Reports: Lunches seized from Utah schoolkids because of unpaid bills

[Garion_55]

Source: NBC

Dozens of children at a Utah school had their lunches seized and thrown away because they did not have enough money in their accounts, prompting an angry response from parents, it was reported.

"She took my lunch away and said, 'Go get a milk,’” Sophia Isom, a fifth-grader at Salt Lake City’s Uintah Elementary School, told NBC affiliate KSL.com. "I came back and asked, 'What's going on?' Then she handed me an orange. She said, 'You don't have any money in your account so you can't get lunch.’”

Up to 40 kids suffered similar treatment, given fruit and milk as their lunches were thrown away, the station reported.

Isom's mom Erica Lukes called the move “traumatic and humiliating” and told the Salt Lake Tribune she was all paid up.

Read more: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/30/22504777-reports-lunches-seized-from-utah-schoolkids-because-of-unpaid-bills?lite

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DISGUSTING!!

you can bet that i left them a message


https://www.facebook.com/slcschools

[another_liberal]

1. Hell is really too good . . .

There has to be a worse place for anyone who would order this kind of an outrage to be carried out against hungry American children.

[BlueCaliDem]

2. Uneffingbelievable. What is wrong with the faculty at that Utah school??

[blackspade]

3. And this is what happens when you treat schools like a business.

[another_liberal]

7. Yes, it is.

Hit the nail on the head that time, my friend.

[frwrfpos]

20. yup

[Garion_55]

35. and prisons.... and hospitals....and fire departments....

stupid teabaggers just dont understand that we need both private and public sector flourishing.

[valerief]

4. conservative compassion in action

[Ash_F]

5. Welcome to America. /nt

[cprise]

6. Wasn't Margaret Thatcher know as "milk snatcher"?

History repeating itself.

[LynneSin]

8. What makes me even angrier is that they took the lunches out of the kid's hands...

and tossed them in the garbage.

Really?

Why would you waste food like that? It's one thing to be a dickhead but it's another to then toss food into the garbage while letting those kids go hungry. That's not being a dickhead - that's being an asshole douchebag dickhead to the extreme!

[treestar]

10. True there was no reason to throw it out

If that's all that could be done with the food. Proves the only thing they care about is making sure kids learn it's all about money. And the market value of something you are willing to throw away is zero anyway.

[blackspade]

36. And the market value of something you are willing to throw away is zero anyway.

This seems to sum up the republicans feelings about the poor.
Especially poor children, now that they have exited the womb.

[Grassy Knoll]

9. This is disgusting. n/t

[heaven05]

11. this shit is cold hearted

and getting uglier by the minute in RW land. and then I got

[olegramps]

12. I was born in SLC; it doesn't surprise me in the least.

[democrank]

13. This is so inhumane.

Let the kids eat, talk with the parents later. And, if the parents can`t pay, HELP THEM...or at least tell them where they might get help. We`re talking about children here. Feeding children.
And, why humiliate the kids? Why?

[another_liberal]

16. Too right.

Well said.

[bucolic_frolic]

14. A dose of solid GOP Social Darwinism if there ever was one

This is called instilling motivation in the kids

They will be motivated to talk their parents into working harder
to support them better

and it teaches the kids that the benefits of society belong to those
with the ability to pay

Survival-of-the-Fittest at work!!

Aren't you proud of 'Republican Family Values'?

[bkanderson76]

15. A Lesson Well Taught to Them Damn 3rd Graders....You

Pay to play in America, or starve.

[sulphurdunn]

17. But wasn't it legal?

Didn't it follow established procedures? Weren't they warned? Isn't it the fault of the parents the little brats had their lunch served first and then taken away. That sends a message though, doesn't it? The school system needs to run like a business, not a goddamn charity, doesn't it? If you didn't like the sound of this, get ready because it's the sound of the corporate school privatization model in action. You know, the one that trains kids to take standardized tests but takes no further responsibility for them and doesn't pay teachers enough to help do it either. It's coming soon to a public school near you, unless you rise up and get militant. This sort of thing has always happened, but it's been an aberration. That's changing. It's becoming the new normal.

