A principal at a government-run charter school in Lafayette, Colorado was fired from her job for opposing a discriminatory practice in which students who didn’t have enough lunch money were “marked.”
Noelle Roni of Peak to Peak Charter School – which is under the authority of the government-run Boulder Valley School District – opposed a policy in which students whose lunch accounts lacked sufficient funding were “stamped,” causing them to be ridiculed by their peers.
“The kids are humiliated. They’re branded. It’s disrespectful. Where’s the human compassion? And these are little children,” Roni told CBS 4 Denver.
Indeed … for a school to do this to any child (let alone an elementary school child) is just cruel.
Parents were (rightfully) furious when they found out the reason for Roni’s termination, and have begun a campaign to have her reinstated. They are also looking at recalling a pair of school board members over the fiasco.
Good for them …
6 comments
Woah, recalling school board members? Voting new members in? Wow, it’s as if the voters realized they *gasp* have a say in who runs the schools!
It was probably a reminder for the kids to tell their parents, not an actual branding.
But a note in the pocket would definitely been more appropriate. Doh!!
I can remember when living in poverty after my father abandoned our family having to stand in line at an elementary school with a different colored card from everyone else that told the cafeteria workers that I received my gooberment school lunch “for free” because I was poor. (35 years ago)
As we all know, not only are 3rd graders not stupid(despite many a government teacher thinking otherwise), but they naturally can be quite cruel when detecting weakness among their peers. (need I say more?)
Was it demeaning? Yeah. Frankly, I think I would have rather skipped the lunch had I been given the choice.(which I wasn’t-aside from just being young and lacking enough understanding of how to handle it all)
I’m not sure what my point is, but I figured I’d share.
Thankfully I turned all of it into positive eventually, started working early outside of school and when I got into junior high actually worked for my cafeteria lunch in the cafeteria(and felt no shame) and by the time I hit high school I was almost working full time anyway and bought my own lunch(and car), etc.
i appreciated your story. thanks
Branded – used to be television western
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXlUS5-ag_g
Well we know for sure this could never happen at a Private School, because the poor kids are branded at the front door.