13 year old refuses to be fingerprinted – to eat her lunch

But (as we found out recently) the school is not allowed to refuse to serve food if the child is legally entitled to it – something to do with the duty of care they assume when accepting the child at the school, finger print or no finger print.

The cafe manager had made a decision that was not hers to make…

You can’t blame the cafe manager for defending a staff member when an allegation of abuse is made though. The reaction of the cafe manager was a mistake I grant you that; a quick but formal investigation by school staff would have given an accurate account by both sides involved and witnesses would have been allowed to make representations for both sides and an amicable agreement by both parties to have no further action taken would have been suffice in this instance.

That said, your story is somewhat different to the issue that was initially being discussed.

What would you do if the school your daughter attends decided to introduce electronic payment technology to bring about “cashless” transactions? As long as sufficient notice of their intention was provided in the form of an addressed letter to the parents by post that anyone who wants to use the system has to comply with the basic requirements and anyone who does not want to use the system will have to bring their own packed lunch in from an agreed date? That’s hardly unreasonable in my opinion and I am sure that the school are perfectly entitled to do this? You as a parent have a clear choice, either you continue to allow your daughter to eat by agreeing to the new system or you choose to provide her with a packed lunch?

Lessons learnt both ways i hope 🙂

That was the thing that the cafe manager had not thought about, and the head teacher had forgotten about.
The reason she was excluded was that, apparently, she would not admit her guilt at making fun of the woman – a punishment that was given without the head teachers initial knowledge. The HT then agreed with the punishment because daughter still refused to admit responsibility. Daughter is not usually a liar so when she told us that she was not allowed to buy lunch, and when we heard the schools version of events, and when we heard (the following day) that the other two girls had complained to a teacher that daughter had been unfairly punished I consulted with the CAB (being there for something else anyway) and fired off an email to the chairperson. Etc.
Had daughter actually made fun of the woman behind the counter then she still would not have been allowed to be excluded from eating lunch, but maybe only allowed in under escort by a teacher. The cafe manager had made a decision that was not hers to make; the head teacher had gone along with it without realising that it was not actually a permitted punishment – something that I was only made aware of by the CAB people.
Still, all’s well that ends well…

I knew I could rely on you, that was why I mentioned it…

But (as we found out recently) the school is not allowed to refuse to serve food if the child is legally entitled to it – something to do with the duty of care they assume when accepting the child at the school, finger print or no finger print.
(Daughter was accused of making fun of food server and, despite two witness pupils and one teacher saying that she did not make fun nor swear at the food server, was subsequently refused to be served by order of the cafe manager. Head teacher sided with cafe manager, until – with assistance from the CAB – questions were directed to the chairperson of the board of governors with the added threat that the local newspaper might like to ask questions too)

Just out of interest ,HAD your daughter been guilty what would you have said then about not being given food even though the school is not allowed to refuse to serve food if the child is legally entitled to it?

Re 1

Hanging’s too good !

I knew I could rely on you, that was why I mentioned it…

If I were in charge of the school and she doesn’t want to be finger-printed I’d refuse to serve her food and tell her that she can make her own packed-lunch and bring it in herself – simples!

Hanging is a bit extreme though.

But (as we found out recently) the school is not allowed to refuse to serve food if the child is legally entitled to it – something to do with the duty of care they assume when accepting the child at the school, finger print or no finger print.
(Daughter was accused of making fun of food server and, despite two witness pupils and one teacher saying that she did not make fun nor swear at the food server, was subsequently refused to be served by order of the cafe manager. Head teacher sided with cafe manager, until – with assistance from the CAB – questions were directed to the chairperson of the board of governors with the added threat that the local newspaper might like to ask questions too)

at my school you can either pay online or use machines in the atrium of the school to pay all in advanced they say it is to stop bullying due to the amount of money someone has but it doesn’t work people still get bullied for having less money than another person

But someone must have told them who has less money.The reason for having school uniform was to equal out those who had less than others,ie one person wearing top name brands and others struggling to bargain value type clothes.
The downside to this is alot of schools now capitalise on the selling and costs of uniform items.

So how does this work Buddy? Do you pay in advance and pay as you dine until your thumbprint is declined at the counter due to the lack of credit and the same for the code or do you get a bill at the end of the week/month or term?

at my school you can either pay online or use machines in the atrium of the school to pay all in advanced they say it is to stop bullying due to the amount of money someone has but it doesn’t work people still get bullied for having less money than another person

Sorry Miss you can’t have a mortgage as you did not pay for your Sausage and Chips on time 20 years ago!

