For years, some Minnesota schools threw hot meals in the trash rather than feed a child who owed them money.
For years, Philando Castile dug into his own pocket to make sure no child in his cafeteria line, at least,
left hungry.
For years, there was bipartisan, statewide agreement that Minnesota needed a change of law, or a change of heart, to ban lunch shaming forever.
While everyone was agreeing that someone should do something, lunch debts mounted. Cash-strapped schools yanked trays,
dumped lunches, or sent students away with cold cheese sandwiches or a warning stamp or sticker for their parents and classmates to see. Unpaid lunch debts barred children from field trips and kept graduates from walking across the stage to pick up their diplomas.
And
Mr. Phil, the kind cafeteria supervisor, wasn't here to help. Gunned down at a traffic stop in Falcon Heights for no good reason. His death broadcast to a horrified world on Facebook Live. His killer acquitted.
The Minnesota Legislature changed the law last week,
banning lunch shaming for good, five years to the day after he died.
Later that day in St. Paul, mourners marched and sang and spelled his name across the gates of the governor's residence in giant letters:
4 PHILANDO.
Brooks: A change of law, a change of heart, on the anniversary of Philando Castile's killing - StarTribune.com
