12 Parents Charged with Theft Over Unpaid School Lunch Bills in Jeannette, Pennsylvania

• Many people who never imagined it are finding themselves out of work and in need of help. I am not going to begrudge a child food, because my mother has told me what it was like to grow up as a hungry child during the Great Depression. Even if the parents are mismanaging money, I never want a child to be in want. If these parents know their kids are on reduced lunch and cannot have "extras" tell the kids to not get any and MEAN IT. My mother and dad actually gave us kids directions and meant darn well that we should follow them. The school should know who is getting reduced lunches, when I was in school, to pay for lunch we had a little card, and the kids on reduced lunch had a different colored card from ours. If they have that little card...no snacks. To be honest, so many kids are obese today, unless they have a medical condition that requires having a snack (like diabetic on insulin) none of them need snacks and junk food anyway! The school needs to send timely bills, and if they parents refuse to pay I see nothing wrong with taking them to small claims court.

• Tara, Thank you for sticking up for me. Wasn't sure who you were speaking about at first. Thing is, i have always worked and as a TAXPAYER i have hit a few hard times. Just like a lot of people. so yes, long time ago, i had to go on the state for a short period of time. And yes i recieved free or reduced breakfasts and lunches for my kids. But the attitude of people regarding free/reduced meals at school makes a lot of kids hate to actually take them. I had many of 'fights' with my oldest about eatting at school. Back then it wasn't so blase like it is today. and he was embarrassed. So he would demand a pb & j everyday from home (in jr and senior high school mind you!)so he wouldn't get teased. Back in the 70's, I got free lunches for a time. We were given coupons for the week on mondays from our home room teachers. Now that was embarrassing. Being called to the teachers desk to get them. I now donate funds weekly at my grandchildrens schools for meals (breakfast or lunches) for any child that has no money or any other way to eat. No child goes without. No matter who's child it is. At the end of school, any remaining funds are donated to one of my grandchildren's classroom for a 'snack day' (depending on how much is available. This is a program a bunch of parents started 2 yrs ago. And we get to choose which class gets the 'snack day'. We also donate coats, pants, shoes ect for the same reason. NO CHILD SHOULD DO WITHOUT. No matter what. It isnt the child's fault if parents are drug addicts, or welfare whores, or lazy, or unemployed. This is just a new way to judge a child for the sin's of their parents.

• Kristin said: Grandma - Who do you think pays for the discount your kids get? Taxpayers! Again, if you can't afford to pay for your kids, don't have them. The rest of us are tired of paying for freeloaders. The entitlement mentality in this country is absolutely out of control... Kristin, don't ever have kids, mothers should be loving and caring you obviously are not. These are kids we are talking about, and in today's economy no one has alot of money, furthermore, it takes time to get started on unemployment or government assistance, so while these parents are waiting to get help the kids suffer because some high strung, cold hearted asshole like yourself doesn't care to help feed a child. People with your attitude make me sick.

• So I'm going to be honest I don't have children partially because I can't afford them and partially because I don't think I have the temperament for them. But how dare someone who doesn't have children and has no idea how someones life was when they conceived their children attempt to pass judgement. Shame on you! The unemployment rate in this country is astronomical and not because people are lazy druggies but because our economy has been run into the ground. There are people who were making hundreds of thousands of dollars last year (and paying taxes) who are on unemployment now. Incase some of you were unaware it's part of the reason you pay taxes so that hopefully you will be provided a tiny bit of breathing room if god forbid something does happen to you and you are unable to work. And I agree the school should be held partially responsible for this not because they were feeding the children, but because there is no excuse to be allowing them to obtain "snacks" if they don't have the money. I assume the school just wasn't doing their due diligence making sure that these things were followed up on sooner. Are we seriously thinking that a grade schooler spent over $200 on snacks or even lunches in a couple of weeks? How long did they let them run up these tabs?

• This is just amazing to me, at my girls school they are allowed to charge only two meals and then after that if they dont pay they dont eat.. They may give them one of thos smuckers stuffed sandwiches but they definately do not get a meal until they are paid. Which I believe is a bunch of crap anyways, no child should ever go hungry...

