Paying the School Lunch Debts Isn’t The Point – Making The Parents Give A Toss Is

A school district in Pennsylvania has told parents that if they don’t pay off the debts their kids have run up for school lunches then those kids might be whipped off into foster care. Then a local business type says he’ll pay off those debts but the school district doesn’t seem to want the money.

The point of all of this not being about the money nor the debts at all. It’s most certainly not about wanting to drag all the kids off into foster care either. Rather, it’s about trying to get the point over to these parents that they ought to actually give a shit about feeding their own children.

Here’s one telling of the tale:

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] The president of a Pennsylvania school board whose district had warned parents behind on lunch bills that their children could end up in foster care has rejected a CEO’s offer to cover the cost, the businessman said Tuesday. Todd Carmichael, chief executive and co-founder of Philadelphia-based La Colombe Coffee, said he offered to give Wyoming Valley West School District $22,000 to wipe out bills that generated the recent warning letter to parents. But school board President Joseph Mazur rejected the offer during a phone conversation Monday, Carmichael spokesman Aren Platt said Tuesday. [/perfectpullquote]

What a meanie, eh? And the actual point being made?

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] That has left Carmichael wondering why the district would turn down donations. “This really isn’t about the money,” he concludes. “I think it’s about teaching people who are struggling some sort of moral lesson they need to learn, no matter what the consequences are.” [/perfectpullquote]

Sorta, yes. What the school district was actually saying was that parents who don’t feed their children, don’t provide a packed lunch nor give them money for the school lunch, are maltreating those children. This is true, they are maltreating them. And people who maltreat their children might one day find that they’re in foster care.

Seriously, think on it for a moment. Not feeding your kid until what, 3.30, 4 pm? Not feeding it all day until that point? Making no provisions, not even a PBJ, until that time?

If Trump did that to the immigrant kids you’d have him impeached by breakfast tomorrow, wouldn’t you? And a school board shouldn’t be reminding parents of their, their duty, because?