The most recent incident occurred in Indiana when kindergarten Anya Howard was forced to shamefacedly walk to the back of the class when told she only had a penny left on her lunch account. According to Boston News 25, Anya was forced to return the hot food platter because she didn’t have the funds to cover the $2.25 lunch.
The 6-year-old later said it was incredibly embarrassing to have had to do the shameful walk to the end of class in order to get his standard peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Anya said a lot of her other co-workers laughed because she had to bring her lunch.
“They were laughing at us,” Anya told News 8.
Now Anya’s grandfather, Dwight Howard, is talking about the issue. As a former teacher, Dwight said the district failed to notify the family that Anya’s lunch count was low.
Kent Dekoninck, principal of Greenwood Community Schools, supported the school’s decision to deny Anya a hot lunch. He said it was standard procedure to serve students a sandwich with no money in their accounts.
Dwight said the incident was not handled with caution and Anya was humiliated in front of her peers when she was forced to walk to the end of class.
He told News 8, “When she was telling me about it, she was beyond sad, I mean, it’s embarrassing for a 6-year-old girl.”
