Bad Students Eat Lunch Last in School's Controversial Program
A middle school is coming under fire for its incentive program, which rewards high-achieving students with a better spot in the lunch line, and forces less successful kids to eat last.
At Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Tampa, Fla., students who excel are rewarded with incentive cards, which give perks including a spot at the head of the line at lunch, according to Fox 13. Students without the cards, who have to wait at the end of the lunch line, are referred to at school as “no card kids,” and some parents are concerned that these kids are being unfairly treated. “The no-card kids either have a ‘C’ or a conduct issue,” Woodrow Wilson parent Sonya Brown told Fox 13. “They eat last.”
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While Brown says she believes in incentivizing kids for academic achievement, she says rewards should be for things like free admission to sporting events or homework passes. And some of the school incentive cards do include those rewards, as well as computer game time, free admission to a school dance, and a free cookie from the school café. But giving better students preferred spots in the lunch line, she says, is going too far.
Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Tampa, Fla., rewards high-achieving kids with better spots in the lunch line. (Photo: Facebook/Woodrow Wilson Middle School)
Alyssa Croker, an eighth grader at the school, says everyone knows why the “no-card kids” are at the back of the back of the line, and that those kids often only get 10 minutes to eat. “Everyone knows that they’re in line because they got a C,” she told Fox 13. “It’s not private at all. And it’s really embarrassing for them, I think.”
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Brown’s daughter, Celia, says that the kids at the back of the lunch line tend to be from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. “We could be putting the kids who need to be eating most at school and only giving them 10 minutes,“ she said.
Colleen Faucett, principal of Woodrow Wilson Middle School, did not respond to Yahoo Parenting’s request for comment. She told Fox 13 that not all students are affected by the lunch incentive, and that she makes sure all students have enough time to eat. She added that she’d only gotten two complaints about the lunch-incentive program out of 600 total students.
But a petition on Change.org is likely to change that. The petition, titled “Immediate Termination of Woodrow Wilson Middle School Lunch Line Procedure,” states that “lining up students in different groups for lunch based on their academic achievement or lack thereof,” is “unfair, discriminatory as applied, and violates a student’s right to privacy.”
The petition, which was posted on Sunday by a user simply called “No Card Kids,” has gotten more than 650 signatures, including a number of parents, students, and former students at the school. “I had two children go through Wilson and am still planning to send my third,” wrote one user. “The lowest performing ‘no card kids’ are seen as less valuable and the highest performing children are publicly reminded of their superiority on a daily basis. The ‘no card kids’ are almost exclusively kids from low socioeconomic backgrounds who have little support at home. … I’m glad that someone is finally asking for this issue to be addressed! I am actually kind of shocked that this is even being discussed. How could an educator think that any motivation derived from shaming a child…would somehow outweigh the harm?”
A student who was once a “no card kid” added that the experience is truly embarrassing. “Everyone knew that I did not ‘academically achieve.’ It should be no one else’s business what my grades were. Lunch is NOT an incentive, it’s a normal part of everyone’s life,” the student wrote. “From my personal experience of being in the no card line, I only got about 10 to 15 minutes to eat. In that time, teachers/administrators expect you to use your lunch period as your time to take care of your bathroom needs, or your time to socialize. With 10 minutes, you only have time to briskly eat. I am disgusted that this policy is still in use and I am hopeful that this year will be the first time in a long time to not have to use ridiculous cards to be able to eat lunch.”
Fox 13 says Sonya Brown plans to address the issue to the school board meeting on Tuesday night.
(Top photo: Getty Images)
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