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Dad Sues Over School Lunch Seating Restriction
WNBC Television ^ | 5/20/2004 | Puppage

Posted on 05/20/2004 10:50:06 AM PDT by Puppage

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To: kjam22
I think that if we start telling teachers that they can't assign seats in the classroom and in the lunchroom, and expect the kids to sit in them like they are told... then we have lost the war.

I am against the lawsuit and believe it should be thrown out. Schools should be able to do what they need in order to establish discipline and keep children under control.

My comments were in regard to a policy which teaches children nothing about discipline, and allows lunchroom supervisors to become vegetables for the period. Children need to be given responsibility, including the responsibility of making choices and maintaining acceptable behavior. Assigning them a seat in the lunchroom is punishment for all.

Just for the sake of telling a story...

We had an incident when I was in high school. Some kids were damaging or stealing silverware from the cafeteria. The school decided to take the silverware away from everyone and replace it with very cheap plasticware. A few in the school organized a lunch strike, and less than twenty students ate a school lunch the day of the organized strike.

It didn't take long for the silverware to come back.

61 posted on 05/20/2004 11:43:04 AM PDT by SaveTheChief (The most crooked, you know, lying...)
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To: Puppage
LoPresti says the restriction is unfair because it assumes all students are potential troublemakers.

That arguement won't fly - several states use the EXACT same assumption in their game & fish regulations and enforcement. Such laws in that case have been upheld...

Furthermore - even though I don't agree with the rule (unless there is far more to this story - and an ongoing discipline problem that we have not heard about), the rule sounds pretty simple to follow. I wonder if she made an effort to request a change in seats. Also - is there any possibility she was one who caused trouble and resulted in the seating arrangement?

She also violated the policy not once, but three times.

If this lawsuit goes anywhere - it's a travesty of justice.

62 posted on 05/20/2004 11:44:11 AM PDT by TheBattman (Leadership = http://www.georgewbush.com/)
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To: Puppage

"I think the school thinks the students are going to cause trouble at lunch. It's wrong to punish the kids who do nothing. We need to talk to our friends during lunch," Gianna LoPresti said.

You need to shut up and learn you little witch. School is for learning not whatever you want it to be.


63 posted on 05/20/2004 11:45:02 AM PDT by Bikers4Bush (Flood waters rising, heading for more conservative ground. Vote for conservatives!)
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To: KJacob

We all had assigned seating when I was this kid's age (granted that was over forty years ago). No big deal. It's called order and discipline and respect. This Dad sounds like a whiny "Me Me Me" kind of twerp.


64 posted on 05/20/2004 11:45:21 AM PDT by ought-six
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To: inflation

And kids need to follow the rules. That's the way the world works.


65 posted on 05/20/2004 11:46:32 AM PDT by Bikers4Bush (Flood waters rising, heading for more conservative ground. Vote for conservatives!)
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To: Puppage
The girl, who has been punished previously for talking in class and once throwing a calculator onto a desk, is no troublemaker, according to her father.

sheesh, no wonder the kid's a brat.

66 posted on 05/20/2004 11:46:44 AM PDT by mombonn
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To: LibertyThug

29. Why?


67 posted on 05/20/2004 11:47:28 AM PDT by Sloth (We cannot defeat foreign enemies of the Constitution if we yield to the domestic ones.)
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To: Puppage

The way this should have been handled by the father would be to tell the daughter that she broke the rule and therefore must pay the consequences. However, also explain to her that she went about trying to change this rule in the incorrect fashion and offer to try to talk to the school administration about getting her seating arrangement and/or the rule changed.


68 posted on 05/20/2004 11:48:59 AM PDT by confederateone
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To: SaveTheChief
Assigning them a seat in the lunchroom is punishment for all.

That is the way in America now. They do it where I work. It is much too difficult and dangerous to single out an individual who is causing a problem. So, for the sake of applying the rules equally, if someone causes a problem, rules are changed to prevent anyone from causing the problem.
An example: We are largely salaried employees, with semi-flexible scheudles. One of our co workers was taking advantage of this and was routinely working 6 hour days. The management response? Have us all sign up for the hours we work, have them stated, and documented so everyone worked at least 40 hours. Everyone but one person was doing that already.
Until/unless we can recover the concept of individual responsibilties to go with individual rights, I'm afraid we are lost.
69 posted on 05/20/2004 11:52:16 AM PDT by brownsfan (I didn't leave the democratic party, the democratic party left me.)
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To: Bikers4Bush
And kids need to follow the rules. That's the way the world works.

Are all rules by definition "good" rules?

Frankly, this policy is idiotic. And if one of my kids were in this school, I'd be raising hell to get it changed.

70 posted on 05/20/2004 11:52:35 AM PDT by malakhi
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To: malakhi

Assigned seating has been around forever. If they're doing it at lunch it's obviously because they've had problems in the past.

If you don't like it homeschool your kid. Discipline is not something that should be getting taken out of schools.


