When Tara Chavez's son came home from school one afternoon, she noticed a mark on his arm. The mom from Arizona immediately asked her second grader about it and was surprised to learn that it was a stamp on his inner wrist boldly declaring, "Lunch Money."
Tara's child explained that his lunch account was low and though the elementary school still fed him, they stamped his arm instead of sending a note home. "My kid's really weird about stuff like that, so I asked if he was given a choice by the lunch lady and he said, 'No, she just grabbed my wrist and put the stamp on,'" Tara told BuzzFeed. "I was surprised. Normally I get a slip in his folder when he needs more money."
Tara's friend posted a picture of the child's arm on Twitter after learning how embarrassed the school made him feel, which quickly went viral. "He was humiliated, didn't even want me to take a picture of it," Tara said.
The concerned mom promptly emailed Desert Cove Elementary School's principal about the situation. "[The staff member in the cafeteria] doesn't want the students to be embarrassed either so she is supposed to ask them if they want a stamp or a reminder slip," the principal responded, according to BuzzFeed.
Although the principal said that she would talk to staff about the situation, Tara hopes that the school realizes the impact it had on her child. "I think there's a better way to communicate the message than stamping a child with the words 'Lunch Money,'" she added. "There's a billion other ways you could do it that would be better than that."