LUNCHES: Debt hard to swallow

I have three children who attend school in the Coeur d’Alene School District. The schools offer hot lunch at the cost of $2.55 a day. It would cost our family $7.65 a day to buy school lunch. We chose to have our kids take homemade lunches. My kids hate to take lunches, and want to eat hot lunches like all their friends. So, my kids sneak and take hot lunch.

So, you ask, how can they buy hot lunch if the parents are not sending money to school to pay for those lunches? Well, they put it on the “student” account. One would think after a couple of times of doing that the school would not allow a child to continue to charge on a negative account. Well, as of Thursday morning I owed the school $189.90 on one account, and $163.35 on another account. (Our third child is a high schooler and has not charged any lunches.)

I am SHOCKED that the school would continue to allow a “child” to charge lunches on an account despite it being in the negative. I paid the school $353.25 Thursday. I have gotten email notices that told us our children had outstanding balances. And, we did as any parent would do, we told our children to STOP charging lunches. And, our kids did as most kids would do. They stopped for a little while then went back to charging lunches. What happened to the $5 or $10 negative lunch limit?

LISA CALDER

Coeur d’Alene