Thursday 29 March 2012

"Girl suffers double humiliation after school dinner mix-up"

From The Evening Standard:

A girl of six, who had been given bread and jam instead of a hot school dinner because her mother was £4 in arrears, was humiliated further today after her mother contacted journalists from the local newspaper.

Hazel Lebby, 37, says she was shocked to discover that not all the other children at St Thomas of Canterbury RC Primary in Commonside East, Mitcham knew that her daughter Hannah had been denied a lunch after she fell behind with her payments. So Mrs Lebby allowed the local newspaper to publish the story, together with a photograph of her daughter to make it easier for bullies at the school to recognise her.

Mrs Lebby said: "Hannah made me promise not to come up with lame excuses like 'my car broke down so I totally forgot' and 'the next morning I woke up with a leak. My carpet was soaking wet'. But I felt pretty confident that the older boys wouldn't use this as inspiration for smutty jokes, so I decided to go public."

The school has criticised Mrs Lebby's decision. Headteacher David Feasey said: "Sometimes children experience difficulties - like being a ginger or having a parent who is overweight - and we can work around that. But it’s a parent’s responsibility not to make themselves and their children look like complete whining idiots."

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why on earth do some people think involving the local paper is the right way of solving a problem? Any why do they so often seem to be graceless fat bints with a face like a smacked arse, sitting with arms crossed?

*sigh*

Ross said...

#Applause#

Anonymous said...

I remember my school dinners ... I would have been VERY happy to have had bread and jam instead.

Mark Wadsworth said...

FT, that is a mystery to me.

R, ta.

AC, kids are not supposed to like school dinners (I quite liked mine actually) any more than they are supposed to enjoy wearing school uniform, it's all about 'shared hardship', it builds some sort of solidarity among the ranks.

Hence and why I support the idea of free school dinners for all children, full stop. None of this means-tested 'free school dinners' nonsense (which must be a bit humiliating for the kids concerned), no kids like Hannah whose mum forgets to pay (more humiliation), no kids showing off with fancy lunch boxes, no kids being humiliated with 'special dietary needs'. You all just sit there and eat your regulation bangers and mash with sponge and custard - or everybody just gets a regulation jam sandwich and a glass of milk as far as I care - and then it's off to the playground again.

PJH said...

Oh dear Mark.

I thought this was another of your amusing "change the nouns to make the story look sill(ier)" posts.

Time for a corollary to Poe's Law?

Bayard said...

"None of this means-tested 'free school dinners' nonsense (which must be a bit humiliating for the kids concerned)"

Perhaps the thinking is that if you humiliate the kids with poor parents enough, then it will make them determined to work hard and grow rich when they are adults.