Little Natalee Pearson, 4, trotted off to her pre-school at the Children's Academy in Aurora, Colorado, carrying her lunch — a ham and cheese sandwich, some string cheese and a pack of Oreo cookies.
When she returned home, her mother, Leeza, got a shock. In Natalee's lunch box was a stern note from the school, stating: "Dear Parents, it is very important that all students have a nutritious lunch. This is a public school setting and all children are required to have a fruit, a vegetable and a healthy snack from home, along with a milk. If they have potatoes, the child will also need bread to go along with it. Lunchables, chips, fruit snacks, and peanut butter are not considered to be a healthy snack. This is a very important part of our program and we need everyone's participation,"
ABC News reports.
And the school wouldn't even let Natalee eat her cookies.
Pearson said she was "lunch shamed" by the note, and her story touched off a firestorm of disagreement on social media, with some thinking the school was right to be concerned about Natalee's nutrition but others sensing the ominous hand of "Big Brother" at work.
"I think it is definitely over the top, especially because they told her she can't eat what is in her lunch," Pearson told ABC News. "They should have at least allowed to eat her food and contacted me to explain the policy and tell me not to pack them again."
On Twitter, one person commented: "Schools are not nutritionists. Parents have right 2 decide what their children have 4 lunch."
Yet
another tweeted: "This is NOT the job of schools or government. Kids can eat whatever their parents allow them to eat."
Patty Moon, spokeswoman for the Aurora Public Schools, told ABC: "From our end we want to inform parents but never want it to be anything punitive."
However, Pearson felt the note was punitive, telling ABC that during the Easter holiday, parents were asked to pack candy for a party, and her daughter often gets jelly beans as a snack from the school.
"They say I can't decide what to feed her but then they sometimes feed her junk food," Pearson commented. "Why am I being punished for Oreos when at other times I am asked to bring candy?
"She is not overweight by any means and I usually try to feed her healthy. It's not like I was offering cookies to the entire class and it's not like that was the only thing in her lunch,"
she told WCVB-TV.
She
told The Huffington Post: "What the school thinks is healthy for her is not what I think is healthy for her. That's between me, her and our doctor."
Watch the video here.
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