This is what a "progressive" city looks like

So I was all set to bitch about a nearby suburban school district's egregious policy of feeding kids who can't pay for lunches a cold cheese sandwich when I found out my kid's school district has a more draconian policy of not feeding kids at all. Guess it pays to do some research, eh.

But then I went and read the comments on this story. I should not read the comments. I don't know why I continue to think that Seattle is a progressive city when it is full of bitchy fauxgressives & closet libertarians.

Here's a selection of comments for your (barf) amusement:

What is harsh is teaching kids that there is such a thing as a free lunch and that you can game the system. "Free food", for whatever reason isn't free and takes away from other parts of education.

We are talking about teenagers here (not elemetary kids) who are children of Seattlites. Not exactly a poor city with lots of poverty.

Yes cause there are no poor people in Seattle. Doncha know I'm secretly wealthy and choose to live as a poor person because I have secretly taken a vow of poverty. At least there won't be for long with the increasing rents. And perhaps this commenter's atrocious spelling (elemeNtary) might have been helped if he'd had a nice hot meal in school. Or perhaps he's just an asshole.

You know, if a kid turns up at the end of the line with no money to pay his tab, that doesn't mean the parents didn't fork it over. When I was a kid most people I knew would rather skip a meal than fork over any dough, especially dough that was already nestled safely in the 7-11 cash register. You can hardly move around in the convenience stores and fast-food joints around any Seattle-area school for the crowds of kids buying (or shoplifting) junk.

Huhm, I have a funny feeling that the quote above was from someone who thinks fat people spend their entire day shoving McDonalds in their gaping maws.

i think the point is: just because kids aren't bringing their lunch doesn't make it the schools' fault, and the school should not be paying the price.

perhaps there should be a measure in place to contact child protective services if parents are negligent in providing food or funds for their children to eat lunch. but the already overburdened school system should not be required to hand out free food.

Ah yes- more criminalization of the poor. Lock up those parents cause we all know there are thousands of loving foster homes to take those kids in. Right. Right.