Pennsylvania school district tells parents to pay their lunch debt, or their kids will go into foster care

This is what you get when you have fools who spend too much time watching tv, movies, and cheeto running organizations and sending communications.

Who sends stupid stuff like this as if it was ever going to work.

But, it's also silly to call it lunch shaming. It is not shaming to tell people not to be deadbeats. If you have special circumstances, you contact the school and make arrangements. You don't just run up debt as if you're entitled to it without a second thought to how your actions are taking away from the education and well-being of other people's children.

What the school needs to do now is generate support from the non-deadbeat parents by demonstrating how this kind of financial burden takes away from their children's education. Yes, it's pitting parent against parent, but it's really their only recourse if they want to dig themselves out of this mess. Or find a scapegoat and fire him. Either one will work.

[quote] What the school needs to do now is generate support from the non-deadbeat parents by demonstrating how this kind of financial burden takes away from their children's education. Yes, it's pitting parent against parent, but it's really their only recourse

How is this going to help anything?

Make the poor (or underprivileged, or whatever they're called now) kids do chores for their lunch. You wouldn't have to hire as many janitors and you'd teach the kids some responsibility.

These damn kids need to be beaten with a car aerial. We can’t be their little baby friend all the time.

I think they should try it ASAP!

What could go wrong?

Has Betsy Devos commented?

[quote]Make the poor (or underprivileged, or whatever they're called now) kids do chores for their lunch. You wouldn't have to hire as many janitors and you'd teach the kids some responsibility.

No. What needs to happen is that parents need to be held accountable for their actions.

What is not clear is whether any of these children already participate in subsidized meal programs. I'm betting not since their meals would be covered otherwise. It sounds more like parents just not bothering and too cheap, not too poor, to pay.

Since "shame" has become such a terrible word, most people don't have ANY shame anymore - even when they should. SHAME is what keeps people from doing, you know, shameful things like not giving their kids meals AND not making arrangements for them.

We need a LOT more shame in contemporary American society, not less.

Some people are just deadbeats and grifters. Make ‘em pay like everyone else.

I don't get it, are the kids *forced* to eat the lunch provided by the school? Can the parents not afford to have their kids brown-bag it? $10-$12 buys bread, deli meat, veggies (to make soup), cheese, a bag of apples, and a pack of cookies from the .99 Cents Only store.

I know this is going to turn into one of those "you can make your own congee and homemade fig newtons for 0.02¢ per day, so there's no excuse to run up lunch debt" kind of threads, but the point here is that they are threatening to take children away from their parents because of debt.

That's not normal and it's not acceptable. You don't lose your own children because you owe $30 for past lunches. Why does this need to be said out loud?

The story is kind of sketchy. They say that accounts are suspended if they get to -$10, but somehow people have $450 in debt?

And the letter actually says that the kids have neither food nor money, so they're going to be sent to Dependency Court. That is, these are kids whose parents apparently cannot afford food, and instead of help or suggesting they apply for free lunches, they just send letters saying they're irresponsible?

CPS is quoted as being pretty upset with this letter because they're there to help, not punish, families, but the school district made it sound like they were an agency of punishment.

I dunno, seems like reporting these kids who don't have food to CPS in the first place was the solution. They don't have food or money for food, they're going hungry, get Protective Services involved.

If these people are not eligible for free lunches, they can most likely afford to pay for them. The parents are probably just taking advantage of how passive schools can be about these debts. The "foster care" threat is ridiculously over the top, but unless they're having a real financial hardship, they should pay up.

Send em to Mexico. Even out the balance.

[quote]I dunno, seems like reporting these kids who don't have food to CPS in the first place was the solution. They don't have food or money for food, they're going hungry, get Protective Services involved.

Perhaps if CPS were "weaponized" more often as a representative from the agency bemoaned they were being, there would be fewer kids tortured and killed by monstrous parents.

Frankly, if a kid is not being given food or money to obtain food, CPS should be ECSTATIC to be called before the kids is starved to death, neglected, and abused.

No one should have their kids taken away over lunch

[quote]No one should have their kids taken away over lunch

Exactly. They should at least get a dinner out of it.

You won't feel sorry for these people when the Glee Club gets shut down due to budget cuts.

[quote] Pennsylvania

Say no more.

R18 that’s NY

[quote] I don't get it, are the kids *forced* to eat the lunch provided by the school? Can the parents not afford to have their kids brown-bag it? $10-$12 buys bread, deli meat, veggies (to make soup), cheese, a bag of apples, and a pack of cookies from the .99 Cents Only store.

As with so many other things in our country, shit is upside down and lopsided when it comes to poor people.

We know what R9 said makes a lot of sense. The problem is, no one makes money from it, and most schools, and/or the companies that supply schools, exist to make money. And so they'll charge $12 to make a $3 PB & J lunch with chips for a kid.

It's the kid version of payday loans. People will help poor folks, but they'll make sure they kick them and keep them down in the process.

[quote] If these people are not eligible for free lunches, they can most likely afford to pay for them. The parents are probably just taking advantage of how passive schools can be about these debts.

On second thought, r12 is probably right. Parents not paying their child lunch bills is a huge problem the private school where I teach. The parents can afford it-- they just don't pay. It's probably a problem in public schools as well, where free lunch programs provide meals to kids who need them.

$22,000 is really not that much for a district and they should have found a different way to recover the money.

If Mama Cass had used her money to pay Karen Carpenter's lunch debt they'd both still be alive.

The kids shouldn't be taken away. The parents should be arrested and put in jail for a weekend. And when they apply for a job in the future, they can explain to prospective employers why they were arrested.

But have they no refuge, no resource? Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?

You guys know that most schools in other 'first world' nations pay for students to have free lunches?

How do you expect students to learn if they are hungry?

The idea is to make sure children are not starting the school day hungry, "enabling them to stay focused on their work throughout the morning, giving them the best chance of learning", the ministers explained.

Everyone in PA needs to chip in a few extra dollars and pay for these students to eat. Increase those taxes now.

"The idea is to make sure children are not starting the school day hungry,"

You know, back in the old days, it was the parent's responsibility to see that the kid ate breakfast at home and either had a bag lunch or was given lunch money.

Maybe the next step is to start educating children not to bring more children into the world unless they can afford to feed them. Start drilling it into their heads in the first grade and maybe, just maybe, they won't procreate like jack rabbits when they start junior high.

Boy the way Glenn Miller Played Songs that made the Hit Parade Guys like us we had it made Those were the days.

Didn't need no Welfare states Everybody pulled his weight gee our old LaSalle ran great Those were the days

And you knew who you were then Girls were girls and men were men

Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again

People seemd to be content $50 payed the rent Freaks were in a circus tent Those were the days

Take a little sunday spin Tonight I'll watch the dogers win Have yourself a dandy day that cost you under a fin

Hair was short and skirts were long Kate Smith really sung the song I don't know just what went wrong

THOSE WERE THE DAYS!

Something is weird with this district. I think they are deliberately being Trumpesque and trying to get rid of some of the families or get some of them put into jail.

Several people, including the founder of La Colombe coffee (founded in the region) offered to pay the entire amount due and were refused.