A Luzerne County, Pennsylvania school district is under fire for sending letters to parents who owe money for their children’s lunches. The letters threaten that if the bills remain unpaid their children could be removed from their homes and placed in foster care.
“Your child has been sent to school every day without money and without breakfast and/or lunch. This is a failure to provide your child with proper nutrition and you can be sent to Dependency Court for neglecting your child’s right to food,” the letter reads, as NBC News reported.
“If you are taken to dependency court, the result may be your child being removed from your home and placed in foster care,” the letter (below) adds.
The school district solicitor, Charles Coslett, appeared gleeful over the letter, saying, “Hopefully that gets their attention, certainly did, think about it,” he told NBC News.
Related: School Cafeteria Confiscates Lunches From Hands of 40 Kids for Insufficient Funds
PAhomepage reports many are upset over the letter, and not just parents.
“It’s just not true. We do not remove children from families for unpaid bills,” Luzerne County Children and Youth Services executive director Joanne Van Saun told the newspaper. “I found it very disturbing. Upsetting. It’s a total misrepresentation, a gross misrepresentation of what our agency does.”
Luzerne County Manager David Pedri called it “a gross misrepresentation as to what we do. What you are really doing is weaponizing the good things we are doing in Luzerne County. I’m asking the school district to retract the letter.”
The school district is facing $20,000 in unpaid school lunch bills.
Image via Shutterstock