Cops: Teacher made boy eat from trash can
Waste not, want not?
Kindergarten teacher Anne O’Donnell is accused of forcing a student to eat his lunch after he tossed it in the garbage. The 5-year-old boy, who was not publicly named, had thrown out his cafeteria lunch of chicken nuggets and a banana. O’Donnell allegedly took the items out of the trash and then gave them to the boy to eat, the Associated Press reported.
O’Donnell, 67, of Fairfield, Conn., was charged on Tuesday with risk of injury to a minor. The alleged garbage-eating happened last week at Park City Magnet School.
While I understand that it is important to teach children not to waste food, there can be no excusing forcing a child to eat from the garbage. The same lesson could have been taught to the child by showing hir images of children across the globe who are starving. I have found that this works particularly well. The child could then have been instructed about practices like composting of food or ways to save a meal for later. All she did was unnecessarily but the child at risk. This kind of authoritarian action is an affront and the teacher needs to be punished.