Saturday, September 5, 2026
By Maggie Miles | Outer Banks Voice on September 2, 2026
When Kitty Hawk Elementary School (KHES) parents received an Aug. 18 email from Principal Lisa Colvin announcing the school would no longer permit parents to visit their children during school lunch periods, they organized.
The parents took to social media to share that they emailed the school voicing their disappointment and concerns, and they encouraged others to do the same. Within a few days, the school reversed its decision.
“Lunch time allows us a few more moments to see [our children], and it’s a special time for them, because not only is it time to see mom or dad, but it’s mom or dad coming to school to see them. They feel like it’s a little extra treat,” said Tony Duman, one of those parents whose job requires working at night.
“We listened to the concerns shared by families and are working on an alternative arrangement that will provide opportunities for parents and guardians to have lunch with their students while continuing to prioritize school safety,” Colvin told the Voice.
The new school policy, announced on Aug. 31, instructs parents to ring the school doorbell and state their purpose, go through the Open Gate weapons detection system and report to the main office with picture ID for a screening and check-in process. Parents are then instructed to report to the cafeteria staff. The school will have two tables near the windows reserved as its Family Lunch Zone.
The initial Aug. 18 email from KHES stated that the decision to halt parent visitation was based on the need for stricter security protocols in the school. “Accommodating lunch visitors during this busy time has made it increasingly difficult for our staff to maintain these responsibilities and the level of security our students deserve,” it stated.
While other schools in Dare County are implementing the typical two-week delay before allowing parent visitation, KHES parents say they didn’t understand why theirs was the only school to initially prohibit them. They believe the school could have looked at other solutions, such as staggered visits or reservation-based visits.
Annie Sacks, whose son just started first grade, heard from a number of parents and she learned that for many of them, school lunch is an important time for them to see their children. For some who are divorced, separated, or co-parenting, it is an opportunity to be with their children on the weeks they don’t have custody.
For those who work in the service industry, many are required to work nights so they don’t get to see their children in the evenings. Tony Duman met with Colvin to discuss those concerns.
“I work a pretty heavy workload and it’s not easy nor is it really an option right now to just say I’m not going to work any nights,” he said. “So again, when I heard about the change, it upset me.”
There are also parents of children with behavioral or emotional challenges. Sacks’ son has some behavioral issues and she uses her weekly lunch visits as a reward system. But she said the broader issue for parents is that given safety concerns, the school system is reducing parents’ involvement with and connection to the school.
“For security reasons, parents have had to kind of come to the backside of stuff a little bit…because of the world we live in nowadays,” said Sacks. She emphasizes that she understands that KHES and Colvin are doing their best, but hopes they can involve the Parent Teacher Organization, and find ways to come up with creative solutions to these issues.
It wasn’t only KHES parents who voiced concern. Christie Lane Baer, a Manteo Elementary School parent wrote to the Dare County Board of Education and Superintendent Steve Basnight after seeing a social media post from a KHES parent.
“And although it was not a district policy at that point in time, because of the incident that occurred last year at Manteo Elementary, I felt that they were probably going to try and make it a district policy,” said Baer. “So, we needed to as parents step up and say, you know, hey, this is going overboard.” Last November, a highly publicized incident generated considerable anxiety and fear when a man entered Manteo Elementary School without checking in with the front office and was inside the school for nearly an hour
In announcing the quick reversal of the no-visit policy, Colvin thanked “everyone who shared feedback regarding our new lunch procedures…While ensuring student safety remains a priority, maintaining strong family connections and parent involvement is equally vital and we are committed to finding the right balance.”
“We are all happy they changed it,” Sacks said.
Comments
Patty
Glad they reversed it!!! Time for the parents to be heard and not shut out.
Right Hook
Great to see this dispute come to a quick resolution!
Hats off to parents organizing and school administration listening and working toward consensus.
OBXresident
Why is it necessary for parents to have lunch with their children at school? Lunch can be an important opportunity for children to spend time with classmates, build friendships, resolve small conflicts, and practice social skills independently. Giving children that space does not make someone a bad parent; it can be a healthy way to support their growth and let them enjoy being kids with other kids. Family involvement matters, but so does age-appropriate independence. Regular parent lunch visits may also have an unintended effect on children whose parents cannot attend because they are working, caring for others, or facing other constraints. Those children may wonder whether their parents care less, even though their absence has nothing to do with how much they love or support them.
Dom Bostich
Whilst it was somewhat ill-advised to e-mail parents with a shift in this policy versus meeting with groups of parents to discuss the change (but would we ever expect public school admins to want to include parents if they are not force to?), the idea that parents can visit their kids at lunch is ridiculous.
Special needs? Special circumstances? Those can be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. But it is silly to expect that parents can resist letting kids develop a normal sense of independence by acquiescing to routine lunch visits.
Bjohnson
I can see the parents’ side of this, but what was missing for me in the article was some feedback from a teacher. My wife is a teacher, and the duties that they have to perform outside of their teaching duties are huge – bus duty, lunch duty, hall duty, etc. She is run around all day, so I would say this – if this doesn’t add more Security duties (with these new protocols) on the teachers themselves, and they have the capacity to take this on, ok. But I’d like to hear what the teachers think, and if they had a say in any of this decision.
Bob Chase
Congratuations to Principal Lisa Colvin for such quick responsive action.