6-year-old Hunter Cmelo, a 1st grader, was forced to eat his lunch behind a cardboard divider, away from his fellow students, as a punishment for coming one-minute late to school. Ridiculous and simply unacceptable, isn’t it?
http://t.co/yqhtNCU8aE via @dailydot. Missy Fitzsimmons you are a horrible, heartless human being and poor excuse for an educator.
— Eric Gronwaldt (@gronwaldt) March 8, 2015
After the photograph depicting the cruel public shaming of the innocent child went viral and attracted global attention, Hunter’s parents Nicole Garloff and Mark Cmelo were gifted a refurbished minivan to keep the Oregon boy from being late to school. 
Hunter’s grandmother, Laura Hoover, posted the shocking photograph on her Facebook page late February.
The photo caught the attention of Bill Meyer, a local radio host, who wanted to take the problem head-on. “I saw the school policy as being unjust, but I saw the root of the trouble was car trouble,” he told ABC News. Hunter would often arrive at school late because the family car, a Dodge Durango, was old and unreliable.
Local company Rapid Repo and Collections stepped in and offered to donate the Chrysler, while businesses in the Medford and Grants Pass neighborhood chipped in to outfit the car with updated parts. Kelly’s Automotive contributed an additional $1,400 worth of repairs along with one year of free oil changes. The family was also gifted a $100 gas card and two $60 gift cards.
Hunter’s family said the outpouring of community support still doesn’t seem real. “I’m trying to tell Hunter that this doesn’t just happen to you,” Nicole said.
Check out: Hunter Cmelo will no longer be humiliated thanks to community http://t.co/ooRuoGpJ04 Poor kid…. somewhat happy ending
— James Jones (@JamesBOJJones) March 11, 2015
The global outrage forced Lincoln Elementary School’s Principal Missy Fitzsimmons to immediately reach out to the parents and stop using the partition as punishment. “As a result of the concerns raised, the district ended the learning catch-up location at Lincoln Elementary School,” the Grants Pass District said in a statement. “Going forward, a separate, supervised classroom has been designated for necessary catch-up work”.
what on earth made this school think that a child turning up 1 minute late was enuff reason to put them in solitary confinement? it is quite obviously not the childs fault that he was late. and it would take a fucking idiot of an adult to think that it was. the head teacher should be fired for this military or prison style punishment toward a CHILD. im getting really fucking sick of the constant appaling news coming out of the us, you are supposed to be the leaders of the free world and yet you treat childern like criminals. i am starting to believe the best thing for the planet right now would be to wipe the us from the face of the planet and return the land to the original inhabitants who by the way did much better job of looking after the land. fuck the us we dont want your food, your shit music, your politics, your wars, your guns, your arrogance, your shit tv, your devise interfeerence in other peoples business just fuck off and die. and by the way the us didnt win the 2nd world war russia did and youd best learn that you ignorant fucks
I couldn’t agree more. Our species (especially in the US) has seriously gone off the rails and I fear we won’t get back anytime soon. I have also concluded that the human species is pretty much just a waste of oxygen on this planet. We are embarrassed by what has happened to this country and are seriously looking at relocating to Europe. Not just “idle complaining” — we are actively researching the best country for us and our lifestyle. Looking now at Portugal.
But US gave us Taylor Swift :’)
I cannot believe what i’ve just read. you take sympathy with the lad then say he and the millions of other innocent US kids should fuck off and die – what sort of adult are you then???. some truth what you say about the rest – but its not solvable by hatred and intolerance to the masses. switch radio stations and tv stations to what you want to hear/watch – boycott the rest. simples.
I cannot believe what i’ve just read. you take sympathy with the lad then say he and the millions of other innocent US kids should fuck off and die – what sort of adult are you then???. some truth what you say about the rest – but its not solvable by hatred and intolerance to the masses. switch radio stations and tv stations to what you want to hear/watch – boycott the rest. simples.
