Teacher Makes Student Sit By Herself Because Of 'Smelly Lunches'

An upset mum has reported her daughter’s teacher, after discovering the student was being made to eat lunch in another room because her food is ‘smelly’.

The six-year-old had started asking her mum to pack lunches similar to what the other students were eating, which prompted her to admit she was banned from eating lunch with her classmates.

“Recently she told me she didn’t want her packed lunches anymore and what to eat what the other kids were eating,” the mum explained on reddit. “She had been not wanting to eat what were her favourite foods and opting for asking for pizza more.

“I asked her why she didn’t to eat her favourite foods anymore and she told me she wanted to be able to sit with the other students. I was shocked because I didn’t know she wasn’t sitting with the other students and she told me it was because her teacher made her sit in the other room by herself during lunch times because she brought ‘smelly foods’.”

‘We don’t want her distracting other students’

The situation resurfaced unpleasant feelings for the little girl’s mum, who had dealt with something similar when she was at school.

“To be clear growing up I was also targeted by teachers who wouldn’t let me bring shrimp or anything with garlic or onion because they hated the smell. So I try not to pack anything that could cause them to target my child like spam sushi or egg fried rice. I was really upset because she is half Chinese but she clearly looks Asian and I felt it was my childhood trauma happening on her.”

The concerned mum decided to confront the teacher about the upsetting lunch situation.

“I called up her home room teacher for a meeting and the teacher said they didn’t make her sit in the other room to eat but my daughter told me to ask her best friend who confirmed for me that yes she had been.

“Another teacher confirmed her had seen her eating alone and her home room teacher switched stories that she had but it was because my daughter brought a persimmon to school and it was distracting the other kids because they thought she was eating a tomato and she didn’t want her distracting the other students by having ‘foreign’ food.

“She refused to believe it was inappropriate and said she didn’t see anything wrong with sending her to eat by herself. I had to go to the principle and take my daughter to another home room to finish up the school year because that teacher said it only happened once despite my daughter swearing up and down it happened every few days for weeks before she told me.

“She told me specifically of a time she brought tomato egg stir fry and a boy bullying her because it looked like blood and the teacher sending her to eat in the other room rather than telling him to stop. My husband doesn’t believe her saying the teachers would have said something because sending her to eat by herself but I don’t think he understands because he is white.”

Now the mum is wondering whether she was wrong for reporting the teaching. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

52 Comments

- - mom485263 said
  - 18 Jun 2022
    12:08 pm
Poor child.

- - mom60462 said
  - 17 Jun 2022
    3:56 pm
That is very unfair on the child

- - cassy26 said
  - 17 Jun 2022
    10:08 am
This is terrible. That poor kid. That teacher should lose her job…

- - Jessica said
  - 17 Jun 2022
    2:01 am
That is so inappropriate and racist behaviour from the teacher! Definitely not in the wrong for reporting it!

- - mom160289 said
  - 16 Jun 2022
    10:30 pm
Can’t believe this still happens in this day and age.

- - MelissaK said
  - 16 Jun 2022
    8:23 pm
One of my daughter’s teachers asked her to eat her cantaloupe at another table (not near the teacher) because she didn’t like the smell, but made sure my daughter knew she could come back next to her when she was finished. I found it odd, but at least the teacher was polite about it and didn’t make her go eat by herself. The teacher in the article is a disgrace, and should know better, instead of isolating and bullying a child and lying about it.

- - Forgetful Mumma said
  - 16 Jun 2022
    7:33 pm
So a persimmon looking like a tomato is a distraction instead of a teaching moment? How horrible of the teacher to isolate the poor girl! You can start by explaining to the students that not all food is the same and that people from different backgrounds eat different foods. If the other kids found the food smelt so bad that it turned them off from eating their own lunches, a simple note home explaining that to the parents could solve the drama. Not every teacher out there is worth their pay. I’ve met some shockers, who sadly bring everyone’s opinions of teachers down. What this teacher did was wrong, as was lying about it.

- - sars_angelchik said
  - 16 Jun 2022
    4:02 pm
What disgusting racist behaviour. School needs to be called out about this!

- - alyise_ said
  - 16 Jun 2022
    1:54 pm
wow, what a great thing that her child was able to speak up feeling that it was not right.

- - rovermum said
  - 16 Jun 2022
    11:23 am
This is just horrible. How dare this teacher shame this child in that way? I cannot believe it. And then she lied about it? This Mum did the right thing by her child.

- - mom371171 said
  - 16 Jun 2022
    10:38 am
So horrible 🙁

- - My Littlebuttons said
  - 16 Jun 2022
    10:29 am
Oh wow this is so bad hope someone reported this to the Principal
- mom371171 replied
  
  16 Jun 2022 , 10:38 am
  In the article it says the mum reported it to the principal & the result was changing home rooms.
- - mom103778 said
  - 16 Jun 2022
    9:38 am
This is wrong on so many levels. The teacher should know better, she was showing a real bad example. I would have reported her without a second thought.

- - mom466557 said
  - 16 Jun 2022
    9:36 am
Oh that poor child! Like there arent enough bullies etc to deal with.

- - mumof3 said
  - 16 Jun 2022
    8:58 am
Wow that’s so cruel and unacceptable. Here schools are trying to encourage healthy eating and now they are isolating kids for eating something different? When does it end.

- - sharna_booth_weinrowski said
  - 16 Jun 2022
    8:12 am
seems a little unfair!

- - TraceyGail said
  - 16 Jun 2022
    8:08 am
I’s simply complain and demand it not happen again.

- - mom487937 said
  - 16 Jun 2022
    7:46 am
Absolutely disgusting isolating a child because of your own narrow mindedness and picky eating. That teacher needs more than a slap on the wrist, she basically bullied a six year old and lied about it. If the other kids were ‘distracted’ by the lunches the teacher could have used it as an opportunity to talk about different foods and cultures. Glad the mum stuck to her guns.

- - Ellen said
  - 16 Jun 2022
    7:31 am
I would make an complaint about this teacher to the principal to start with

- - mom459320 said
  - 15 Jun 2022
    10:40 pm
That’s a bad behaviour from the teacher he shouldn’t be teaching if he can’t bare the smell!!