The British government has decided that “teachers are free to take – and keep – any item from pupils’ lunchboxes if they think they are unhealthy or inappropriate.”
“Parents were outraged last month when it emerged children had scotch eggs and a Peperami confiscated under health eating policies.”
I hope no one tried to confiscate any Hobnobs.
Apparently the micromanaging of lunchboxes is only just getting started. “Now ministers have backed the move, giving staff freedom to ‘confiscate, keep or destroy’ anything deemed to break school policies and setting out the procedure for carrying out lunchbox inspections.“
The Great British Lunchbox Inspection began at the Cherry Tree Primary School in Colchester, when junk food was banned from packed lunches.
Vikki Laws, of Colchester, said her daughter Tori, six, was not allowed to eat her Peperami sausage snack, which was confiscated and only returned at the end of the day with a note from teachers.
She said another parent was also told her child was not allowed to have scotch eggs in her lunch box.
Parents were also in uproar after Manley Park Primary School in Manchester banned healthy snacks such as cereal bars from children’s packed lunches – despite offering pizza, chocolate fudge cake and fish fingers on its lunch menu.
Two mothers claimed staff confiscated a nut cereal bar and a packet of 100 per cent fruit chews because of their ‘hidden sugar’.
According to the Daily Mail, “Governing bodies can decide whether to ‘ban certain products to promote healthy eating’.”
Education minister Lord Nash said,
‘Schools have common law powers to search pupils, with their consent, for items.
‘There is nothing to prevent schools from having a policy of inspecting lunch boxes for food items that are prohibited under their school food policies.
‘A member of staff may confiscate, keep or destroy such items found as a result of the search if it is reasonable to do so in the circumstances.’
It’s only a matter of time before these kinds of practices become common here in the United States. Michelle Obama would be proud.
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