Posted on 06/02/2015 8:33:08 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A married mother of two was fired from her job as the kitchen manager at an elementary school in Colorado for giving lunches to students who didn’t have money, CBS Denver reports.
Della Curry was the manager at Dakota Valley Elementary School near Aurora. She told CBS Denver that she would see students — who often times weren’t signed up for free lunch programs — crying because of hunger and no lunch money.
“I had a first grader in front of me, crying because she doesn’t have enough money for lunch,” Curry told CBS. “Yes, I gave her lunch.”
Typically, students who don’t have lunch and don’t qualify for free or reduced lunch receive one slice of cheese on a hamburger bun, and a small milk. Believing that meal not sufficient, Curry often bought the students lunch with money from her own pocket, she said.
To qualify for free lunch, a family of four needs to have an income of around $31,000. Curry said many students she helped did not qualify for that program. Parents stepped up in Curry’s defense, saying she often helped when students forgot their lunch money.
The school district claims it followed policy in firing her. Anyone who has ever been terminated — like Curry — directly violated policy, the district said.
I washed dishes to pay for my meals in elementary school.
I don’t understand. Its not like Curry was abusing her power or draining the school’s resources. She was using her own money
Yeah, and you walked 5 miles to school too, uphill both ways.
You knew me back then? I’d like to say “in the snow” but it was Chino, California, so that won’t wash, will it?
She did far worse. She used ‘The governments’ without permission. Well it IS theirs because no one will ‘hold their feet to the fire’ as they promised and tell them it’s not.
My earliest memory is of my parents giving me and my brother boiled potatoes (and nothing else) and doing without themselves (early 50's). My parents always made sure their children had something to eat even if they had to do without. Don't know how the did it, but they did.
It said she often used her own money. I don’t see that she always used her own money.
They kids could be given a sandwich and milk. It would motivate them to remember their money the next day.
Fired? She should be commended.
Why aren’t the Children’s Parent’s being Prosecuted for Child Abuse for not feeding them?
Sheesh, lunch cost .35 cents and milk was .03 cents when I was a lad.
Hey kid the condoms are always free. Lunches—not so much.
Here’s a solution—give the kid a lunch and then call their parent(s) and remind them to pony up next time around. Getting fired is a bit excessive in this situation.
Commended for what? Raising another generation of people who think the government owes them free stuff? The kid is suppose to bring lunch money. They get a free cheese sandwich and milk when they forget. I think that teaches responsibility. Her way seems nice on the surface but it rewards irresponsibility and teaches dependence.
It doesn’t kill a kid to cry. Comfort the kid, but gently tell him/her to remember the lunch money from then on. It happened that way all the time when I was a kid. No one though much about it.
The schools have varying systems of payment. It is a local control issue. Kids are learning responsibility and how to handle adversity and their own emotions. That means sometimes they will suffer small consequences to their irresponsibility that might make them cry a little. Learning to get over it is good for them.
Good point about the condoms.
Prosecuting the parents? For what? Because the kid forgot or lost his lunch money? That is pretty extreme.
Ever watch Andy Griffith? Opie was dealing with a bully who was stealing his lunch money so Opie sat there without lunch day after day. What did his dad do? He taught Opie how to defend himself against the bully. He didn’t give him more money. He knew Opie had to learn a life lesson. OK that was a TV show, but that is how most people used to think about these sorts of things.
Why was she fired??? The parents who sent their child to school without lunch or lunch money ought to be investigated/charged for/with child neglect!
You can sure say that again!
Oh, wait, you did... :-)
Some of us still think about things that way.
L
Commended? There were many times I had a cheese sandwich and milk in my lunchbox. Other children got to get plate lunches because their family could afford it. I won’t say that I wasn’t jealous as I smelled the meatloaf and watched them munching on the yummy homemade ice cream sandwich that the lunch ladies made. If I hadn’t been taught manners and self-respect by my parents, I might have whined and convinced the lunch lady that my parents were starving me.
It wasn’t her business to decide what was an acceptable lunch sent from home. If a child doesn’t have a lunch, call the parents and tell them to bring their child a lunch. Make them be responsible for their child.
Did obamas kids have lunch? Of course they did and not what they serve at this school.
Well, as I read it, the Parent’s aren’t feeding their Children. This idea that the Schools have become a Home away from Home is getting ridiculous.
Pack then a damn lunch and give them a couple of bucks in case a Dog steals the Kid’s Lunch on the way to School.
If the Kid forgot his Lunch money, call the Parents and let them know. The Employee should not have to be in a position of being the Parent.
Okay, I’m just a meanie. Never heard of this kind of ridiculous crap when I was a Kid.
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