School Punishes Boy For Sharing His Lunch with Hungry Friend

A
pull-your-hair-out school discipline story is making the rounds:
Weaverville Elementary School in California punished a 13-year-old
boy who committed the crime of sharing his lunch with a friend.

Eighth-grader Kyle Bradford’s act of charity and kindness is
strictly prohibited under school policy because one student may be
allergic to another student’s food.
KRCTV reports:

The policies set by the district say that students can have
allergies that another student may not be aware of.

Tom Barnett, the Superintendent of the Trinity Alps Unified
School District says that hygiene issues also come into play when
banning students from sharing meals.

“We have a policy that prohibits students from exchanging meals.
Of course if students are concerned about other students not having
enough to eat we would definitely want to consider that, but
because of safety and liability we cannot allow students to
actually exchange meals,” said Barnett.

I can understand the need to consider students’ allergies, but
is it really necessary to punish the boy? Couldn’t a teacher have
simply said, “That was kind of you, Kyle, but here is why we can’t
let students share meals,” and left it at that? Not in the police
state that is modern schooling, it seems.