Dad Has Beef With Son's Taco Meal

[OhioChick]

June 13, 2009

CINCINNATI -- A Hindu father from Ohio has filed a complaint with the Justice Department claiming his son was forced to eat a beef taco in the school cafeteria.

Ashish Gandhi says the taco incident occurred at the Academy of World Languages, a public magnet school in Cincinnati. Eating beef is considered a sacrilege to Hindus.

Cincinnati Public Schools attorney Gary Winters told investigators the boy chose the taco himself, and the employee who gave it to him was unaware of his dietary restrictions.

Gandhi, who moved to the U.S. from India in 2007, calls the taco meal an "intentional act of religious bigotry." He filed a separate complaint claiming the school has refused to offer his son services for students who don't speak English.

http://www.newsnet5.com/news/19747655/detail.html

[MadHound]

1. If his son chose the taco meal, then his son is the one to blame

Doesn't sound like his son was forced to do anything, rather that the boy was curious, got caught out, and is now claiming he was "forced."

[OhioChick]

3. My thoughts exactly. n/t

[DeschutesRiver]

45. Agree too.

If my kid had a dietary no no, and I was sending him on his own into an environment where everyones requirements are being met, not just those of my kid, surely I could exert some control over the situation.

I could send him with a card that lists what he can't have, and ask him to show it to his server before meals. Could pay an older kid to eat lunch with him and make sure he didn't get the no no food, if he is too young to understand all this. If I am a full time parent, I can be there with him for his lunch at school (sure he'll hate me, but it is either that important or it isn't). Or as a stay at home parent, I could home school him like other people do with their kids. Probably other ways to avoid the no no foods could be devised.

Expecting food servers to mind read the mind of a child too young to express his dietary requirements? Not gonna happen. This father is acting like an epic fail with regard to finding a way to enforce his dietary restrictions for his child. Tossing the kid on his own into a cafeteria that has choices for all, and just hoping things happen as you wish? Nonsense.

[alfredo]

25. If his son didn't know that a taco contained beef, then it was just a

mistake, not an intentional act.

[madeline_con]

2. Forced. Right. You know how much food the little darlings toss every day?

spell edit

The kid should be educated by his parents on how to spot meat.

[rcrush]

4. Can you really call that stuff in school cafeteria tacos "Meat"?

That shit is not meat. Its probably shit. Its like the shit they put in the tacos at Taco Bell.



HEY LETS GO GET SOME TACOS

[tridim]

8. As the Simpsons put it.. "Grade F Meat: Mostly Circus Animals, Some Filler" nt

[susanr516]

27. I had a friend

who was allergic to soybeans. He couldn't eat any ground meat from the school cafeteria because there was so much soy protein in it. I guess we had grade f-, mostly filler, some circus animals.

[Cheap_Trick]

28. Meat is to school cafeteria food as Fox News is to unbiased reporting. nt

[Odin2005]

44. LOL!!! At the preschool I work at we actually use REAL food.

Our tacos, burgers, and whatever use actual ground beef, not mystery meat.

[Ohio Joe]

5. Back in '96...

I was a project manager for a Y2K company in Worcester MA. I was given 15 people straight off a plane from India to take care of and get situated. At lunch, I decided to take them across the street to the Taco Bell for lunch.

They never asked me to take care of new arrivals again. :rofl:

[napi21]

6. I don't know how old his son is, but if he's very young, he just didn't know

enough to ask the server, and if he's old enough to know to ask, it's daddy's fault for not explaining to him that eating beef in the US is very common and he should always ask before accepting any food he is unfamiliar with.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

7. As Roseanne Roseannadanna once said, "Well, Jane, it just goes to show you, it's always something"

A taco as an "intentional act of religious bigotry" is right up there with the Virgin Mary Grilled Cheese Sammich.



:eyes:

[kestrel91316]

10. That's not the Virgin Mary on that sandwich. It's Jean Harlowe.

[Sal Minella]

21. Not Marlene Dietrich? Not Gloria Swanson?

I'm a little behind on religious icon graphics, but did the Virgin Mary wear such low-cut dresses?

Did the church hagiographic designers do an upgrade while I wasn't looking???

[pepperbear]

19. In other news, a chicken burrito was arrested for extortion and armed robbery..

He was taken without incident.

