Not sure what to make of this one: a group of 29 eighth-grade students at
Readington Middle School in New Jersey will have to serve detention (one hour
of silence, after school) for
paying
for their lunch with pennies. Apparently the lunch period had been
shortened and paying with pieces of copper was the kids' method of protest. The
school said that they weren't punishing the protest; they were responding to
the "lack of respect" the students showed to the lunchroom staff, who
apparently spent so much time counting the coins (200 per kid), they were
unable to serve tuna mushroom casserole to everyone. (The tuna mushroom casserole
part is made up, but that was always the most disgusting thing at my school
cafeteria. I actually ran for student body president on a "eliminate tuna
mushroom casserole" platform. But I digress.)
The comments are, as is often the case on sites other than this one where we
have the greatest commenters on the planet, as revealing as they are bizarre.
Some examples:
- the kids that dreamed this
up should all be given a free lunch and an “A” for creativity. Instead the
school is about to smother their creativity!
- All the stuff about being
a bully, this is it! The principal is being a bully to 14 yer olds.
Parents have not only the right, but the absolute responsibility to
intervene on this.
- Kids are Kids, get over
it.....
![Laughing]()
- Instead of the
administration doing something responsible, like taking the 29 kids and
discussing why the Lunch period has to be short on snow days, I.E. State
regs, They use their "power" to come up with a trumped charge of
"disrespecting" lunch aides to discipline them. They (principal)
needs to grow up. ... Are you running a prison? or a school?
Looks like the parents are hopping mad, or at least some of them are:
according to the article, it was parents who alerted the media to the story,
which received national coverage.
What do you think? Does the punishment fit the crime?
UPDATE: Make sure to read Kelly Mills post about a girl who was punished after stopping a bus full of schoolkids from crashing into traffic. Yowch.
image: merchbot
Bonus video: for no particular reason, here is a clip from Whose Line Is It
Anyway, featuring a bit called "Songs of the Lunch Lady."
