A friend of mine shared an earlier article, Teaching Hunger, with a story of her own.
Picture a high school cafeteria where the meal options are separated by lines and a student is permitted to eat from one line, although the parents in some of our counties are paying for their kids’ meals.
Well, a student wanted mashed potatoes but he didn’t want the nuggets that went with them, so he took food from both lines. Long story short, the lunch lady told a teacher who went and took the potatoes off the tray … and threw them in the garbage.
You read that right; the potatoes were taken from a student who was eating them and thrown in the garbage. The student eventually was suspended for his many defiant acts of taking mashed potatoes from the other line.
Yep, you read it right; he was suspended for eating mashed potatoes because it was against the rules to eat from both lines.
So let’s dissect this:
A teenage boy wanted mashed potatoes in the school cafeteria line, so he took the potatoes from the second line and, while he was eating them, a teacher removed the potatoes and threw them into the trash.
Taking food that a child was eating and throwing it into the trash simply because it was taken from a different line from his meat dish accomplishes what, really? Did it teach him to not prefer mashed potatoes? Did it help him to have a full stomach, which has been directly linked to better school and learning performance? Did it serve any real purpose other than enforcing nonsensical rules?
What is so important about meal standards that the cafeteria has to be set up in a way that doesn’t allow the kids to choose what they want for a side dish?
We talk about food insecurity and hunger, and then we prevent and punish kids from eating what they want in a school cafeteria line? What good did it do for the student to be suspended over defying an order to not eat mashed potatoes? Was he punished even further if his home didn’t have enough food for him during his days home? And what is his permanent record going to say to a college should he wish to attend?
Was he labeled as a troublemaker and then targeted for other ridiculous offenses?
And let’s just take a minute to speak to the fact that I was raised to follow rules. I still, at an age quickly approaching 50, won’t walk through my neighbor’s yard to take a shortcut because of those rules. But then something happened as I grew up and was on my own. I soon began to realize that some rules are ridiculous and shouldn’t exist in the first place, and following them just feeds the ridiculousness.
I began to realize that if something was upsetting me and those I cared about, that there was a huge chance it was upsetting others, too.
That’s when I began to organize folks to speak out against ridiculous laws and policies.
I’m not going to entertain any conversations about how the student should’ve followed rules and how this is what’s wrong with society because that’s a ridiculous comment made to divert attention away from the fact students are being suspended from school for eating out of two cafeteria lines. Why would the teacher simply throw away the potatoes instead of acknowledging that maybe the student should be allowed them?
Why was there not a discussion about how that policy could be changed? Why do we allow bureaucracy to breed a punitive environment that is harmful and degrading?
I get it. Standing up to power is scary. We’re afraid of retaliation. We’re afraid of making it harder for our kids. But what’s the risk of not doing it? We’re allowing policies to feed the school to the prison pipeline. We’re allowing kids to be punished for wanting to eat what they like!
It takes a village to raise a child, as the saying goes, but I’m going to add “well” to the end of it. It takes a village to raise a child well. When we hear stories like this one from our child or our neighbor or our friend’s child then we need to not just utter that it’s ridiculous, but instead we need to push for change.
And there are avenues to take. Start with the school’s Local School Improvement Council. And then, if that doesn’t bring the change, go to the board. Have your kids speak out about what they feel would make meals (or suspensions or schedules or any issue) better at school. Have school and board administrators explain why the policy is written as it is and then push for a collaboration of change.
Sometimes rules need to be broken so they can be righted. Perspectives shape policy and we each have our own perspective. Use it before you lose it.
