Is it ever acceptable for a teacher to throw out a student's food?

[Anonymous]

Mother of several current and former middle schoolers here. My children had a very late lunch during middle school, and were starving by the time they finally got to eat. In addition, my sons grew about 8 to 12 inches during middle school, and were constantly hungry, seemingly starving, by the time they got home from school. I also wish the school would be more accommodating about quietly eating snacks during the day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Middle school teacher here. Over the years, I have had several instances of kids eating or drinking in class when they were not supposed to be doing so. Each time this has happened, I have just asked them to put it away (I try to do this somewhat quietly/privately so as not to draw other students' attention to the issue as I have found a lot of times the kid breaking the rule is just seeking attention) and tell them that if I see them eating again, I will take their food away. Out of the probably 5 times this has happened, only once did I have to follow through on taking the food away. In that case, I told the student to hand the food over to me and I sealed it (a bag of chips) and put it away in my desk drawer and told the student he could have it back at the end of the school day (didn't want him to get it right after class and then take it out again and get in trouble w/ it again in another class).

If the student had tried to argue with me about the food or refused to hand it over when I asked, I would have simply written him up and sent him to the dean's office. I would not ever try to forcefully take food away from a student and I also would not throw their food away because I feel that would make the student angry with me, which would then make the student less likely to want to follow directions/rules in my classroom. I don't need to create tension in interactions with students and as much as I may like to just throw their food in the trash can when they are deliberately breaking a rule like that, I think that kind of action is going to create tension/a power struggle between teacher and student, which is typically not a good idea.

10:22 here. Thank you. this is by miles a much better approach than just throwing the food out just because you can.

[Anonymous]

If it is unsafe to eat, in the sense that to allow the child to consume it would be to watch while someone dies/suffers, Yes. Otherwise, No. Having a child eating at an inappropriate time calls for taking the food and returning it when it is an appropriate time, NOT throwing it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. The student who has done this repeatedly is in a nontraditional living situation and outreach has not been effective.

Nontraditional living situation, in middle school, without adult support?

I wouldn't rule out the fact that the kid is experiencing food insecurity. I'd deal with this another way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mother of several current and former middle schoolers here. My children had a very late lunch during middle school, and were starving by the time they finally got to eat. In addition, my sons grew about 8 to 12 inches during middle school, and were constantly hungry, seemingly starving, by the time they got home from school. I also wish the school would be more accommodating about quietly eating snacks during the day.

If you worked in a school with rats like mine, you'd change your tune. I am leaving now because the rats come out after the building being totally quiet for about 30 mins. These are rats, not mice. We now have a policy where nobody is allowed to eat anywhere except the cafeteria and the faculty lounge.

[Anonymous]

My eating disorder started in middle school. Hopefully punishment/attention isn't being attached to food.

[Anonymous]

You sounds totally in the right Op

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You sounds totally in the right Op

+1

As a teacher working in a high poverty school for 10+ years my experience has been that those students suffering from food insecurity or who are out-and-out hungry generally are embarrassed by their situation and will NOT sneak food in class. They usually approach me quietly and ask if they can go to the bathroom or their locker or some place quiet and eat. They are mortified by their situation and would do anything to keep it being known by the general public. Usually there are other indicators (disheveled, sleepy because of poor housing or couch surfing or sleeping in the car, clothes dirty, stressed). The same goes for a child who is not suffering from food insecurity but there is something going on at home such that they didn't get to eat (left early to get away from an abuser, didn't get breakfast because they woke up late because they went to bed late because of some family issue, etc.). Those kids also don't want attention and they will approach certain teachers on the side for help.

In my experience, the children who are 'sneaking' food in class are those children who have other issues besides food, who are trying to attract attention and they have found that this is a proven way for them to get that attention. Those children will refuse to give up the food or put it away. They thrive on the verbal interaction with the teacher. They derive a lot of satisfaction from the attention from their peers, some of whom are repulsed by the display but others who are egging them on. These children need the attention from the teacher, not the calories from the food. So in that case the best thing to do is to call Security to come get the child while OP quickly writes a detention or referral. After class, then a call and e-mail home. After 3 incidents, escalated to an administrative level.

