(Photo Courtesy Flickr Creative Commons, Kolya)

The only way to see if a student indeed had an outstanding balance was to first give them their lunch and have them attempt to pay for it. Once it was found that any student had a balance, the lunch they were given was immediately taken away and trashed. Complying with cafeteria rules, any food that had already been served to a student could no longer be served to another for hygienic reasons. 

“Who in their right minds would take food from a child knowing as soon as it was taken that it would have to be thrown away?” asked one Facebook comment.

The school claims that students were notified of low or negative balances when they passed through the lunch line. They claim students were also given notices to be taken home to their parents. However, when calls were made to parents about this matter in the days before the incident, many were surprised to hear about the pending balances.

Parents were outraged at the obvious embarrassment students endured over a balance that is the parents responsibility. The Salt Lake City School District said in a statement on Facebook:

“We understand the feelings of upset parents and student who say this was an embarrassing an humiliating situation. We again apologize and commit to working with parents in rectifying this situation and to ensuring the students are never treated in this manner again.”

Still, many parents found this act unforgivable and asked openly to the Salt Lake City School District that any school officials involved with the incident be “immediately fired.”

When approached about next steps ensuring this situation is not repeated, the school was unavailable for comment.

Reach Executive Producer Tahsin Hyder here; Follow her on Twitter here.