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In The News: 29 N.J. Students Punished After Using Pennies To Pay For Lunch

mattnissmattniss Posts: 777 ✭✭✭✭✭
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29 N.J. Students Punished After Using Pennies To Pay For Lunch
Some Parents Think Detention Went Too Far; Others Think It Wasn't Enough

READINGTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- Sometimes a penny for your thoughts isn't a good thing.

Readington Township school officials gave 29 students detention after they used pennies to pay for their $2 lunches.

Superintendent Jorden Schiff said it started out as a prank. But as the eighth-graders began to get in trouble for taking up so much time, it turned into a protest about Thursday's shortened lunch period.

Schiff said the students were punished for holding up their peers and disrespecting lunch aides.

Schiff said some parents think a two-day detention went too far and others think it wasn't enough.

The school, which is located in Hunterdon County, said it wants students to know they can express themselves without disrupting other people.
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  • droopyddroopyd Posts: 5,381 ✭✭✭
    how else are they going to turn kids into nice compliant sheeple?
    Me at the Springfield coin show:
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    60 years into this hobby and I'm still working on my Lincoln set!
  • THat's pretty funny.
  • Sounds like the eBay boycott, a total wasted effort image
    Never teach a pig to sing. You'll waste your time and annoy the pig image

    image
  • pontiacinfpontiacinf Posts: 8,915 ✭✭
    no one has mentioned or asked just exactly when pennies were no longer considerd money?

    They should be happy I am not a student there, as I would use pennies everyday. Money is money, legal tender. TFB if the reciever is that f*&$&^% lazy that they cannot count a few coins in a timely mannerimage
    image

    Go BIG or GO HOME. ©Bill
  • CoxeCoxe Posts: 11,139
    Thank goodness none of them whipped out a crisp $2 bill. They'd be shackled to a pole.
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  • LeeBoneLeeBone Posts: 4,615 ✭✭✭✭✭
    It`s legal tender, right? image
  • fcfc Posts: 12,793 ✭✭✭
    ask me, morons run that lunch cafeteria. if something like that escaped from a cafeteria that i ran to the principal's office i would
    be ashamed that i could not outfox a few kids.

    for example, i would goto the store and buy a cheap change counter.
    mount it next to the register and tada!

    stupid adults in position of authority often over react when kids seem
    to outfox them.
  • Our adult society is out of control....image
    ......Larry........image
  • They werent just trying to pay with pennies. Their intent was to actually disrupt the lunch line. Detentions are warranted.
  • BlindedByEgoBlindedByEgo Posts: 10,754 ✭✭✭✭✭
    You will read all about the lawsuit next week, I'm sure.
  • STONESTONE Posts: 15,275
    That's BS.

    Public schools are (weird)!!!

    Edited to: change wording.
  • cladkingcladking Posts: 28,743 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The idiots accepting pennies should be disciplined.

    It's a simple matter to refuse them in payment and if they aren't smart enough to figure this out before or during the fact that doesn't give them right to act afterward.

    At least the zinc interests get their cut. That's the important thing.
    tempus fugit extra philosophiam.
  • Stone retorted:



    << <i>Public schools are retarted!!! >>



    So, .... which one did you attend?
  • STONESTONE Posts: 15,275
    Maybe a little strong to say "retarted", but come on.

    I remember that when I was in 8th grade, someone in my class paid for their food with cents one day and no one did anything.
    Granted this is 29 people and not 1, but still, money is money and they should have either refused or accepted it.
  • More likely the intent was to extend the lunch period.If giving pennies as a protest to count them more time is need to count the cents during lunch....
    ......Larry........image
  • "retarted" is what some 4th graders might say, when trying to express the word retarded.


  • << <i>That's BS.

    Public schools are retarted!!!....STONE >>




    retarted?

    Ray
  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 46,868 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>no one has mentioned or asked just exactly when pennies were no longer considerd money?

    They should be happy I am not a student there, as I would use pennies everyday. Money is money, legal tender. TFB if the reciever is that f*&$&^% lazy that they cannot count a few coins in a timely mannerimage >>



    On your next pay day, I would love to see your employer pay your salary entirely in pennies. I bet you would change your tune.



    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
    "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
    "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

  • pendragon1998pendragon1998 Posts: 2,070 ✭✭✭
    Far too often, schools abuse their power.


    Come to think of it, I once got yelled at by a fat lunch checkout lady because I filled up my little bowl at the salad bar with grapes. I didn't want a full-blown salad. We're talking about a little styrofoam bowl that held maybe 6 oz - less than a small bunch of grapes. I just wanted some frickin' grapes. There's got to be a joke in there about the grapes of wrath, but I'm too tired to think it up.
  • pontiacinfpontiacinf Posts: 8,915 ✭✭


    << <i>The idiots accepting pennies should be disciplined.

    It's a simple matter to refuse them in payment and if they aren't smart enough to figure this out before or during the fact that doesn't give them right to act afterward.

