.

 

[Goes4ever]

At my kids school they can not deny them lunch if they don't have money they get a PB&J sandwich and milk.

at neighboring counties this is their policy as well, they give them the exact thing you stated if money is forgotten.

 

[MD Dog]

MD Dog,
I don't see where I said to punish anyone for the parents mistake. Do you feel the parents deserve no blame at all? Parents make mistakes, don't you think they should, at the very least, own up to them, instead of blaming everyone else? Why would you think it would suck to be my kid? My kids know they can count on me anytime and my grandkids know the same thing. They know they can call me from school at anytime. I guess since I don't agree with every word out of your mouth, that makes me a bad person,huh? You are entitled to your opinion. Just remember though that if you shut down communication with the blame game, you really don't accomplish as much as you could otherwise.

The question of whether the parents should shoulder the responsibility isn't even at subject here. The question of should the school have a policy in place that effectively blames and punishes the child for the bad actions or omissions of the parents. If you agree they should Snapdragon then I pity your children's life because your bound to slip up as we all do, even us responsible parents, and when you do, it will be your child that suffers the consequences, unless a bleeding heart liberal like myself step's up to the plate to save your child the embarrassment, heart ache and physical torture of such actions by short sighted adults like yourself.

 

[jeff of pa]

please re-read what I posted, I never mentioned I would like to see anyone lose their job, someone else posted that, not I. And if no one speaks up things will never change. Sure my wife and I are at fault for forgetting and we admit out mistake, so do you agree the school should withhold a child's lunch because a mistake was made? That is what upsets us, we are good people who have faithfully paid all year long. And it is not too much to ask to feed our son when he is in their care. We are talking about a couple bucks here. But instead they chose to do the wrong thing and take his food away. If you agree with them, that is your right.

Was Me & I stand by it.
I think the Words others like to use in schools are "Zero Tolerance"
I want to see it in Action.

Taking a Childs Plate of food & Throwing it away Rather then
Giving it to him on credit for any reason in a School is Uncalled for.

& Don't think they gave it to somone else in these days of Germaphobia.
The plate was Trashed.

 

[MD Dog]

Apparently Billky is trying to save us some board space because he's taken to PMing me to discuss this thread separately. I played along at first thinking he just wanted to save face for a preposterous assertion. But now I think he may have crossed a line that I don't feel comfortable crossing with him in secret. He sent me a PM with a link to a different site where a picture was posted of goes4evers son. Now His intention may have been to show the age of the child in question, but his premise was that, in his opinion the child was or is, old enough to handle his own monetary affairs. I believe that would be a decision best made by those who know the child best, his parents. I also see no reason to believe this is the child in question since he could have younger siblings. Lastly I'm really pissed because he made a snide remark that inferred the child could stand to miss a few meals. If you need proof, Goes4ever I took screen shots of the PMs.

 

[Goes4ever]

Apparently Billky is trying to save us some board space because he's taken to PMing me to discuss this thread separately. I played along at first thinking he just wanted to save face for a preposterous assertion. But now I think he may have crossed a line that I don't feel comfortable crossing with him in secret. He sent me a PM with a link to a different site where a picture was posted of goes4evers son. Now His intention may have been to show the age of the child in question, but his premise was that, in his opinion the child was or is, old enough to handle his own monetary affairs. I believe that would be a decision best made by those who know the child best, his parents. I also see no reason to believe this is the child in question since he could have younger siblings. Lastly I'm really pissed because he made a snide remark that inferred the child could stand to miss a few meals. If you need proof, Goes4ever I took screen shots of the PMs.

wow that is pretty bad the person actually said my son could miss a few meals because of his weight? That is sad, but I won't let it bother me. This board is filled with awesome people and I won't let one bad apple ruin it for everyone else.

My son was 11 years old when this happened, and he is an only child. The kids don't carry actual cash at school, they have a card they swipe, he never knows what is on it. So it really isn't up to him to "manage anything"

 

[PBK]

What happened to your son is unconscionable and very probably legally actionable.

As a former teacher I did my share of lunch monitor duty, and I can assure you that nothing like that ever happened, or would have happened, on my watch.

Such behavior is not only inappropriate and unprofessional, but inhumane and deliberately abusive. Someone saw a child embarrassed and in need, and responded by further humiliating him and punishing him.

You and your son deserve better— and those responsible for his mistreatment deserve to be severely reprimanded and disciplined for it.

Demand it.

 

[MD Dog]

Yeah and Amen PBK

 

[kldrawdy]

I had the same thing happen to my son.

I tried to take money to him and took it to the office only to be told that they would not deliver it to his classroom nor allow him him to come to the office to get it. I was not allowed to take it to him in the classroom.

