Alan C. Posted January 31, 2014 Posted January 31, 2014 Lunches seized from kids in debt at Salt Lake City elementary Lunches seized from kids in debt at Salt Lake City elementaryUp to 40 kids at Uintah Elementary in Salt Lake City picked up their lunches Tuesday, then watched as the meals were taken and thrown away because of outstanding balances on their accounts — a move that shocked and angered parents."It was pretty traumatic and humiliating," said Erica Lukes, whose 11-year-old daughter had her cafeteria lunch taken from her as she stood in line Tuesday at Uintah Elementary School, 1571 E. 1300 South.Lukes said as far as she knew, she was all paid up. "I think it's despicable," she said. "These are young children that shouldn't be punished or humiliated for something the parents obviously need to clear up."Jason Olsen, a Salt Lake City District spokesman, said the district's child-nutrition department became aware that Uintah had a large number of students who owed money for lunches.As a result, the child-nutrition manager visited the school and decided to withhold lunches to deal with the issue, he said.But cafeteria workers weren't able to see which children owed money until they had already received lunches, Olsen explained.The workers then took those lunches from the students and threw them away, he said, because once food is served to one student it can't be served to another.Children whose lunches were taken were given milk and fruit instead.
Wesley Posted January 31, 2014 Posted January 31, 2014 the child-nutrition manager... decided to withhold lunches to deal with the issue Sounds like statist logic. Job: keep children healthy Solution: starve them Punishing kids without warning because the parents may have messed up is pretty ridiculous.
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