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On a side note, I am a high school teacher and I noticed during my lunch duty, a student in my class was tossing a full tray of food away at lunch. He was buying two--eating one and tossing the other one in the trash. I watched this for several days before I called his parents. I explained what was happening and that it was his business if he wanted to throw food away. But I knew he was paying for his lunches--not on a free or reduced plan--mom thanked me and said she wondered why he was spending so much money every week for lunch.
She talked with him that night and told him if he was buying two lunches, he needed to eat them--otherwise just buy one.
From that day he just bought one lunch, or if he bought extra, he made sure to eat it (or take it home).
Point is I called home and let the parents deal with the situation. I am NOT a food Nazi.
Did you ever find out why he was buying a second lunch?
I would appreciate being told if food was being wasted--ONCE--but as for consequences like being forced to eat...I would be all over that adult and in the office then the board office then the newspapers.
Call CPS!
Was this child on free/reduced lunch? If so, make a complaint to them as well.
I would never force a kid to eat their lunch. Of course, if the kid came to me an hour after lunch, I would shrug my shoulders and remind them of the tray of food they threw away. C'est la vie....
Did you ever find out why he was buying a second lunch?
He is a SpEd student, so I am not sure what he was thinking? Part of it was he wasn't suppose to eat pizza everyday (per mom) so I think he got two lunches -- one pizza and the other a sandwich-- so he could say he bought something besides pizza and I think he honestly thought he would eat both. But after the pizza and ranch dressing, he said he could eat no more..
No he had no free / reduced lunch, mom sent in $40 every month on his account to cover the $2.25 lunch and he was out of money within 8-10 days. Mom said she wasn't concerned IF he was eating that much, but when she heard he was tossing one, she was a bit upset that money was being wasted.
I would be concerned.
Obviously you're an adult and know that by throwing a "histrionic fit" would only make the problem worse- I had a similar incident happen to me and when my parents dealt with the principal by being mean, the lunch lady actually made my life miserable each day.
Stay direct and professional and talk with the principal....and bring the copy of your email to him/her!
Usually I wouldn't recommend immediately running to the principal to tattle on a teacher, but you obviously tried to get the teacher's side of the story and they were far from professional.
Best of luck.
We don't provide lunches (sp. needs facility where most kids are on specialized diets, so they all bring their own lunches). They don't need to eat their entire lunches except in cases where the parent has specified that it's a priority. We do track what is left uneaten/thrown out and communicate that to parents. Of our kids w/ASDs, limited palate and perseveration on certain food items can be an issue. Kids who finish their lunches may eave early to play. Kids who don't don't get dismissed early, but they don't get punished, ever.
HI Guys, thanks for the input. Just to explain as unbiasedly as possible: When I was first called down to the school because of the throw up, I thought it must be a stomach bug or something. My daughter said she threw up because she had to "eat the white stuff". I was confused by this so I asked where she ate the "white stuff". This was the first time the school nurse had heard of this also. My daughter told me "Mrs. X had me eat the white stuff." The nurse's office is right next to the principle's office so the nurse and I both went over to see if we could locate Mrs. X and determine what the "white stuff" was, God forbid it was paint or something. The principle just happened to be there, I didn't go looking for him specifically. He was also concerned so they called Mrs. X down right a way. When she walked into the office I could tell she was ROYALLY pissed for being called away from her class and I really, really do feel bad about that.
Mrs. X then recounted the issue she had with my daughter, apparantly on days when the hot lunch is pancakes, sausage and applesauce (why that is a lunch I don't know), my daugher only will eat a few bites of a pancake and some of the applesauce and ends up throwing the rest away. First I had heard about this, I have a feeling my daughter doesn't care for this lunch but has never expressed that to me, or I would gladly send packed lunches on those days. Anyway Mrs X decided this would be the day when my daughter finally ate every bite. At this point I was kind of pissed, but I asked about the White Stuff. Mrs X. confirmed that even after my daughter had cleaned her plate (yes she was sitting there during recess doing this, just her and Mrs. X), she then had my daughter consume the three pads of butter (the white stuff) and then drink the two little containers of fake maple syrup the lunch came with. This apparently lead to her vomitting about 10 minutes later. I probably would barf too if I ate straight up butter and then drank some syrup.
