Shirley, our children's beloved Cafeteria Manager and her staff are being publicly held responsible for the unfortunate situation where lunches were taken from students and discarded at Uintah Elementary this week (January 28-31). Shirley has always done her best to provide for, care for and love our children. She was not at fault in any way for the situation that the Salt Lake City School District now finds itself in.

By all indications, this entire situation started with the school lunch online payment plan not notifying parents that their automatic payments were no longer being honored. As a result, the District decided to send their Child Nutrition Manager to the school and take the students lunches away, rather than notify the parents so that we could simply update our online payment plans. My fourth grade daughter and others described the scene with Shirley in tears as she realized she could not prevent the District Manager from doing this. Now the District is trying to place the blame for their actions on Shirley in order to protect themselves.

This has rapidly escalated into a national story with many people misinterpreting what has happened. The District on Friday, January 31 suspended Shirley and another staff member "pending further investigation".

We we need to show our support as parents for Shirley and the cafeteria staff, as they were not behind the decision and in fact did everything they could to protect our children from this mean-spirited act. Please sign this petition of support for Shirley so that she does not end up the ultimate victim of this act.