CRIME, POLICE + COURTS
School won’t let CEO pay off student lunch debt
Jul 24, 2019, 10:59 AM | Updated: 11:49 pm
FILE - In this Friday, May 19, 2017 file photo, students line up for lunch at a middle school in Sandy, Utah. (Laura Seitz/The Deseret News via AP)
(Laura Seitz/The Deseret News via AP)
A Pennsylvania school district sent a letter to parents saying unpaid lunch debts could lead to children being put in foster care.
A CEO offered to pay off all of the lunch debts.
The school district said no, WNEP reports.
School rejects charitable offer
According to WNEP, the Pennsylvania district says about 1,000 parents owe the school district $22,000 for unpaid lunches.
The school district rejected the charitable offer made by Todd Carmichael, CEO and co-founder of La Colombe Coffee in Philadelphia.
Carmichael told WPVI in Philadelphia that he wants to help out the school kids because he received lunch assistance as a kid.
“I know what it means to be hungry … I know what it means to feel shame for not being able to afford food.”
School threatens kids could be taken away
The president of the Wyoming Valley West school board, Joseph Mazur, offered an explanation why he rejected the offer. Mazur argued that the parents who owe the school district money can afford to pay it off, according to a report in the Associated Press.
The school district says it sent the letter to one thousand homes. The letter stated that unpaid lunch bills could lead to children being forcibly removed from their homes.
“This is a failure to provide your child with proper nutrition and you can be sent to Dependency Court for neglecting your child’s right to food. If you are taken to Dependency Court, the result may be your child being removed from your home and placed in foster care,” the letter stated.
Joseph Muth, director of Federal Programs for the school district, signed the letter.
The school district previously confirmed the letter was real, and not a hoax.
Child welfare authorities denies school district’s threat
According to an Associated Press story, “child welfare authorities have told the district that Luzerne County does not run its foster system that way.”
The Philadelphia TV station, WPVI, says the area’s child welfare agency director has written to the superintendent, Irvin DeRemer, regarding the threat of foster care. The welfare agency director has demanded the district stop making what it called false claims.
The school district says it has other plans to get the money from the parents.
The AP reports that school district officials have said may file a district court complaint or place liens on properties.
A New Jersey school district also created an unpopular plan for dealing with lunch debt. In that case, a business owner also offered to pay off the debts. The New Jersey school district also said no to the business owner.
