Reason # 7,298

I'm sure by now, most of you may have already seen the story about how the Salt Lake City School district totally screwed the pooch, taking lunches away from kids, and throwing them out, because the kids lunch accounts were dry.

Now.  I understand, and support, the idea that you can't just give away school lunches(without going through all the paperwork so that kids can get the reduced/free lunches).  This also isn't about kids 'going hungry' because the kids were still given an appropriate amount of food monitored by a nutritionist. 

This is about a the totally asinine way the little empire we have allowed schools to turn into carried out their plan.  IF the school district had proof that notice had been sent to parents(preferably more than once, via more than one method)...then I believe they were within their rights to not serve the kids the 'normal' hot lunches.  But...they should have been squared away enough to pull the kids aside before hand, rather than allowing them to go through line, so you could then take the food away from them, and throw it in the trash.(because you can't serve it to someone else).

THAT is where they screwed up...and that is reason #7,298 why, despite some initial reservations, I feel increasingly blessed that we are able to homeschool our kids.  This wasn't about looking out for the taxpayers money(or you wouldn't have given them the lunches and then thrown them out). This was about some empire builder, cozily content in an out of control bureaucracy who was pissed because parents weren't 'respecting their authority', who decided they could take it out on the kids in order to flex their power. 

The only thing I would like to know(and it's always tough to get any kind of follow up once the initial outrage is past in a story like this), is...did this unnamed 'child nutrition manager' get to make this call on their own, or did they get the blessing of the school administration?  Any more, being a school principle is an increasingly political position, and I would be surprised to find out if the principle actually agreed to this plan.