I Said “Eat … That … Banana!”

It’s one thing for a teacher to encourage a young student to eat her lunch, but this was clearly over the line. As reported by nationalpost.com (Canada):

A spoiled banana pulled from a school trash can by a teacher and handed back to a student to eat — resulting in the teacher’s suspension, a Children’s Aid investigation and the withdrawal of an Ontario family’s children from the school — marks another skirmish in the lunchroom politics of schools and daycares. The “banana incident” — as even the school is calling it — took place at École élémentaire catholique Sainte-Marie in Simcoe, Ont. An eight-year-old student says she was forced to eat a “rotten” banana the teacher had retrieved from the trash. “It had all black spots on it so I threw it out,” the girl told the Simcoe Reformer newspaper. “My teacher found it in the garbage and gave it to me. I felt like I had to eat it. I felt like I’d be in trouble if I didn’t eat it.” The girl’s mother, Jordan Stewart, said the teacher was acting like a bully and lodged complaints with the school and child protection workers.

Definitely inappropriate. But it’s not like she shoved it down her throat. Unless there is more to the story, perhaps a good talking-to would have sufficed. Here’s the source.