Former Peak to Peak elementary principal Noelle Roni said Sunday she was fired by the Lafayette charter school after she demanded that cafeteria workers stop stamping the hands of children – including those who qualified for the free lunch program – when their lunch accounts were empty.
“As soon as I saw it happening, I was like, ‘No, this is not OK,'” she told the Daily Camera. “The students felt so humiliated, like they had done something wrong. They didn't want to go into the lunchroom any more. It's unethical and disrespectful.”
Roni's comments, more than two months after her ouster, mark the first time she has addressed the events that she alleges led to her termination. Previously, Roni only had said she was let go in retaliation for "standing up for children's rights and against activities that stigmatized children."
When asked Sunday about Roni's allegations, Peak to Peak's board of directors said in a written statement that they can't comment on personnel issues, but that “Peak to Peak does not condone or tolerate unlawful retaliation.”
Yeah how dare this professional educator stand up for the children in her school!
What does she think she is some advocate for children or something?
When I worked in public schools no student went hungry. If they did not have the money for lunch, one of us, quite often it was me, would pay of their lunch.
And the cafeteria worker would notify the office if it happened more than once, and they would send a sealed note home with the child, or call the parents to let them know.
I don't know how it is in charter schools, but I can tell you that in my school if anybody had attempted to stamp a child's hand to mark them as unable to pay for lunch they would have been reprimanded by the principal, who absolutely could have counted on being backed up by Carol Comeau our school Superintendent.
This woman deserves to be praised, not punished for taking a stand for her kids.
My kids attend an elementary school in the Boulder Valley School District (not Peak to Peak) and when our lunch account is very low or out of money, we get an email. I was outraged when I read this story. The principal was completely right to try and put an end to the hand stamping. I don't know the details of her firing, but I'm glad she stood up to for her students.
ReplyDeleteCompassionate Conservatives my ass................
ReplyDeleteBut isn't it a teachable moment? Maybe they could sweep the floors to earn their 'free' lunch. - Every Conservative
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked as lunch room secretary in MI, the free lunch kids got the exact same ticket as every other kid. We were not permitted to mark them in any way, which was a bookkeeping nightmare, but the law. That was 30 years ago. Who knows how they handle it now.
ReplyDeletePretty soon they will jail the kids in debtors prison, for not having the lunch money Stamping the kids just like the Nazis did to the Jewish. , or like the cast system in India. Can't stand for the kids not to pay a penny that they might owe on lunch but Congress gets a card for 200 a day allowance for their meals.
ReplyDeleteHey, Jesse. Maybe you could post this in it's entirety rather than just as a link from me. It's wonderful news for Texas Democrats. It's important in the fight against the GOP's tricks to stop minority, elderly, women and students from voting.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.juanitajean.com/2014/01/08/way-to-go-beauty-salon-customers/comment-page-1/#comment-123181
She's a hero.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you want more inspiration (warning: there will be crying) watch the Chopped episode featuring four school "lunch ladies." It's free online at the network site.
My God.....What have we become? A Scarlet letter for a small poor child ? What country did I wake up in this morning?
ReplyDeleteFinally, a person who took notice of the atrocities that are committed each day in out schools that make children feel less than zero. Bad enough the kids have to juggle home life, harmones, social issues, and school, then have some idiotic gestapo type in a place where they can lord over those deemed weaker by society therefore easy prey to an adult's lack of self-esteem. My praise to the lady and hope those numbnuts who fired her get theirs one day.
ReplyDeleteWell said, anon 10:41 AM!
DeleteThe Scarlett letter, in 2014 for fucks sake!!!
ReplyDeleteTap
Surprised these lunch ladies weren't stamping the kid's foreheads.
DeleteWhat ever happened to lunch tokens? That way no one knows if a kid bought it in the office or they gave it to them due to low income status. That was also a way to get a kid who forgot their lunch money a lunch that day.
ReplyDeleteTo do this to any child is heart wrenching. Do the parents have phone numbers? Emails? Could they send a "note" home with the child? Instead, they take away their sense of belonging, their right to privacy and their humanity while sending them off hungry.Who can these children feel "safe" going to? They fired the only one that cares.
ReplyDeleteCharter School. 'nuff said.
ReplyDeleteProbably hoping those kids would just leave so they don't bring down the test scores. The schools keeping all that voucher money of course.
I'm not saying the board of directors at P2P don't want to get rid of certain kids, but these are public charter schools and they don't operate on a voucher system. Plus, if a kid leaves P2P, there is someone else on the waiting list waiting to get in via open enrollment.
DeleteThe hand stamping is/was wrong. What's missing from the story is how the principal handled resolving it. Without knowing that, it is impossible to conclude whether she should have been reprimanded. For example, perhaps the lunch servers said they were just doing as they were instructed and she flew off the handle, grabbed the stamp, and started stamping them repeatedly while shouting, "You want to be stamped?!? Here you go, a**hole! How do you like it, huh?!?" and causing physical injury to the lunch staff as they tried to fight her off. --Not saying she did in the least, I have no proof or reason to believe she did, but the story give no reason to believe otherwise either.
ReplyDelete