Bullies have been stealing other students’ lunch money for years. But students at one New York elementary school face a new adversary: their teacher. A third grade educator faces charges of petty larceny and endangering the welfare of a child after he repeatedly ate the noontime repasts of three students who receive free lunches under the federal National School Lunch Program, effectively stealing lunch money from the government (and food from his hungry students’ mouths). The district was able to track the lunches because the students used their personal identification numbers to purchase them. They then delivered the lunches to the teacher’s classroom. Gadfly can’t help but be nostalgic for the times when we brought our teachers an apple for their desks. Here’s a solution that might be more effective than prison: This teacher should be put on an all-cheese-sandwich diet.
“Third Grade Teacher Arrested for Stealing School Lunches,” 13WHAM.com (Rochester, NY), April 13, 2010