Mar 02 2008
detentions for paying for lunch in pennies?
[NJ.com]
Twenty-nine eighth graders at a Hunterdon County school received two days detention after they paid for their $2 lunches with pennies, officials said.
Read about it here.
[From me]
O my. Good thing I didn’t think about this when I was in school. Of course my friends and I never ate in the lunch room because we skipped to go eat at Taco Casa in Tuscaloosa! 
What do you think?
7 responses so far
Seriously? Uh oh, someone listened too closely in social studies. Something about nonviolent protests perhaps? Somehow I see a reversal on this issue in the near future. Especially after media outlets like Neil Boortz pick up on it…
I think the more interesting thing is the number of adults that found this worthwhile fodder for comment. Granted, detention was probably an excessive route. Why not ask students with the special need of having to count out pennies step out of line until all the students with more convenient money go first?
I also don’t see what the stink is about a thirty minute lunch period. When I was in the classroom, the great state of Texas only guaranteed teachers 20 minutes of duty-free lunch per day.
Pennies are, by statue, legal tender, but the statutes do not require any business (or presumably a school) to accept any particular form of tender. Refusing bills bigger than $20 or $50 is perfectly legal, for instance. So nothing mandates the school to accept the pennies.
The stated purpose was a protest against short lunch periods, and the intent is obvious. I think detention was too mild.
How would YOU react to someone using the rules with the express intent of making YOUR work more difficult or time-consuming?
Make that “Pennies are, by statute…”
Maybe there is an underlying reason this story was printed in main stream media.
Could it have to do with surging copper prices???
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE7D71E3DF931A35752C1A96E948260
I only wish my 8th graders would get this motivated about something.
I suspect the problem was in it taking too long to count these pennies, especially when more than one student did it.