GALLOWAY — A Galloway Township woman said her son, a fifth grader at the Smithville Elementary School in the Atlantic County community, had his school lunch taken and thrown away by school staff like a case in Utah that has made national headlines.
Amy Ross told a reporter for NBC10 in Philadelphia that her son, Jake, who has Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism, had his hot lunch taken and thrown away by school staff because of an unpaid balance in his lunch account. She said the same action took place several times since her son was in the third grade and called it, "humiliating."
“It’s between the parents and the cafeteria,” Ross said in the story. “It’s not between the child and the lunch lady. Let the kids eat their lunch."
Ross, who admitted that she was responsible for the oversight with the account, said she called the principal last year about the incidents and received an apology, but the issue continues to happen.
She said notes sent home to her with her son don’t always get to her, according to the story on www.nbcphiladelphia.com
Annette Giaquinto, superintendent of Galloway Township Public Schools, told NBC10 that Ross had not made a recent complaint about Jake’s food being thrown away. She said it is school policy to replace a child’s hot lunch with a cheese sandwich if their account is delinquent.
Ross said she decided to go public about her son’s situation after seeing media reports about what happened in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Salt Lake City School District apologized on Thursday after learning dozens of students were having their lunches thrown away when their school lunch accounts did not have enough money to cover the cost.