{"id":6640,"date":"2017-05-05T19:48:43","date_gmt":"2017-05-05T19:48:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=6640"},"modified":"2017-05-05T19:48:43","modified_gmt":"2017-05-05T19:48:43","slug":"proposal-bars-texas-schools-from-lunch-shaming-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=6640","title":{"rendered":"Proposal Bars Texas Schools from \u2018Lunch Shaming\u2019 Students"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

A Texas lawmaker is seeking to stop schools from \u201clunch shaming\u201d or stigmatizing students who cannot pay for their cafeteria meals. Photo: monkeybusiness\/iStockphoto<\/p><\/div>\n

by Mark Richardson<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas<\/strong> \u2013 Texas is joining New Mexico, California and other states in trying to prevent \u201clunch shaming\u201d of children who can\u2019t pay for their food in a school cafeteria. Often, when a student\u2019s lunch account runs out of money, they\u2019re pulled out of line and given a cold sandwich or another substitute instead of a hot meal.<\/p>\n

A bill in the Texas Legislature would require schools to take a series of steps to avoid denying any student a regular meal.<\/p>\n

Celia Cole, CEO of the food-bank network, Feeding Texas, says singling a student out in front of classmates is embarrassing and unnecessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren should never be shamed or punished because of their family\u2019s economic circumstances and certainly, they should never be deprived of the food that they need to stay nourished and healthy, and able to learn,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The measure, House Bill 2159<\/a>, is sponsored by Dallas Rep. Helen Giddings. It would require schools to work with parents to bring lunch accounts current and to provide the child regular meals until the issue is resolved. Similar measures have been passed in several other states.<\/p>\n

Cole says the bill also encourages school officials to seek donations or other resources in the community to help pay outstanding school lunch accounts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Rep. Giddings\u2019 bill is trying to do is set some standards before cutting a child off, for attempting to contact parents in a way that doesn\u2019t stigmatize the child, for figuring out whether there have been changes that might make the child qualify for free school lunch,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

She says the state doesn\u2019t keep records of how many schools have large deficits in their lunchroom accounts, but she\u2019s seen enough news reports to know the problem is widespread. Cole adds the state doesn\u2019t fund school lunch programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, they\u2019re really supposed to be self-sustaining with the funding that comes through the federal government,\u201d Cole added. \u201cThey\u2019re always needing to find ways to make sure they operate in the black. But certainly, if the state wanted to step in and help here, they could \u2013 and they don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

The measure is awaiting a hearing in House Education Committee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark Richardson AUSTIN, Texas \u2013 Texas is joining New Mexico, California and other states in trying to prevent \u201clunch shaming\u201d of children who can\u2019t pay for their food in a school cafeteria. Often, when a student\u2019s lunch account runs out of money, they\u2019re pulled out of line and given a cold sandwich or another […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6640"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6643,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6640\/revisions\/6643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}