Bullying has become a huge issue in schools, but now it appears a new problem is coming to the forefront: lunch shaming.
Kids all over the country eat hot lunches at school, but what happens when they can’t pay for them? Kindergartener Anya Howard was singled out by staff and teased by classmates when she found herself in this situation.
In many schools, elementary students line up for their school lunches and pay with a lunch card. Their parents are responsible for loading the card with money. At South West Elementary School, the Indiana school that Anya attends, the policy is to notify parents when the lunch account drops to $5.
After being served her food, Anya was told that her lunch card did not have enough funds to cover the $2.25 lunch. Anya was down to $0.10, they told her to return a hot tray of food, stated a Daily Mail report.
This resulted in Anya being “lunch shamed”.
The six-year-old pupil was then reportedly “shamed” by a teacher, who ordered her to start at the back of the lunch line to wait for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
According to News8, Anya said several classmates laughed at her and made her feel “sad” after she had to walk past 20 students to reach the end of the line.
Her grandfather Dwight Howard spoke out against the “cafeteria walk of shame” and deemed it absolutely unnecessary for a child. He urged school district authorities to review their cafeteria policies in the wake of the incident.
“When she was talking to me about it, she was more than sad. I mean, that’s embarrassing for a little six-year-old,” he said.
Dr. Kent DeKoninck, the Greenwood Community Schools superintendent, stated that parents are given payment reminders when lunch accounts have $5 remaining.
He sent a statement to News8: “It is not an uncommon occurrence for multiple students to be served the alternate lunch on any given day. Any time this happens, our staff looks to handle all of these as discreetly as possible… We do allow elementary students to charge two hot meals before receiving the alternate meal.”
However, the payment reminder notice sent with Anya, contrary to DeKoninck’s remarks, stated the school would no longer allow students to charge for any meals.
“Starting Monday 5/13/2019 we are no longer allowing any Café accounts to go into the negative. If there is not enough money in your child’s account to cover the entire meal, they will be receiving a peanut butter sandwich and milk,” the note said.
Nonetheless, the Howard family should have directly contacted administrators about the incident, DeKoninck added.
Sources: OpposingViews, Insider, Daily Mail
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