Of the fine lunch meats served at Garfield High, beef has always held a place of special esteem. Delicious, filling, and nutritious, the meat is a staple to much of the cafeteria’s best. You may be missing it for quite some time.

The Seattle School District has stricken beef from all menus for an undefined period. The cause? Downer cows. These cows are animals which have been injured or can no longer walk. They cannot stand, and hence are called downers. A recently released undercover video showed downer cows being used at a Hallmark Meat Packing facility. The company provides a portion of beef supplies to Garfield and other local schools.

Prompted by the controversial video, the government urged state educators Wednesday to temporarily withhold Hallmark meats. In response, the Seattle school district sealed off all beef. Like some clan of greedy beef hoarding leprechauns, district officials have amassed more than 25,000 pounds of potential hamburger and are keeping it from hungry students. I would like to make it abundantly clear that confining all supplies was special initiative by our district, and not preformed elsewhere. This is ludicrous.

For starters, roughly two thirds of the cache never goes near Hallmark. This meat comes from the same companies that have been handling our lunches for years, and no notable problems have emerged. We know which meals come from “safe” sources, and it is easy enough to simply set aside Hallmark meat. The suspect goods are sequestered aside and marked with hold stamps.

Even if our clean non-effected stock had in fact been made from downer cows, the health risks would be marginal. Downer cows don’t necessarily produce contaminated beef. There is a slightly higher incidence of salmonella and E. Coli with their meat, but current double testing procedures more than cover for disease. We could eat solely Hallmark beef for weeks and in all likelihood be fine, but the meat being withheld is mostly not from the dubious plant.

If the health risk is minimal in the infected meat, and most of ours does not even fall into that category, why would the district disrupt our snacking? Official statements site a total concern for student health and a desire to err on the side of caution. An overprotective stance would be believable in most contexts, but I have a hard time taking it from the district.. Remember that morning where the roads were completely slicked up with ice in the north end? Remember that plan to phase out yellow buses and leave students standing at metro stops all over Seattle, it’s going to be more than just a plan very soon. Oh, and whatever happened to all those lead free water coolers?

I just can’t see our total security being the motivation. I do however notice one key difference between paying for busing, providing clean water, having late starts, and freezing our meat for a while. The first three cost the schools money. Busing is expensive, late starts and closures mean having to fund hours that go unworked, and drum water is more expensive than tap. Freezing the meat for a few weeks happens to be free. It won’t spoil in the time it takes for the Hallmark deal to blow over, only become less tasty and a little harder. It appears that complete attention to our welfare comes first, except for when it may be expensive.

No one is willing to take the buck of blame for the odd extra safety expense here and there. Right now there is a financially free one and it has been jumped on. Why not cost the students a month’s hearty meals to dodge any bad publicity? The problem is that there are 5,000 pounds of completely safe and sanitary beef sitting there going to waste. We’re growing, we’re hungry, and we deserve to be fed well for all those taxpayer dollars. It’s time that someone stood up and did what was right, whether comfortable or not. Bring back the beef, save our sirloin!