LOL ,no you still have to pay it 🙂 it just allows you to get food on the day then pay later.It does stop the playground bully who used to pinch peoples dinner money,stops kids from going down to the local shop and buying crap unless they take money of their own back.

I shouldn’t worry TOO much about paying for school dinners by finger print
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7pYHN9iC9I

Baz – seconded!

Sorry Miss you can’t have a mortgage as you did not pay for your Sausage and Chips on time 20 years ago!

Good luck to her…I am not sure how many people are aware of how much ‘tracking’ goes on with seemingly innocuous transactions/shopping etc…if any personal details/information can be misused – you can almost bet your bottom dollar that it will be misused ; )

You pay online BUT if they do forget to top up the account you can still get food it seems to just give you negative credit .It is also used for paying for equipment,school trips etc.
As long as the software works it seems very good.

I respect her my school luckily offers a choice of either thumb print or just to get a four didget code

So how does this work Buddy? Do you pay in advance and pay as you dine until your thumbprint is declined at the counter due to the lack of credit and the same for the code or do you get a bill at the end of the week/month or term?

Exactly trumper…only the Daily Mail brigade would like to make as much fuss about it and overdramatise everything just so that it gives them something to talk about.

It’s parentpay https://www.parentpay.com/ ,ours used it ,no problems.Too much of a fuss being made.

There’s probably more to this than meets the eye. How will having your fingerprints taken and then a daily scan of a thumb or finger print speed up a cafeteria queue? The meal still has to be served and, if I read the article correctly, paid for. Don’t see how adding an extra process will speed up the queue.

As far as I understand it, money is pre-loaded onto an online account by the parent/pupil and using a registered fingerprint deducts the cost of the meal off the account thus helping to speed up the queue because there is no phaffing around with money/change at the tills…just a simple scan of a finger and away you go!

I would suggest that this encourages healthy eating to a certain degree as I gather that parents can somehow look at a history of what the child has bought, plus it would probably reduce bullying/theft (of money!) to an extent too as pupils will not be carrying around cash on their person!

Most schools are introducing the new technology which is a good thing and it should be embraced. Those that do not want to participate is fine…I’m not saying it should be compulsory to have it done but if you want to be able to use the facilities that the school provides, you should be prepared to do what they want. If you don’t, then that’s fine also but you should be preapred to provide for yourselves in this particular instance.

So Cloud 9 you would be happy to be accosted at the doors of Tesco’s going for a coffee and your family and your children to be dragged off against their will to separate rooms to have blood samples, DNA samples, and fingerprints taken?

That’s not realistically going to happen though is it so stop being so sensationally dramatic.

I respect her my school luckily offers a choice of either thumb print or just to get a four didget code

There’s probably more to this than meets the eye. How will having your fingerprints taken and then a daily scan of a thumb or finger print speed up a cafeteria queue? The meal still has to be served and, if I read the article correctly, paid for. Don’t see how adding an extra process will speed up the queue.

More importantly, I suspect that the person who tried to place her hand on the scanner could (should?) sue for assault. I think (but am not certain) that physically being forced to do a task whilst not under the legal definition of detention can be classed as assault.

Quite right Kev re the Assault, the woman who tried to hold the hand of the child, was, and is guilty of an assault. It used to be in Law, that, as an example, you and I were standing close enough to each other, in a slanging match, and we were both close enough, that should one of us consider a punch, even the threat of uttering the fact that you or I were about to land a punch, even though it was never carried through, that too is classed as an Assault. I don’t mind them taking my DNA etc, as it may in some circumstances, prove my innocence.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

Remember DNA testing isn’t the be end all of science, it does fail

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727733.500-fallible-dna-evidence-can-mean-prison-or-freedom.html#.UwCMoB4gGSM

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/01/opinion/the-fallibility-of-dna.html?_r=0

There’s probably more to this than meets the eye. How will having your fingerprints taken and then a daily scan of a thumb or finger print speed up a cafeteria queue? The meal still has to be served and, if I read the article correctly, paid for. Don’t see how adding an extra process will speed up the queue.

More importantly, I suspect that the person who tried to place her hand on the scanner could (should?) sue for assault. I think (but am not certain) that physically being forced to do a task whilst not under the legal definition of detention can be classed as assault.

Another issue is parental consent. The school needs parental consent for a child to undertake school activities such as field trips etc., and consent to have injections etc. I should think fingerprinting would require some form of consent. Perhaps that’s why the school are playing it down?

I have no problem with the collection of Biometric information from myself. Whilst it is true that a DNA sample could see me convicted of murder if I were guilty, equally, that same sample could prove my innocence.

Regards,

kev35