In an effort to draw attention to their dislike
of a shortened lunch period, some seventh- and eighth-grade
New Jersey students paid for their lunch in pennies, causing
school officials to overreact.
Last week in Readington Township, New Jersey, 29 middle school
students decided to pay for their $2 lunchwith 200 pennies,
as a way to attract attention to a policy they disagree with
— a shortened 30-minute "lunch hour." In what
can only be described as sketchy details, the Associated Press
relates that it started out as a "prank," but that
it turned into a "protest." It did slow the lunch
line to a slow crawl.
School "do-as-you-are-told-or-else" officials decided
that it was neither funny nor a protest, and that the students
"disrespected" lunch aides and therefore needed
to be put on detention for two days.
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There has been more than a little fallout since the story
went public, with one headline shouting "Free the Readington
29." The school has since rescinded its orders for detention
for those students whose parents’ don’t wish it,
as many parents deemed the punishment too harsh. Superintendent
Jorden Schiff commented that he was "concerned"
about all the national media attention, hence the reason for
the reprieve.
Well, since schools are where lessons are learned, let’s
look at just what lessons were learned here and who learned
them.
The students learned that using legitimate legal tender to
pay for their lunches is still legal and legitimate, as they
were not punished for that. They also learned that some school
officials are confused about the term "disrespect,"
and that said officials equate it with "non-conformity,"
terms the kids didn’t have confused at all, as there
was no evidence that the students were disorderly or behaved
offensively, they just paid for their lunches in an unusual
manner. They also learned that a little bit of quiet, calm,
clever civil disobedience can go a long way.
On the negative side, in the aftermath students learned that
school officials can and do backpeddle, don’t have to
admit they are wrong, and that they also use public relations
and marketing techniques to cover their backsides. The school
district’s website has a press release where we find
out that a new "student activism club" is being
formed to give students a forum to express themselves —
something this bunch of kids doesn’t need, and probably
something they instinctively know won't do them a bit of good.
Students, it says, must learn to balance "the right to
protest with the expectation that all members of the school
community honor the rights of others and treat each other
respectfully," evidence of a new lesson filled as it
is with sophistry and double-speak.
School officials learned that they haven’t completely
dulled the intellects of all of their students, nor absorbed
them into total blind subservience, as the kids’ plan
appears to have been carefully thought out and implemented.
The school learned that even though they are an arm of the
state, they still have to be somewhat responsive to the local
community's standards and wishes, and that publicity can be
a bad thing.
Parents should have learned from the kids this time about
how to draw attention to oppressive policies while remaining
within the letter and spirit of the law. And hopefully the
parents learned that they must be much more vigilant when
it comes to state-sponsored education, various school policies,
the treatment meted out to children who don’t conform,
and the soft-soaping that goes on after the fact, to negate
the damage already done.