I came within a hair of just checking him out and taking him to McDonalds down the street and then returning him after he ate. It was the only option they left to me.

Schools claim they want more parental involvement but in reality they only want more monetary involvement from parents.

I called the school board and called the assistant principal and chewed them both out. They revised their policy after that.

 

[Cynangyl]

Well I hope they revise the policy at Van Wert's as well. I did finally get a reply to my email....saying it was not an email topic and to call to discuss it in length.....of course he is unavailable when you call so that doesn't help much either.

I have seen a couple of the replies saying things to the effect of it was the parents that messed up in this instance and should not blame the school. My thought is this...the parents have admitted they overlooked the balance of the account and seem to have taken responsibility for that lack of attention and would have been willing to make things right for their oversight. It was obviously NOT intentional. The cafeteria employee DID intentionally take the child's lunch without notifying the parents that they had failed to make sure there were funds available giving them a chance to right the error. We, as parents, entrust the care of our children to a school we pay taxes for during the day. We expect that they are kept safe, educated and that their basic needs are met. That is a huge thing to entrust the care of your precious children to someone else and sometimes not an easy thing to do. Anytime they are not kept safe, educated and had their basic needs met we should be able to question the representatives of the school as to why and question their policies in how they handled situations. In my opinion food is a basic necesity and should not be denied to a child because a parent overlooked checking the account. The parent should have been called and notified that they had not provided funding and a solution would have been reached rather quickly. Free lunches are provided for some children because their parents are in a position where they cannot afford to provide funding...this is done because it is common knowledge that adequate nutrition is necessary for the well being of the child. Denying a child adequate nutrition is not acceptable. Just my humble opinion and others are certainly welcome to their own opinions and to voicing them as well.

Hope you all have a fabulous day!!

 

[pepperpump]

I for one would be wanting to kill. I would check with the school district first and inquire what policies they have in place for such an event. I work for a govt in Va and am pretty sure there is a policy where they would feed the child. After doing so, I would call the school as well to inform them that I spoke to the district and let them know I was very upset. I would put more money in and tell them to call next time and if that is not followed, I would fiole a formal complaint the next time. Think about it, what if the kid had diabetes and falls out because the kid was refused food...big lawsuit. Just my thoughts.
Pepperpump

 

[bill-USA]

MD Dog, feel free to share the PM. I didn't want to cause any further storm on the board, but my opinion has not changed.

PBK, of all the folks on this board I probably respect your opinion more than any other I've seen, but I disagree with this one.

I will make no further comment, regarding this thread, on-line or off. That should please you all.

 

[Bridge End Farm]

I had the same thing happen to my son.

I tried to take money to him and took it to the office only to be told that they would not deliver it to his classroom nor allow him him to come to the office to get it. I was not allowed to take it to him in the classroom.

I came within a hair of just checking him out and taking him to McDonalds down the street and then returning him after he ate. It was the only option they left to me.

Schools claim they want more parental involvement but in reality they only want more monetary involvement from parents.

I called the school board and called the assistant principal and chewed them both out. They revised their policy after that.

Now that is wild and wrong, I can't imagine a school not calling a child out to see his/her parent

 

[Bridge End Farm]

Well I hope they revise the policy at Van Wert's as well. I did finally get a reply to my email....saying it was not an email topic and to call to discuss it in length.....of course he is unavailable when you call so that doesn't help much either.

I have seen a couple of the replies saying things to the effect of it was the parents that messed up in this instance and should not blame the school. My thought is this...the parents have admitted they overlooked the balance of the account and seem to have taken responsibility for that lack of attention and would have been willing to make things right for their oversight. It was obviously NOT intentional. The cafeteria employee DID intentionally take the child's lunch without notifying the parents that they had failed to make sure there were funds available giving them a chance to right the error. We, as parents, entrust the care of our children to a school we pay taxes for during the day. We expect that they are kept safe, educated and that their basic needs are met. That is a huge thing to entrust the care of your precious children to someone else and sometimes not an easy thing to do. Anytime they are not kept safe, educated and had their basic needs met we should be able to question the representatives of the school as to why and question their policies in how they handled situations. In my opinion food is a basic necesity and should not be denied to a child because a parent overlooked checking the account. The parent should have been called and notified that they had not provided funding and a solution would have been reached rather quickly. Free lunches are provided for some children because their parents are in a position where they cannot afford to provide funding...this is done because it is common knowledge that adequate nutrition is necessary for the well being of the child. Denying a child adequate nutrition is not acceptable. Just my humble opinion and others are certainly welcome to their own opinions and to voicing them as well.

Hope you all have a fabulous day!!

I think you were reading my mind well said