An Ohio boy says he was humiliated by the lunch lady at his school on his ninth birthday because of an overdue balance of $9 on his lunch account. Jefferson Sharpnack was sent home with a note about the negative balance on August 30, and his grandmother contacted the school the following Monday to sort it out. She thought the issue was solved and that Jefferson and his two brothers were enrolled in the free and reduced lunch program at the school.
Unfortunately, the lunch lady didn't seem to realize Jefferson's account had been taken care of and took the food right off his tray while he was waiting in the lunch line.
"I got my cheesy breadsticks and put in my number," Jefferson said. "And when I was going to check out, the lunch lady didn't say anything, took away my cheesy breadsticks and sauce, put them over there, and took out bread on cheese from the fridge and put it on my tray."
When Jefferson came home in tears on his birthday his grandmother, Diane Bailey was livid.
"In my mind, he didn't owe anything. I owed the money, the parents, the school district," Bailey said. "And my other question is, if they take the food off of your tray, they have to throw it away. You would take the food off a tray, and you can't reserve it? You're going to throw it away and not feed the child? That doesn't make sense to me."
The school says they are reviewing their policy on how to handle students' lunch debt.
"It is important to us that students have positive experiences in the lunchroom and all areas of the school. For that reason, we will continue to look into our practices and come up with solutions that work for our students and families."