For This Food Fight, Kids Hire Lawyer

ALCOA, Tenn. — Some fourth-graders just complain about their lunchroom food. Ryan Rose got a lawyer.

Fed up with pinto beans, cornbread and salad, 10-year-old Ryan hired Monte Walton to fight for better fare on the Alcoa Elementary School menu.

“Me and my friends got mad because there was not anything to eat,” he said.

Walton, a lawyer in Knoxville, employs Ryan’s mother as a paralegal.

“I told him for the magnanimous sum of $1, I would represent him,” Walton said. “I had a lot of respect for him and his classmates to call me.”

Walton drew up a petition, and Ryan is collecting signatures.

Walton said his client is protesting a 50-cent price increase, week-old leftovers, cold food that should be hot, and a lack of “good stuff.”

“I think we’ll see if we can’t resolve it amicably,” possibly by adding hamburgers occasionally to the menu, the lawyer said.

Lester Brown, director of the Alcoa school system, said with a laugh that he would “wait and see what their complaint is about.”