[Pharlo]

33. I have NO imagination.

I see a burned grill cheese sandwich someone tried to scrape the 'burn' off of - more of a culinary error than a religious miracle.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

38. The "face" is about a half-inch below the top point...

...and I agree with what others have posted here. It looks a lot more like Gloria Swanson, Jean Harlowe or Marlene Dietrich than it does the Virgin Mary.

:rofl:

[sutz12]

62. Have any photos of the Virgin Mary handy to post?

;)

Sorry, couldn't resist. People like that woman who thinks she has the VM on toast give me the willies. Maybe its the whole communion thing, and people getting a little too literal with the idea of Holy folk being on food.

Obviously, nobody knows what the VM looks like, just like JC. Both probably looked a little too dark and curly headed for the taste of most Americans.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

66. There used to be a legendary rock station in San Jose, KOME...

...and their morning DJs were Jeff Blazy and Bob Lilly ("Blazy & Bob").

In Salinas...in a largely Hispanic section of town, with very clearly defined views on religion...one of the locals "saw" the Virgin Mary in a tree trunk. Blazy & Bob packed up the sound crew and headed down to the tree. Bob strummed a guitar and Blazy sang Madonna's "Like A Virgin" to the tree trunk. The locals were NOT amused at all. Two smirky white boys surrounded by a crowd primarily made up of field workers who really believed that tree was blessed.

I'm a Christian, but the whole Shroud of Turin / Virgin Mary Grilled Cheese thing is lost on me. My belief is that if God wants to reveal himself, he probably isn't going to do it on a sammich.

I'd never get in someone's face and ridicule them like the DJs did, but I also would never bid on a leftover sandwich on eBay.

:patriot:

[Ikonoklast]

9. Oy, vey.

Did Evil Lunchlady Gladys hold his arms in a vice-like grip and force a taco down his throat?

Naw, kid didn't ever see a taco before, and made a mistake.

[Toucano]

11. Brown bag it, daddy!

No one forced anything.

Being an immigrant is not easy. The way most school budgets are these days, I am not surprised there aren't services for students who don't speak English. Pops may have to take on some additional personal expense to help his son.

[rcrush]

12. Well daddy is learning the American way to sueing your problems away

[Toucano]

16. Fast learner, isn't he? n-t

[Deja Q]

39. I bet 17 quatloos he will win his little lawsuit too.

[blueamy66]

49. Amen.

If children have religious dietary restrictions, then the parents should do their best to ensure that the kids have the proper meal.

This is ridiculous.

[mamaleah]

68. Exactly. If my kids went to public school, I'd pack their lunches.

No kosher meals at public school, and no reason to expect it to be.

[wyldwolf]

13. Every Hindu I knew in High School and College ate beef

I think the kid knew exactly what he was doing.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

23. I have a friend who moved here from India in his college years...

...came from a V-E-R-Y strict and rigid Hindu upbringing, and he wanted two things when he arrived, both in large quantities: cheeseburgers and weed.

You know how they say a shark is an "eating machine" and just swims constantly through the water with its mouth open, devouring anything and everything?

That was my friend from India when it came to cheeseburgers and weed. "Enough" was only a word that he laughed at. There was never enough. Five minutes in Silicon Valley and this guy turned into Cheech and Chong.

[rcrush]

48. Was he super fat by the time he graduated college? nt

[Amerigo Vespucci]

52. He got a little "round" later in life

He came from India with his wife. He attended college, got a job, divorced the wife, married an American woman, and...within a couple of years...added a layer of "padding."

The irony is that he probably put on weight AFTER setting the ganja and cheeseburgers aside. His American wife is a real straight arrow and wouldn't support / stand for that kind of lifestyle. His wife from India was like a member of the Manson family, only from India. Absolute stoner, unbelievably rude. She cheated on him...that led to the breakup. Her new boyfriend, an American guy, kind of a Motley Crue cockroach stoner type, had a big German shepherd. My friend bought a Camaro when he came to the U.S. (his dad was FILTHY rich and free with his cash). The new boyfriend's dog got in the Camaro and ripped the hell out of the upholstery and crapped all over everything. When they broke up, he cleaned up his act and didn't want to be with another woman who would remind him of his ex-wife, so enter Debbie the American Girlfriend, soon after to become Debbie the American Wife.

