美国国家公共电台 NPR Lawmaker's Childhood Experience Drives New Mexico's 'Lunch Shaming' Ban

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

We're going to talk now about something called lunch shaming. That's when kids are publicly identified as being from families that can't afford to pay for school lunch, maybe they're identified with a wristband or a hand stamp. But then those kids are bullied¹ or ostracized² because of it. New Mexico has become the first state to make that kind of lunch shaming illegal with something called the Hunger-Free Students Bill of Rights. The bill makes schools talk to parents, not students when the student has cafeteria debt.

It also says schools can't force kids to pay off that debt with chores or extra work. Michael Padilla is the Democratic state senator who introduced that bill. We reached him via Skype, and I asked him to describe what exactly lunch shaming looks like.

MICHAEL PADILLA: You know, as it turns out, I can actually speak from personal experience. I grew up in foster homes - multiple foster homes. And so my sisters and I grew up that way, and we actually experienced this ourselves. You know, you go to the lunchroom. You have debt or just don't have any money at all. And what they'll do is they'll give you a piece of bread and maybe a little bit of cheese on the bread. And the other kids are getting a warm meal.

And, you know, they're moving on with their day, but, you know, these kids are being stigmatized³, and they're being - you know, it's very obvious who the poor kids are in the school and this and that. And so that to me is shaming, and that has no place in our society in a first world, you know, powerful country like ours.

MARTIN: So children are not just being ostracized or shamed because they can't afford to pay for their own school lunch. You're saying they're actually getting different food. Aren't there federal and state subsidies⁴ to get these kids a proper school lunch?

PADILLA: Well, that's even further than that. We have specific stories of children that have actually had the hot lunch taken out of their hands and thrown away right in front of the child.

MARTIN: By whom?

PADILLA: By one of the cafeteria workers, you know, or whatever might be going on there. So, you know, again, you know, growing up this way, it was a very, you know, serious hit-home kind of issue. And so, you know, I made Mrs. Ortiz (ph) and Ms. Jackson (ph) my best friends when I was growing up. And they made sure that I ate, but, you know, I had to mop the floors in the cafeteria. I had to put up the chairs and all that stuff.

And basically what the legislation does is it changes the focus of the school to getting the children on the free and reduced programming fee schedule or whatever and the schools are still able to collect this debt. They still are able to do that. But really, you know, a 6 year old maybe up up to about a 14 year old, they have no power to fix this issue and to resolve it.

So if their parents have debt in the lunchroom, then that is not something that they have control over. And I don't know why we're punishing them so this prohibits that, it outlaws⁵ that and it focuses more on the child's well-being⁶ rather than the debt itself.

MARTIN: So what specifically does this new law do? I mean, how do you prevent these kids from getting shamed in these situations? You say that it's about helping⁷ parents pay off their debt but how does that help the public humiliation⁸?

PADILLA: Well, it outlaws a different lunch essentially⁹. So everybody going through the food line - which by the way is going to make the lunch line a little more efficient. You know, I've even heard of stories in schools where there's two or three different lunch lines. If you have the regular, you're the regular kid that can pay the whatever no matter what, you know, you're going through the line real quickly getting your hot lunch and going and sitting down.

A reduced lunch time might be in another line that gets a different type of lunch, and then the poor kids are in the other line just very quickly being, you know, rushed along with a piece of bread and a piece of cheese. But what the legislation does is it basically eliminates the other two lines, and it puts, you know, all of the kids, you know, moving through with a hot lunch and then they move on with their day in their studies.

MARTIN: I mean, it's just - it really is shocking to think about kids in that circumstance. Do you have any sense of how widespread this is? I know you're focused on your state and efforts to address this there but do you have any idea if this is something that is happening across the country?

PADILLA: It is happening across the country. Many legislators have already - from across the country have already reached out to get a hold of this legislation as model legislation. And by the way, it is the first in the nation Hunger-Free Students Bill of Rights. New Mexico - we're on a lot of these really bad lists, but we really want to turn that around.

I'm very proud to say that, you know, we came together in a bipartisan fashion in our legislature - Democrats¹⁰ and Republicans - and we were able to finally convince the governor to sign this bill. And so I think you're going to see this kind of move its way across the country.

MARTIN: New Mexico State Senator Michael Padilla. Thanks so much for talking with us about this.

PADILLA: Thank you very much for taking this on with us. I appreciate it.

1 bullied   

adj.被欺负了v.恐吓，威逼( bully的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• My son is being bullied at school. 我儿子在学校里受欺负。
• The boy bullied the small girl into giving him all her money. 那男孩威逼那个小女孩把所有的钱都给他。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 ostracized   

v.放逐( ostracize的过去式和过去分词 )；流放；摈弃；排斥

参考例句：

• He was ostracized by his colleagues for refusing to support the strike. 他因拒绝支持罢工而受到同事的排斥。
• The family were ostracized by the neighborhood. 邻居们都不理睬那一家人。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

3 stigmatized   

v.使受耻辱，指责，污辱( stigmatize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was stigmatized as an ex-convict. 他遭人污辱，说他给判过刑。 来自辞典例句
• Such a view has been stigmatized as mechanical jurisprudence. 蔑称这种观点为机械法学。 来自辞典例句

4 subsidies   

n.补贴，津贴，补助金( subsidy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• European agriculture ministers failed to break the deadlock over farm subsidies. 欧洲各国农业部长在农业补贴问题上未能打破僵局。
• Agricultural subsidies absorb about half the EU's income. 农业补贴占去了欧盟收入的大约一半。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 outlaws   

歹徒，亡命之徒( outlaw的名词复数 )； 逃犯

参考例句：

• During his year in the forest, Robin met many other outlaws. 在森林里的一年，罗宾遇见其他许多绿林大盗。
• I didn't have to leave the country or fight outlaws. 我不必离开自己的国家，也不必与不法分子斗争。

6 well-being   

n.安康，安乐，幸福

参考例句：

• He always has the well-being of the masses at heart.他总是把群众的疾苦挂在心上。
• My concern for their well-being was misunderstood as interference.我关心他们的幸福，却被误解为多管闲事。

7 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

8 humiliation   

n.羞辱

参考例句：

• He suffered the humiliation of being forced to ask for his cards.他蒙受了被迫要求辞职的羞辱。
• He will wish to revenge his humiliation in last Season's Final.他会为在上个季度的决赛中所受的耻辱而报复的。

9 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

10 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》