• Look... I'm right there with you guys on the whole Octamoms and crack whores and all the physically fit individuals who don't feel like working and living off tax payers... With that said... However, we can't punish the children due to their parents' mistakes... Now to the rest of society... We are in the middle of a huge economic downturn. There are millions of people out of work and are having trouble finding work. These are hardworking Americans that damn deserve government funds in their times of need. We get raped on a daily basis by the government, and I for one and fully behind collecting when your down... Especially to take care of children... Do any of you actually know what the poverty line in this country is?? 14K.... Yep 14k.... Go ahead and try to live on that in some of the larger cities.... My ex wife went to Culinary school which cost us almost 40k and she barely makes 25K a year.... Please explain to me how a single parent is supposed to survive on that without help??? Knock on wood we don't have problems covering mortgage, car payments, daughters school etc... However some people aren't that lucky and you can judge the parents all you want but the kids should not suffer... My daughter isn't at grade school level yet, but if what Cindy B says is true... F the government... NYC tax brackets are as high as 48%... I fully expect that to go to feeding our children, regardless of what the parents make or do. No I'm not a socialist and I think Obamacare is a dumb initiative, however when it comes to kids who else will take care of them...

• I worked in a grade school the past 2 years as a personal attendant. Afternoon milks are not available through the state for those who cannot afford them. It is a mere 25 cents for a carton of milk, but there were kids whose parents did not have the extra money. The teachers and I took care of it. It was pretty sad to see kids who wanted a chocolate milk watching the others drink it. My point is, I am repulsed to think that we live in a country that can take care of the rest of the world, but our own kids cannot even get a free afternoon milk. We are spiraling downhill fast folks!

• There are a lot of kids who cannot pay for school lunch. Infact, at the Price Chopper grocery store my by house, you can donate to feed kids over the summer because without a school luck they wont have lunch at all, so I donate. I am pleased to see that the school let the children eat regardless that their bill wasn't paid. However, I agree with Snyder. Since when did schools extend credit to children? When I was in school (when it came to snacks) if you didn't have the money to pay for it right then and there, you weren't going to get it. Sure they'd let you owe them a day or two for actual school lunch, but thats not the case. It isn't the schools fault though, yes they shouldnt extend credit, but you should teach your children that they dont buy something they dont have the money for. Teach you kids the value of a dollar, then teach them what credit is and the downfall, because credit doesnt mean its free.

• Jenn, I know what ya mean!! I got a Droid last Sunday and I'm still trying to get used to it!! I used my husbands sometimes, but its still kinda weird after having a blackberry!!! So if I have a bunch of typos, y'all know why!! The sallow thing, like I said, most of us, including parents, know that shit does indeed happen. Hell, even non-parents know that shit happens!! You can save til your exhausted from saving, and shit will still happen. Don't feel ashamed if you have lost your job or your spouse has lost their job and you have no other place to turn. My sister is just above the limit so the only help they can get is medical cards for her daughters and reduced lunches. That helps a lot especially with my middle niece who has bad asthma and just one of her meds for her nebulizer costs upwards of $500. Not all people who receive state aid are druggies, associates of druggies, or baby manufacturers. Some people are struggling families. Just ignore the idiots who say "stop having kids if you can't afford them". They are either a) not a parent or b) a complete and total moron or c) all the above!!!! And if by some odd chance they are a parent, they are really ignorant. They are ignorant either way!!

• My child is just a toddler, not yet two years of age, but I feel a need to address this "don't breed 'em, if you can't feed 'em" mentality. People are making A LOT of assumptions here. I for instance am on unemployment and my child is on medicaid. Her father and I have no coverage whatsoever. People may want to give me dirty looks and make their stupid comments, but I had a job when I was trying to conceive and I had a job through most of my pregnancy. At 7 months I was laid off. That was Nov 2008. Since then all I've worked is a 3 month temp job (despite applying to 5-15 jobs per week the entire time) and starting next week I'll be doing another 3 month stint. I had savings, I had a paycheck, I thought we'd be fine. We weren't. Shit happens, people, and sometime it might happen to you. Try to have some fucking compassion and empathy.

• Thanks Marie. Glad to be back. I don't know what word I typed but it was supposed to be systemic. Ha. I hate typing on my phone.

• Jenn glad to have ya back!! Majii, you know that not everyone who gets state aid are druggies or associated with druggies or mass produce children, I know that, most of us know that. It seems there are the few who have never been touched by hardships who think like that.

• Kudos to the parents and grandparents who allow their kids to get free and reduced lunches when they need to. Only someone who has no compassion could refuse a child a meal. I retired from teaching last year after 33 years, and I actually saw kids come to school hungry and with no money to buy lunch. I can't recall the number of times I gave kids money to buy lunch. I've been blessed for it, too. God has been good to me. Something else I want to comment on is the newly developed idea that those who sometimes need a little help from the government are drug users, or associated with drug users. This is an attempt to say that people who fall on hard times are drug users and should be tested for drugs before receiving any type of assistance. How uncharitable can one human being be to another? Although I've been blessed to have a career that prevented me from ever needing assistance from the government, I don't begrudge those who do need the help. I will end by saying that no one knows when hard times may hit him/her, and the people who are being critical of others may have to walk in their shoes one day. Think about these things: Will you then be saying hurtful things about yourself, and/or will you think it's fair to you to be drug tested before receiving assistance even if you don't abuse drugs?