Dude, it’s so fucking ridiculous. Just like how you hear every single day about children being “kidnapped” by cps and put into foster care, because one parent worked midnight and by the time they got home the kid was tardy by 10 minutes or less too many times. So the kids taken away from loving, nurturing, and caring parents, and thrown into foster care because they missed 20 days of school and the parents couldn’t afford to get doctors notes for all of them. What ever happened to “you don’t have to be rich to raise a child, you just have to love them” as long as you can feed and cloth your kids, and you don’t abuse/neglect them, and you love them, they should NEVER be taken from their family because they missed too much school. Just because the local school and community aren’t getting an extra several hundred dollars out of the million they’re getting then mom and dad need to be thrown in jail lol. It used to be family first, school and other responsibilities second, but now our government is forcing it to be “school first, family second”. Maybe they think that’ll fix our children’s appalling grades, and levels on the world stage? Nope. Better teachers, lower pensions for local politicians, and good teachers being better rewarded. Shorten the three month break in the summer, then the other six weeks or so they’re off through the year for other breaks. Most of the countries scoring higher, attend more school, and far more importance is put on EDUCATION,NOT attendance. The schools should be allotted a certain amount instead of this factory atmosphere. “Pump the kids in there and you get and bonus! That ones missing and the single mom has to work so she can’t get the kid to a psychologist? Throw her ass in the clink! Throw away the key! She can cell up with a murderer, or crack head” I swear, I’m a proud patriot but, I’m fucking sick of this. If I could afford it, I’d leave in a second, so my kids can get a good education, and I don’t have to worry about the government kidnapping them. Think about that, in this “free” country, our police state, military type law enforcement can kidnap your children at any time, for any reason. They don’t even do that in Russia. Our schools need to be fixed. Immediately. How can we maintain our position as a world leading economic powerhouse if every generation has less, and less education, can’t afford college, and has to be wary of the local law enforcement ruining their entire life because some cop spilled coffee and is having a bad morning. It’s like every new generation understands the concept of capitalism, but skews it more, and more, and every thing in the world needs to make top dollar to work. Fuck. I could go on forever. I’m literally disgusted by shit like this.
Sometimes certain problems come and you just think ,damn i could use a break.If you got the means to give that break do it and you get the best feeling in your soul. peace
Wow…talk about school-age corporate indoctrination…like their brainwashing him for his future jobs where being a minute late gets you fired. That teacher is a disgrace, I feel sorry for her actual children (if she has any).
How much “makeup” work could a first grader have after being one minute late? There is NO need to humiliate a child. EVER.
a 6 year old? how dare they! take him out of that school and enrol him somewhere, where the teachers are human
I agree with Judy. Within the first 5 minutes of any class, i am sure nothing of value is occurring. Furthermore, a separate classroom still singles out the student. Then you factor in transit time between regular class and “catchup class” and the student is still behind because they were out of the classroom for that period of time. Its like a never ending cycle.
It’s obvious the teacher doesn’t use common sense. If a first grader is late to school it is not their fault bc they are not driving themselves. If anything the teacher should pick up the phone and contact their ride to school to find out what the issue for arriving on time is. Punishing the child isn’t going to put gas in a car or repair it. However, whatever happened to riding a bus?
The principal STILL doesn’t get it. She said “Going forward, a separate, supervised classroom has been designated for necessary catch-up work”
He wasn’t doing “catch-up work”, he was being humiliated during LUNCH. It’s clear where the problem is in this school; a problem EASILY fixed if the local parents and voters choose.
Wow… I’d be hung if I went to that school xD I miss like every lesson to go to the park or the shops. I know it’s not right but still 😛 I hate school 🙁
…Hes six the kid has no way to controle when he gets to school. For fuck sake he was one minnet late its not like he missed half the day. This is why if I ever have kids I might not send them to public school. As for the make up work comment. Ok one minnet late to school doesn’t make you miss EVERYTHING! Call me a dreamer but a kid who misses a minnet can catch up.
Annabel, maybe during that one MINUTE he would have learned how to spell MINUTE correctly. You obviously haven’t caught up, how can he.
Homeschool. It’s not just for crazy f*cks anymore.
Well just sitting here on this site comaining isnt going to get anything done. If you want change, then MAKE change happen. Make it happen just like anonymous is doing. Obviously just complaining will get you nowhere fast. Force them to listen and force them to change.
Not going to lie. But, I’m literally always 20 -> 30 minutes late for the 1st period of Highschool every day. And, our teachers don’t even do this.
At most, they ask me why I’m late & then the majority of the times marks me present for the entire period anyway. Considering, I actually finish all my work in the remaining 45 -> 55 minutes of class anyway.
Anyway, here in Australia, If something like this was done to a 1st grader & I was the brother/father of that Child, I’d be extremely p**ed. Tbh.
#Best Regards.
Going forward, a separate, supervised classroom has been designated for necessary catch-up work.”
Going forward? How is that “Going forward”? Lincoln Elementary School’s Principal, Missy Fitzsimmons, just doesn’t get it.