High school can be a challenging time for anyone growing up.
Students are constantly changing and finding out who they are. Schools should be doing everything in their power to make it easier for students, but all too often we hear stories of teachers humiliating students due to old rules. This is a story of a student not only being humiliated, but of a school wasting good money.
It seemed like just another normal school day for Dominic Gant, a high school junior. He was getting lunch when a cafeteria lady walked up to him, took the tray out of his hands and threw it directly into the trash. Dominic was shocked and humiliated.
So what was the lunch lady’s reason for this bizarre act? Well it turns out Dominic owed less than $5 in his student account for lunches. Rather than allow him to pay the debt at a later date, the cafeteria worker was told to throw his lunch out. Dominic told CNN about the experience
It was really embarrassing. Right in front of the whole lunch room, they took my plate away and said I didn’t have enough to eat today
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When Dominic’s mother, Amanda Keown, heard the news she was in absolute disbelief. Having his lunch thrown out because he owed $5. Sadly, this trend isn’t that unusual. There have been stories of lunch ladies who have fed kids who could not afford their meals and the lunch ladies are then fired for it!
Still though, the punishment Dominic receives seems hardly appropriate. Rather than tell him about his tab and work out a payment plan for it, the school decided to have a perfectly good meal thrown out. He was left humiliated and hungry the rest of the day.
I was appalled that he was denied lunch and his lunch was taken out of his hands over $5
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Keown wasn’t about to stand for this, so she marched down to the school.
She went to the office and did something absolutely incredible. She not only paid off her son’s debt, but then she went and paid off every other student’s debt! No other students would have to endure what her son did and be absolutely humiliated.
Not only that, but the school wouldn’t waste food by just throwing it away. The policy may still be flawed but at least one mother did everything in her power to stop it.
What an amazing person Amanda Keown is. If only the schools were more willing to work with students to pay off their debts, rather than attempt to humiliate them in front of their fellow peers.
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