School Chastises Parent for Student’s Lunch

With all of the controversy surrounding food recently, most notably school lunches and what should or shouldn't be allowed for SNAP recipients to purchase, THIS takes the cake.... Or the cookie!

According to ABC-affiliate KMGH,  Colorado mom Leeza Pearson was recently chastised for providing her child with an Oreo cookie in her lunch.  Now, this is not a dessert provided for the child to retrieve after eating her school-provided lunch.  Pearson packed a complete lunch for her daughter, which happened to include a cookie, and the cookie was taken from the child. A healthier choice was then given to her, and a note was sent home:

Dear Parents,

It is very important that all students have a nutritious lunch. This is a public school setting and all children are required to have a fruit, a vegetable, and a healthy snack from home, along with milk. If they have potatoes, the child will also need bread to go along with it. Lunchables, chips, fruit snacks, and peanut butter are not considered to be a healthy snack. This is a very important part of our program and we need everyone's participation.

 

I can understand limits being placed on things that are provided for you, such as a child who eats lunch for free being restricted from doubling servings; and I can also understand schools providing healthy snacks for students. But to me, this may be taking things a bit far. Most schools have codes of conduct that protect the safety of all students, faculty and staff as well as they have dress codes to make sure a certain image is presented.  With these ideas in mind, is it ok for a school to determine what foods a parent provides for his or her own child, or is this taking it a bit far?