School Carnival Fail

[Rageaholic]

Story here

School principle decides to throw the kids a school carnival, but charges a ten dollar fee. Kids who's parents could afford it could enjoy the carnival, but those who's parents didn't pay had to sit in an auditorium.

Now, I can understand if the carnival was an after school event (my school did this, though it didn't have rides), but as part of the school day, they should just let everyone in free of charge or just forego the carnival if they can't afford it. Punishing kids because their parents can't afford something is cruel.

Also, I can't imagine what it would be like to be one of the teachers who has to look after the disappointed kids in the auditorium. It sounds like a lot of them did their best to try to make the kids day better, but that could not have been an easy task.

[Kheldarson]

What's even worse is that the kids who got to go to the carnival got stuffed animals... which were delivered ahead of time during class.

[Andrew B]

Think anyone has sent this to Nash for WTFIWWY, yet?

[mathnerd]

That infuriates me. I have no words. Though there's a silver lining at the end of the article. The local real estate developer and business man who are looking for a way to make it right for the excluded kids, and are willing to pay for it themselves, just warmed my heart.

[Rageaholic]

That infuriates me. I have no words. Though there's a silver lining at the end of the article. The local real estate developer and business man who are looking for a way to make it right for the excluded kids, and are willing to pay for it themselves, just warmed my heart.

That's good to hear. Stories like these usually bring out good people who want to make injustices right. It restores my faith in humanity.

On another note, someone on the fark thread for this got torn a new one for suggesting there would have been more outrage had they let the poor kids in. He played the 'but it wouldn't have been faaaaaaaiiiiirrr to those who paid' card. Even though judging by that thread alone, most of those people wouldn't be so offended about cutting people a break every now and then.

[Kheldarson]

That's good to hear. Stories like these usually bring out good people who want to make injustices right. It restores my faith in humanity.

On another note, someone on the fark thread for this got torn a new one for suggesting there would have been more outrage had they let the poor kids in. He played the 'but it wouldn't have been faaaaaaaiiiiirrr to those who paid' card. Even though judging by that thread alone, most of those people wouldn't be so offended about cutting people a break every now and then.

I really hate when people confuse "fair" and "equal". No, it may not have been equal to have non-paying students be able attend; however, it would have been fair as each student received according to their needs.

[Tama]

I remember in high school they had that stupid catalog they wanted you to sell from. Now, they knew most teens wouldn't want to sell random shit, so they tied it to "field day" which is basically a neat outside event schools tend to have. If you didn't sell a certain dollar amount, you didn't go.

Naturally I sold nothing (because who wants to sell shit to strangers? I don't do well with people I KNOW!) so I had to stay in the library. Sure I liked the library but it still wasn't fair.

[Lindsay B.]

... I don't understand this. For the life of me, I just don't understand this.

Gary Pincus, the head of the carnival company, Send in the Clowns Entertainment, said that if he had known that some children would not be allowed to attend because their families couldn't afford the fee, then he would have paid their admission fees himself. The company is actually offering to have a second party, for free, for the children who were left out, and they are getting "the runaround" from the Parent Association over it.

What is the issue here? How does it do anybody any good to deprive a hundred children of attending a carnival when there's no reason to? I mean, look at this :

“They were crying because they didn’t get to go. They wanted to hear what happened, and they wanted to get the presents,” said the child, referring to the stuffed animals only the paying kids received.

A third-grade boy added, “I think it was unfair because this is kind of a poor neighborhood, and the people who couldn’t pay were really sad. They asked me if it was fun, and I said yes, and they got sad.”

It isn't just the children who were left out.

The students who did get to attend the carnival would have been happier, too. I'm sure that they would have liked to have all of their friends with them, sharing in the fun, and the statements quoted above certainly make it clear that they felt bad for their classmates.

They say it wouldn't be fair to the parents who did pay the fees. Honestly, if I was one of the parents who paid the fee, then I think that my primary concern - in fact, my only concern - would be that my child has fun. Allowing the children from the poorer families to attend the carnival wouldn't take anything away from my child. In fact, it would make everybody happier. So why in the world would I object?

It doesn't even look like any of the parents did object. It was the principal who made the decision.

I honestly don't know if it's even possible for this to be any meaner, any pettier.

[Hyena Dandy]

I really hate when people confuse "fair" and "equal". No, it may not have been equal to have non-paying students be able attend; however, it would have been fair as each student received according to their needs.

