[Poodlebrain]

"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.

[brownsfan]

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

Perhaps. We are operating in a vacuum here. Although, other posts suggest this little girl has been a discipline problem in the past. My impulse is to see another parent who refuses to accept discipline for his child. I know enough teachers to feel confident teachers don't sit around and think up ways to make students miserable. However, as has been stated here already, the response of this father is like a foot stomping fit. If they had a problem with the lunch room policy, wouldn't it have been more fitting to deal with it early on in the school year? Wouldn't the better lesson be: If you break the rules, you must suffer the consequences. If you don't like the rules, and consider them unfair, or "bad", there are ways to get them changed. Not to mention, these are kids, not adults. Kids get rights and responsibilities gradually. They aren't miniture adults.
If we are to be a civilization, when is it that we are civil?