Update on The Lunch Room Scandal at Uintah Elementary

Screw Nutritional Guidelines for
Students, you ain't eatin'

As a follow up to the overreaching Godfather like powers the Nutrition Office has at the Salt Lake City School District (which we posted about last week), the School Board held their public meeting yesterday to discuss the bullying of 40 kids into coughing up lunch money.  The Salt Lake Tribune gave us a nice breakdown of this breakdown in basic department management.

According to Kelly Orton, the Nutrition Department Director, the district switched to a new billing system since, "it was difficult to get info from the old system and the new system is better at keeping costs down and is faster in processing payments."  Well apparently not!  We can't even get a list of who hasn't paid without giving the kids a lunch and then throwing it away.   The sunk costs in the negative publicity alone makes the old system sound like a Retina Macbook Air.  Not to mention they have now admitted many parents did not receive notices that they were even in the negative.  The old system had automatic email alerts for parents; apparently the new system didn't automatically transfer these settings and parents had to go in and setup e-alerts again.  Mr. Orton admittedly said, "the new system requires more effort to set that [e-alerts] up -- something of which parents were not aware."  In addition they now know many parents were not alerted or not properly alerted in the first place.  Most likely they failed to pin the bill to the kids shirt when they went home and mark them with a "Scarlet N" for negative.

Who created this system?  Seriously!  One of the first questions I would have asked when evaluating new software would have been, "Can we print a list of students who need to pay?"

if they don't take the kids lunch, 
they will be fired!

It also appears school nutrition officers are given absolute power to make discussions in the school since the principle wasn't even consulted on the decision to send kids to debtors prison with milk and an apple.  School Board members Michael Clara and Rosemary Emery cite a history of bullying from the school district to adhere to their evil commands which has lead us to this horrible event.  

Either they obey the Godfather or pay the price and I think this issue should go all the way to the top starting with the Superintendent and then the Nutrition Director.  They run their departments and they need to know what is going on in the field instead of playing candy crush behind doors.  Someone has given these orders to the foot solders to act this way.  I would expect more heads to roll on this national issue.

More resources about bullying and how to help can be found on the at this website: https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/bullying/

The Godfather at Uintah Elementary Takes Kids Lunch and Throws it Away

The Tribune today had a shocking article on Uintah Elementary and their bizarre decision to give kids school lunch and then take it away and throw it in the trash.

Is this the Uintah Elem Kitchen Manager 
asking for a favor from the Nutrition Manager? 
"I want them to suffer as I have suffered Godfather"

Apparently Uintah Elementary (in SLC not South Ogden) has been having troubles in their collections department and have not been able to get a number of parents to respond to requests to pay.  So they called in the Godfather of school lunches (aka the Nutrition Manager) to humiliate children in front of their peers to drive compliance.  According to school officials their antiquated school lunch computer system only tells you if the child is behind if they actually come to get lunch (how they were able to pull the info to send notices home or a bill, I am not sure).  Once the child received their lunch, it was quickly taken and thrown away because, "once a lunch is served it can not be given to another child."  Some parents are now claiming they were never notified or were full paid up.  So is their computer even working?

You don't have any money so we will waste more money
to prove a point.  Now sit down and drink your milk!

Don't worry these kids were not sent out in the cold left to starve in their humiliation.  The Godfather authorized for them to have fruit and milk, which apparently is free to eat in debtors prison.  If I were a kid in elementary and were told to my face my parents didn't pay the bill and then the lunch was taken and thrown away I would have been destroyed internally and my friends would have torn me to bits.  Word is the Godfather told kids in front of their peers "you don't have any money...go get a milk."

I hope you can all envision the meeting where this decision was made.  Their must have been so much anger and hate towards these kids and parents that not only were they willing to waste this food and money they wanted to send a clear message.  Desk pounding and pencils must have been thrown.  Foaming at the lips and curse words were said.  Then the Nutrition Manager channeled her inner Al Pacino Godfather and decided to wipe out the five families in one single swoop. You don't, pay your kid will be ruined.  I am surprised the parents didn't find their prized pet's heads in the sheets when they woke up in the morning.

I am glad these children are learning early about personal finance and what it is like to have your lunch repossessed.  I am surprised Uintah didn't have a repo man right there with a gun ready to steal the lunch if they tried.   According to the Tribune, some lunch ladies even wept as they saw these kids being put through this terrible ordeal.  The Godfather of food can be so mean these days.

Gotta Love Public School!  Salt Lake City School district has since posted an apology that they realized their Nutrition Manager may or may not have screwed up.

See KSL's follow up on this story as well.

Absurd to say the least... Here is the list of the Child Nutrition Staff including Director Kelly Orton feel free to give him a call.