Weird School Punishment

[Free4Life11]

Compare it to this...your EMPLOYER is required to give you a certain amount of breaks. How would you like someone telling you you can't eat? I understand at work sometimes we get busy and can't take the time or whatever, but how would it feel to have to have your employer forbid you to eat? How about if you didn't have breakfast[

I'd do exactly what this kid did: I'd go to the vending machines and buy some Little Debbies. Then I'd eat whatever I had for lunch/dinner after my shift was over. It it became a common thing, I'd get another job. It didn't sound to me like the kid starved, he had some snacks. No, not something you want to be doing every day, but eating Little Debbies for lunch one day is hardly going to kill ya.

 

[Spinning]

I would call the school and ask exactly what happend. To me this was a totally inappropriote punishment! True a child can miss a meal and survive. But I don't feel the school has the right to take away food. Plus then allow them to get treats? That doesn't make sense to me at all...so lets see be good at lunch, get school food...be bad get little debbies? Ummm sign me up I would love sweets for lunch!

 

[Wishing on a star]

Oooops, double post.

 

[Wishing on a star]

Boy, the first comment by DD was enough. but, YTL, you have taken this whole 'with-holding' food thing beyond reason. You are coming off as cold and abusive.

These are hungry and growing kids... most of them probably did nothing wrong at all. You have some nasty attitude that kids are little devil-heathens, and 'make-em-pay'.

There is NO excuse for withholding food from growing children. EVER.

Just because some misguided and abusive parents did that years ago, that does not make it right. There were a LOT of attitudes regarding women and children from years ago that we should never want to revisit!!!


PS: I know TWO people with diabetic children. There is a certain percentage of diabetic children in any school. Anyone who agrees with witholding food is downright warped.

 

[gate_pourri]

I hardly think so.

The kid should have had a good breakfast before coming to school. If lunch is at 12 - kids are probably out by 3. They can get a bite to eat when they get home at three (or whatever aftercare they have) . I will bet most parents on this board taking their little ones to WDW have been late getting their kids lunch. They are not missing a meal for the WHOLE day.

Now, if a kid left home without a good breakfast - whose fault is that?

By the way, I will bet the kids will be quieter next time, huh?

I have to comment that this always isn't true. Not only because some families are too poor to provide meals, but also some people just aren't morning earters. I, for one, can probably count how many times in my life I have sat down to breakfast (and I am 23!). I am not a morning eater. My stomach does not like food in the AM. I eat a nice lunch sometime between 12 to 1 and then eat dinner. If I was told that I couldn't eat lunch, it would be very painful.

Denying food as a punishment is not right. It gives a bad idea to the kid. It can create eating problems later in life, etc.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

I'm sorry--I'm breaking my rule about not reading replies! I'm also in MD and I know that as a daycare provider one of my biggest rules is that I cannot, for any reason, withhold food from the children. My licensing person mentioned this rule specifically when I was last relicensed. Doesn't matter what the child does wrong. I assume that it's the same thing for school children. I would look into this and report it.

 

[elgerber]

So your kids have never missed a meal under your care? I consider myself to be a very good mother and I can't tell you how many times lunch has turned into an early dinner - because life happens. So I guess now I need to report myself to CPS - especially since I am sure it will happen many more times.

I'm not saying you or anyone else are a bad parent, but to answer the question, No, my kids have never missed a meal under my care. We always eat 3 meals a day at our usual meal times.

 

[bigmerle1966]

Another comment about missing one meal, what if a child's only meal for the day is lunch at school? If there were a child who is in a bad home situation and doesn't get breakfast or dinner at home they may be missing the only meal they are going to have.

And like Tigger&Belle said, one of the rules in childcare in the state of MD is that you cannot withhold food from children. If they found out that you did something like this as a punishment your license could be pulled.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Let me clarify something--there is a very big difference between what punishment I may choose to dish out to my own children and what I can, by law, dish out to my daycare children. I can send my own children to their room and have them skip a meal. Have I ever done it in my 18years of parenting? I don't think I have. Would it have killed my kids? Nope! Might have made my 12yo a less picky eater, as a matter of fact! But the second I try it with a daycare child I could have my license pulled. I cannot legally punish one of my daycare children by withholding food, plain and simple.

If it were me, I would place a call to the appropriate state agency (after talking with a neighbor, perhaps) and letting them sort through it to see if this actually happened). Let them play detective. No, don't call if you don't think that there was a problem, but let them know what you suspect, ask if this is allowed and then let them figure out what happened. I would not let it drop.

 

[mickeysgal]

Just curious...has the OP ever posted any additonal information on this topic? Did she ever go to the school and/or other parents and get a response? I can't wrap my head around this topic as something that the school would condone as proper behavior toward these kids.

My kids have told me that if you're unruly in line, you are sent to the back of the line. Perhaps that happened. Also, for about a semester last year, my DD's class was always released late for lunch, putting the entire class at the end of the line and sometimes they ran out of time to finish all of their lunch. Kids sometines don't tell the full story and trim the story down so far, the story changes. Perhaps something like this happened and it was warped into the "we couldn't eat lunch" story.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

But I ask, what is the damage of missing one meal? 8 hours without a meal? ONE TIME? So your kids have never missed a meal under your care?

Because I believe in the state of Maryland it is against the law to withhold food as punishment. Not sure if this is true in the schools, but it is in daycare centers and home daycares. And they were selecting who could eat--the kids who brought lunch could eat. Why? The ones buying weren't the only noisy ones. Just makes no sense.

 

[yeartolate]

I'm not saying you or anyone else are a bad parent, but to answer the question, No, my kids have never missed a meal under my care. We always eat 3 meals a day at our usual meal times.

