Posted on 03/14/2012 9:31:20 AM PDT by Nachum
RALEIGH State lawmakers questioned a N.C. Department of Health and Human Services official at a hearing Tuesday to determine why a Hoke County preschoolers homemade turkey sandwich was replaced with chicken nuggets.
Members of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Health and Human Services wanted to know if a teacher at West Hoke Elementary School was following state law when she offered a 4-year-old girl a cafeteria tray containing chicken nuggets, a sweet potato, bread, and milk as an alternative to her homemade turkey and cheese sandwich, potato chips, banana, and apple juice.
Deborah Cassidy, director of the DHHS Division of Child Development and Early Education, also was asked whether the cafeteria lunch provided to the 4-year-old was more nutritious then her homemade lunch and if the teacher (who has resigned from the school) should have faced any disciplinary action.
Cassidy told the committee that officials from the school and the school district have refused to discuss the matter with her.
The incident drew headlines nationally, and lawmakers wanted to see what steps should be taken to make sure the event was not repeated.
Cassidy testified that although the teacher did not violate the state agencys policy, her division would have recommended the teacher go about implementing it in a more tactful way.
What actions has the state taken to ensure we dont have situations where a perfectly good turkey sandwich is being replaced with a bunch of fried chicken nuggets, which doesnt make sense to the public or to any of us? Rep. Nelson Dollar, R-Wake, asked Cassidy.
(Excerpt) Read more at carolinajournal.com ...
The list, Ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
They need to call in the teacher and find out if she was implementing what she was told, or if it was her own interpretation.
It appears that the state does not object to what was done only that it wasn’t done “in a more tactful way”. Do not think for a minute that they don’t agree with the commie bitch.
In addition to the big brother paternalism here is the fact that the child’s brown bag luch was much healthier and more nutritious than the school lunch which was ordered as a replacement.
I would like to see, in addition to finding out whether this is policy or the teacher’s interpretation, a full-on PUBLIC apology to the student and her parents from the teacher, the school principal and the governor, as well as reimbursement to the parents if they were forced to pay for the chicken nuggets.
This statist crap must be stopped in its tracks.
Any school official who is not an educated nutritionist has no business making a decision like this for any child.How do they know if the kid doesn’t have some sort of dietary restrictions and by messing with the home made lunch they aren’t hurting the child?
I wasn't aware that it was just an "offer".
I hope the parents of the kid whose lunch was deemed unhealthy sue the meddling officials. I’m ordinarily against litigiousness but I think unless officials start getting sued for interfering with people’s lives they’re going to keep on doing it. Too often public officials think they’re beyond reproach with a king-can-do-no-wrong mentality, and it’s time the people start taking their sorry butts to court.
Bump
So you support "educated nutritionists" making dietary decisions for your children and overruling your own choices as to what to feed your own children?
I saddens me so much that so many freepers semmingly don’t get the point that you and MichiganCheese make so well, which is what gives anyone the right to take a lunch from a child provided by a parent? Forget the quality/ nutrition; that is irrelevant. The only important issue is that the state has no right to take a lunch provided by a parent to his or her child.
I saddens me so much that so many freepers semmingly don’t get the point that you and MichiganCheese make so well, which is what gives anyone the right to take a lunch from a child provided by a parent? Forget the quality/ nutrition; that is irrelevant. The only important issue is that the state has no right to take a lunch provided by a parent to his or her child.
I’ve often seen people say that suing in these situations is useless as it only punishes the taxpayer. Well, yes it does. and often for good reason. Let me explain that seemingly ‘lib’ comment.
The taxpayer in general is responsible for idiots being the the majority populace of government and schools.school boards. Since the taxpayers of that area were responsible for the election and or appointment by idiots, they bear responsibility as well. By suing, in enough instances like this, the taxpayer will be forced to pay more attention to who they vote for or continue paying for the misbehavior of elected idiots.
This totally sucks for those of us who DO pay attention and vote as the Constitution would have us, but I see no other way. Only money seems to motivate the squishy and easily led out there.
They way to do that is to get the gov't out of the nanny-state business.
....that even the Legislators apparently didn't pick up on, or if they did, it is not addressed in this article and that is the following:
"Cassidy answered that DCDEE consultants like the one who visited West Hoke Elementary Jan. 26 were working to 'further educate child care facilities about how to handle this type of situation'.
"The agencys regulation requires all homemade lunches brought in by preschoolers to meet U.S. Department of Agriculture nutrition guidelines. They must include one serving of meat or a meat alternative, one serving of grain, two servings of fruit or vegetables, and one serving of fluid milk.
Therefore the 64K question is HOW do they determine whether all homemade lunches "meet US Dept of Ag guidelines," UNLESS they INSPECT (read search) EVERY single brown bag lunch.
If I were a parent, I'd be at the next schoolboard meeting and threatening a major lawsuit unless this policy is rescinded.
Maybe if the idiots would follow the money they could figure it out.
The more kids that are eat school lunches, the more money the school gets.
They get more money to serve the lunches than the lunches cost.
The more kids are on govt handout lunches, the more money the school gets.
” she offered a 4-year-old girl a cafeteria tray containing chicken nuggets, a sweet potato, bread, and milk as an alternative to her homemade turkey and cheese sandwich, potato chips, banana, and apple juice.”
The school food is more fattening.
Close but needs some editing: "Any school Government official who is not an educated nutritionist has no business making a decision like this for any child."
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