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 Replies: 41 / Views: 3,585 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5318 Posts |
Biokemist--  "Instead, the school could have been smart and put in an automated coin counter to assist the lunch ladies" Agreed--or give the kids paper rolls and make them count beforehand, and put their name on the rolls. That way the cafeteria has extra change, and they could trace a miscount. Edited by KurtS
03/03/2008 02:59 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1934 Posts |
As bobby said, there's more to it than meets the eye. On a pedantic and legal level, however, last I checked, all US currency is legal tender and I bet "We dont take anything larger than $20 bills" is a required posting for vendors who dont take anything larger than $20 bills.
There was a time in the USA when refusing payment with legal tender absolved the consumer of the expense.
Hopefully, the students were heard. Two days' detention may be worth it. Political prisoners !!
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Forum Dad
 United States
24170 Posts |
quote:
I think the "holding up their peers" and "disrespecting lunch aides" was their way of describing what other might call a minor inconvenience of counting out two hundred cents for each student that chose to participate in this protest.
Come on now people, let's be realistic. Do you really think that this was a bunch of perfectly behaved little teenagers performing a sweet little polite protest that are getting shafted by overzealous authority figures? We have 2 good teenage boys. They don't drink, do drugs, or hang out on the street corner. But I know how they react when I ask them to do the dishes or take out the trash... and I'm family. I find it hard to believe that all these kids did was innocently try to pay for their lunch with a handful of Lincolns. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2254 Posts |
Yup, sorry folks. even though I hate to do it, I'm going to have to agree with Dad.  "What started as a prank" tells me that some kids decided to pick on the lunch ladies per se. We've all done it to a certain extent. If it turned into a protest, it means that the lunch line wasn't moving because the ladies were busy counting, and the school staff was notified. They probably put out an announcement stating such, and some smart aleck child or parent decided to turn this into their "cause". I'm sorry, and of course these are my opinions only, but I think 2 days detention was very lenient when I read between the lines here. To me this is the opposite of authority getting out of control. It is kids getting out of control!! Funny, haha, party's over, you made your point. Continue to do it, and you deserve the punishment in my opinion. |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
652 Posts |
I am unaware of the legalities in the US, but in OZ there is a legal limit to how many coins you can present for payment.
According to the Reserve Bank Act 1959, Australian notes are legal tender. According to the Currency Act 1965, coins are legal tender for payment of amounts which are limited as follows:
not exceeding 20c if 1c and/or 2c coins are offered (however, it should be noted that these coins have been withdrawn from circulation but are still legal tender);
not exceeding $5 if any of 5c, 10c, 20c and 50c coins are offered;
not exceeding 10 times the face value if coins in the range 50c to $10 inclusive are offered; and
to any value if coins of value greater than $10 are offered.
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Moderator
United States
23534 Posts |
One of my pet peeves quote:
Another reason why we should get rid of the penny
and when did the USA ever have a Penny?    Oh you mean the one cent coins Guess the USA will never lose its ties to the Commonwealth rggoodie
aka Richard
"catch em doing something right"
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Pillar of the Community
United States
560 Posts |
Bring back corporal punishment! How I'd love to paddle those kids infront of their parents; Heck, I'd like to beat the parents too! It sickens me to see parents pamper and indulge their children so. If it was up to me, I'd shove those 200 pennies down their throats and make them eat that for lunch!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1984 Posts |
quote:
Yup, sorry folks. even though I hate to do it, I'm going to have to agree with Dad.
I'm afraid I'm going to have to agree as well. It seems the school administration made a distinction to be made between WHAT was being used for payment and HOW that payment was being presented. Is this the first time this group of kids has been disciplined this year? And just as kids need to learn how to behave during duress-free times, they need to learn how to protest when feeling under duress. If the problem is the shortened lunch period, and the protest is to be paying in pennies, responsible protestors (yes, there is responsibility involved in protesting) would have gone about organizing a protest very much differently than these kids apparently did. The school will have failed if they don't use the incident as a 'teachable moment'--but it's not like the kids were suspended, they just had to stay after school a couple of days. And if the kids are unhappy with less time for lunch then their frustration is with the administration and not with the lunch ladies. Nowadays most lunch positions are part-time hourly non-school-district-privatized benefit-less jobs filled by people who shouldn't be required to take guff from the hormone enraged youth they serve. If the kids could get enough support school-wide for their cause then they could find lots more effective protests than slapping pennies on the stainless steel payment counter next to the register, which is what I suspect they were doing. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
965 Posts |
I heard on the news this morning, that the district superintendant has "pardoned" all of those detentions that were handed out. While I also agree with dad, I have to admit that I would have been one of the ringleaders in my high school days. In fact, I was a ringleader in my middle school days, but that's a long story for another time.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2600 Posts |
No discipline and example set at home or school and you get what you invested in the child, nothing. You cannot expect a child to offer others respect until they understand they themselves earn it as others have. When the only form of discipline is detention or expulsion you do not have a chance. Most kids are just looking for a reason to get out of class. Of course, in my day, it was double and even triple jeopardy. I can remember getting lit up at school (my crime will not be mentioned, but it had something to do with a girl I liked ), then getting nailed at home for the same thing and then I was not allowed to play football against our cross town rivals that weekend. Did I learn something, you better believe it. I was responsible for my actions. Jim |
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Moderator
United States
189053 Posts |
I was not intending to take sides, but someone has to. The article is naturally lacking real substance. It is one-sided, since it appears that only one person (the superintendent) was interviewed. It would have been nice to see some of the parents or even students quoted in this article. But what do I know...
Do I think the kids are completely innocent? Probably not; but the article does not detail their crimes. Saying it started as a prank may have been subjective.
Do I think the school officials were embarassed because the kids pulled one over on them? Possibly; but to what degree (if any) is unknown because of the lack of details.
We do not know all of the facts. Did the kids taunt the school authorities, or were they caught off-guard by their ignorance? My honest guess is that there are always a few rotten apples.
Three sides to every story and we only got one of them.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1106 Posts |
Just remember when you are at a checkout the the lady in front of you has her changepurse open and is rootin' around in it for pennies to make exact change, and how you are cursing at her under your breath to hurry up. Do you want to be the 11th kid in line when the other 10 in front of you have 200 pennies each that need to be counted. I know I would be ticked.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
790 Posts |
If the protest was about a shortened lunch period, doesn't the one-cent-coin (read this as penny) counting exacerbate the problem?
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Valued Member
United States
280 Posts |
Simply stated, there is more to this story than was written. Read the comments to the article. Personally, I will withhold my judgement.
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New Member
United States
33 Posts |
that's a penny collectors dream there! But the students were trying to make a point of a shortened lunch period, which probably didn't go well with them.I grew up in N>J> and we sometimes need to stand up for what we believe in.
Thats all I have to say about that!! LOL
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Replies: 41 / Views: 3,585 |
First Page
Posted 03/03/2008 03:44 am
