During this week I observed an example of classism while watching a story on the news. The story was about a school district in the state of Pennsylvania where they sent a letter to the parents of children with outstanding debt from this past school year. If the debt was not paid the school was seeking to file a petition for those children to be removed from their homes and placed in foster care. A local business owner contacted the school district to pay the debt but was informed that it was not his responsibility to pay the debt and that the parents had money to pay (Olsen, 2019). The business owner then sent a letter to the local newspaper informing them of what happened. Based on the local and national news coverage of the situation the school district decided to accept the $20,000 donation to eliminate the children’s debt. After watching this story and reading more information about it I was angered by the actions of this school district and about their lack of care and concern for the children and their families. I wondered if the school district has sought other methods or techniques to work with the families. This type of microaggression which was classism affected me deeply because I believe this school district discriminated against poor families and sought to have their children removed from the family instead of offering resources or services.
References:
Olsen, T. (2019, July 24). School district that warned parents of foster care over unpaid lunch debt rejects offer to pay it off, CEO says. Retrieved from https://www.foxnews.com/us/school-district-digs-in-on-collecting-debt-ceo-says
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