Another case of Zero Intelligence: Wear the wrong shoes, don't get breakfast

In No Breakfast For Kids Wearing ‘Wrong’ Shoes At Grade School CBS Chicago reports:

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Chicago Public Schools is apologizing to a Chicago mother and her two young sons, ages 5 and 6, after they were denied breakfast because they came to schools wearing the wrong kind of shoes.


CBS 2’s Dorothy Tucker reports.


The Nicholson brothers only grab a quick snack before heading to class because they qualify for a full free breakfast at Adam Powell Grade School. It’s something they look forward to every day, and it hurt when they were recently turned away.

They were wearing black athletic shoes. The boys told their mom that the assistant principal, Angela Peagler wouldn’t let them eat because their shoes didn’t fit the school uniform, which calls for a regular black dress shoe.
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The articles later claims that the school doesn't have any specific rules saying that black shoes have to be dress shooes.
At one level this isn't that big of a story.  Children missing one meal is sad, but it is not the end of the world.  The story broke forty eight hours ago and already there are 679 comments.  Kind of amazing.

On the other hand the story is disturbing because it is another example of the lack of flexibility often demostrated by public schools.  These school officials just followed the rules with no compassion.  This is the kind of response that drives parents nuts.  Fairly often government schools do something with zero intelligence.   When the parents complain the school justifies their response with "Those are the rules." 
For much of the last thirty and forty years the response to problems with public schools has been to pass more rules.  This just generates more cases of zero intelligence.

Hat tip: Miazagora via Facebook.