71 posted on 05/20/2004 11:55:08 AM PDT by Bikers4Bush (Flood waters rising, heading for more conservative ground. Vote for conservatives!)
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To: Puppage
Assigned seating at lunch?

Lunch wa sthe only time that we didn't have assigned seating. It was nice to actually be able to sit with your frineds.

72 posted on 05/20/2004 11:57:41 AM PDT by Bella_Bru (It's for the children = It takes a village)
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To: brownsfan

"She had an assigned seat, like everyone else. Everyone else seems to have followed the rule, she didn't. She was punished. And now, her whiney father is bent on teaching his little precious some seriously bad life lessons."

Rosa Parks had an assigned seat too. No one complained about the seating policy on Montgomery busses until one brave soul refused to accept an unreasonable policy. I think the young girl should be commended for her independent thinking rather than chastised for being treated in a manner befitting inmates in a prison.

I think he is teaching her valuable lessons for citizens supposedly at liberty to freely associate with whomever they desire.


73 posted on 05/20/2004 12:00:11 PM PDT by Poodlebrain
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To: brownsfan
That is the way in America now.

Oh goody. Just lie down and let them roll over you. Hey, when are the brown shirts coming out?

74 posted on 05/20/2004 12:00:26 PM PDT by Bella_Bru (It's for the children = It takes a village)
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To: malakhi; Bikers4Bush
Frankly, this policy is idiotic. And if one of my kids were in this school, I'd be raising hell to get it changed.

You're either part of the problem, or part of the solution, I'm going out on a limb and categorizing that response as part of the problem. You'd "raise hell"? And what do you teach your kids? To always be suspicious of their teachers, and the rules? To be sure, there are bad rules, but there are more reasonable ways to handle that. Don't involve the kids, quietly talk to the teachers and find out their reasons for doing things, and see if there can be compromise. Teachers do work for us, and they are aware of that.
75 posted on 05/20/2004 12:00:42 PM PDT by brownsfan (I didn't leave the democratic party, the democratic party left me.)
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To: Bikers4Bush
You need to shut up and learn you little witch.

And kids need to follow the rules. That's the way the world works.

You need to start carrying your papers, citizen! The rules are you will produce them whenever you are asked! And what is this about not wanting to get your new chip implanted? You know the rules! You will do as we say.

76 posted on 05/20/2004 12:02:12 PM PDT by Bella_Bru (It's for the children = It takes a village)
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To: Bella_Bru

"Hey, when are the brown shirts coming out?"

Home games.


77 posted on 05/20/2004 12:02:40 PM PDT by brownsfan (I didn't leave the democratic party, the democratic party left me.)
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To: Puppage

While in school, also during the middle of the 70's for elementary school, we had to sit with our class. The teacher sat at the head of the table. We could sit with anone we wanted too, as long as it was at our assigned tables. The only time we had assigned seats was if we were bad during class time and the teacher would give us the dreaded boy girl boy girl asssigned seats. (In kindergarten this was horrible).

Even in the 7th grade, we still had to sit with our class. I believe just one of the many problems with public school is the presence of real discipline. In every day life, I am sure everyone of us has a rule, or group of rules that really sucks. We have to follow them anyway, or suffer the consequences. This man, should quite honestly, use this instance to teach his daughter there are going to be many rules she is not going to like that are going to require her to follow them any way. No one gets to pick and choose which rules we will follow, and which ones we won't follow.

I would be very interested in seeing how this turns out.


78 posted on 05/20/2004 12:04:04 PM PDT by ChevyZ28 ("Therefore it is the finding of this court, we shall no longer be governed by "We the people"...")
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To: Bella_Bru

Having the kids sit in preassinged seats at lunch is a long way from a Nazi putsch taking over the USA.

It's a very minor thing, and quite reasonable.


79 posted on 05/20/2004 12:05:01 PM PDT by Skooz (My Biography: Psalm 40:1-3)
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To: malakhi

>>Frankly, this policy is idiotic. And if one of my kids were in this school, I'd be raising hell to get it changed.<

Have you worked a school lunch lately?
If assigning seats is such a problem, it makes me wonder what would be ok?

It's not like these kids can't see their friends on the playground afterward. Does this child also have a problem with her assigned seat in the classroom? Would her father also complain about that? (Sorry, I did assigned seats in the lunchroom as a kid, I have no deep seated psych problems).

I have been in a lunchroom of 200 kids. I never want to go there again.

Darling little girls like this are used to getting their way. Daddy is just feeding into it. My six year old had a classroom full of these dumplings who had the world rise and set on their little butts. Remind them of a rule and they will smile as they do what they want. The parents back them because, "Little Suzy is just not that way."
Thank you God and all the FReepers who helped me convince Dad to let me homeschool.


80 posted on 05/20/2004 12:05:48 PM PDT by netmilsmom (Supporting our troops, 5/27 - M59 & Old Van Dyke! Yoller if you see us!)
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