I really have to wonder if the school has a leg to stand on here. After all, there is certainly no rule prohibiting the use of legal tender to pay for one's lunch, is there?

Got pennies!

It's plastered on their shirts and these eighth graders wear it proudly because on Thursday they pulled a prank at the Readington Middle School, paying for their lunches entirely in pennies.

"At first it started out as a joke, then everyone else started saying we're protesting against like how short our lunch is," student Alyssa Concannon said.

Several lunch ladies who had to do the counting didn't think it was funny, even though some of the students put the coins in rolls. They're not authorized to put in their two cents but school officials say they felt disrespected and other students didn't get to eat lunch.

"There are ways to express yourself that are not disruptive to other kids and disrespectful to staff," said Readington Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jorden Schiff.

Eighth grader Jenny Hunt said in hindsight, the prank may have been a bad idea.

"Maybe we should have thought before we did it," Hunt said.

In fact, the penny prank has earned 29 students two days of detention.

Now I will grant that 5800 pennies is a bit of a nuisance -- but given that the pennies are legal tender, I don't know where a public school can refuse them in payment or punish their use. Especially since some of the students in question even brought them neatly rolled.

And I'm curious -- will the principal now dictate that all lunches be paid for with two crisp, non-sequential one dollar bills?