This is the WORST school district I've ever experienced.

Published on September 22, 2005 By dharmagrl In Misc

We're having yet another battle with the school.

My son and his classmates are supposed to get an hour for their lunch. However, they only get to spend part of that hour actually eating. A very small part of that hour.....like 10 or 15 minutes before the lunch ladies start hassling them to get out so the next class can come in. Quite often my son comes home hungry because he hasn't had the time to finish his boxed lunch that he brings from home. My friend K's boy is in the same class, and he's come home a couple of times shaking and feeling faint because he's been so hungry.

The past 2 days, both boys have come home with lunches that are untouched. Their teacher has been holding them back in their classroom for 5 - 10 minutes into their lunch hour. When they only get 15 mins to sit and eat, that 5 - 10 mins that they're held back is a significant chunk of time.

So, my husband called the school yesterday afternoon and requested to talk to the teacher. She called back this morning, and after he had voiced his concern she proceeded to talk over him, saying that she has procedures to follow and blah blah blah. He got somewhat stroppy with her and told her that if it happened again he was going to take it up with the school superintendent and then the school district.

She didn't even seem to care that the kids aren't getting adequate time to eat at lunch. The only thing she seemed to give a rat's behind about was her 'procedure'.

If us parents consistently denied our kids the opportunity to eat lunch, the school would call CPS on us. Guaranteed. So why is it okay for them to not give our kids enough time to eat? We're constantly told by the school (via flyers and newspaper articles) how important it is for our kids to get adequate nutrition, how they need to eat breakfast before school and a healthy lunch. Us parents are even asked to provide a healthy snack for the kids to have in their classrooms....yet they don't seem to care that kids are going without lunch because their teachers are holding them back in their classrooms.

This has to be the WORST school district I have ever experienced. If there was another school within a reasonable distance, I'd seriously consider enrolling my kids there. Even homeschooling is looking like an attractive prospect...and I NEVER thought I'd ever say that.

Seems to me that the school is more worried about statistics, numbers and schedules than they are about the kids. That's disgraceful.

Comments (Page 1)

Gene Nash

on Sep 22, 2005

So why is it okay for them to not give our kids enough time to eat?

Don't you know they are highly educated, trained professionals and all us others are just ignorant punters? Clearly they are right -- infallible -- in every situation. We should respect these near-gods who deign to impart wisdom to our feeble offspring.

*BLECH*

Someone's gonna borrow daddy's rifle and go postal. Then they'll use the no-Twinkee defence. "I just blacked out -- I didn't know what was happening. I was so hungry. When the blackness faded and the room stopped spinning, Miss Knows-All was laying there."

(Can you imagine the parent\teacher conference if the Pope had kids? "I'm infallible!" "No, I am infallible!")

dharmagrl

on Sep 22, 2005

Don't you know they are highly educated, trained professionals and all us others are just ignorant punters?

Apparently not. I do now though.

That's pretty much the attitude expreses by every one of my son's teachers. I know nothing about my child, I'm just his mom. Come to think of it, I see that attitude displayed by other teachers too.....they all seem to think that they know my child better than I do.

Whatever.

Dynosoar

on Sep 22, 2005

It's George Bush's fault, he's pissed off the NEA, so now they're starving our kids in order to let the liberal message saok in....sorta like fasting....

dharmagrl

on Sep 22, 2005

All I can suggest if you can't get this settled to your satisfaction, dharma, is to pack him something extra portable, like a nutrition bar, to eat after he's been kicked out of the cafeteria. When they're done,(or at least forced to leave the area) where are they sent? Outside to play or to study hall? If he gets to go outside, you can get around this problem fairly easily.

He gets sent outside to play. I think that I'm going to start sending him with a granola bar or one of those breakfast bars in his pocket so that if he doesn't get to eat lunch he can at least have some kind of nutrition to see him through until he comes home.

You're right about some of the teachers here thinking that 15 mins is enough time to eat. I too am a slow eater; I have to take breaks during a meal or else I'll throw up....my stomach simply can't handle too much all at once, and I can't imagine having to down a sandwich, small bag of chips, a piece of fruit, granola bar AND an 11oz juice pouch in 10 mins or less - and my stomch is probably twice the size of their little tummies.

I think that one day next week I'm going to go eat lunch with him, and see for myself just how they're treated and how long they have to eat. I swear, Sabrina.....if those lunch beeatches start hassling them to hurry up and get out after 10 - 15 mins I won't be able to hold my tongue.

My friend's kid tends to be a bit anaemic and has problems with low blood sugar if he doesn't eat regularly and properly. She's threatening to get their pediatrician involved - her boy has come home numerous times with the shakes and feeling faint because he didn't get the opportunity to eat and his blood sugar dropped.

dharmagrl

on Sep 22, 2005

It's George Bush's fault, he's pissed off the NEA, so now they're starving our kids in order to let the liberal message saok in....sorta like fasting

HAHAHA! I KNEW it was Bush's fault somehow!

xtine

on Sep 22, 2005

I think that one day next week I'm going to go eat lunch with him, and see for myself just how they're treated and how long they have to eat.

