New Mexico Democrats Introduce Federal Legislation to Prohibit School 'Lunch Shaming'

[El Mimbreno]

When this horrible behavior by school administrators becomes so widespread that it has to be dealt with on the state and federal level... well, pathetic is all I can say.

Press release

Some excerpts:

Monday, May 8, 2017

WASHINGTON D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and U.S. Representative Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.), along with Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), introduced bipartisan companion bills in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives to prohibit schools from discriminating against or stigmatizing children who have outstanding credit or don't have enough money to pay for meals at school. The legislation, the Anti-Lunch Shaming Act, would ban schools from singling out children — such as by requiring them to wear wristbands or hand stamps or do extra chores — because their parents have not paid their school meal bills.

The Anti-Lunch Shaming Act prohibits schools from using humiliation or throwing a child's meal away because their parent hasn't paid their school meal bill. It requires schools to direct communications regarding meal debt to the parent, not the child.

"Children who have no ability to pay their debts shouldn't be shamed, punished at school or even go hungry because their parents can't pay their school meal bills," Udall said. "Shaming students or requiring extra chores from kids who need help paying for lunch is inexcusable — not only does it stigmatize our most vulnerable children, it takes away from time they can be spending on schoolwork or with their peers. This meal shaming can sometimes stand in the way of students' only healthy meal of the day — we can't expect our kids to succeed in the classroom if they are hungry. I'm proud of New Mexico for being the first state to outlaw this harmful practice and will do everything I can in the Senate to pass this legislation on a federal level so no child will have to spend their time at school feeling ashamed of a debt they have no power to pay."

“No student should be humiliated in front of their peers because their parents can’t afford to pay for a meal,” Lujan Grisham said. “It is shocking and shameful that this happens to hungry children, but nearly half of all school districts use some form of lunch shaming. This bipartisan bill will put an end to these draconian practices and help ensure that students can focus on their studies without looking over their shoulder to see their friends pointing fingers.”

And is there anything crueler or stupider than throwing away a child’s lunch?

[MineralMan]

1. Although I've told this story before, I will tell it again.

Back in the late 1950s and early 1960s, my mother worked part-time as a cashier in the cafeteria at the school I attended for junior high and high school. Lunch in the cafeteria at the time cost 25 cents. Kids who didn't have a quarter were turned away. My mother hated that, because of the embarrassment and shame it generated. So, she had a coin purse filled with quarters in her purse. If a kid didn't have the 25 cents, she paid for their lunch without any comment at all.

Before long, the word got out, and kids who never could afford lunch began coming through her line so they could eat. My mom did that for the entire six years I went to that school. She never said a word. She just fished another quarter out of her coin purse.