Mom Visits 6-Year-Old Son At Lunch, Discovers Teachers Are Publicly Shaming The Boy

Nov 03, 2021 by apost team

Getting a child to school on time can be a daunting task. There are clothes to be put on, breakfasts to be eaten and book bags to get ready. All of that needs to be done quickly, leaving many children to arrive late. Furthermore, there might be fair reasons why children are late to school since there could be something holding their parents back.

Each school has different rules when dealing with tardy children. Some try to work together with the parents to prevent any more late arrivals from happening. Others take a more extreme approach by punishing the student in the form of detention.

In this story from 2015, one 6-year-old boy named Hunter Cmelo in Grants Pass, Oregon, experienced a rather harsh punishment by his school after he arrived late one too many times. His mother, Nicole Garloff, knew that his tardiness would mean Hunter would have detention during lunch, but when she arrived to check on him at school, she was shocked at what she found.

Hunter had been publicly shamed by his teachers, who had given him lunchtime detention and singled him out in the cafeteria for it. Forced to sit behind a cardboard partition that served to separate him from the other students, there was also a cup labeled with a "D" sitting next to him.

Enraged, she sent the image to her mother, who shared the photo on social media with the story behind it. Her post caught the attention of others in the community, leading complete strangers to rally behind them and help the family out.

Garloff knew that the school had a detention policy for being tardy, but she didn't know just how bad the punishment was. She told ABC News:

"(The school has) a policy where every three tardies, you get a detention. Every tardy after that, you get a detention."

She added that on the day of the detention, Hunter was in tears as she dropped him off at school, as the little boy knew what awaited him. But Garloff did not. Later that day, when she went to visit her son at lunchtime, she recalled what she saw to the news outlet:

"He was at the first table as you walk into the cafeteria, and he was just sitting there with one of those cardboard poster partitions in front of him. He wasn't tardy so many times that he deserved that."

Young Hunter was seated alone at the lunch table, surrounded by the cardboard partition, and as if that wasn't bad enough, there was also a plastic cup with a large "D" written on the front, which stood for detention. Horrified by what she saw as her son's punishment, Garloff found her son alone, distraught and embarrassed. She then took a photo of the scene and sent it to her mom, Hunter's grandmother.

Once Hunter's grandmother received the shocking photo, she was also angry about the extreme punishment her grandson had endured. The grandmother then decided to take action by posting the photo to social media, where it quickly went viral. After receiving thousands of shares and comments, the community of Grants Pass took notice of the appalling photo and rallied around the family.

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The post was also seen by local radio personality Bill Meyer, who motivated others to help out this family in need. He told ABC News:

"We see a lot of bad news, or we have a lot of problems. So seldomly do we ever get a chance to fix the root of the problem. I saw the school policy as being unjust, but I saw the root of the trouble was car trouble."

When the community learned the reasons behind Hunter's tardiness were down to his mother's poor health and an unreliable vehicle, they came together to make a change. Meyer reached out to the owner of Kelly's Automotive Service, Lisa McClease-Kelly, and discovered a way they could help the family. But after she took a look at their car and revealed that the cost of repairing it was more than what the car was worth itself, the community had another idea.

That's when Rapid Repo and Collections stepped in when they offered to donate a minivan to the family, specifically a 2001 Chrysler Town and Country. Meanwhile, other businesses also helped out to restore the automobile, giving it a new windshield and new tires. Kelly's Automotive Service even threw in $1,400 worth of maintenance. When the family was surprised to learn of their community's generosity, Garloff said:

"We thought we were going there to be told that our Durango was not going to be fixable at all. We were so shocked, it doesn't seem real. I'm trying to tell Hunter that this doesn't just happen to you."

Meyer said to ABC News:

"This family never asked for the help. All they ever wanted was to change the school policy. We saw a way to do a little nudge, and then everyone else came in with their time and generosity."  

Stories like this just go to show that there are still good people in this world who are willing to help others. Do you know of any similar stories of a community coming together to help a family in need? If this family's story tugged at your heartstrings, be sure to pass this video along for others to witness the astounding power of a few caring individuals.