It's plastered on their shirts and these eighth graders wear it proudly because on Thursday they pulled a prank at the Readington Middle School, paying for their lunches entirely in pennies.
"At first it started out as a joke, then everyone else started saying we're protesting against like how short our lunch is," student Alyssa Concannon said.
Several lunch ladies who had to do the counting didn't think it was funny, even though some of the students put the coins in rolls. They're not authorized to put in their two cents but school officials say they felt disrespected and other students didn't get to eat lunch.
"There are ways to express yourself that are not disruptive to other kids and disrespectful to staff," said Readington Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jorden Schiff.
Eighth grader Jenny Hunt said in hindsight, the prank may have been a bad idea.
"Maybe we should have thought before we did it," Hunt said.
In fact, the penny prank has earned 29 students two days of detention.
I think the school's on a bit of shaky ground with these detentions. If I was one of the parents I'd be having a serious discussion with the principal, and not about my kid's little protest by why he's being punished for paying for his lunch with legal U.S. coinage. Unless there's a rule in in the student handbook that pennies are not acceptable, I don't think the school has a leg to stand on with their punishment and I'd be getting them to reverse it or else face actions that will cost a lot more than a few pennies.
Kids of Readington Middle School: Don't let the adults push you around. You used a creative way to express your dislike for the lunch schedule and I tip my hat to you.
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