AUSTIN, Texas - State Rep. Helen Giddings of Dallas gave a personal privilege speech on the floor of the Texas House on Tuesday after one of her pieces of legislation was knocked off the Local & Consent Calendar.
State Rep. Helen GiddingsIn her speech, Giddings said House Bill 2159 was intended to "give some students relief from going hungry at lunch, to keep them from being embarrassed, to keep them from being labeled."
Bills sent to the Local & Consent Calendar are supposed to be non-controversial.
Here is the transcript of the speech:
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker and members.
I’m not sure what we did on Local and Consent this morning, and I sure don’t know why we did what we did. And let me say before I begin that I have a very soft spot in my heart for children. It’s my highest priority in this legislature. So, if I shed a tear, it’ll be ok, because I’m soft enough to cry when I think a child is hurting. But I’m tough enough to fight for them until hell freezes over.
This morning, Mr. Cain and Mr. Rinaldi and Mr. Tinderholt, Mr. Stickland and Mr. Biedermann, knocked off House Bill 2159, which was intended to give some students relief from going hungry at lunch, to keep them from being embarrassed, to keep them from being labeled. That bill, for those food-insecure children, deserved a debate on this House floor. And while I personally have never knocked a bill of Local & Consent in all of my years here, I know it is within our rules to collect five signatures or to talk for ten minutes, and I respect a member’s right to do that.
However, to take the action that has taken place on this floor today, on this bill for hungry children, was unconscionable. Some of the children this bill intended to help are from families just above the poverty line. Some are from families where a wage earner has perhaps lost a job, or some other family emergency. Some are from a family where someone, for whatever reason, forgot to pay. Whatever the circumstance, we should not want these children to go without lunch.
The bill simply asks school boards to set up a grace period of whatever timeframe they deemed appropriate. It could be one day, it could be two days, it could be two weeks. But within that timeframe, the bill asks that the child’s parents be contacted, and to try to determine whether or not that child might be eligible for a free or reduced lunch.
It allowed them to set up a methodology to receive donations for kids in these circumstances, and I ask, what is so terrible about that? I have, since this bill became a news story, a letter from a principal. A Dr. Austin in Dallas went to several schools when he heard this story, and paid the lunch accounts for kids. One of the schools that he went to was Audelia Creek Elementary on Audelia Road in Dallas. And I won't read you the whole letter that he wrote to Dr. Austin, but he did say, “on behalf of Audelia Creek Elementary, we sincerely thank you for your generosity in helping to provide lunch for children who had no funds in their cafeteria account. With your donation, we were able to supplement the account of 36 children who are in arrears, and put enough money in their accounts to feed them for at least a week.” And this is signed by that principal, Michael Savage, and it’s dated on April 26th.
Let me tell you what happens now, without this bill. A child goes through the cafeteria line, chooses a lunch, goes to the cashier, gives the cashier their PIN, and in many school districts, if that account has no money, that lunch is taken. It is thrown in the trash, often in the face of that child. Some of these children are as young as four, and let me tell you, those of you who believe that’s not true, I have a statement from a very brave teacher here, Kelvin Holt a teacher in the Copperas Cove school district, who said this, and I quote:
“One of my four-year-olds slid her meal tray down to the cashier, in order to pay for her meal, but instead what she heard was an emphatic, ‘You have no money,’ followed by the removal of her meal tray. The student then sat at the table assigned to her class, and was inconsolable for the next twenty minutes while her classmates enjoyed their meal.”
Another teacher said, and this teacher is Christopher Robinson in the Houston area, “When I saw that, it just shook me. You get bullied for stuff like that.” Not to mention what one of the students said, Dakota Gibson, who is a student in Spring Branch said, “When it happened to me, I just wanted to go into a corner and hide.”
Now, the hot meal is thrown into the trash, and the student is given the equivalent of this milk, these crackers, and this cheese And I ask you, how humane is that? And would you want that to happen to your child? What message are we sending that child? A message that you don’t matter, that you have no value, that you have no worth. We have embarrassed that child, and we may be affecting how that child sees their value and their worth for the rest of their lives.
I’ve talked to some members on this floor, and we’re all privileged in here now. But some of us were not always privileged. Some of us have been food-insecure. For some legislators, what we do here on this floor, for me, seems to be an inside-out game; a power play. There are a few people in this chamber who believe that they alone can transform Texas, and that’s a political illusion. We need to take a reality check.
These legislators, in my opinion, are not about searching for the truth and giving kids an equal chance. They’re about winning at any cost, even when the cost results in a child going hungry. I don’t know why you came to this Texas Legislature, but my highest priority, as I’ve said before, is to help our children reach their full potential. And while we may not all agree on this, I firmly believe that they are all our children. But for some folks here, it’s about a Primary. It’s about a scorecard. It’s about the spin. It’s about the power. And let me just say, that I am not confused. Everyone here is both powerful and privileged. How could you not be? Out of 26 million people in this state, one-hundred-and-fifty of us have been chosen to lead in this Texas House.
And so what are we going to do with that power and that privilege? What are we going to do about our children? We say many times in this House that we are servant-leaders. Well, one of the questions that servant-leaders always ask themselves:
“Because of this action I am taking, will those I serve be happier? Will they be healthier? Will they be more autonomous?”
And perhaps most importantly, servant-leaders ask themselves this question:
“Will the least of those be no worse off because of this action I am taking?”
And I will tell you, because of the action that we took, children in Texas are going to be worse off. You and I, and our families, don’t face hunger, because we’re privileged. But remember, that but for the grace of God go I.
In the end, it ain’t power, it ain’t privilege that really defines us. It’s character. It’s kindness. It’s love.
Members, we can do better for our children. They deserve better. And I personally believe that the hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who harm our children. And I think we’ve harmed our children today.
I close by saying, God bless all of the children of Texas today. And we especially ask that He bless those children who are hungry."
