lunchAre schools so over-regulated that they must fire the cafeteria lady who gives away the occasional free meal to a child in first grade who forgot their lunch money?

That appears to be what happened in the Cherry Creek School District, where the rules were not followed to their specifications, so now a kitchen manager is out of a job.

Follow this web of rules: Regulations dictate that if a child’s parents make less than $31,000, they get free lunch, if the parents make less than $45,000, they get lunch at a reduced price. Otherwise, lunch costs $2.80 a day.

The first time that a first grade child who remembered to get dressed before leaving the house but forgot their lunch money, they get a free lunch.

The second time that a child remembers their head is attached to their body and keeps walking into walls, but forgot their lunch money, they get a free lunch.

The third time a child remembers to do their homework but forgot their lunch money, they get a free lunch.

The fourth time the child remembers to flush the toilet but forgets their lunch money, they get a cheese sandwich and milk, for free.

And here’s where the bureaucratic red-tape runs out of ink. Without a regulation to tell them what to do next, like maybe pick up the phone and inform the parent their child keeps forgetting lunch money, someone gets fired.

The cafeteria lady says she paid for some of the lunches out of her own pocket, and simply didn’t charge for other lunches, for a total of 20 meals. That means she was fired because the school lost a fortune, to the tune of an estimated $50.

Something really stinks here, and we suspect it’s something other than Michelle Obama’s lunch menu.