Garland Parent Says Students Denied Lunch As Punishment
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GARLAND (CBS11) - A dozen students were suspended from a Garland middle school on Tuesday, for watching a fight. But, that was just the beginning of a saga that had at least one parent questioning the "common sense" of the adults making decisions.
Jennifer Ford says she was able to get her son's suspension reversed after proving that he was simply trying to get to class after leaving the nurse's office. But, what her son said next had Ford demanding answers from O'Banion Middle School leaders.
"They told all the kids who were being suspended to go sit over at another table while the RAC kids went to get something to eat," says her son, Nathan Sanchez. "Two kids tried to go in the line and they didn't let him go, so we went back to the RAC classroom."
"RAC" is what the kids call in-school suspension. But, Ford believes that O'Banion leaders broke the rules.
"I called the principal and talked to him and, he did tell me that it was illegal and against policy and procedure," says Ford. "He told me that he was definitely going to talk to his supervisor and handle the issue. It's more preventative." And then quickly adding: "you can prevent it from happening again; but why did it happen to begin with?"
When CBS11 asked Garland school officials for an explanation, spokesperson Mida Milligan responded with a written statement saying, "While we cannot share information about student discipline as that is a violation of FERPA, Garland ISD does not deny lunch as a consequence for misbehavior or Code of Conduct violations. Whenever students miss lunch for any reason, food is provided to them."
Except Nathan Sanchez says it wasn't.
"I was hungry," he said. "I didn't really want to question it, I thought I would get in trouble."