On January 30, LU carried news of a bureaucratic outrage in a Utah elementary school. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the city’s school district became aware that a large number of families were in arrears for their children’s school lunch. But instead of taking the matter up with parents, the district’s child-nutrition department took their frustration out on the children. The department dispatched a “child-nutrition manager” to Uintah Elementary School where she “repossessed” students’ lunches, tossing their trays of newly procured hot food into the trash.
Today, we are able to report that disciplinary action (of a sort) has been taken. Opposing Views writes that that cafeteria manager has been temporarily placed on paid administrative leave and that more employees could also be placed on leave pending an investigation.
The school district has also apologized for the lapse in judgment, but it seems like too little, too late. Utah Senator Todd Weiler said of the original outrage:
To me this rises to the level of bullying. Children were humiliated. I think it’s an abuse of power. This person came into a school and used her power to humiliate and embarrass children and I think we ought to draw a line and say that’s not acceptable behavior,
