Lots Of Mehs And Ehhs

An eighth grade student from Weaverville Elementary School got a detention slip for sharing his school prepared lunch Tuesday.

Kyle Bradford, 13, shared his chicken burrito with a friend who didn’t like the cheese sandwich he was given by the cafeteria.

Bradford didn’t see any problem with sharing his food.

“It seemed like he couldn’t get a normal lunch so I just wanted to give mine to him because I wasn’t really that hungry and it was just going to go in the garbage if I didn’t eat it,” said Bradford.

But the Trinity Alps Unified School District has regulations that prohibit students from sharing their meals.

The policies set by the district say that students can have allergies that another student may not be aware of.

Tom Barnett, the Superintendent of the Trinity Alps Unified School District says that hygiene issues also come into play when banning students from sharing meals.

“We have a policy that prohibits students from exchanging meals. Of course if students are concerned about other students not having enough to eat we would definitely want to consider that, but because of safety and liability we cannot allow students to actually exchange meals,” said Barnett.

Bradford’s mother Sandy Bradford thinks that her son did the right thing by sharing his lunch. She also believes that it isn’t up to the school to discipline her son for good manners.

“By all means the school can teach them math and the arithmetic and physical education, but when it comes to morals and manners and compassion, I believe it needs to start at home with the parent,” Sandy said.

Bradford says that he would definitely share his lunch again if a friend wanted a portion of his meal.

These aren’t isolated cases, either. Here’s a recap of the most recent honor roll of American public school cafeteria douchebaggery:

An elementary school in Salt Lake City, Utah reportedly seized between 40 and 50 students’ lunches on pizza day and threw them all in the garbage when the kids got up to the register and couldn’t pay because their account balances were either low or empty. Students all over the cafeteria were broken down in tears. I’m sure that made for a great learning environment.

Remember the most important meal of the day? A 12-year-old Dickinson, Texas boy’s breakfast was thrown in the trash right in front of him at his middle school because his account was short a whopping .30 cents. The breakfast itself cost $1.25.

Around 25 students at a Massachusetts middle school were forced to throw out their lunches or refused lunch entirely because their accounts were empty or they could not afford to pay. An employee from the school’s on-site lunch provider reportedly gave an order not to provide lunch to students with overextended credit or empty accounts. At least that employee was later put on leave. “I’m pissed that when there are people in prison who are getting meals, my daughter, an honor student, is going hungry,” one father remarked.

A New Jersey elementary school threw a 10-year-old autistic boy’s lunch in the trash because of an unpaid account…despite having already done so before. “It’s between the parents and the cafeteria. It’s not between the child and the lunch lady. Let the kids eat their lunch,” the boy’s mother told a local news station.

The middle and high schools in Old Town, Maine have a “no pay, no food policy” that Superintendent David Walker says students, like the 11-year-old denied food because his mom hadn’t paid his account, should be able to understand. “Students are old enough to take responsibility for their lunches” by middle school age, said Walker. You know, because apparently 11-year-olds can suddenly get jobs in this country to afford their lunch at school.

Over 40 elementary school students in Kentucky were denied a full lunch during state testing week. One student’s account was short $1.15, which the mother told a news station she paid online as many schools require the night before, but the funds hadn’t been processed by lunch time the next day, so her fourth grader spent all day upset and left school crying at the end of the day. Luckily a good samaritan showed up to that school and donated $56 to pay up all student lunch accounts so no more kids would have to go without a full lunch (which isn’t even that large to begin with in this country) during state tests.

Worse, apparently students at some schools across the state of Minnesota are actually branded with “Money” or “Lunch” stamps across their hands when they are late on accounts as a message to parents to pay up. Yep, they are actually branding children with the scarlet letter of poverty if they cannot afford their lunch, so the child will have to walk around school for the whole entire rest of their day branded and a walking target for ridicule by other children because they are poor or the parents forgot to put money in their children’s accounts.

Being an abused child scared to tell my parents anything meant being subjected to this often. Yeah, the school was entirely adding to that abuse by putting a child in the position of going hungry or confronting their abuser.

A fucking cheese sandwich?! Are you kidding me? Maybe if it was a snack that’d be okay, but as a full meal?! No way!

My mom is a lunch lady. At a high school. The same one myself and my brothers went to. Has been working there for almost 25 years or so. She does the food prep/orders in the morning, then runs the cash register at lunch time (and sometimes at breakfast). When Michelle Obama came around, the changes to the required lunches bothered my mom. Because, everything had to be done according to regulations. One scoop had to weigh this much. One slice of something had to be this much. Etc, etc.

When it came to Free Lunches, it was worse. So, now...when kids can’t afford their lunches or breakfast, my mom just gives them free whatever. Anything. She doesn’t bat an eye. She just piles up their trays and sends them on their way. No ringing in. Nothing. Just smiles and tells them to have a great day.

The school is still fine in their food allottment for the day, week, month...whatever. Nobody has noticed. Except for the kids. And they don’t say a word. They just know if they go through my mom’s line, they’ll be fed.

Because, y’know...my mom is a mom. She thinks kids should eat food. Not just what the equivalent is to what they serve in jail.

My mom has been doing this for years. YEARS. I have to believe other lunch ladies out there do the same thing.

Everyone always calls him Cap.

Except this part. Hill calls him Steve when he's sacrificing himself. When it seems he's choosing to go down with Bucky instead of leaving him behind, again.

When he's being...Steve.