as small as a world and as large as alone

8:59pm September 21, 2014

clatterbane:

am-i-autistic:

thinksquad:

An eighth grade student from Weaverville Elementary School got a detention slip for sharing his school prepared lunch Tuesday.

Kyle Bradford, 13, shared his chicken burrito with a friend who didn’t like the cheese sandwich he was given by the cafeteria.

Bradford didn’t see any problem with sharing his food.

“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,” said Bradford.

But the Trinity Alps Unified School District has regulations that prohibit students from sharing their meals.

The policies set by the district say that students can have allergies that another student may not be aware of.

Tom Barnett, the Superintendent of the Trinity Alps Unified School District says that hygiene issues also come into play when banning students from sharing meals.

“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,” said Barnett.

Bradford’s mother Sandy Bradford thinks that her son did the right thing by sharing his lunch. She also believes that it isn’t up to the school to discipline her son for good manners.

“By all means the school can teach them math and the arithmetic and physical education, but when it comes to morals and manners and compassion, I believe it needs to start at home with the parent,” Sandy said.

Bradford says that he would definitely share his lunch again if a friend wanted a portion of his meal.

http://www.krcrtv.com/news/local/student-put-in-detention-for-sharing-school-lunch/28115110

[bolding mine]

Sandy Bradford has taught Kyle well. It’s just sad that we have to teach children that sometimes you have to be willing to be punished for human decency, because compassion is against the rules.

For those that don’t know, the cheese sandwich thing is something that some school districts have implemented for if a child forgets / can’t afford lunch, they can get a cheese sandwich and be, basically, billed for it. Not an actual complete lunch, just a cheese sandwich.

So what this article tells me is that Kyle’s friend didn’t have money for food, but for whatever reason doesn’t qualify for free school lunches. Kyle being a decent human being, he just didn’t want to see his friend have to eat food they didn’t like and still be hungry.

Also, it’s hard for me to read this policy as not being related to conservative fearmongering about food stamp fraud. The slightest bit of critical thinking can tell us that by 13, kids probably know how to manage their own food allergies, but if someone went to the grocery store and got food with food stamps and gave some of it to someone else, you know that’s the kind of thing that would be brought up every time they want to cut SNAP.

A total aside: I’m almost surprised they’re not still giving kids half-frozen peanut butter sandwiches on bread made out of wheat, probably with soy products in it—and then screeching about allergen dangers from sharing food.

School lunches in general are unlikely to be safe for kids with serious allergic reactions, or various other conditions triggered by certain foods. I wouldn’t trust their food not to be cross-contaminated with absolutely ANYTHING, even if they were not handing out the awful commodity peanut butter to kids it might kill. Just one of the many things that got me about this story. :-|

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