While we can all agree that eating healthy is essential for staying fit and maintaining overall good physical condition, actually doing it isn’t always as easy as it sounds. With hectic schedules, most of us barely can find the time to eat food, and cooking it ourselves can at times seem like mission impossible.
But when it comes to our children, we do our best to teach them healthy eating habits at an early stage so that it becomes a lifelong habit. However, one mom from Canada complained that her young son’s school staff crossed the line after they declared that his home-brought lunch was unhealthy and threw it in the trash in front of his classmates.
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The Durham Catholic District School recently introduced a healthy eating initiative and started serving the children healthier foods. They also asked that parents support the program by being mindful of what they put in their kid’s lunch boxes.
So, this mom packed her son a nice slice of banana bread, which happens to be one of his favorite snacks. To her surprise, the teacher deemed the choice as unhealthy because it had chocolate chips in it, so she decided to take the snack and throw it away in front of everyone. As you can imagine, the crying four-year-old boy was in a great deal of distress and ended up having grapes instead — as it was all that was left after the rest of his lunch was confiscated that day.
His mom, Elaina Daoust, was infuriated with the school because her son had to suffer through such an unpleasant and humiliating experience.
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“He came home with a chart (listing healthy snack ideas) and told me he and the teacher talked about it and healthy choices. She also sent a note to me. I was really, really, really mad for several reasons,” Elaina told The Star.
Some of the items the staff banned from the school building include juice boxes, Goldfish crackers, granola bars, string cheese, chocolate milk, and fruit snacks.
It turns out that Elaina’s son wasn’t the only child who was left without his lunch as around 30 other parents came forward to testify that their children suffered the same treatment.
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But the school stands by their decision and believes that taking unhealthy food is a vital part of their healthy eating curriculum. And that students have to learn the difference between healthy and unhealthy food.
However, not everyone agrees with the school’s harsh policies as James Mackinnon, a teaching and learning consultant with the school board, says:
“There is nowhere in our policy or procedures that says our staff is allowed to take food away from a student.”
What do you think? Did the school go too far? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section, and please be sure to share this story with your friends and family.