A mother has lashed out after her son was refused a meal at school because he didn’t have enough money in his account.
Kelly Bowman said that her 14-year-old boy was left starving and humiliated after a lunchtime supervisor ordered him to put his meal back, leaving him without a lunchtime meal.
A newspaper outlet reported that carer Kelly Bowman blasted the school for not trying to contact her about the incident.
The cost of the meal could have been deducted from his next top-up, allowing him to have a meal.
The school involved, Ormiston Sir Stanley Matthews Academy, in Blurton, Stoke on Trent, has since apologised to the student, and Kelly, 41, said that she’d given him a £10 top-up a few days before but that he must have used more than he thought.
She said that he didn’t have enough money on his account, and her son said that the person that was dealing with the lunches said that he didn’t have enough money and made him put the meal back and that the dinner hall was full of people and that he felt stupid.
Speaking to a newspaper outlet, Kelly continued that if she’d been contacted to inform her that her son didn’t have enough money on his account, she would have credited it straight away, but she’d not been informed.
“How many children are not having a meal if this happens? I think it’s disgusting.” The child, who was reportedly famished when he returned home, was oblivious to the financial constraints.
She said that children don’t think about whether they’ve got enough money, and that he was starving when he got home.
Responding to the incident, a trust spokesman stated that they were in ongoing liaison with a student and his family following the matter and that they’ve since apologised to the student and were providing continued support.
Schools are responsible for a child’s safety and health while they’re at school, or even on a school trip.
They’re responsible for the day-to-day health and safety whenever the child is under the supervision of school staff.
The child as a student also has rights, and that is to be treated with respect by staff, and to be given the chance to develop their personality, skills and mental and physical capabilities to their fullest potential, which couldn’t conceivably happen if a child misses a meal.
Not only that, millions of pounds allocated by the government to feed some of the most impoverished children in the country has gone missing.
When you go without a meal it can cause your metabolism to slow down, which can cause weight gain or make it harder to lose weight. Yet, we keep getting told that we are a society of ‘fattys’ that need to lose weight.
Although missing one meal probably wouldn’t have much impact on our overall metabolic rate. However, if you don’t eat when you’re supposed to, especially for school children, their minds can become like mush. They can’t concentrate and they’d rather fall head-first into bed for a power nap, rather than try and struggle their way through the last few hours at school.
Most people who missed lunch would fuel up on caffeine and perhaps a protein bar to try and simply make it through, but schoolchildren don’t have that luxury.
This student missed his lunch because he didn’t have enough money on his top-up card. He would have felt lethargic and his brain would have turned to mush, so not much learning was done that day, and the reason for this was that his body lacked the essential nutrients to function properly, he might have also had a headache and felt nauseous, and without the right fuel for your brain, it can become difficult to focus on tasks that require concentration.
Once you’re in school after being registered, if you’re absent then it becomes illegal. However, if you don’t enrol them but can prove you are teaching them from home, then that is different.
Once your child enters those school gates and is on the grounds of the school, the school is responsible for your child and anything that happens to them or anything that goes wrong. If you homeschool your child, then obviously you as the parent are responsible for your child.
So, your child is now in school. You have put them in school and you have put trust in that school to take care of your child while they are there. If they truant then you will get a fine because once you register your child in school it becomes compulsory that they attend.
I have always maintained that if this is the case and they choose to take over your child’s life in the time that your child is in school then they are responsible for you – full stop! This means they’re responsible for your child’s education, their uniform which the government should pay for because it’s compulsory for your child to attend once they have been enrolled, and anything within the school curriculum, such as pens, pencils, paper, books should all be paid for by the government, not the parent. This also includes school meals!
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