Freeze! Drop The Lunch Box!

by CalWatchdog Staff | February 16, 2012 10:02 pm

Katy Grimes: Last week, a 4-year old had her homemade lunch confiscated by a “state inspector.”  At a North Carolina elementary school the inspector told the little girl that the lunch her mother prepared for her, consisting of a turkey and cheese sandwich, a bag of potato chips, a banana, and apple juice, did not meet the U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines.

School officials said that the lunch was missing a “milk equivalent.”

[1]

So her mommy’s lunch was taken away, and the little girl was provided a nasty cafeteria lunch of chicken nuggets, apparently a government gold standard of nutrition, if overweight, government-dependent kids are the future.

Exactly what part of a chicken is a ‘nugget’ anyway?

I can just see the crime scene: “Freeze kid! Drop the lunch box, and put your hands up.”

The government is now sending “inspectors” into taxpayer-funded, government schools to force children to eat government approved food. What has the American experiment [2]come to?

“In 1787, when the Founding Fathers had hammered out the U.S. Constitution in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin told an inquiring woman what the gathering had produced, ‘A republic, madam, if you can keep it,'” the Heritage Foundation wrote[3] in 2007.

Limited government is perhaps one of the greatest accomplishments in history, but the U.S. is now failing at even this. The United States was created to provide limited government, while still protecting basic human rights. But these rights do not include a government school lunch. Nor do they allow government officials to abuse or supersede parental rights.

The North Carolina Pre-Kindergarten “is a state-run enrichment program to help 4-year-olds at risk of starting school lagging behind their peers. Ninety percent of the children qualify for free or reduced lunch.The program has 1,100 sites serving 25,000 children and is required to supply a healthful lunch,” the Peoria Journal Star reported[4]. “The U.S. Agriculture Department defines that as a serving of milk, two servings of fruits or vegetables, one serving of grain, and one serving of meat or protein.”

So where did the chicken nuggets fit in to that perfect menu? How about a Cinnabon[5] for breakfast?

“I am so sorry this happened to this little girl,” Hoke County Schools Assistant Superintendent Bob Barnes said. “On that day, the policy wasn’t followed, and hey, we’re the grown folks here. That’s our fault. The teacher never should have sent that little girl into that line. She should have gone over and picked up the missing item and brought it to her.”

The Peoria Journal reported, “It was a tale of government meddling that outraged radio talk show hosts and a pair of Congress members.” Do you think that maybe the parents were also just a little outraged?

“This is also kind of adding on to a lot of things that we’re seeing coming out of the Obama Administration” that conservatives oppose, like requiring insurance coverage of contraceptives, Republican U.S. Representative Renee Ellmers ‘ press secretary Tom Doheny told the Journal. “We’re joining this bipartisan call to get any and all information. It’s one of those things that if it looks like a rat, and smells like a rat, odds are it could be.”

“We’re not trying to force government down anybody’s throat. All we’re trying to do is make sure that our children get a good education and a nutritious meal every day,” Superintendent Barnes said.

But forcing government down parent’s throats is exactly what happened, and happens everyday in U.S. schools. Teachers and school administrators are stepping in for parents, whether it is welcomed or not. The arrogance is stupendous, as well as unconstitutional.

I have argued with a family member who is a teacher about this subject. She insists that because today’s parents are so lousy, teachers are forced to step in. Perhaps. But the question is, ‘what came first – the chicken or the egg?’ Did teachers and government schools force themselves on children, or did parents start the process first by shirking their responsibility?

My answer is ‘who cares?’ The government’s job is not to do anything at public schools other than educate. And they are doing a lousy job of educating. I think that because they are failing so miserably at educating America’s youth, they’ve compensated by stepping in as surrogate parents. And America’s children are a great deal worse for it.

Kids are testing lower than ever, ill-prepared for college and the workplace, and don’t even know America’s history. If kids were familiar with U.S. History, they would rebel against public school teachers and administrators for pushing socialist programs and liberal ideology on them, and angry at the  attempt to replace their parents.

But alas, instead, too many of the little drones show up at school most days, eat the government-mandated breakfast, listen to the government-mandated lectures, eat the government-mandated lunch, and go out into the world qualified to do nothing, unable to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, or tell you who their own council member or Congressman is.

But they are able to tell you who won American Idol, and who the WWE Raw [6]wrestling champion is.

This is only about the statists taking control of American citizens at government-run schools. How scary – that’s what our children should fear.

Instead, they have their lunches taken away – lunches prepared by mommy – and are told that mommy isn’t feeding them properly. Government officials are trying to instill fear in the youngest children in society, to create another generation of government-dependent blobs.

School officials in North Carolina could have given the little girl an apple or a carton of milk, but instead they gave her chicken nuggets. Are they trying to get her hooked early on salt, sugar and grease?

This is about as sick as it gets – and it’s our tax dollars paying for it.

FEB. 16, 2012

Source URL: https://calwatchdog.com/2012/02/16/freeze-drop-the-lunch-box/

---