Schools across the country deploy a variety of humiliation tactics on students whose parents haven’t been able to pay their school lunch bills, whether it’s publicly throwing away perfectly good trays of food or marking students’ hands. Some states and schools say these practices go too far and are adopting laws and policies that don’t punish schoolchildren for their parents’ debts. [More]
Public Shaming
Public Outcry Hasn’t Actually Decreased The Price Of EpiPens
By 6.5.17
Remember last year around back-to-school time, when the public focused its ire on drug company Mylan for charging hundreds of dollars for $1 worth of the drug epinephrine in each EpiPen brand auto-injector? While that generated plenty of bad publicity for Mylan, turns out Mylan doesn’t actually care. [More]
Some Schools Shame Students When Their Parents Can’t Pay For Lunch
By 5.1.17
Shaming a debtor may be an effective — and potentially illegal or unethical — way of getting them to pay up, but should children who have no control over their family finances be publicly shamed if it gets their parents to pay their outstanding school lunch bills? [More]
Billboard Campaign Shames California Commuters For Texting While In Traffic
By 3.26.14
You shouldn’t text while driving, period. But you definitely shouldn’t do so while driving on the 101 Freeway in San Francisco unless you want your picture plastered across the city. [More]
