A school in Bedford, KY recently had an employee do something incredibly heartless. Someone who works for Bedford Elementary School took away a students hot lunch and threw it in the trash in front of all her classmates because the little girl’s lunch account had insufficient funds.
Bear in mind that the child was already eating the lunch so it couldn’t be returned. Nope. They dumped perfectly good food in the trash rather than let a fourth grade girl eat it in order to shame her for the “crime” of having parents who hadn’t paid the bill. Her parents said the lack of payment was because of a lack of knowledge rather than a lack of funds, but did the school KNOW that? Or did they assume the bill wasn’t paid because of poverty? In that case, were they trying to humiliate a child because she had poor parents?
The child’s aunt said, “It was awful to think about her being there, sitting there and she was crying. She’s a shy girl anyway, she’s 10 years old and she’s knows what’s going on.”
Doing something like that to a child is evil. They could have taken her aside first and QUIETLY told her she had to eat a cheese sandwich because she didn’t have enough money on her account. They didn’t have to mortify her. She’ll probably be haunted by the degradation of it for years, if not for the rest of her life.
I hope she realizes the only person who should be ashamed is the person who did that horrible thing to her.
In response to the uproar, the school board of Trimble County “decided to hold a special called meeting for the public on June 17”. I assume they think the furor will die down and they can sweep this under the rug.
Good luck with that. There isn’t a parent in that school system who isn’t thinking about that happening to their child next, and riled-up parents have long memories and tend to bear a grudge.