Second day of school

In this day and age everyone gets offended.  Everyone tip toes and double and triple checks every word they say so as not to offend others.  Until yesterday I felt like some people needed to suck it up and get over themselves and accept others beliefs without labeling it as hate.

I don’t like liver.  I don’t like the color orange.  Does that mean I hate people who do?  Of course not!  But that is what everything is turned into these days.

But you know what?  Yesterday I was offended.  And today I am even more offended.  I am so offended I have been doing nothing but going public with what I am about to tell you.  And normally I only post about things that are happy or to make announcements of occasions in my family.  I keep the “drama” off of Facebook.

And now, I am breaking my own rule.

The Griffin/Spalding County School System think’s it’s ok to deny children food!  Yes, it is true!  And to make it worse, there are those who do not believe this!  I have done everything but stand on the street corners with a sign tied to my body and scream to everyone who passes, “Are your children going hungry in school?!  Were you told the problem is resolved and it won’t happen again?!  It’s a LIE!”.

I was told it’s been a policy that middle and high school students can’t charge a lunch for 32 years.  And there are no plans to change this.  No big deal, right?  Not an issue, easy to solve.  Just go to www.mylunchmoney.com and you can pay for your kid’s lunch right from the comfort of your desk chair.  Or let’s say your child was approved for the free or reduced lunch.  It carries over from the year before, for the first 30 days at least.  Or you can pack a lunch and send it with your child, or even the traditional way and send cash every day.

But let’s face it, we are human and we forget.  We forget to buy bread so we can’t send a sandwich.  We were running late this morning and forgot to leave the money on the kitchen table for Little Susie’s lunch.  Or, God forbid, the school computer system has a glitch and kids who were supposed to be covered for the first 30 days of school were suddenly changed to pay.  And it can take the school system 7-10 days (business days, that is) to approve your child again.

What if any of the above happens.  No big deal, no one would ever deny a child food, right?

WRONG!

I jumped through the hoops, I paid my daughter’s account on their fancy new site.  There are some families who were expecting their kids lunches to be free like last year.  And after the first day their child was denied food, they were told it was “taken care of” and would not happen again.  But that failed too.  Two days in a row, some children were not fed at school!  Some might understand the first, but TWO DAYS IN A ROW?!

Here is where some people would say “no, surely they would offer a sandwich, if nothing else”.  Did you know that sandwich has a cost, and this fee can not be charged either?  It’s true, and I didn’t know that either.

So here is my problem.  There are people who get offended when they see a dog chained outside in a yard.  There are people who get offended when they hear someone praying.

Where is the outrage for our children??  Where is the anger and concern for our kids who want to eat, ASK FOR FOOD, and then are told, nope, sorry, you don’t have any money so we can’t give you anything.

And our country prides it’s self on it’s Space Program.  Our willingness to help other countries in need.  We tell parents to build a child up, teach them self respect and show them what they are worth.

Yet we deny the basic need of food.  We humiliate them in school in front of their peers and say no, you don’t deserve food.