This is heartbreaking beyond words…no child should go through this because of a minor mistake.
Children normally can’t wait for lunchtime, but little Hunter Cmelo, from Lincoln Elementary School in Oregon, started to dread it.
The first grader Cmelo is seen sitting alone at a cafeteria table behind a cardboard divider at a cafeteria table. On the table is a cup emblazoned with the capital letter “D” for “detention.”
The school’s reason? His parents dropped him off at school just one minute late, and they wanted to make sure that the boy would always get to school on time in the future.
The business based in Oregon found out about the 6-year-old schoolboy’s ordeal after his story was shared on Facebook by his mother who felt that the school, Lincoln Elementary School in Grants Pass, Oregon had gone too far when it comes to punishing students.
According to Hunter Cmelo’s parents, Nicole Garloff and Mark Cmelo, the boy was late because their car was old and unreliable.
It was Hunter’s grandmother Laura Hoover who decided to oust this elementary school on social media that unfairly punished her grandson, she was not only heartbroken but angry.
Hoover shared the picture on Facebook with the caption:
“This is my grandson, Hunter. He’s a little first grader. His momma’s car sometimes doesn’t like to start right up. Sometimes he’s a couple of minutes late to school. Yesterday, he was 1 minute late and this is what his momma discovered they do to punish him! They have done this to him 6 times for something that is out of his control! They make a mockery of him in front of the other students.”
Immediately, the post went viral and the ensuing outrage and hundreds of complaints forced the school to change its tardiness policy.
“They are shaming him for something that’s not in his control,” his father, Mark Cmelo, said. “It is our fault that he is late.”
Nicole Garloff, Hunter’s mother, revealed that her son was left anxious about going to school because of the punishment. She added that Hunter began “flipping out” a few days earlier because they were running late.
She stated that because of her car troubles and her osteoporosis, she sometimes runs late in the mornings.
“It causes a lot of pain and in the mornings it’s especially hard for me to get going,” she explained.
Hunter cannot ride the school bus because they live within a mile of the school, and he can’t walk to school because the road is too busy.
School superintendent John Higgins and principal Missy Fitzsimmons started getting threatening calls after the photo was posted on Facebook.
However, Higgins maintained that the system gives students a chance to catch up on missed work.
“[The] protocol was communicated to parents via newsletter and is intended to provide the students with an above average level of tardiness, supervised additional learning time in a non-distracting setting. It was never intended to isolate or stigmatize students,” the school district said in a statement.
After receiving complaints, the principal reached out to Hunter’s parents. Following a meeting on Thursday, the school decided to stop using the partition as punishment.
In a statement, the district stated:
“We are pleased to report the meeting was productive. The parents’ concerns were politely discussed and, ultimately, the issues were resolved to the satisfaction of both parents and the school. All parties involved believe that an appropriate resolution has been reached.”
Watch the video below for more details:
FIRE all responsible…