In this case, the bully demanding lunch money happens to be the school system.
The Wyoming Valley West School District recently sent home warning letters to parents who owe back pay for their students' lunches threatening to take them to court -- and telling them that their children could be placed in foster care if they don't.
"You can be sent to Dependency Court for neglecting your child's right to food . . . The result may be your child being taken from your home and placed in foster care," the letter read.
The letter was written by the district's director of federal programs Joseph Muth.
He told WNEP that the school is owed more than $22,000 by about 1,000 students. Four accounts show parents owe more than $450 each.
Muth told the news station that the letter was a "last resort" and that any parent who received it had already been contacted several times by phone, email and other letters.
Beginning in the fall, the district's students will get free meals because it now qualifies under federal guidelines, but Muth said the parents who received letters still have to pay up.
Schools officials said the district has already collected more than $500 of the money owed after the letter went out, local Fox affiliate WXIN reported.
The Wyoming Valley West School Board Vice President David Usavage said he cringed at the letter's warning.
"The foster care issue, that just had me," Usavage told the news station. "I couldn't believe that that's what it said."
Several other board members and Muth agreed that it should've been toned down and said future letters will be "less threatening."
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