WTF: Kids Got Excluded From School Carnival For Being Poor

There are many things we try to shield kids from, and one of them is our money problems. Although we can't give them the whole world, we try to give them what we can. We tend to avoid situations that make kids feel excluded and less than.

Sadly, this school created this very situation by making their students pay a fee for a carnival.

New York Post reports PS 120 in Flushing held a carnival for students. The students, however, had to pay $10 to get in. The carnival was during school hours, and afterwards the kids came back inside with prizes and popcorn for the other kids to see.

You might think $10 isn't that much and parents should have no problem coming up with the money. To that we say, be thankful you're in the position to think so because others don't have it as good.

More than 100 kids who didn't have the money missed out and stayed in a dark auditorium to watch a Disney movie ... within earshot of the 900 kids enjoying inflatable slides, a bouncing room, and a teacup ride outside.

"It's breaking my heart that there are kids inside," an anonymous teacher tells New York Post. "[A student] was the only one from her class who couldn’t go, so she was very upset."

Many kids were rightfully upset and even thought they were being punished by being excluded. So, where is this money going?

The carnival made something between $2,000 and $3,000. The money is designated for the pre-K and kindergarten, and fifth-grade moving-up parties. Their families were also charged $15 for annual PA dues, which will go towards installing window air-conditioning units.

Excluding kids from having fun because of their financial status is about as low as you can get. Whatever happened to having bake sales and fundraisers for money, instead of punishing students? The school definitely screwed up there.