On Tuesday the lunches of over 40 Salt Lake City students at Uintah Elementary School were taken away and thrown out by school cafeteria staff. The problem? The children had unpaid balances on their meal accounts.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, students at the school are typically given a note when they go through the lunch line as a reminder to their parents if their lunch account balances are low and should be replenished. But on Tuesday those students with low balances had already been given their lunches without notice. They faced a rude awakening, however, when cafeteria staff abruptly took their meals away from them in exchange for a milk carton and some fruit.
When questioned why the lunches were thrown out school district spokesperson Jason Olsen stated that the lunches couldn't be served to other students. Since the incident on Tuesday, parents, community members and local politicians have expressed outrage. A glance at the school's Facebook page shows hundreds of angry comments repeatedly condemning the school over the seemingly heartless act against the Salt Lake City students over food.
The school district issued an apology statement in an attempt to explain what happened, saying that the district's child nutrition manager visited Uintah Elementary on Monday due to the high amount of unpaid balances on student meal accounts. Calls were placed on Monday and Tuesday to parents about those unpaid balances, according to the school's statement on Facebook. But the lunches of those students whose accounts remained in the negative on Tuesday were simply taken away. The statement said however that the situation could've been handled differently and that the school was still investigating the incident. Nonetheless school officials reported that they have received threats since Tuesday. The nature of those threats however has not been revealed.
On Thursday both Utah Sens. Jim Dabakis (D-Salt Lake City) and Todd Weiler (R-Woods Cross) according to the Salt Lake Tribune, visited the school and held a press conference. Weiler angrily called for the firing of the school official who authorized taking the lunches away from the students. He also stated that the incident was an act of bullying and an abuse of power.
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