[Balding_Eagle]

If you have a $0 or negative balance, then it’s not “your” lunch. It’s yours when you pay for it. Up to that point, it belongs to the cafeteria.

I agree. The government worker who handed the lunch to the child should be charged with theft of government property and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

[cincinnati65]

Don't know if I would go quite that far.....Seems to me that child stepped into the cafeteria line, got the lunch, and made their way to the register to be told they have no money and had the lunch taken away. In "real life", someone could walk into their local Piccadilly or S&S cafeteria and the same thing could happen. Not the employees fault.

I do think there was a way to notify the child in advance that they would not be getting the full lunch that day, maybe a note in homeroom?