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School system backs off of threat to take kids over lunch debt

A school district leader now says a letter he sent to parents was 'overzealously stated.'

LUZERNE COUNTY, Pa. — A school district has retracted its threat to take parents to court, and possibly lose custody of their children over school lunch debt.

"I found it very disturbing -- upsetting," said Joanne Van Saun, executive director of the Luzerne County Children and Youth Services. "It's a total misrepresentation of what our agency does."

The letter was sent to about a thousand parents in the Wyoming Valley West School District in northeastern Pennsylvania, informing them the district can take them to dependency court, where they risk losing their children to foster care, under the claim the parents are not feeding their children.

"I have been employed for Luzerne County Children and Youth Services for 33 years. Never, never has this county removed a child from a home for unpaid bills and never will we," Van Saun said.

It's a move that does not and will not happen, stressed county leaders, sending their own letter to the school district, asking the threat to be rescinded.

"This is a gross misrepresentation as to what we do. What you are really doing is weaponizing the good things we're doing in Luzerne County," said Luzerne County Manager David Pedri. "I'm asking the school district to retract the letter."

The school district leader who signed the letter -- Joseph Muth -- now says that's exactly what will happen, saying the message was "overzealously stated," and will be "taken back."

Another letter will go to parents, one not as severe and the debt will be handled "in house." The school district says they have about $20,000 in unpaid school lunch debt.

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