I know, it's almost like colloquial language exists or something.

[Anthony K. S.]

Stories like these usually bring out good people who want to make injustices right. It restores my faith in humanity.

I remember reading a story that was in the news one December. This was a long time ago, so I don't remember a lot of details, but I believe this is what happened :

Somebody burglarized the office of a small charity.

Okay, let that sink in for a second.

They went through the building and took the organization's computers, supplies, office furniture, pretty much anything of value.

But the worst thing by far : This charity had been running a holiday toy drive, and collected around 250 toys and games to be given to children of poor and needy families on Christmas.

The assholes who broke into the office stole them all.

Newspapers reported the story ... and about a week or so later, they had an amazing follow-up.

In the days after the burglary was reported, this organization found themselves overwhelmed by hundreds of people coming in to donate toys, to make up for the ones that were stolen. Many families were searching through their attics and basements for any old toys and games that they could donate to this charity.

There were even some large companies that heard about this story and decided to help out. Just two examples : American Greetings sent the organization a shipment of fifty stuffed teddy bears with wrapping paper, and another company sent them 300 beach balls.

People also donated money to help the organization recover from the burglary and get back on its feet.

A representative of this charity said that in the end, the entire story showed both the worst of human nature, and more importantly, the best of human nature.

I remember in high school they had that stupid catalog they wanted you to sell from.

When I was in elementary and junior high school, the fundraisers usually had the students selling chocolate bars. We were all given boxes of them and expected to sell them door-to-door, or maybe in shopping centers ... I think my family might have actually tried doing that two or three times before we gave up and just bought all of the chocolate bars ourselves.

In the last few years, we didn't even bother to try selling them. As soon as we brought the boxes of candy home, our mother just wrote a check to the school for them.

Then, in high school, it was raffle tickets. I took one look at the book of tickets and thought :

You have got to be kidding. How many people do you expect to find in New York City who would write down their name, address, and phone number on a slip of paper given to them by some random teenager going door to door or walking up to them in a shopping center?

The school tried to give us an interesting incentive - an actual cash prize. Every day, the school would randomly select one student, and if that student had sold his/her quota of tickets, he/she would receive an amount of money.

It didn't really work. With over 3,000 students in the school, the chances of you being randomly selected were so slim that not many students bothered.

They also offered the entire student body an extra day off from school if the money raised exceeded a certain amount, which was a slightly better incentive. I think that most students probably just did what my family did - have friends and relatives buy them, and only the bare minimum needed to meet the requirements.

[s_stabeler]

I remember that my old school did it differently- you were asked to contribute towards the cost, but it was explicit that the kids would be able to go anyway- amazingly enough, just about everybody did, in fact pay.

I actually know an interesting story about a charity that got burgled: when the news broke, a couple of days later, everything that got stolen was returned- with a note from the burglar apologizing. ( according to the note, he hadn't realized it was a charity he was breaking into)

[HYHYBT]

Chocolate bars! I can't remember now which it was, but when I was in high school, some group or other did candy bars as a fundraiser. Instead of selling them door to door or anything like that, though, they carried the boxes around school and sold bars to other students for a week or two until they ran out. Probably not allowed now because of nutrition, but there ought to be an exception for that sort of thing.

[Aragarthiel]

I really hate that the school did this to these kids. When you're that young, you don't get to participate in school activities if you misbehave, and when the kids didn't get to participate, they had good reason to believe that they were bad. They're left wondering what they did wrong and why they can't go play with their friends. When I was in school, when we had a pizza party and every student had to bring $2, nobody was excluded unless they either misbehaved or weren't physically there that day.

[Rageaholic]

I really hate when people confuse "fair" and "equal". No, it may not have been equal to have non-paying students be able attend; however, it would have been fair as each student received according to their needs.

But it's not supposed to be fair. Life isn't fair and disappointment builds character, gawd darn it. When I was that age, my pappy would have me searching for bottles alongside the road to pay for the carnival. Those little brats should be thankful.

**taken from several comments from what I assume are hardcore capitalists. Yes, even the quote on picking up bottles.**

In all seriousness, I wish more people would realize that equal does not equal fair. Equal is only fair in some board games, but not everyone is dealt the same cards IRL.

[bex1218]

The only carnival a school did for us was one that was towards the end of the year for kids who got good grades. No fees or anything. Just you needed a certain GPA (like 3.0) to go.