The Health Care Trojan Horse, In Connecticut
The stories keep coming about using health concerns as the thin edge of the fascism wedge. This time via Hit and Run:
Sheridan Communications and Technology Middle School
eighth-grader Michael Sheridan was suspended from school for three
days, barred from attending an honors student dinner and stripped of
his title of class vice president.His offense?
He bought a bag of Skittles.
The punishment was meted out because the New Haven school
system banned candy sales and fundraisers in 2003 as part of the
districtwide school wellness policy.
In fact, this school has outlawed an financial transactions whatsoever between students:
Turner had repeatedly warned students that she would
not allow any candy to be sold in schools, nor did she want money
changing hands in school, said Sullivan-DeCarlo.
CRC:
I can't wait for this "wellness policy" to go nationwide. :-(
March 12, 2008, 12:12 pmtribal elder:
Is Law and Order, ECU (Empty Calories Unit) next ?
Michael Sheridan is busted for possession; was his classmate punished for 'dealing' ? Had the skittles been moved in interstate commerce ?
Just a few weeks ago a colleague had a client run afoul of a state contractor licensing agency. And to think I joked then about "Conspiring to Improve Real Property", and about guys in flannel shirts and bib overalls surrounding the jobsite and announcing through the bullhorn - "Drop the Skill saw and step away from the sawhorse !"
March 12, 2008, 12:29 pmTom:
My son can't wait for this policy to come to his school so he can get rich with his very own "candy mafia".
March 12, 2008, 2:03 pmBerthaMinerva:
Bad link - Apria health services?
March 12, 2008, 5:35 pmbbeeman:
Actually, the Apria link is good...it gives more detail than I've seen elsewhere.
It doesn't make the whole affair any less ridiculous. It's a stretch to make an anti-bake sale policy reach this far, assuming the story has been reported correctly. It seems to me that attempting to prohibit this transaction teaches little except contempt for authority. We need to remember that only in recent years have educational authorities demanded this kind of total control over students, and it's totally inappropriate.
How far do we want to allow the schools to control every aspect of our children's life?
March 12, 2008, 8:03 pmJason Rennie:
My wifes school has a policy like this "wellness idiocy". I think it is mandantory in public schools throughout the state (NSW in Australia). Of course a number of entrepreneurial students have started "dealing" candy and softdrink to the other students. Ironically the best sales one of the kids does in softdrink is to members of staff in my wifes faculty. It isn't just the kids who develop a contempt for authority in this sort of thing.
March 12, 2008, 9:08 pmJason Rennie:
Had an additional thought. Has nobody writing these sorts of policies thought about what this will do to attempts to get kicks not to take drugs ?
Maybe I just think in strange ways, but I doubt i'm the only one that will think along the lines,
"This ban on candy is idiotic as candy is basically harmless, I wonder what else that is banned is also more or less harmless that has been banned by the fun police ?"
March 12, 2008, 9:13 pmTechnomad:
Some school system.
I wonder how you get to be a trusty, and what you have to do to get a date with the parole board?
March 12, 2008, 10:05 pmOutta There:
Texas Monthly last month had an interesting combo. A comic strip on TX Comptroller Susan Combs who was upset at seeing a grossly obese 4th grader in a San Marcos school. San Marcos sold soft drinks and candy in vending machines in schools. Combs later went about having more nutritious food placed in Texas schools. Basically not a bad idea, even if some think it nannyish: have better food available.
Here is the irony. Texas Monthly in Feb also had a short blurb on super Superintendent of Schools Hector Montenegro,in El Paso, in Arlington etc.He usually spends only around 2 years as Superintendent at a given place.
March 12, 2008, 11:15 pmHere is the irony. When Hector Montenegro was Superintendent of Schools in San Marcos, the schools had the vending machines. The scuttlebutt was that the vending machines were the property of a company owned by a member of the school board.
Outta There:
Texas Monthly last month had an interesting combo. A comic strip on TX Comptroller Susan Combs who was upset at seeing a grossly obese 4th grader in a San Marcos school. San Marcos sold soft drinks and candy in vending machines in schools. Combs later went about having more nutritious food placed in Texas schools. Basically not a bad idea, even if some think it nannyish: have better food available.
Here is the irony. Texas Monthly in Feb also had a short blurb on super Superintendent of Schools Hector Montenegro,in El Paso, in Arlington etc.He usually spends only around 2 years as Superintendent at a given place.
March 12, 2008, 11:15 pmHere is the irony. When Hector Montenegro was Superintendent of Schools in San Marcos, the schools had the vending machines. The scuttlebutt was that the vending machines were the property of a company owned by a member of the school board.
morganovich:
punishment reduced:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/13/skittles.suspension.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest
March 13, 2008, 8:28 amGreg:
A shame to see a policy like this. I remember one junior high teacher would give cans of Coke as rewards in his class. Now, since soda was not for sale there, I could sell any Cokes I got for a hefty premium: $1 per can, back in 1987.
March 17, 2008, 9:18 pm