Weird School Punishment

[LauraR]

I let my 4th grader buy lunch at school today. So when he got home I asked him what he had, and he said, "They wouldn't let us buy lunch today because we were too noisy." I said, "Whaaat? Like nobody in the cafeteria could buy lunch?" Turns out the 4th graders were too noisy, so the 3rd graders got to buy lunch. But the 4th graders who brought their lunch eat it. I said, "Well, was it just the 4th graders in the lunch line who were making noise?" But he said, "No, we were still sitting with all the other 4th graders." So, I'm thinking that's a pretty unfair way of punishing the kids. Then he tells me in the last 5 minutes they actually let the lunch buyers use their lunch money to buy snacks. So he ended up wolfing down a bunch of Little Debbie snack cakes for lunch! This strikes me as, A) not at all nutritious, and B) less than the ideal punishment, as junkfood is pretty much every 4th graders dream lunch! Also I don't get their thing about noise in the lunch room. I mean they're supposed to be quiet in class, which I totally understand, but why can't they talk to their friends at lunch? I've eaten lunch with my kids, and I was even afraid I was going to get in trouble for talking (and I'm pretty quiet!)
The whole incident just struck me as very weird...

 

[rhanditresmom]

That is not weird...that is plain wrong! How in the world can a school justify denying children their lunch???????? Oh my gosh. That makes me a little mad. I'm afraid I would have to talk to someone about that!

 

[pearlieq]

That's about six different kinds of crazy!!!

 

[Beth76]

Not weird. WRONG! That would so not fly with me. Making the kids buy snacks as punishment? Uh uh, no way. But, as always, talk with the teacher (or whoever) first and get the whole story.

And I agree that the kids should be allowed to be a little noisy at lunch.

 

[rhanditresmom]

I mean....what if that was the first meal some of these kids got that day????? Not every child gets to eat breakfast! That is unbelievable.

ok...i'll stop now.

 

[jenimay]

That has to be against some sort of rules. You can't withhold food from prisoners, why would they think you could withhold it from 4th graders. I would first make sure I had my facts straight and then call and complain. I'm sure you wouldn't be the only parent doing so. Also if you don't get a response from the school, I 'm sure the media would have a field day with this too. I can just see it on the local news headlined "school denies kids thier lunch for talking". I also don't get the being quiet at lunch, I mean even if kids are talking at a reasonable level to their friends, 50+ kids talking is going to be somewhat loud. They can't possibly expect kids to eat without talking to their friends?

Good luck

 

[disneymom3]

That has GOT to be illegal! I would find out more details from a grown up first--hey I used to be a preschool teacher and you wouldn't believe some of the stories I got from kids so I know it works both ways--but if your son is even remotely close to on the ball here--and he must be since he didn't eat lunch!!--I would be quite quite ticked off.

I know in daycare that it is a major license violation to withhold food from a child for behavior issues.

 

[HaleyB]

I bet the reason they let the kids buy food at the end was because someone realized it was against the law. You can not with hold food as a form of punishment. I would be on the phone tomorrow.

I also do not understand the big deal with noise at lunch. Kids need to be kids.

I also think punishing the group like that is wrong. It is laziness really. If it is such an issue, shouldn't they try to find out which kids are causing it? My sons teacher does this all the time and it really makes me mad. She has poor classroom management skills and my son, who is good more often than not, suffers for it.

 

[figment52]

I'd be calling the school for their side of the story. It is wrong on so many levels.

 

[KristaTX]

Are you sure your son didn't misunderstand the situation? I can't imagine a school that would tell the kids they couldn't buy lunch (which had probably already been cooked). If they did, some employee made a HUMONGOUS mistake that the administrators probably were not aware of. Check with the office or teacher tomorrow to find out what really happened.

 

[Jennasmomma]

I would call the school and get the exact story. However I know in my dd's school now (4-6) and the last one (k-3)..they try to get them to be quiet for certain periods of time during lunch. Its because in OUR district, lunch is the only meal some kids get. So they assume if kids talk they wont eat. In her last school, the gym teacher who was doing lunch monitoring had them write next time in gym "I will not talk in lunch". for the whole period. Multiple grades had to do it. Oh lord did the parents have a field day on her!!!!

 

[Dopey Sharon]

As a cook in a elementary school, I can tell you that this did not happen!

I think you need to get the story from someone at the school because there's no way that the kids weren't allowed to buy and eat lunch!

The punishment may have been no snacks, but a school could never get away with punishing the kids by not allowing them to eat!

 

[sha_lyn]

As a cook in a elementary school, I can tell you that this did not happen!

I think you need to get the story from someone at the school because there's no way that the kids weren't allowed to buy and eat lunch!

I'm sorry but unless you work at that school, and was present today, then you have no business saying it did not happen.

 

[Stacerita]

If thats truely what happened, then thats just wrong. But I just dont see it being a full truth. I would call the school and get the other side for sure. In the sweetpea's school, the orders for lunches are taken in the morning for that afternoon. I dont see the school taking a loss on all those lunches just to punish some noisy kids. And I dont see how they would be able to get away with that sort of punishment anyways. Im thinking something is left out of the story or maybe your DC got something mixed up about what was going on. Call the school, get their side of what happened. And I would talk to more than one person to find the story out.

 

[Philadisney]

this is a very bizarre story - i hope it is not true!!! i also hope you call someone at the school because if it is true, then it's really awful! please let us know what you find out, i am very curious!

 

[LauraR]

Yeah, I guess I will have to call the school tomorrow to figure out what happened. Although, my son is not one to exaggerate. I'm really trying to figure out what might have gotten lost in translation, but I am definitely sure he did not get lunch. He also said they made two classes of 4th graders stand next to the wall during recess as further punishment for the talking, but not his class. If they were going to do punishing, I think the recess should have been all they had taken away.

Just don't really feel up to ferreting out the total story right now as I am spending most of my days at the hospital with a dear family member who is dying of lung cancer. Then again, she'd probably be the first one to tell me to call!

 

[disneymac]

I would definitely be on the phone about that one! That's just crazy... Please let us know what you find out!

 

[elismom]

I would check with the school.
When I ran a daycare (school age kids )
all kinds of things got said the wrong way to parents.
I remember once a little guy telling me one day that his Mom was going to make sure he had extra milk eveynight when he went home because he never got any at my house.
Story was the milk had gone sour one day so we had juice instead for lunch.
By time he told the story at home it was ,We never get milk

 

[Dopey Sharon]

I'm sorry but unless you work at that school, and was present today, then you have no business saying it did not happen.

Excuse me...I'll put it another way...I'm 99% sure that it didn't happen. Am I allowed to say that???

BTW...who are you to say I have no business saying anything?

Laura...sorry about your friend.

 

[sha_lyn]

I have just as much of a right to say you are wrong, as you do of accusing her son of lying