Kids Shut Down School Lunch By Paying With Pennies

JBS - In an effort to draw attention to their dislike of a shortened lunch period, some seventh- and eighth-grade New Jersey students paid for their lunch in pennies, causing school officials to overreact.

Last week in Readington Township, New Jersey, 29 middle school students decided to pay for their $2 lunchwith 200 pennies, as a way to attract attention to a policy they disagree with — a shortened 30-minute "lunch hour." In what can only be described as sketchy details, the Associated Press relates that it started out as a "prank," but that it turned into a "protest." It did slow the lunch line to a slow crawl.

School "do-as-you-are-told-or-else" officials decided that it was neither funny nor a protest, and that the students "disrespected" lunch aides and therefore needed to be put on detention for two days.

There has been more than a little fallout since the story went public, with one headline shouting "Free the Readington 29." The school has since rescinded its orders for detention for those students whose parents’ don’t wish it, as many parents deemed the punishment too harsh. Superintendent Jorden Schiff commented that he was "concerned" about all the national media attention, hence the reason for the reprieve.

Well, since schools are where lessons are learned, let’s look at just what lessons were learned here and who learned them.

The students learned that using legitimate legal tender to pay for their lunches is still legal and legitimate, as they were not punished for that. They also learned that some school officials are confused about the term "disrespect," and that said officials equate it with "non-conformity," terms the kids didn’t have confused at all, as there was no evidence that the students were disorderly or behaved offensively, they just paid for their lunches in an unusual manner. They also learned that a little bit of quiet, calm, clever civil disobedience can go a long way.

On the negative side, in the aftermath students learned that school officials can and do backpedal, don’t have to admit they are wrong, and that they also use public relations and marketing techniques to cover their backsides. The school district’s website has a press release where we find out that a new "student activism club" is being formed to give students a forum to express themselves — something this bunch of kids doesn’t need, and probably something they instinctively know won't do them a bit of good. Students, it says, must learn to balance "the right to protest with the expectation that all members of the school community honor the rights of others and treat each other respectfully," evidence of a new lesson filled as it is with sophistry and double-speak.

School officials learned that they haven’t completely dulled the intellects of all of their students, nor absorbed them into total blind subservience, as the kids’ plan appears to have been carefully thought out and implemented. The school learned that even though they are an arm of the state, they still have to be somewhat responsive to the local community's standards and wishes, and that publicity can be a bad thing.

Parents should have learned from the kids this time about how to draw attention to oppressive policies while remaining within the letter and spirit of the law. And hopefully the parents learned that they must be much more vigilant when it comes to state-sponsored education, various school policies, the treatment meted out to children who don’t conform, and the soft-soaping that goes on after the fact, to negate the damage already done.