    At least the zinc interests get their cut. That's the important thing. >>



    money is money, if taken to the courts id come out the winner.
    image

    Go BIG or GO HOME. ©Bill
  • pontiacinfpontiacinf Posts: 8,915 ✭✭


    << <i>

    << <i>no one has mentioned or asked just exactly when pennies were no longer considerd money?

    They should be happy I am not a student there, as I would use pennies everyday. Money is money, legal tender. TFB if the reciever is that f*&$&^% lazy that they cannot count a few coins in a timely mannerimage >>



    On your next pay day, I would love to see your employer pay your salary entirely in pennies. I bet you would change your tune. >>



    I deposit my pay, so in essense id be "passing the buck", or in this case "the cent"

    and in the same retort, if you ran out of gas and all you had was pennies, and the station jockey refused them you would change your tune real quick.

    I could careless about this, but like I said money is money. Get over it.
    image

    Go BIG or GO HOME. ©Bill
  • mirabelamirabela Posts: 5,103 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I seem to remember reading somewhere that pennies stop being legal tender in amounts in excess of 50 cents. If that is so (I don't claim to be an authority on this) then the cafeteria would be within its rights to refuse payment by that means.

    Whatever else we do, can we stop using this as a jumping off point to slam public schools? Public schools are broadly representative of our society -- that includes the students, the faculties, and the staff. Some of the most brilliant people I know are public school students. Others are public school teachers. Same goes for some of the stupidest. Any strengths we have as a culture are in evidence in our public schools. Ditto any weaknesses.
    mirabela
  • dohdoh Posts: 6,457 ✭✭✭


    << <i>They werent just trying to pay with pennies. Their intent was to actually disrupt the lunch line. Detentions are warranted. >>



    Let's hope you're not in charge of any schools. The money they were paying with is legal tender. The school has to take it. If the school hires people who can't count then it's the school's problem, not the students'. The school shouldn't be shortening the lunch period anyway, the kids came up with a very ingenious way to protest. Good for them. If I were a parent of one of the 29 I'd be buying my child a present and throwing a HOLY FIT at the school.

    Positive BST transactions with: too many names to list! 36 at last count.
  • BarryBarry Posts: 10,100 ✭✭✭
    I've seen toll plazas in NJ and elsewhere with signs saying pennies not accepted.
  • tradedollarnuttradedollarnut Posts: 20,205 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The money they were paying with is legal tender. The school has to take it.

    No they don't. Same principle as a gas station refusing a $100 bill.
  • Pennies= 1 Cent ...made by the US Mint....Legal Tender....US Coin....valid to make purchases in the USA? Last time i checked NJ=Garden State is under the country called USA.image
  • droopyddroopyd Posts: 5,381 ✭✭✭


    << <i>They werent just trying to pay with pennies. Their intent was to actually disrupt the lunch line. Detentions are warranted. >>



    why not just string up the little buggers? can't have any "disruptions" in the schools -- like the 6-year-old who was sent home because his mother dared to give him a "disruptive" haircut.
    Me at the Springfield coin show:
    image
    60 years into this hobby and I'm still working on my Lincoln set!
  • droopyddroopyd Posts: 5,381 ✭✭✭


    << <i>I've seen toll plazas in NJ and elsewhere with signs saying pennies not accepted. >>



    I tried paying with pennies on the mass pike many years ago -- toll was 10 cents and all i had to my name was those 10 pennies. clerk refused to accept them at first, they after a while did but then claimed i had only giver her 9 -- and i knew exactly how many i had.

    after a while she just waved me through -- lots of kerfuffle over a penny,
    Me at the Springfield coin show:
    image
    60 years into this hobby and I'm still working on my Lincoln set!
  • tightbudgettightbudget Posts: 7,299 ✭✭✭
    Say, Readington is like 20 minutes away from me. Weird how I didn't know that.
  • dohdoh Posts: 6,457 ✭✭✭


    << <i>No they don't. Same principle as a gas station refusing a $100 bill. >>



    Yeah, but it's posted at gas stations. Do you think it was posted in the school lunch line that they won't take cents? I doubt it. They have no right not to take them if a sign isn't posted.
    Positive BST transactions with: too many names to list! 36 at last count.
  • TomBTomB Posts: 22,090 ✭✭✭✭✭
    If they had only used cents instead of pennies!
    Thomas Bush Numismatics & Numismatic Photography

    In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson

    image
  • Boy people can argue about just about anything on here. So people are actually posting that United states cents, that cost over 1 cent to produce are actually not legal tender in the United States, in any situation? image
    imageQuid pro quo. Yes or no?
  • TwoSides2aCoinTwoSides2aCoin Posts: 44,621 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Detention ? Make them stay after school and cherrypick. If the Lunch Room Monitor were a numismatist, he or she could capitalize on this.
  • TomBTomB Posts: 22,090 ✭✭✭✭✭
    There might be some confusion on the part of some members here so I will post a serious answer. There is no Federal provision that requires a private business, person or organization to accept cents or other denominations as payment unless there is a State law that requires such. However, I do not know how this applies to a public school system unless the cafeteria in question was run as a private business through a contractor to the state.
    Thomas Bush Numismatics & Numismatic Photography