I can't exactly remember what I said next, it was not heated, I just didn't know what to say really and said, "Was this appropriate, I am not happy this happened, I feel this was a bad choice, I feel upset by this happening" I believe it was then Mrs. X asked if I was going to throw a "histornic fit". I started to get the vibe I was being bullied some how. I confirmed I did not want to make a huge issue of it, but I felt my daughter desereved an apology (That's just how I felt at the time, and still do even if that's wrong). The principle was getting a little flustery at this time, I could tell he didn't want to upset Mrs. X as she's a "big time" teacher whose been around forever. I also said I didn't EVER want this to happen again, if my daughter throws food away to the point where a techer is aggravated, I want to be called asap to deal with the issue. I had to leave at that point because I didn't want to get upset infront of my daughter and I could feel the spiral of irritation building.
I'm kind of thinking of next steps at this point, should I press this further, I feel like I want someone to confirm this will Never happen again.
I can understand having your daughter sit until either recess was over or she ate the pancakes, sausage, and applesauce (and I say this as someone who found out much later in life that I do not like sausage because I am allergic to pork).
The condiments though? Eating enough raw salted butter can make you quite sick; and the "maple syrup" was almost certainly flavored corn syrup. That strikes me as the teacher just asserting her position of power.
I have to add that the principal made a poor choice calling the teacher out of the classroom. This is test time in most states, and the point is driven home hard on teachers that any time out of the classroom is one more step towards their termination because they are not spending every possible moment doing test prep. I would even wonder if that was connected to the lunch incident. Maybe the district is stressing strict enforcement lunchroom rules because of the belief that skipped meals can lead to lower test scores. My wife's students are not allowed to play their instruments in orchestra during testing weeks because the district is worried they will be too tired for testing; so stupidity certainly abounds in pursuit of higher test scores.
Next steps...
make absolutely sure that the principal fully documents this incident. If the teacher can intimidate the principal as much as it seems, he might not follow through with this. I don't think you are going to get corrective action against the teacher, yet, but that documenting can go a long ways towards that.
Have a talk with your daughter so your daughter understands what was wrong about her actions (throwing the food away) and what was wrong about the teacher's actions (making her eat until she was sick). I don't know the best way for your daughter to deal with the situation if it happens again, but discuss that with her. You cannot confirm that this will never happen again; you can only set that groundwork that if it does happen again the teacher will be facing job repercussions. You can prepare your daughter to deal with this type of situation if anything like it happens again.
But finally, talk to the principal once more, without the teacher. And say exactly what you said, that you feel like you want someone to confirm this will never happen again (and ask for him to make sure to document fully so if the same situation comes up again down the road with your daughter or another student, he can show a pattern that needs to be changed).
Or to sum up a lot of that...
Make sure the principal takes the steps towards putting the teacher on a Professional Improvement Plan if the behavior repeats itself at all.
This is test time in most states, and the point is driven home hard on teachers that any time out of the classroom is one more step towards their termination because they are not spending every possible moment doing test prep. I would even wonder if that was connected to the lunch incident. Maybe the district is stressing strict enforcement lunchroom rules because of the belief that skipped meals can lead to lower test scores. My wife's students are not allowed to play their instruments in orchestra during testing weeks because the district is worried they will be too tired for testing; so stupidity certainly abounds in pursuit of higher test scores.
Bah, I would LOVE to see the data that supports this bizarre rationale.
OTOH, there is plenty of data noting that students who engage in playing musical instruments typically score higher on standardized tests, for what it's worth (not much, as standardized tests are a fairly limited measurement of student ability). Yay for crappy reasoning! Anyhow, back on topic...
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