This spring, a child at University
Elementary found he had come up short in money for lunch, which costs $1.60.
In response, his mother said the cafeteria “did not give him anything but two
pieces of bread and a slice of cheese.” She then became further perturbed when she
discovered there was no explicit policy for schools to give away food on
credit, and found a sympathetic media outlet to publicize her grievance.
As it turns out, nine points of this episode dictates it ever got any
attention only because of the fashionability of failure to take responsibility and
thrusting onto something else. Even the parent admits it was her responsibility
to keep the card, a program in which parents may enroll their children to pay
for meals for any Caddo school, with sufficient funds, but then complained the
school’s response wasn’t enough given the situation.
Actually, the fare on which her son lunched that was provided back in
my day was referred to, and perhaps still is, a “cheese sandwich.” In those good
old days, my mother would grill a pair up at breakfast, toss one each along
with a bag of chips and something like a container of milk or juice into a
sack, one for me and one for my brother (maybe for me deviled ham or for him
peanut butter instead), and we were set for the day at school – pretty much each
school day for 13 years. So it’s hard to argue that the school’s counteroffer
was really all that inadequate.
True enough, she said her son might be unusually affected by a lower
calories count than usual because she says he suffers from acid reflux disease.
But it was not the school that caused aggravation of that condition if that
were an outcome, it was her negligence.
That becomes increasingly apparent especially when the card program is
so easy to manage. It can be done online (there’s even a phone app for it),
parents have access to the balances and can set up an alert when it drops below
a certain level. Or, there’s always the low-tech way of keeping track – have the
child note the balance when presented it back after use. And, there’s a
low-tech solution for the entire issue – have the child provided a sack lunch.
Had this involved an adult only, it would be enough to note that the
school acted entirely reasonably and the complaint was way overblown. Still,
the point does remain that it involved a child, and here school or Caddo policy
might make some tweaks for next year, because even if the parent was at fault and was then
entirely boorish to try to shift the blame, it should try to mitigate
victimization of the child even if it bore no responsibility by its actions.
First, being that it is so easy to add money to the card, Caddo should
create a procedure where if that happens, voluntarily a parent may be requested
to be contacted and within minutes the payment problem could be resolved.
Second, the school could publicize special lending programs that may exist at
each school or through their parent-teacher associations for these kinds of
situations.
Third, the district should increase awareness of the federal free meal
option. Like it or not, it is not difficult to
qualify for (a single parent making less than $26,955 could qualify a child,
with every additional child or family member adding $6,919 to the cutoff) which
is why at University 41
percent of students qualify and district- and state-wide it’s almost
two-thirds of them.
Finally, it should emulate the Bossier Parish School District, which
serves up a full meal and sends an “owe note” along with the child caught short.
School officials said they get stiffed that way so did not offer that option to
the boy, but if the district (and state if need be) issued a regulation that
said no student would advance a grade until all past obligations were made
good, including chits from cafeterias, that could ensure a high compliance rate
and prevent unscrupulous parents from trying to game the system.
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