    In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson

    image
  • PatchesPatches Posts: 1,700 ✭✭✭
    It will be interesting to see what little Timmy is planning for Monday. He may write really hard on the blackboard "I WILL NOT USE PENNIES IN THE CAFETERIA TO PAY FOR TACOS" really hard just to use up a bunch of the schools chalk, and piss the janitor off who wont be able to completely clean the blackboard.
  • NumisOxideNumisOxide Posts: 11,003 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>If they had only used cents instead of pennies! >>


    Exactly Tom!image
  • direwolf1972direwolf1972 Posts: 2,076 ✭✭✭


    << <i>ask me, morons run that lunch cafeteria. if something like that escaped from a cafeteria that i ran to the principal's office i would
    be ashamed that i could not outfox a few kids.

    for example, i would goto the store and buy a cheap change counter.
    mount it next to the register and tada!

    stupid adults in position of authority often over react when kids seem
    to outfox them. >>



    Good answer I like it.
    I'll see your bunny with a pancake on his head and raise you a Siamese cat with a miniature pumpkin on his head.

    You wouldn't believe how long it took to get him to sit still for this.


  • My school won't accept pennies or cents to pay for lunch.

    One lunch aid thought she was doing me a favor by accepting my pennies one day image
  • BECOKABECOKA Posts: 16,961 ✭✭✭
    They should love it. They are getting double payment since they are worth more than 1 cent each.

    They did nothing illegal and I too think detention was too much. They could have been told nicely to not do it again.
  • droopyddroopyd Posts: 5,381 ✭✭✭
    Well, the lunch ladies felt "disrespected." So the kids should be forced to wear hairnets for a week as penance.
    Me at the Springfield coin show:
    image
    60 years into this hobby and I'm still working on my Lincoln set!


  • << <i>They werent just trying to pay with pennies. Their intent was to actually disrupt the lunch line. Detentions are warranted. >>


    -----------------
    No they were NOT "JUST" disrupting the lunch line-----It's called non-violent political protest, at least

    outside of NJ, Russia, and I guess where you live.

    Growing up in DC as I did, my life was contantly "disrupted" by every sort of oddball

    protest one can imagine-----I amazes me how people elsewhere are so intolerent of immature but

    short lived disruptions.

    PLUS--these NJ peolple are nothing but sicko pennies haters!!!image
    morgannut2
  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 46,868 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The cafeteria should have accepted the "pennies" and carefully counted each of the 200 cents. The students at the back of the line, after not having time to buy or eat their lunch, would have taken care of the so called protestors after school by administering some street justice in the school yard. This so called protest would have been very short lived.

    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
    "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
    "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

  • JulioJulio Posts: 2,501
    What if a student gave a 1982 DDO to an astute employee? jws
    image
  • droopyddroopyd Posts: 5,381 ✭✭✭


    << <i>What if a student gave a 1982 DDO to an astute employee? jws >>



    beans make you astute.
    Me at the Springfield coin show:
    image
    60 years into this hobby and I'm still working on my Lincoln set!
  • Absolute total over reaction on the part of the school, the cafeteria, those giving out suspensions. The pennies (cents) should have simply been set aside and counted later. A smile and a chuckle by the clerk would have taken all the fun out of this event for the students. Adults are really stupid how they treat young people. The over reaction is what the students wanted and got. They won. Why can't adults just chill out and go with the flow. It is never good to over react with young people no matter what they do. You will lose every single time.
  • halfhunterhalfhunter Posts: 2,770 ✭✭✭
    School lunches are 2 bucks now?
    Talk about inflation, in 1960 they only cost a quarter! image

    Best,

    John
    Need the following OBW rolls to complete my 46-64 Roosevelt roll set:
    1947-P & D; 1948-D; 1949-P & S; 1950-D & S; and 1952-S.
    Any help locating any of these OBW rolls would be gratefully appreciated!
  • morgansforevermorgansforever Posts: 8,485 ✭✭✭✭✭
    A gas station in my area doesn't take 50's or 100 dollar bills.

    I tried to pay for gas with a 50, the clerk would not take it, kind of irritating.

    I asked her why, she said, "because my boss says so". So I ask the boss, he says, "it's company policy".

    This was at a Mobil gas station. I wonder if this policy is nationwide? I took my business elsewhere.
    World coins FSHO Hundreds of successful BST transactions U.S. coins FSHO
  • tychojoetychojoe Posts: 1,336 ✭✭✭
    If they had only used cents instead of pennies!

    image
  • tychojoetychojoe Posts: 1,336 ✭✭✭
    << What if a student gave a 1982 DDO to an astute employee? jws >>



    beans make you astute.



    image again!

  • mozeppamozeppa Posts: 4,431 ✭✭✭
    The school, which is located in Hunterdon County, said it wants students to know they can express themselves without disrupting other people.


    Isn't a protest of any kind worthless....if there isn't disruption on some level?

    my mom always said "if you're gonna make a scene...then by all means, BE SEEN!

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