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Two administrators at a California junior high school have been placed on leave after students were forced to eat lunch outside amid a record-setting heatwave as punishment. Kody Cain told KCRA that he was enraged when he learned his son, an eighth-grader at Jackson Junior High School, and his classmates had to eat lunch on the soccer field on Tuesday (September 6).
Cain explained that the school's vice principal told the students they were being punished because they made a mess in the gym last week. He then ordered the students to take their lunch outside and sit in the sun on one of the hottest days of the year.
"The sixth-graders had made a mess in the gym, which is where they had been eating lunch. On Tuesday, when they went back to school, the vice principal decided to make them eat outside in their soccer field that has no shade at the hottest part of the day," Cain said.
"There's no reason to have them out in the heat like that. As far as I'm concerned, that's torture," he added.
Amador County Public Schools Superintendant Tori Gibson said that the district has launched an investigation into the incident and that two staff members have been placed on leave.
"We expect all staff at all school sites to follow guidelines and directives established to ensure the safety of all students and staff during extreme weather," Gibson wrote in the letter to parents. "As soon as I learned of the situation, we began to investigate the allegations brought forth as we take the safety of our students and staff extremely seriously."