During the school year, parents are used to a routine of helping with homework, setting out clothes, and packing lunches – or sending lunch money – for their child each day.
While it’s something we may take for granted, some families struggle with how they are going to provide lunch for their children at school.
And one school district has come under fire for a disturbing and unbelievable letter being sent to parents who cannot always afford school lunch.
Public school is the only available education option for many American families, but local governments and school boards are encroaching more and more on the fundamental rights of parents.
Our children are being put in danger by increasingly liberal indoctrination in our nation’s schools, and parents are often not allowed to opt-out of this forced propaganda.
One would think that public school officials would have some kind of boundaries left in regard to parental authority. Sadly, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
In Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, parents were horrified to receive a shocking letter in the mail.
The county has been trying to collect some of the debt acquired throughout last school year by parents who either forgot — or could not afford — their child’s school lunch in the Wyoming Valley West School District.
But the way they handled it has left everyone involved furious.
According to MSN, the school district sent the letter to parents who were delinquent in paying for their child’s school lunch balance, often put on “credit” if a child forgets or cannot afford lunch.
“Your child has been sent to school every day without money and without breakfast and/or lunch. This is a failure to provide your child with proper nutrition and you can be sent to Dependency Court for neglecting your child’s right to food.”
Not only does the school district threaten to send parents to court, but they take it a frightening step further.
They tell parents that they can be reported to authorities and accused of a form of child abuse for “not feeding” their children, which they say could lead to local social services departments taking their children away.
The City Manager and even spokespersons from the state’s children and youth services departments said the content of the letter is a “complete misrepresentation” and absolutely false.
Luzerne County Children and Youth Services’ Executive Director, Joanne Van Saun, said that a child has never – and would never – be placed in foster care because their parents could not pay a school lunch debt.
Financial hardship has nothing to do with the quality of parenting in a child’s life – and most of us have struggled at one time or another.
Following nationwide backlash, the school district is retracting the letter, instead saying that the debt will still be sent to collections, possibly sent to court as a civil matter and that it could result in a lien against any property.
It is unclear whether the parents involved ever filed for reduced or free school lunch programs offered in most localities, but socialist Democrats like Bernie Sanders are having a field day with the issue.
Sanders stated that if he is elected President in 2020, there will be a universal “free” lunch program in the U.S.
As we all know, however, nothing is free. It will be up to taxpayers or donors to help alleviate some of the burden for parents who cannot afford school lunches.
But that is something that many Americans are more than willing to assist with.
A school district in Warwick, Rhode Island also came under attack recently for stating that children who forget their lunch would only be served a “SunButter and jelly” sandwich.
In that case, yogurt company Chobani offered a large donation to help provide hot school lunches to schoolchildren in the area.
And in June, a thoughtful child in Napa, California donated his allowance, totaling almost $75, in order to help his less fortunate classmates receive a school lunch.
There are many ways to address this issue, but threatening to remove children from loving parents because of financial hardship is absurd.
As for the Luzerne County incident, County Manager David Pedri said that school officials sent the disturbing letter without notifying the county and that the foster care system should never, ever be “weaponized” and used as leverage to collect a debt.
Whoever drafted and sent the letter should be ashamed for the added stress and embarrassment they caused parents who are already overwhelmed with trying to provide basic needs.
It’s just another frightening instance of how government is working to usurp parental rights all over the nation.
What do you think of the unbelievable threats made to parents with delinquent school lunch bills in one Pennsylvania county? Leave us your comments.