Generally children as described by OP also have other indicators like poor grades, continuing problems with classmates, classroom disruption, fights, bad rapport with teachers and students, hallway and classroom misbehavior. These are the kids no one wants to work with because they may be funny as a clown but the quality of their classwork reflects that so the smart kids stay away. These also tend to have parents who enable them and who will go to the mat with the teacher about the issue - no, you can't take food from my kid if I paid for it, etc. The child is thrilled that their parent is in their corner and taking down the teacher and the teacher loses the battle as well as the war.

OP, call Security, assign detention, write a referral documenting the incident and move on. Also, get your team involved. You need a parent meeting asap.

[Anonymous]

My 15 yo has a 6+ hour wait between a small breakfast at 6:30 (who is hungry at 6:30?) and lunch at almost 1 pm (and a 1.5 mile run in PE every morning). We haven't encountered any school-wide eating prohibitions n MS or HS - some teachers will allow unobtrusive eating in the classroom and some won't. He usually brings something like a little bag of trail mix that he can down really quickly between classes or in a class that has a more permissive teacher. With 90 minute block classes in HS, they usually have some time to work independently and I can't imagine he's going to disturb anyone with his nuts and berries. (I've also not encountered any nut prohibitions in FCPS).

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for the comments, and a few more of mine-

I have permitted a quick snack before class for students who have a late lunch when it has come up. I have also had kids come in still eating breakfast, which is annoying, but I ask them to step outside and finish it or put it away.

The reason I threw it out for both of these students was due to the hiding, and it not being lunch/ meal food. The hiding and sneaking felt like blatant disrespect and disregard for the rules.

As a middle school teacher, I've seen when you give an inch students will take a mile. So I try to be consistent with some basic expectations.

I appreciate the insights and do not plan to make this a habit.

[Anonymous]

I had a student who was a diabetic and refused to take his medication.

I've taken candies and cookies out of his hand and thrown them out after watching him go into diabetic shock in the hallway. (middle schooler)

His mother complained to the school once...but stopped when we (teachers) told her that her son isn't taking his medication during the school day (the entire grade level team was made aware) and that we are trying our best to keep her from having to pick him up from a hospital vs at school at the end of the day due to his poor decision making skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a student who was a diabetic and refused to take his medication.

I've taken candies and cookies out of his hand and thrown them out after watching him go into diabetic shock in the hallway. (middle schooler)

His mother complained to the school once...but stopped when we (teachers) told her that her son isn't taking his medication during the school day (the entire grade level team was made aware) and that we are trying our best to keep her from having to pick him up from a hospital vs at school at the end of the day due to his poor decision making skills.

Diabetic shock that comes on suddenly is caused by low blood sugar, not high. You could have killed this child.

How can you have known that he wasn't taking his medication (do you mean insulin?) without the mother knowing. It would have been a violation of federal law for the nurse to tell you, and a violation of ethics for the nurse not to tell the mom.

A kid with diabetes is going to need a detailed action plan, not teachers playing vigilante in the hallway.

[Anonymous]

I'm the high school teacher. I understand teaching older students is completely different but don't you ever get hungry? Sometimes I bring an afternoon snack because my lunch is basically breakfast. One of my own children has a 10:45 lunch this year. I don't make food and snacking a power struggle and it doesn't get in the way of teaching.

[Anonymous]

I'm a high school teacher, and I am VERY clear that no food is allowed in my classroom (because kids leave food and food related debris inside the desks, or even on top of desks when they leave).

Occasionally, a student will attempt to sneak in food and eat it during my class. When this happens, I require the student to immediately throw the food away. This happened once this school year when I noticed a student attempting to eat a soft pretzel, which he was holding in his lap under the desk. Yes, I made him throw it away.

I'm unapologetic and I don't care if you become upset or enraged that I made your kid throw away the food he/she was eating in my class. Your kid needs to learn to follow rules and directions. This is about basic respect, and is a life skill your kid will need when he/she has a job. There is no reason for a kid to be eating during a high school class, especially one in which the teacher is very clear that eating is not allowed.

And I feel the same about middle school. If my kid had been caught eating in class in middle school, I would have fully supported his teacher if she had thrown away his food. If he then had no lunch, even better: he would have learned an important lesson. I cannot fathom the mindset of parents like you, OP, who make this a big deal and begin to froth and foam when your kid broke an established rule and was punished accordingly.

[Anonymous]

I completely agree. We have mice, ants, etc. in our classroom. If your child has a medical issue requiring food every couple of hours, let the teacher know. The food kids surreptiously eat in my classroom is soda, candy or chips. I have yet to see a kid trying to eat an apple without the teacher seeing.