When Tara Chavez picked up her son from school in Arizona, she was surprised – and later alarmed – when she spotted ink brandished across the inside of his wrist.
When Chavez looked a little closer, she realised her son had been stamped with the phrase “lunch money”. Desert Cove Elementary, it seemed, were looking to alert the grade-two student’s parents that he needed more funds in his account.
In an interview with Buzzfeed News, Chavez said the stamp was a humiliating experience and one that left her son, who she wishes not to name, in tears.
“My kid’s really weird about stuff like that, so I asked if he was given a choice by the lunch lady and he said, ‘No, she just grabbed my wrist and put the stamp on.’”
“I was surprised,” she told the publication. “Normally I get a slip in his folder when he needs more money.”
She said despite the fact her son still had about 75 cents in his account, it was an unnecessary way to draw attention to students, and families, who were low on funds.
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“He was screaming and crying the entire time,” Chavez said. “He was humiliated, didn’t even want me to take a picture of it.”
The stamp originally made waves on the internet after one of Chavez’s friends, Juan Fortenberry, tweeted about the incident.
“Like, y’all couldn’t send a note? Y’all couldn’t think for two seconds about the numerous references of branding someone as a stigma?” Fortenberry wrote.
In a statement to Phoenix New Times, the Paradise Valley Unified District said Desert Cove will no longer use “reminder stamps” to notify parents when their children’s school lunch accounts are running low.
“It was never the intention of Desert Cove Elementary School administration and staff to embarrass any student by using the stamp,” spokesperson Becky Kelbaugh told the news outlet. “Students were given the choice between a letter or reminder stamp. Going forward, Desert Cove Elementary School will send a letter home notifying parents of low lunch balances.”
“It’s important to know that using a ‘lunch money’ stamp is not a district policy at PVSchools. It was a practice had been used, but was discontinued years ago. Administration at our schools regularly communicate with parents when a student’s lunch money balance is low. If there is no money left in the account, students are provided with multiple free lunches.”
Do you think the use of “reminder stamps” is cruel?
Top Comments
Phone call, letter, email, text.. there are plenty of other options available nad quite frankly an ink stamp should not even be an option.
A grade two student cried and screamed about a stamp? Really? This is hardly 'branding' children. It's just another way to remind parents that money is due.
I think this would be an issue where a family was regularly falling behind ( in which case they would hopefully address it in a different manner so the kid didn't stand out as continuously having a stamp) or in older kids. But at this age, when school notes continuously go missing, I think it's fine. Imagine the uproar if the kid missed out on food instead!