'Lunch Police': PA school faces backlash for 'limiting' what snacks students can bring
Pennsylvania's Aliquippa school district announced on Facebook that one of its schools was going to start searching student lunches and confiscate excessive quantities of chips, soda, candy, and other snacks. The now-deleted post stated that each student of the Aliquippa Junior/Senior High School would only be permitted to have a bag of chips of up to 4 ounces and a drink of up to 20 ounces.
The message further added that if more than the allotted items were brought to school, authorities would throw them out. The rule also applied to students who brought lunches to school, which would be searched as well. The school district eventually deleted the post after receiving immense backlash from parents and netizens alike.
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Parents had mixed reactions to the new set of rules. "You're going to tell parents what they can and cannot send for their child to eat? That's absurd! Maybe if school lunches weren't so tiny and gross they wouldn't need to bring extra snacks," one user commented on the announcement. "Lunch Police. Maybe they should stay out of the parenting business and focus on giving our kids a quality education," another user wrote, as per The Miami Herald.
However, some agreed with the decision. One comment read, "I've seen some of the snacks kids are bringing in when I drop my daughter off. I'm asking my daughter, 'Are they setting up a small store? Why are they carrying a variety box of chips and two liters of soda into the school?' I kind of see their view with as far as lunch goes, they are monitoring how many snacks they are bringing to lunch," said parent Janisha Walker, as per WPXI. "I don't remember being allowed to have food outside of the cafeteria when I was in school, so I find it weird that the school district even has to request this," another felt.
"After seeing the news last night and seeing there are other districts that are dealing with kids bringing items into the school. South Allegheny just had six students that had edibles. We don't need to put our children at risk, we have to make sure they are safe within our buildings," Aliquippa school board member Catherine Colalella told WPXI. Superintendent Phillip Woods said that some students are selling or trading snacks, which is causing arguments and distractions.
"We kind of have to look at the bigger picture and understand what's reasonable. I don't think any child needs to bring in family-size bags of chips for the day. The children aren't going to starve because they do have free meals for breakfast and lunch. And a diabetic child isn't going to bring family-sized bags of chips for themselves because they can't eat that stuff," Colalella concluded.
Before deleting the post, the district wrote, "Thank you all for your feedback. If you have children in the district please contact your building principal. If you are an internet heckler, continue as you were," as per NBC News.