[rcrush]

53. Sounds like the poster boy for why you should never get married.

Ive heard similar stories all my adult life about my friends marrying crazy people.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

54. It was a classic, textbook story...

...they were two teenagers in India who wanted nothing more than to come to America and be stoned all the time and eat American food and listen to American rock & roll and be a couple of stoned Americans.

Trouble was, once they got here, that wasn't the end of the appetites. In addition to the weed, he took acid and anything he could get his hands on, and so did she.

I had lunch with him about six months ago. He looks like a very conservative, slightly overweight Indian businessman. He's got a couple of great kids from his current marriage and owns a house in the suburbs...the American dream.

As far as the ex-wife is concerned, he's never mentioned her since the breakup. I have my doubts that she similarly turned her life around. Anything's possible, but I have my doubts.

I think the biggest problem with marriage is when people place 100% of their trust in the "till death do us part" bit. My friend's second marriage turned out to be a good one, and one I think he will happily enjoy for the rest of his days. But sometimes there is a process of elimination...we need to proclaim what we DON'T want in order to seek out what we DO.

Pop psychology, I know...but I've seen it played out in the lives of other friends as well.

[MineralMan]

14. You're in America, dammit! When you're in America,

you'll damn well eat American food, you heathen! :sarcasm:

[Deja Q]

35. Well, I've been to other countries. When I was there, I ate the local cuisine.

If I raised a stink when in any of those countries, imagine the inevitable anti-American vitriol that WOULD have followed. And that was only in 1989...

[MineralMan]

46. You seem to have missed the fact that the food in

question was tacos...hence my sarcasm.

[Tikki]

15. In my experience...there isn't a school lunch lady who wouldn't

move the earth to help a child meet the child's/family's dietary needs..

Lunch staff takes pride in knowing their students and if dad
wanted a certain diet for junior all he had to do was start the
class year (or anytime) with notification of what should/shouldn't be available for his child.
This is done all the time for medical and religious reasons.
Sure, every once in a while a child will try to sneak in an item...but
lunch lady usually knows better...."No darlin', how about this instead!!"

Tikki

[a la izquierda]

22. +1

Thanks for that. My mom runs the lunch program in the district where I grew up. Having a strict veggie daughter and son-in-law has made her much more aware of dietary issues among kiddos. She instructs her ladies to really know what vegetarians can/can't eat, vegans, Buddhists, etc.
And hell, the food my mom serves is awesome. How many lunch ladies make the same kind of pasta sauce for students as they do for their own family (mom's Italian and Spanish) ? My mom is a phenomenal cook: turkey tacos and pasta days are apparently a big hit.

[Odin2005]

42. I'm a 20-something guy but you just described my job as a preschool cook, LOL!

We have several kids with special dietary needs for health (gluten intolerance, etc.) and religious reasons, including a 3yo Indian-American kid that can't have beef.

Though the preschool is run by the YWCA so the risk of bigotry is pretty much zero there compared to other places.

[Tikki]

59. I was going to add...there are a lot of Lunch Guys...

that work in school cafeterias...




Tikki

[Odin2005]

60. LOL, yep, don't forget us!

:hi:

[Ms. Toad]

64. That has been our experience, as well -

except that the alternatives weren't really appropriate.

My daughter is allergic to poultry - and because of the "eat healthier" craze 4 days out of 5 they served either straight chicken or beef mixed with chicken (spaghetti sauce, chili, even pepperoni on pizza). They knew from day one she was allergic to poultry and made sure she never got any - and at first they would have a pork chop or spaghetti sauce without meat for her. Before long they got tired of that and she started getting peanut butter crackers every day. But - the never gave her poultry.

The other side, though, is that my daughter knew from the time she could read labels at buffet cafeterias that if something wasn't identifiable as to what animal it came from, or if it was labeled non-specifically she had to ask...she did very well until she was around 8 and ate something labeled "taco beef" (which she knew came from a cow) that turned out to be "taco meat mixture which included poultry." When she had medical problems that resulted from this encounter, we had a little chat with both the local and national chain managers. They are a lot more careful about labeling now :)

But I digress - the point of the second piece of the story is that before she was very old, she could tell what she needed to ask about and what she didn't so she didn't accidentally get any poultry (except when it was affirmatively mislabeled). Either pop didn't train his son very well, or son felt like seeing what beef tasted like.

