UK: Boy, six, suspended from school for four days after he was found to have a packet of Mini Cheddars in his lunchbox

Submitted by Mastodon on Fri, 2014-01-31 19:07

Article here. Excerpt:

"A six-year-old boy who went to school with a bag of Mini Cheddars in his packed lunch has been suspended for four days after teachers said it contravened its healthy eating policy.

Riley Pearson, from Colnbrook, near Slough, was excluded from Colnbrook C of E Primary School after teachers discovered the snack and called in his parents.
After a meeting with headmaster Jeremy Meek, they were sent a letter telling them Riley would be excluded from Wednesday until Monday because he had been 'continuously breaking school rules'.
...
His mother, who lives with his father, airport worker Tom Pearson, said the 3ft 9ins tall schoolboy who weighs 3st 2lbs, eats home-cooked meals and plenty of fruit and vegetables at home.

Miss Mardle said: 'I would understand the exclusion if he was constantly throwing tables around or bullying other children, but it is just ridiculous for a packet of Mini Cheddars.
...
'We cannot talk about individual circumstances, but there is one family who are not prepared to support the policy.

'We are in discussions with them about how we move it forward. We have excluded [the pupil] for four days due to lack of support for the policy.

'It is to avoid putting the children in a difficult situation. If the policy is not being abided by, then that potentially harms that pupil.'"

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"We have excluded [the pupil] for four days due to lack of support for the policy."

I guess it can be read two ways. First is that they meant to say that since the boy was breaking school rules and being allowed by his folks to "get away with it", then they, the school-meisters, would show the parents who's *really* in charge of the child's upbringing. In essence it'd be an attempt to punish/push around the kid's parents.

Or it could be read as a roundabout way for simply saying, "We're punishing your son for not following the rules." Funny thing is, he isn't the one buying the evil contraband cheddar snacks. His parents are.

I thought the school admins where I was growing up were Dilbert-esque pointy-haired boss fools. But things like this make me wonder if there is ever a limit. And need I even comment: if this were a girl, well...

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Submitted by Matt on Sat, 2014-02-01 03:45

Schools treat all parents like this, so the treatment and the "we are really the ones in charge of your kids" attitude is standard no matter what gender the child is. However, I would not doubt if administrators were looking over boys with sharper eyes, or perhaps a girl would do more to hide the offending food article.

I know several examples of my own family and friends getting pushed around by schools regarding what is in their child's lunchbox to how their children get to and from school. Schools always have a snarky attitude about schools being a safest place for your children even compared to their own home and with their own parents.

This is one reason why I don't send my own kids to school and why I am concerned about further instituting the duty of child raising through free preschool and free daycare as they would be heavily government regulated and they would be extensions of public schools and they extend the power of one of the most feminist political forces known as teachers unions.

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Submitted by Kris on Sat, 2014-02-01 18:12