AIBU to think this is a massive overreaction?

[passmetheprozac]

Apologies if this has been posted already.

Really?

It was wrong that the kid was left with no lunch, however the parents had been told three times about the debt.

To take two children out of school, and disrupt their education over this is just imvho overkill.

I wonder what his reaction is when his kids do something wrong.

1.75 is surely only 1 day of meals, so he was one day late paying? so how come school claims they told him 3 times about it? no primary age child should be denied lunch over that tiny 'debt'
also, governors use majority voting systems. being on the govrrning body does not mean he voted in favour of the policy

Agree the story makes no sense - it does sound like they'd missed payment for 1 day's worth of lunches so I can't imagine the school would have made 3 attempts at contact for that. School - ridiculously jobsworth; father - ridiculously over-reactive.

All these so-called adults behaving badly and it's the child who will get the embarrassment. The father needs some literature and history lessons before he starts to talk about Oliver Twist.

Yes the father seems to be of the opinion that as a governor, he gets special treatment.
Entitled idiot.

This was headline news tonight on our local programme. Dp and I stood looking at each other and going wtf? Totally ridiculous overreaction.

Makes a change from where I used to live where it was all violent crime though..

The school has set procedures and they make it well known that this will happen. The child's Parentsmessed up because they didn't keep track on the spending.
It's an outside catering company who runs the meals. This wont have been the first time hes done this. If I was a betting woman I would put money on it.

My child doesnt go to this school mind. I hope theyre not sending his younger child to ours. I dont think we could handle the drama.

The kid probably doesnt have hot school dinners every day, hence there being several reminders.

Ome last thing, school meals here are about £2 so the funds haven't been topped up.

our school texts you if there have not been enough money on your child's dinner card (I got one last week for the first time!). I was mortified and immediately topped the card up online. Dd was still given her school meal but was embarrassed at not having enough money available. I am now trying to remember to check her balance more regularly as she has a school dinner at least 3 days a week so it's hard to keep track.

DC's school (high school) give them the meal and ask them to bring in/have money put on the system the next day. They have a finger print payment system so money doesn't have to be taken to school - which, as an aside, I quite like as it shows them the balance when they spend anything so they have to budget their "money" for the week.

I think not feeding the child was a terrible thing to do. And for those saying he should know better as a governor, well I imagine that involves a huge amount of his time, unpaid, so I can see why he would feel aggrieved.

(Bitter ex volunteer sick of other parents doing heehaw.)

I think the whole thing is ridiculous, but I don't agree with letting children go without food. At our school, if you forget your lunch or tuckshop money you can have a vegemite sandwich and a piece of fruit. It's astonishing the number of parents who then complain because their child didn't get to choose what they wanted from the tuckshop. We have to do it this way, otherwise people do "forget" to pay the money back or they are too lazy to make a lunch. It also stops kids "accidentally" forgetting their lunch so they can have something more interesting. Child still gets food, but it's not really exciting. We would never allow a child to starve.

It really is the parent's duties to pay for lunch. It is their fault and their responsibility, but their angry response to school shows up another part of entitlement culture. They sound like total idiots and mostly I do feel sorry for their child.

My DD has been in two schools that have had this payment system.

In both schools, the child would have been "subbed" and if the school wasn't paid back, the parent/s would have been called in to see if there are any problems. Some parents who have always worked feel ashamed to claim free school meals, or are having a tough week.

Children shouldn't be going without a meal.

Some schools do not allow the swap between a cooked and packed lunch, so if a crisis happens and there is no spare money, the child would have to go without,or the parent rely on "quick cash lending".

The father has massively over reacted and it makes me wonder if he is liked at the school, because if i saw a child in tears, i would have paid for the lunch.

All seems a bit mean.

Think both parties are in the wrong. £1.75 is a ridiculously small amount to take his kids out over.

Having said that at our school where DS is in reception, the school rang me one day saying that DS didn't bring his lunch in. I said I'd paid for it. They checked records and said yes they made a mistake. Another time they said that he'd eaten a school dinner but didn't pay (erm he wasn't even in school that day!). But we sorted it out. Overreaction this case!

The father was a governor at the school. I accept the school are wrong to expect a child to go all day without a meal, but the father knew the rules- he was on the committee that set them!

I expect he thought he was above the rules. He had been warned three times.

I do not think there is anything more to add really!
If, as he says, he did not get the warning because his email address changed, he definitely cannot pretend he did not know the rules.

The child should not have been left without food though and FWIW, this pre-paid system is terrible. In my Dcs school , the prices are not even displayed and they do overspend. We never paid as much lunch money before the start of this scheme.

Presumably this is not just about this one incident. If he was a governor then I would guess there's some kind of back story / politics with the school.

On the face of it, the father has completely over-reacted, but working on the assumption that the world is mostly populated by relatively sane people* you have to assume there is more to it than that.

• I hope / would like to think, anyway...

Both the school and the father massively over-reacted.

It did serve to remind me that I was a couple of weeks behind with paying... School got a cheque to cover a month and an apology the next day...

The father's an arse, clearly

But IMO the school's decision to refuse to serve lunch to their pupil is cruel and callous. Poor kid.