Sharing your lunch is apparently a punishable offense in a California elementary school.
Kyle Bradford, an eighth grade student at Weaverville Elementary School, received detention for sharing his chicken burrito with a friend on Tuesday (9-16).
KRCR?reported that Bradford shared his burrito because his friend had received a cheese sandwich from the school cafeteria.
Bradford:
?It seemed like he couldn’t get a normal lunch so I just wanted to give mine to him because I wasn’t really that hungry and it was just going to go in the garbage if I didn’t eat it.?
When asked why, the Superintendent of the Trinity Alps Unified School District, Tom Barnett, shared that the policies are in place due to a risk of allergies and hygiene issues.
Barnett:
?We have a policy that prohibits students from exchanging meals. Of course if students are concerned about other students not having enough to eat we would definitely want to consider that, but because of safety and liability we cannot allow students to actually exchange meals.?
Both Bradford and his mother, Sandy, believe that sharing his lunch was the right thing to do, and Bradford says he would definitely do it again.
So, here’s what I would like to know. What kind of cheese sandwich was it?
Mind you, I totally get the logic behind the policies. Food allergies can be life threatening. I also openly admit sources do not mention whether the friend only received a cheese sandwich due to a past due lunch bill or not having the money that day. So everything after this is pure assumption and conjecture, and I totally admit this. If I’m wrong, please have one of the administrators from the school district politely correct me. However, this is a valid subject we should be talking about anyways.
I may be nearing 30 years old, but I still remember what those cheese sandwiches looked like when they gave them to you and why they gave them to you. I also remember the glares you would get when you had to tell them you had no money to pay your bill that day. I definitely remember the way they begrudgingly shoved the lunch at you when they would feel kind enough to still give you hot lunch and not those damnable cheese sandwiches. So tell me, what sort of cheese sandwich was it? I was lucky that, despite being broke, we had food in our home. There are way too many children who go home to no food whatsoever.
So if they don’t want to allow sharing food for valid enough reasons, what can schools do to provide nutritious meals to students who are unable to pay that day and do not qualify for free lunches? Schools are required to meet certain nutritional standards set in place by the USDA right? Past due bill or not, does a cheese sandwich meet those standards?
On a final note, was it really necessary to give Bradford a detention?
Check out the video broadcast from KRCR below!
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Liz Lee considers herself an uppity Southern woman?and hails from the swamps of South Georgia. She has all her teeth and knows how to spell fairly well. She graduated high school and has some college learnin?. She is a wife to a man that ain?t her cousin, mother of one human child, mother to one furry American Bully, and also your typical everyday Wonder Woman. When she hangs up her cape, you can find her curled up in her office sewing while gossiping, writing, playing World of Warcraft, or practicing banjo in hopes of being the greatest at pickin? and a grinnin?. You can follow her on?Facebook?to see what she is up to. She also has a?Twitter?she can’t figure out how to use and is working on a website at this time.
