With outrage following the languor and indifference of authorities in a Utah school over student lunches, school officials have issued an apology. There were reports of a staff confiscating and discarding lunches of nearly 30 children whose parents are reportedly facing a deficit in providing meal payments. State senator Todd Weiler said the children had also been bullied for their parents being in arrears. Furious parents in Salt Lake City said the hapless students of Uintah Elementary schools had also been jeered and humiliated. Following a posse of protests, the concerned authorities have launched an inquiry into this incident that took place on Tuesday.
The entire blame has fallen on a “nutrition manager”. The children, whose lunches were trashed, were provided with milk and fruits. Spokesperson of the Salk Lake City School, Jason Olsen, said on Thursday that it was a grave mistake and wrong handling on the part of the staff. According to school officials, a nutrition manager arrives on a Monday morning at the premises to investigate what it defined as a high volume of negative balances alongside financial inanities in the account books. These records show students’ payments for meals prepared and served by the authorities.
The nutrition manager, abetted by a staff member began summoning parents with deficit balances in a bid to revamp or replenish the void in payments, said the school officials. On Tuesday, students who had gathered to receive their meals, were shown these deficits and not served with lunch. They were, instead asked to return the lunch boxes. Bullying has been a major accusation and blot in this regard. The boxes are thrown into the rubbish since you cannot give an already served food to another student, the authorities said. People are justifiably upset with this gross misdemeanor or arrogance. Erica Lukes, mother of 11 year old girl who studies in this primary school, said that it is a mean and needless act. Her daughter’s pizza had been confiscated as well.
The problem gets confounded when some parents reported that their accounts were absolutely all right sans any arrears, and that, the concerned official was making a mistake. Mr Olsen said that they believe that it was the nutrition manager’s misgivings and wrongdoing in this juncture, but an investigation is imperative in this context. On Thursday, two senators swore to evaluate the school policies if the authorities failed to solve this issue. Raising concerns over arrears in payment is no fault, but bullying kids is a serious fault.