Good for you and your children. But our life (and the lives of many families) just is not that regulated. Especially as they get older.


I know that when I take my child outside the home - perhaps to a museum, zoo, aquarium, etc.....we are so immersed in our trip that we look at the time and all of a sudden it is mid afternoon. This was especially true after 2nd or 3rd grade. Heck, on our trips to disneyland a good time to ride rides is during lunch times and we intentionally wait till later to have lunch. My son (just turned 12) is 5'8" and is sturdily built, healthy as a horse, so I guess no harm done.

My son also participates in all the lunchtime sports - this usually means a quick light wham bam lunch so they can hurry to the field. Makes me a worse mother because I encourage it! Yeah, when he gets home he is hungry - but is a perfect time to get him to try new things.

Missing a meal was not the right punishment for a teacher to make (I wonder if she kicked herself later for making it)but it simply does not rise to the level of needing disciplinary action - unless this teacher has history of many questionable judgements.

 

[mum4jenn]

I wish the OP would come back in here to let us know what happened. I did not even see this until today but I can tell you for certain that if this is a public school and they abide by the Federal School Lunch Program and this really happened as this child reported then some heads are going to roll on this one!!! This is against the law. We have to feed the children and depepnding on what form of the program is followed (enhanced,offer vs. serve, etc.) then we also have to make sure everything on the menu is on their plate. It is a LAW!!

At my school we are organized and prepared enough to have each class through the line every three minutes. All classes are allowed 30 minutes from the time they enter the line. The talking was getting out of hand at times so about a month ago the Principal started a new policy with a clock that is divided into 4 quarters periods. Two quarters are green(talking allowed) and two quarters are red(silence). This way no matter what time they come into the lunchroom they are given a total of 15 minutes to talk and 15 minutes to be quiet no matter how it is broken up.

Anyway...I would definately like to know what really happened. And I was wondering why a school would sell snacks like this anyway???? Also even if the lunchroom ran out of food(which should NEVER happen BTW) then they still have to provide something to eat even if it is a PB&J an apple and a milk.


OP..... PLEASE let us know the outcome!!

 

[LauraR]

O.K., my neighbor called back and let me know that her daughter said almost exactly the same thing as my DS about lunch yesterday. She brought her lunch, so it didn't affect her, but she remembered everything the same way with one KEY difference. Her DD said that 5 minutes before the end of lunch they told the 4th graders they could go up and get lunch. My son might have gotten confused because they also called all the kids up to get snack at the same time, so he might have thought that's all he could get. But when I asked my DS if they still had the lunch food out when he went through he said no. Which IS how they usually do things. They cover up the lunch stuff before they let the kids through to get snacks at the end (I've been through the line myself).

So, I'm still thinking this is pretty unfair as punishment because if you bring lunch you're off the hook, but if you buy you're out of luck (and what's the incentive of the kids who already have lunch to be quieter?) I then called the school and asked to speak with the principal or vice principal. The VP gets on the phone and I explained what happened at lunch yesterday. He kinda laughs and says, "They were probably told they had to quiet down before they could go through the line. I'll talk to the lunch monitors and call you back." I told him I'd be at the hospital visiting someone all day so he should probably call my husband back. So now I'm waiting to hear what he told my DH.

The really ironic thing about this is they are having MSA testing at school starting today, so they sent a letter home saying the kids should have a good breakfast so they perform their best! (I wonder if they'd withhold lunch on a test day...) My DS said his teacher was going to let them have candy during testing (they're big on candy at this school) which I'm not crazy about, but I don't ever say anything negative about their teachers. I did, however, tell him complex carbohydrates like whole wheat bread and protein like peanut butter and tunafish are better "brain" food.

So he's getting Little Debbie snack cakes instead of lunch, and candy on test days, grrreat!!!

 

[sha_lyn]

Her DD said that 5 minutes before the end of lunch they told the 4th graders they could go up and get lunch. My son might have gotten confused because they also called all the kids up to get snack at the same time, so he might have thought that's all he could get.

Even if they were "allowed" the last 5 minutes to get lunch, it would be impossible for everyone in the 4th to get lunch and eat it in 5 minutes.
So who is "in charge" in the lunch room. I never saw you mention that it was a teacher that dished out the punishment, yet so many here have assumed that to be the case. I know that here the teachers have their own private lunchroom and the school has lunchroom monitors that watch the lunchroom.
Let me tell you these people are(or at least were) horrible. I witnessed one tell DS to stop tattling when he asked for another lunch since anohter child has spit on and licked DS's food. I went and spoke to the lunchroom suervisor, who said that the "offending" child was not allowed to eat with the other kids because he always did things to the other kids food. There are other stories too, but that one is the worst.

 

[sha_lyn]

No, not something you want to be doing every day, but eating Little Debbies for lunch one day is hardly going to kill ya.

While it won't kill them, it will effect their mood and ability to concentrate in the classroom.

 

[Dopey Sharon]

"They were probably told they had to quiet down before they could go through the line.

I would bet that this is exactly what happened.

 

[yeartolate]

I would bet that this is exactly what happened.

I will bet that is what exactly what happened, too.

 

[darrose]

Found another thing to be thankful for in my kids school district. They can quiet down the kids in less than a minute. I wonder why if the above was true (that they couldnt go through the lunch line until they were quiet) that they took 25 minutes to quiet down the 4th grade class?

 

[mickeysgal]

Her DD said that 5 minutes before the end of lunch they told the 4th graders they could go up and get lunch.

To make matters worse, chances are there wasn't enough of everything left at that point to make a full entree meal. I sure hope they don't do this again. I can understand having to get a group to quiet down or whatever, but give them lunch and give them the proper amount of time to eat it. Find another way to correct them.