Six-year-old schoolboy expelled for having Mini Cheddars in his lunchbox

[ricosuave]

Originally Posted by opendoor

Where do you draw the line though? My good friend is a teacher and has seen 8 or 9 year old kids get sent to school with a Red Bull and a chocolate bar for lunch.

Cripes, that's what some of my coworkers have at every break.

I would say that the kid's lunch was just fine and that the school was heavy handed. If it were that serious, they could have easily called the parents or had them in for a discussion. I'm sure they all have lots more serious things to deal with than this every day.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by ricosuave

Cripes, that's what some of my coworkers have at every break.

I would say that the kid's lunch was just fine and that the school was heavy handed. If it were that serious, they could have easily called the parents or had them in for a discussion. I'm sure they all have lots more serious things to deal with than this every day.

The school claims there is much more to the story than just that one incident.

From the story:

Mr Meek denied that the boys had been expelled only because of the contents of Riley's lunchbox.

In a statement the school said a pupil had been permanently excluded because "during the course of a recent four day exclusion, the pupil’s parents made it publicly clear that their child would not be following the school's policy on healthy eating upon their return".

It also said the decision was taken because of "the parent school relationship suffering an irretrievable breakdown that would have put [the] two pupils in an unacceptable position".

The school said: "This breakdown was due to misrepresentations in the local and national media that were both wholly inaccurate and grossly misleading, abusive language being used towards staff, and other inappropriate actions being taken that were designed to damage the school’s reputation."

Who knows who is telling the truth, but it doesn't sound like the child was excluded permanently because of his lunch that day. It sounds like it is much more about the parents.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by habernac

put me in the camp of "when they start buying the food, they can tell me what to feed my kids". I don't fill their lunch boxes with crap, but like Ernie above, I'm not above putting a treat in there for them as well. Teach my kids reading, writing and arithmetic, I'll take care of feeding them.

Exactly, the parents shouldn't have to pay for this crap. Make the school take it out of school fees, so those damn parents have to pay for it, instead.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by habernac

put me in the camp of "when they start buying the food, they can tell me what to feed my kids". I don't fill their lunch boxes with crap, but like Ernie above, I'm not above putting a treat in there for them as well. Teach my kids reading, writing and arithmetic, I'll take care of feeding them.

Originally Posted by opendoor

Where do you draw the line though? My good friend is a teacher and has seen 8 or 9 year old kids get sent to school with a Red Bull and a chocolate bar for lunch.

Hmmm you have to ask where the line is from Red Bull and chocolate bar.....I pretty sure the line has been destoryed by that lunch.

[Jedi Ninja]

Originally Posted by ernie

I'll be honest my goal when I pack my kids (5 and 7) lunches for school is that they eat it so they are not hungry at school. I control breakfast and dinner so that I know they are getting the nutrition they need. If I need to throw in some cookies or kids sized pringles or bologna with crackers into the lunch to make sure they actually eat and have a full stomach I damn well do it.

That said the kids generally love to eat oranges, apples, applesauce (unsweetened) that it usually isn't hard to pack them a healthy lunch. But they go through phases and when that lunch box starts coming back home full, things need to be changed up.

Amen! Pretty much everything we send with our son to school comes back uneaten. The skinny little bugger won't eat cold foods, like sandwiches, and if we send hot food in a thermos, he says it tastes funny. We still go through the motions of including a healthy component with his lunch. Funny enough, the only time a teacher has ever seemed to notice that he didn't eat his lunch was the time we sent something unhealthy (Lunchmates). Thanks for sending a note home letting us know that he didn't eat that... maybe instead you can be sure he eats the veggies and fruit we send every day, seeing as how we pay a user fee for supervision?

[Displaced Flames fan]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

Whether or not you agree with the school's healthy food policy is one thing, but the bolded section here is simply incorrect. The concept of in loco parentis has applied to the teacher-student relationship in Britain dating back many centuries.



http://legal-dictionary.thefreedicti...+loco+parentis

What is this 'all parents are crazy' concept you speak of?