Last week, The Daily Wire reported that a cafeteria worker at a New Hampshire high school was fired after giving a 17-year-old student with no money a free meal.
The cafeteria worker, Bonnie Kimball, was offered her job back after the school district received a backlash when news of her firing made headlines. Kimball refused to take her job back, saying she wanted nothing to do with the district’s politics.
Now the school district is rescinding its offer to Kimball, after the mother of the boy who received the free lunch accused the former cafeteria worker of trying to cover up the deed.
The New Hampshire Union Leader reported that the mother claims Kimball sent her son Facebook messages trying to cover up the giveaway and said her son did not even need the free meal.
“I feel like this whole thing has just gotten out of control,” the mother told the Leader. Neither the boy nor his mother have been named.
The mother added that her son was not needy.
“I have three children, and they are all well-cared for and well-fed,” she said. “[Kimball] did not get fired for feeding a hungry child.”
The incident occurred at Mascoma Valley Regional High School. The district’s superintendent, Amanda Isabelle, issued a statement saying Kimball was no longer being offered her job back.
“[I]n light of information recently brought forward by a parent, the school district is rescinding its demand that the employee be rehired,” read the statement.
Further, Isabelle said the district would now investigate the mother’s claims.
“We have been overwhelmed by a crush of national and international media interest in this incident, but I do not believe we have yet seen a full and complete retelling of the facts,” she said. “Therefore, we will compile a thorough report on this investigation, and we will make the findings of the independent investigator public. The public, especially our 1,200 families and the thousands of citizens of the communities we serve, deserve nothing less.”
Kimball’s employer, Café Services, now claims the former cafeteria worker had been giving the student free food for months, and the food she gave him for free on March 28 was not part of any free-lunch program. Café Services President Brian Stone posted a video on YouTube where he gave a statement about Kimball.
“In this situation, the student was not charged for any part of the meal – the main lunch or four additional items,” Stone said. “The employee told the manager that she charged the student’s account for the lunch but the manager later confirmed there were no charges on the account. So, what the employee said was not true.”
“Despite the fact that the student goes through the line frequently, according to the employee, this student hadn’t been charged for anything for the previous three months,” he added.
Now that Kimball has been fired, Stone said, the student pays for his meals regularly.
Kimball described the student as a popular “jock,” to the Union Leader on Monday, and said she would sometimes charge his food to other student’s accounts, such as his friend’s or girlfriend’s.