• @anonymous, I agree and since there is more than a handful involved, this seems to be more of a statemic problem than just random parents not wanting to pay up.

• I think the economy is to blame and there not being any jobs in Pennsylvania. So several parents cant afford their children lunches.

• Hi marie, yes, it's the same Jenn. I have been keeping up with the stories, but I haven't been commenting much. I haven't had much time. I assume that Kristin doesn't have any kids. Until she does, I don't think anyone should take her advice on how to raise them or when to have them. In fact, parents should raise their children to their liking anyway. If we keep taking everyone else's advice on what to do and what not to do, we and our kids would be so confused that we would just give up. Thankfully this is a country where we have the choice to make up our own minds.

• Kristin - Let us know when you lost a job, put your kid(s) (If you have children...) on welfare and sign up for reduced school lunches so we can say, "How about you stop having kids?" Remember there are not always freeloaders, there are honest people who really struggles. I can't get a decent job because I'm hearing impraied. I have two children. And they have reduced school lunches and food stamps. Because I can't afford and I care about my children to have nice, healthy meals. I think it's not your business to say, "How about people stop having kids?" Unless it's for the fraud, freeloaders who keep popping unwanted children.

• Kristin you really dont know what you are talking about! I know that tax payers pay for reduced lunches. But what, you saying i'm Leona Helmsly now? I live in TAXachuestts honey and we get charged for everything. We pay for our kids to play in band. Play sports. Join the damn chess club! Back in the 90's, i made really good money for the times. But i still was over the provety leval for a family of 3! So back off. You need to get a grip! Axe's mom... I agree 100% what you said. No matter the income is what that matters. Not what you bring home each paycheck. Bet Kristin don't pay $8 for a pack of generic cigs (if she smokes!) we do. And Marlboros are $9 and American Spirit are $12! Bite me.

• Just pay the bill...Then, take your child out of that school and either home-school them or send then to a private school. Lessen their enrollment so that their pocketbook gets hit a little, too. That should teach them about running a snack racket and then suing the parents. The slimeballs!

• Momo, not everyone who gets reduced lunches is on welfare and/or receives food stamps. I know plenty of people who are "richer" than me and their children get reduced or even free lunches. And sure making lunches might seem cheaper and/or easier, but wait til your child is actually in school before saying you will do it. I said the same thing, but it was much cheaper to pay .30 a day for lunches as opposed to buying an almost $3 loaf of bread every week, lunch meat, cheese, fruits, water and/or juices. Plus, my daughter would rather eat what her friends were eating. On days they had something she didn't like, she would take her lunch but most days she wanted to eat at school. Jenn, is that the same jenn that used to come here or a new one? Anyways, Kristin seems to think she has all the right answers for parents. She made a comment on the story about the boyfriend that made he boy eat his vomit that was kinda out of line towards angrygrandma. Pretty much, she thinks its OK to force feed a child, even if they don't like the food you are trying to give them. Or at least, that's what I got from it.

• They should not be extending credit to children, If the kids dont have the money they should not get the extra food thats just the bottom line.

• They should have permission from the parents allowing the students to charge extra food before you hold them accountable...you can't expect much from the schools...school systems suck these days....

• I would just make my kids lunch but sometimes parents are just so busy I know when my daughter go to school I would be fixing her lunch she is 19 months now ...

• We have to prepay my son's lunch account. There isn't any credit given. If a child needs the school lunch, and there's no money in their account, they are served a different meal like a cheese sandwich, apples & milk, but never left to not eat. This school should take some responsibility for the balances these parents have. These were children on the state funded lunch program. If the parents wanted the kids to have "extra snacks" they would have sent the kid with $.50 to spend. I think the parents and school should be held equally responsible for this mess and starting next year the school needs to have a prepaid lunch/snack system in place so this doesn't happen to anyone ever again. Times are tough, I can't fathom having to come up with an extra hundred on a moments notice to avoid being hauled into court.

• Why don't the people who is getting reduce lunch just use their food stamps on snacks for their kids instead of their drug dealing boyfriends and make them lunch instead of being lazy and they wouldn't have to worry about paying ...