[cagesoulman]

17. Tacos lead to shootings in crowded museums

No fucking good can come from tacos. :evilgrin:

[Jeffersons Ghost]

18. at least the assholes didn't claim it tastes like chicken...

or some other chicken-shit remark

[patrice]

20. Does it matter whether the father is a citizen or on a visa re whether the school must provide the

language services?

[Obamanaut]

50. Must a school provide language services for every language?

edited to add: From the school's website, it appears they do offer quite a bit, and this info is not hidden

<snip>AWL offers an extensive English as a Second Language (ESL) program to students from 37 countries.

One would think the parent might have checked on this, between 2007 (their arrival) and now

[patrice]

56. Yes, if it were soooooooooo important, why would he leave it up to others?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

24. His lawyer should be sanctioned for abuse of process and the dad should have to pay all court costs

1) Hindus have purification rituals for ingestion of banned foods
2) No one forced it on the child
3) There are no requirements on the school to enforce those kinds of voluntary food choices on children (assuming they knew)

Its not like its an ADA issue an the school has some sort of affirmative duty to accommodate and support them.

[Dappleganger]

26. He should have moved to England.

Americans don't give a crap about religious diet, only medical allergies.

And somehow I don't foresee this going in his favor in OHIO.

[Berry Cool]

29. "Hey! There was BEEF in my son's school cafeteria BEEF taco!"

That's probably the biggest surprise to the guy in this whole story.

It was from a school cafeteria. How could he be expected to know that when they said "beef," they meant "beef"?

[Name removed]

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[surrealAmerican]

31. The "Academy of World Languages" has refused to offer his son ...

... services for students who don't speak English? That doesn't quite add up, does it?

[Deja Q]

32. Well, let's cater to everybody...

Which means nothing will ever be served again.

Then this jackass will whine the school hasn't any lunch program...

I may as well sue Best Buy because the xBox is against my religion and on a separate suit, about intentional ignorance on products being sold, state the employee didn't know the gameplay of every Wii game on the shelf and tell me not to get games X, Y, and Z because of bogus claims on the packaging...

:eyes:

Amongst other obvious things (didn't daddy teach his kid about various restrictions, eh?)

That man is a fucking fool, period. Case dismissed.

[pulsatilla]

34. I don't think the father has a legitimate beef (sorry!) on either counts.

Even if the kid couldn't communicate in English his wishes, he didn't have to eat the thing. Also, in the case of ESL students, if there is not a certain number (I think it's 20) who speak the same language in the school, the school doesn't have to have bilingual teachers. I believe that this law was challenged by some Chinese parents in San Francisco, who felt that it was unfair that their school did not offer the same bilingual education that Hispanics in CA received.

[Hepburn]

36. He chose it ~~so how was he forced?

Makes NO sense to me...:shrug:

[WillowTree]

40. Check the school's web site.

They post the cafeteria menus on their site. (Menu information not available now because of the summer break.)

Sorry, Dad. The information about what's going to be available for your kid's lunch is right there. If you don't take the minimal amount of responsibility to review it and make sure your son understands what foods on that menu are OK for him to have and which are not, it's just outright hypocrisy to blame someone else when he eats something that doesn't meet with your approval. Get over yourself already.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

41. Because no kid has ever eaten anything their parents told them not to

Right.

[Odin2005]

43. Maybe the kid's hungry and doesn't give a crap about his parents' religious dietary superstitions?

:shrug:

[EndersDame]

47. I would sneak meat here and there before I moved out of vegetarian house hold

[nini]

51. Pack a lunch for your kid asshole

""intentional act of religious bigotry."" bullshit.

[konnichi wa]

55. Maybe the kid figured out that worshipping cows is dumbfuckery

and was afraid to admit it to his fundy dad.

[Odin2005]

61. +1

Dietary superstitions need to go the way of witch-burning.

[Duer 157099]

63. Finally, a thread from which DUzys can flow n/t

[slutticus]

65. He should stick to KFC's grilled chicken

No beef there....

[proteus_lives]

67. This smells fishy (or beefy)

I'm betting no one held a gun to the kid's head.

Special diets and religious food? Pack your own lunch.

This maybe about something other then a beef taco.