What Happened to Common Sense in Our Schools … 40 Childrens Lunches at Uintah Elementary School Confiscated and Tossed in Garbage Because There Was No Money in the Students’ Lunch Accounts

What the hell were these people thinking?

Forty elementary school kids had their lunches taken away and thrown in the garbage after it was realized that they had zero balances in their lunch accounts. ARE YOU SERIOUS!!! Punish the children for something their parents did that was most likely an over-sight? How could anyone think that this was the way to handle such an issue? This is just a long line of ignorant and ridiculous policies and further shows the lack of common sense that has become common place in our schools. Dodgeball no, taking kids lunches away from them … yes.

Utah parents are criticizing an elementary school for taking school lunches away from students because of unpaid accounts.

However, school officials claim the children did not go hungry.

When fifth-grader Sophia Isom got into the lunch line Tuesday, the girl said she was met by a district nutrition manager who was monitoring accounts.

“So she took my lunch away and she’s like, ‘Go get a milk.’ And I come back up and I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’ Then she handed me an orange and she said, ‘You don’t have any money in your account, so you can’t get lunch,’” Sophia said.

Sophia said the food was thrown out.

“We were all blind-sided,” said Erica Lukes, Sophia’s mother. “There were lots of tears, and it was pretty upsetting for them.”

FACEBOOK – Salt Lake City School District – Apology for their actions:

On Monday, a district Child Nutrition manager was sent to Uintah Elementary School to investigate the large number of students who had zero or negative balances in their school lunch accounts. That same day, the district manager and the local school kitchen manager started making calls to inform parents of the negative balances.

On Tuesday, the calls to parents continued. When lunch time came, students who still had negative balances were told they could not have a full meal but were given a piece of fruit and a milk for lunch. The district does this so children who don’t have money for lunch can at least have some food and not go without.

Unfortunately, children are served lunch before they get to the computer for payment. The children who didn’t have enough money in their accounts had their normal food trays taken from them and were given the fruit and milk.

This situation could have and should have been handled in a different manner. We apologize.

Cafeteria manager placed on leave after Utah school lunch seizures.

A cafeteria manager has been placed on paid administrative leave as the Salt Lake City School District investigates the seizure of school lunches from up to 40 young students with unpaid meal tabs.

The lunches were taken away Tuesday at Uintah Elementary, a move that has sparked outcry from parents, lawmakers and outraged observers who have created a sensation on social media.

More employees could be put on leave as well, depending on what the investigation uncovers, said district Superintendent McKell Withers.