Lunch Shaming in Indiana Schools
Identifying the problem
It is the wish of every parent that their child attends a good school. The constituent of a right school includes a conducive learning environment free of bullying, discrimination or stigmatization. For a school to run effectively, parents are required to pay for several services, one of them being lunch money. However, some schools have taken up rather uncalled for means of ensuring that students pay their lunch money. Lunch-shaming refers to public identification and discrimination of students who do not have money to pay for school lunch. Lunch shaming is intended to embarrass the students with unpaid lunch money so that their parents may take the quick action of paying the money. However, although the method is efficient since parents do not want their children to get embarrassed, the practice has adverse psychological effects on the children who get lunch-shamed. Exposing children to discrimination and open stigmatization at an early age affects their confidence, self-esteem and can even trigger psychological disorders.
My proposal
Schools should implement policies where they notify parents of the account status of their children. The parents are responsible for the finances of their children and therefore, the first people to know when their children incur lunch debts. In line with Heller (2018), the parents of the six-year-old who got lunch shamed were never notified of the account status of their daughter. It would make a difference if parents got notified since more parents would pay beforehand. Therefore, it should be illegal for a school to lunch-shame a student before informing their parents or guardians.
Schools should inquire about the backgrounds of students who repeatedly incur lunch debts. Some children come from families who cannot afford to pay lunch money. There are lunch shaming policies that require the child to dump their food in the trash of the do not have lunch money. It is humiliating to ask a child to pour away food simply because they cannot afford the meal. It goes against the teaching offered to the children to help the needy. Instead of lunch shaming needy students, schools should be more lenient towards such children and offer subsidized lunch fees. Also, such families can inform them of the opportunities to receive free or reduced lunches through the National School Lunch Program (Reynolds, 2017). Such measures would make needy students feel wanted and thus boost their self-esteem.
Lunch debts should be handled as discreetly as possible. The primary reason that schools use the lunch shaming policy is to ensure that parents pay lunch debts. However, seeing that calling out children in public has adverse effects on the health of those children, the matter should be handled discreetly. For instance, children with lunch debts may be notified by the schools to ask their parents to pay their lunch money. After the notification, the children can receive lunch for two days. After the two days, the children who will still have lunch debts should be notified that, during lunchtime, they will receive alternate lunch due to their lunch debts. Although the process is longer than public lunch shaming, it saves the children from public humiliation and stigmatization.
Background research
Bloomington Senator, Mark Stoops, presented a bill to prohibit schools from lunch shaming practices; however, his proposal did not get a hearing in the Education and Career Development Committee (Costello, 2018). It is disheartening that such an important bill concerning the psychological wellbeing of children did not get a hearing. Stoops said that some policies were inhumane because in some schools if a child got lunch without money in their account, they are required to take their lunch and dump it in the trash (Costello, 2018). The public humiliation was intended to make children remind their parents to pay their lunch money. The strategy is, however, defective because it punishes children for the mistakes of their parents. It is not within the control of a child whether their parent pays or not; therefore, the strategies to get unpaid lunch money should be focused on reminding the parents rather than stigmatizing the children.
Children carry unnecessary burdens for something that is out of their control because of lunch shaming. A six-year-old kindergarten lunch was forced to take back her hot lunch while over 20 of her classmates laughed at her as she made a “cafeteria walk of shame (Heller, 2019). The parents of the girl said that the policy was unfair since the school did not inform them of the account status of their daughter. Kindergarten kids are not responsible for their finances and therefore punishing them for lunch debts is unfair.
Lunch shaming policy affects school-going children. Take the case of the six-year-old who took a “cafeteria walk of shame” as she took back her hot meal. Such instances could lead to psychological traumas. In line with Reynolds (2017), some children prefer to skip lunch entirely to avoid the embarrassment caused by the lunch shaming practice. Skipping lunch has adverse effects on the development of a child and can even affect their ability to learn in school. The stigma arousing from public discrimination can make a child withdrawn and antisocial. In as much as the lunch shaming policy helps schools to reduce debts occurring from lunch debts, the policy is not worth the psychological effect it has on children.
Assessment: finances and stakeholders
Ending the lunch shaming policy will not pose any negative financial impact. Although some parents will delay in clearing lunch debts, constant notices will serve as reminders. Parents will support this bill because lunch shaming poses adverse effects on their children. School principals might oppose this bill because lunch shaming has been effective in ensuring parents pay lunch debts on time.
Recommendation
I would like to book an appointment to discuss my proposal.
References
Costello, B. (2018, January 29). Bloomington Lawmaker Wants To Ban ‘Lunch Shaming’. Retrieved July 26, 2019, from Indiana Public Media : https://indianapublicmedia.org/news/bloomington-lawmaker-ban-lunch-shaming-138805/
Heller, S. (2019, May 22). A kindergartner says she was ‘lunch-shamed’ over a cafeteria balance and forced to return her hot meal. Retrieved July 26, 2019, from msn news: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-kindergartner-says-she-was-lunch-shamed-over-a-cafeteria-balance-and-forced-to-return-her-hot-meal/ar-AABKwGI?%3Bocid=mails
Reynolds, S. (2017, August 29). COLUMN: Put an end to lunch shaming. Retrieved July 26, 2019, from Indiana Daily Student: https://www.idsnews.com/article/2017/08/column-put-an-end-to-lunch-shaming