Salt Lake Tribune: Cafeteria Manager Placed on Leave After Utah School Lunch Seizures - Updated

"Upper level" School Board Management remains inexplicably "unscathed," so far at least

Via BenJoe Markland

Just as we might have predicted, there's been immediate blowback to this week's Uintah Elementary School lunch room debacle, wherein "dozens of children at a Salt Lake City elementary school had their lunches seized" and tossed in the trash.  Seems a couple of Utah legislators marched straight on over to the school and held a press conference, and the cafeteria manager (low "man" on the administrative totem pole) has now been placed by the school district on "administrative leave":

• Cafeteria manager placed on leave after Utah school lunch seizures

Added bonus: Check out the Trib's embedded video, a true marvel of ex post facto public servant anxiety and angst.

We'll also put the spotlight on this great material from the ever-savvy Holly Mullen, who neatly frames the overall issues in this story, even at this still-early juncture:

Really. So Uintah Elementary starts with going after the "lunch lady?" I hope we use this mess to dig down deeply into Utah's "culture of mean." Policies of taking a child's lunch for lack of payment don't just pop up out of nowhere. Why don't we start looking at Utah policies based in general on the notion of "I got mine, now go get yours." It starts with changing a whole culture, people.

Needless to say, we'll continue to keep a close eye on this story as it develops, folks, whilst "responsible" Utah elected officials hastily scramble for political cover.

Special thanks to our online pal BenJoe Markland, over at the From Where I Sit - In The World blog, for the great graphic which we've shamelessly "incorporated" from yesterday's most excellent writeup on this topic.

Update 1/31/14 7:00 p.m.:  The Trib's Pat Bagley knocks it outta the park with this afternoon's "inspired wditorial cartoon":