- Apr 29, 2005
- 5,649
- 0
- 0
It seems that some students protested their lunch "hour" only being 30 minutes to no avail so they decided to play a little prank on the school staff to make a point. Word got out and it turned into a protest with a total of 29 kids taking part (it may/probably would have been more...but time ran out).
The prank/protest?
Pay for your $2 lunch in pennies to show that the lunch "hour" being 30 minutes was not an adequate enough time to actually eat your lunch.
Free the "Readington 29" as they are being called.
An update to the story:
I also loved this line but didn't want to put the whole article in so I clipped the rest of it:
The prank/protest?
Pay for your $2 lunch in pennies to show that the lunch "hour" being 30 minutes was not an adequate enough time to actually eat your lunch.
Free the "Readington 29" as they are being called.
Some protesters use their feet, others their voices. Students this week at a Hunterdon County middle school used their cents.
Upset with a lunch period they say should be longer than 30 minutes, at least 29 teenagers at the Readington Middle School decided to pay for their $2 lunches with pennies.
The cafeteria line backed up, school officials were not amused and almost immediately handed out two days of detention to the group of seventh- and eighth-graders.
School officials cited disrespect toward cafeteria workers and fellow students as reason for the punishment.
"Most reasonable people understand that the school needed to respond to this," said Superintendent Jorden Schiff.
Currency experts said the Coinstar machines found at most grocery stores take just under 30 seconds to count 200 pennies and the ones found at Atlantic City casinos take about 45. Cashiers at the school took considerably longer to count out the estimated 5,800 pennies by hand. As a result, Schiff said, other students missed out on their mid-day meal.
The punishment outraged some parents like Pete Garibaldi, whose son Andrew was slapped with the detentions.
"They could have turned it into a civics lesson, or applauded the kids for speaking out," he said. The punishment "is a knee-jerk reaction and an immature response to an immature prank."
The plan, according to the students, was conceived on Wednesday during a social studies class when several classmates discussed the rushed lunch period. Within minutes, text messages were sent, then forwarded, until momentum built among the nearly 250 eighth-graders. At home, kids raided couch cushions, kitchen drawers, and old coffee cans for long-forgotten pennies.
When they arrived at the cafeteria Thursday -- around 11:15 a.m. -- their pockets were heavy with change. The special of the day -- cinnamon French toast and sausage at a cost of $2 -- was waiting. And before lunch was over the registers were stuffed with nearly 32 pounds of pennies.
By the end of the day, the detentions had been issued.
Wearing a homemade shirt that asked "Got Pennies?" Jennifer Hunt, 14, walked from the middle school yesterday, still clearly upset with the administration. She planned to participate but found herself at the rear of the line and unable to join in after teachers put a stop to the protest.
In a sign of solidarity, Hunt, like many students, brought her lunch from home on Friday, leaving boxes of pizza uneaten and plates of tossed salad untouched.
The brown bag protest will continue into next week, students said.
"We knew it would back up the lines a little bit but we didn't think the lunch ladies would take it personally," said Andrew Garibaldi, who noted the pennies were both rolled and loose.
Like many others yesterday, Deborah Jacobs, executive director of the New Jersey American Civil Liberties Union, applauded the students for their "creative free speech protest."
A telephone message left at Maschio's Food Service in Flanders, which supplies food and staffing to the school, was not returned.
Some parents, like Lisa O'Donoghue, whose son Patrick was involved, said she supports the punishment.
"It was in fun and was not a malicious action, but it did affect others in a negative way," O'Donoghue said.
An update to the story:
But as news of "Pennygate" began spreading, it soon became clear that this cause was bigger than even a silver dollar. Parents and civil rights advocates, outraged at the school's position, began raising a stink. The story received nationwide coverage.
On Sunday, District Superintendent Jorden Schiff sent an e-mail to parents and students, saying that he was "concerned" about "the media attention." He said it would be up to the parents to decide whether their children serve detention for what he called "a prank."
Whether this placates parents remains to be seen. Some were angry at his choice of words. Others may feel the district has unwisely backed down on a matter of principle. Still others may think the Huntington County school district has given its students a valuable lesson in media relations. Which message resonates, of course, is a matter of parental control.
I also loved this line but didn't want to put the whole article in so I clipped the rest of it:
School officials were not impressed and began doling out detention like sloppy Joe's.