Great idea! I was thinking that if I were in this situation, I'd be picking up my daughter during the scheduled lunch hour and feeding her myself. And I'd almost dare them to give her flack about not having enough time for her other schoolwork. Extend the school day by twenty minutes if they have to, just feed my kid.

foreverserenity

on Sep 22, 2005

My son developed a very bad stomach ache due to this issue, and the fact that the lunch time is now at 1:30pm! So from 9:30am - 1:30pm and he has breakfast at 7:30am. That's a might long time. I've started sending him with snacks and thank heavens one of the classes he's in (art class) allows the students to have snacks. Otherwise I would be thumping on their door!

My daughter is in high school, as you probably know, she never gets to eat lunch, hardly ever. Because of the schedule, her classes are far apart and the cafeteria is on the far side of the campus when her class breaks for lunch. The crowd is too much that by the time she does get to the counter, almost everything is gone. Then she doesn't get enough time to sit and eat. They both come home hungry every day. It's an impossible situation!

I find the school scheduling to be so ridiculous at times. There's got to be a better way of them doing what they do. They should extend the school time in my area and I'm going to write a letter to suggest that because there's just not enough hours to do everything they schedule. If the kids are hungry they can't learn and it's a bad health risk!

It's horrible when you have to worry about your kids in school going through stuff like that and when the teacher is of no help it makes the situation worse. I hope you'll find a solution soon. Believe me, I've been through it so I know how exasperated you feel.

Moderateman

on Sep 22, 2005

thye need MM the nazi there, SIT!!! EAT!! NOW!!! OR i WILL BEAt you all!!! faster.. faster I say!!

Gene Nash

on Sep 22, 2005

he's pissed off the NEA

Heh. In CA, the teacher's union has an anti-Arnold ad where they proclaim they are not a special interest.

I keep thinking, "Hell yeah you are!"

Come to think of it, I see that attitude displayed by other teachers too....

Yeah, and I thought doctors were arrogant!

ParaTed2k

on Sep 22, 2005

Other than offering you support for going after the stormtroopers at your kids' school (which I do), I'm just left wondering... if your school doesn't offer hot lunches... why are their "lunch lady's" at all?

dharmagrl

on Sep 22, 2005

And I'd almost dare them to give her flack about not having enough time for her other schoolwork.

Oh, I'm hoping that one of them starts hassling the kids so that i have an excuse to complain to the principal right there and then....

If the kids are hungry they can't learn and it's a bad health risk!

EXACTLY! That's why my friend is going to the pediatrician with it if they don't start giving these kids more time to eat.

Believe me, I've been through it so I know how exasperated you feel.

Thank you....it's INCREDIBLY frustrating. I feel like I'm the only one advocating for my child, and that's wrong, IMO. This is an elemntary school, thye should have the best interests of the students at heart too.

thye need MM the nazi there, SIT!!! EAT!! NOW!!! OR i WILL BEAt you all!!! faster.. faster I say!!

See, that's what they DON'T need, Elie. They have enough people yelling at them as it is...they can only eat so fast without making themselves sick.

Yeah, and I thought doctors were arrogant!

Hehe...me too.

I'm just left wondering... if your school doesn't offer hot lunches... why are their "lunch lady's" at all?

They DO offer hot lunches. My kids don't care for them, so they take their lunches with them. The kids that are lined up for hot lunches have it worse; they barely have enough time to get the food on their trays before they're getting yelled at to go outside.

Bakerstreet made a comment last year about hoe his little girl and her fellow students were having a hard time with the lunch ladies. They had been given milk cartons, and none of them knew how to open them (I believe she was in kindergarten at the time), so they were all going without a drink at lunchtime because the lunch ladies wouldn't help them opne their cartons. Baker went to eat lunch with his daughter and ended up opening a bunch of other kids milk for them too. That story adequately describes the caliber of the lunchroom ladies at this school.

ParaTed2k

on Sep 22, 2005

I think the lunch ladies need to remember who they are there to support... and I know you are just the mother to do the job of reminding them! ;~D

dharmagrl

on Sep 22, 2005

think the lunch ladies need to remember who they are there to support... and I know you are just the mother to do the job of reminding them! ;~D

Thanks, I do too!

I think that they need to remember that their goal is not to have an empty lunch room, but to make sure that each child has some kind of nutrition at lunch time. If I see anything other than the latter going on next week, I'm going to raise hell.

Gideon MacLeish

on Sep 22, 2005

I am a very staunch opponent of forcing kids to eat within unreasonable time limits. One of the myriad reasons for my own weight problems is the fact that for two years with a stepfather, we were forced to eat with our heads down over our food, no talking, and plates removed in ten minutes. Needless to say, it gave me an unhealthy obsession with food in younger years that I work hard to deal with.

msladydeath

on Sep 22, 2005

You know, I sit here and read these blogs from time to time and it makes me so darn happy that I live in small town America. The parochial school my kids attend walks a block to go to the public school for lunch, they don't leave till everyone is done eating and as a group goes to the other school. The public school don't rush the kids either, the lunchroom is HUGE and all the kids can fit in there comfortably, no rushing unless it take you an hour to eat *L*.

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