• My oldest nieces school offers a snack bar where they can buy snacks and even little toys, but they have to pay upfront for it. They don't get it on credit. Kristin, my daughter and two of my three neices get reduced lunches. Neither me or my sister are on welfare. Both our husbands work. So, we aren't freeloading or having kids we can't afford. My sister worked full time up until she found out she was pregnant with her 3rd daughter and she was fired for something stupid. Daycare is expensive so even if we worked, it would go straight to daycare instead of to the household. Taxes get taken out of our husbands checks, so what's the big deal? Not exactly sure where all those taxes go to, but I'm gonna guess some of them go to programs for our daughters school. Unless your very well off, "affording" a child is kinda asinine. You can save up all you want, but normal people know things happen and sometimes you have to dip into savings, especially in today's economy. I just had to take some money out of our savings account to get our car fixed. Now, instead of getting my daughter the Barbie house she wants for her birthday, we have a new alternator in our car. But I guess with your thinking, I should have anticipated 5 years ago that I was gonna have to pay for a new alternator and not gotten pregnant. *slaps forehead* geeze where were you then?!?!?!?!?!?

• Hey Kristin- Are you also a supporter for child abuse? So we shouldn't feed the kids at all? Is that what you are saying? Taxes, give me a break? If you don't like living in America, then go live somewhere you do not have to pay taxes, like in South Africa. I'm am sure you will fit in well there. You should be glad that our goverment helps feed children. Free school lunches do not benefit anyone but the children. I think maybe you need to go back to school and get some education on what the government qualifies the poverty level in America to be. For your information, 2 full-time working parents can still be listed as poverty level. It doesn't make them irresponsible for having children. Money isn't everything. It's sad, because someday you will choose to have children, and they will be raised with your same narrow mindset.

• This happened to my children too. I had to call the school district b/c instead of telling me about the charge, they gave my son a peanut butter sandwich for lunch for almost a month. He often forgets what he was given, b/c he has add. When his teacher finally told me, I was outraged. Then the school told me the charges were actually from my other son and from 4 years prior, but b/c they are from the same family it is the same account. I had a freeze put on their accounts, so they cannot charge anything even if they wanted to. That's the only solution, because the schools don't care as long as they get their money. The amount was a little over $22 dollars.

• Kristin, that isn't a very fair thing to say. How do you know that they didn't suffer from a loss of a job or from and illness that caused financial troubles? When you have a child, you have no way to predict your future financial status. Also, no one is ever really prepared for the cost of a child. It will never happen. I know many people that come into financial troubles from many different walks of life. It isn't just "poor" people that can't afford things from time to time.

• I had this problem with my daughters school. I wouldn't get notices until she had racked up her lunches. Sometimes it was $4 others it was up to $20. Yes, I know I needed to pay, but how many people have a million other things going on? How many people think about paying lunches when your worried about losing a job or utilities being shut off cause the paycheck wasn't big enough? I didn't ignore the notices, I just never got them!! I don't know why I didn't get them. Whether it was the teacher or the lunch people, I don't know. All I know is that I got chewed out because I wasn't paying the lunch bills!! Kinda hard to pay something when you don't know about it!! And it wasn't like they let it go for a couple of days. One time they let it go for a month before giving me a notice. But over $200?!?! That's a bit much!!!! I can understand going a few days, but that much?! You gotta say at some point "have I paid for lunches in the past 3 months?" Just a weird situation all around.

• Grandma - Who do you think pays for the discount your kids get? Taxpayers! Again, if you can't afford to pay for your kids, don't have them. The rest of us are tired of paying for freeloaders. The entitlement mentality in this country is absolutely out of control...

• Kristin: Just because a child get's free or reduce price breakfasts/lunches doesn't always mean the family is on the state or something. Mine got reduced prices due to my income. So your comment was off centered. and thinking like that is why my son wouldn't eat lunch in school. Thank you.

• What ever happened to "lunch money"? And if the state is paying for the school lunches/breakfasts, what "extras" are being offered? I didn't have extras in school. And my kids )and now, grandchildren) got offered extras, but have to pay up front for them. No credit extended. It sounds as if this school doesn't just offer lunches or breakfasts. this isn't like they are allowing an extra milk or juice. Not at these dollar amounts. I think the lunch room manager needs to rethink their offerings. Wow

• How about people stop having kids they cannot afford to pay for?

• That makes sense to me, Inka.

• How about they get the parents to sign a permission form like they do for every goddamned little thing in the schools? If the kids don't have permission they don't get to have the extra snacks.

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