[QuestForSense]

18. I'd like to know who made this decision.

They couldn't send a note home to remind the parents they're overdue? They couldn't tell the parents that if they couldn't pay by a certain date that they would no longer be able to serve their child lunch? That they would need to pack a lunch for their child from that date forward if they wanted their child to eat? The fact that they took the lunch from the child and then threw it away seems like well-calculated heartlessness. Why?

[Firebrand Gary]

19. National News? Anyone? WTF

[tofuandbeer]

21. Disgusting, indeed!

[alp227]

22. Meanwhile, BOSTON knows how to prevent such situations:

free lunches...for ALL students regardless of income. BAM.

SLC on the other hand must be full of right wing "don't tread on me" types unwilling to pay more taxes for such a program.

BOSTON STRONG!

[SCVDem]

23. Call the police

This is child abuse.

[orbitalman]

24. This is so republicanesque, it ain't funny. n/t

[W.J. McCabe]

25. Too bad there is not a Hell for these people to burn in...

for treating children like that.

[marias23]

26. Compassionate Conservatives

Now we know what they look like - take lunch from a kid and throw it away. You have to pay your way or what will people want next? A roof? Health care? An education? Its a slippery slope. BTW how much does it cost to treat malnutrition?

[Brigid]

33. Right here on DU . . .

I read that the reason the food stamp program was instituted back in the '30's was that too many young men were found to be unfit for military service due to malnutrition.

[Politicub]

27. Teabagger mentality in action

They're children. Who does this?

This is the tea bagger mentality in action, folks. If you can't afford your lunch, they would rather throw it in the garbage than let you eat it.

[brett_jv]

29. What's "funny" is that you KNOW if this was posted at Freeperland ...

They'd wail and gnash their teeth over what the Evil Union Thug (i.e. Liberal) Teachers have done to the poor kids.

[Politicub]

30. I think they would see denying children food as a sacrament.

And they will probably add it to their purity test for true conservatives.

[CherokeeDem]

28. This is why I am happy I never had kids....

I am so angry over this without having a child that I do not know what I would do it this happened to my child... or anyone's child.

In Lexington, KY where I live the library has a Summer Lunch and snack program at the local libraries. The library works with the school system and the libraries located in the poorest areas provide lunch, afternoon activities, and a snack before they go home... for free. I've been to one of those libraries when they were serving lunch... the place was packed (and only the kids get to eat). Yet, in this disgusting school system in Utah... they take food away from a child.

I am beyond words.

[blackspade]

37. Things can be weirdly progressive here in KY.

[Martak Sarno]

31. Kid's are required to attend school by law, so...

I'm a little confused on this school thing. Kids are required by, at least, state law to attend 1st through 12th grade school (unless the parent can show home schooling).

So if the kids are required to attend (by law) shouldn't they be provided with meals (nap time and recess don't count?)? They already provide books for the students at taxpayer expense. If you work at a place for more than 4 hours you at least get a 10 minute paid break. But I guess kids required to go to school for 6 to 8 hours, learn from a teacher who is paid by the resident's taxes, have transportation provided to and from school (and even in Pa. if they choose another school out of their district, they still get the kids to where ever free!), abide by rules mandated by state governors and legislatures and school administrators (who are also paid by resident's tax dollars), don't qualify for lunch when the same kids MUST attend school by mandated law or the parents can be fined or jailed!

I'm pretty sure (100% sure), having served on school boards, those teachers, administrators, legislators and governors get extra cash for THEIR lunch courtesy of the tax payers, why not the kids?

Maybe some parents should be questioning these requirements?

Makes enough sense to lose your lunch over!

[Lars39]

34. That's where I'm at...State mandates, state provides food.

[blkmusclmachine]

32. Now the GOP's going after the kids. Anybody left who's NOT rich, white, old, and male???