another nut job like me -

Cupcake Ban

By: Tom Purcell

Let me get this straight. According to The Washington Post, schools are now banning cupcakes?

That's right. What of it?

They're just cupcakes – little individual cakes wrapped in paper and coated with icing. What the heck could be wrong with a couple of lousy cupcakes?

Are you not aware, sir, that a childhood obesity epidemic is under way in America? According to the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of overweight children between 6 and 11 doubled in the past 20 years!

Yes, there IS an obesity problem with our children. Kids are taking in way more calories than they're burning off. But how the heck did this result in a wholesale cupcake ban from many schools?

It has to do with the Child Nutrition and Reauthorization Act of 2004. Any school that receives funding from the federal lunch program is required to create a wellness policy.

A wellness policy?

Yes, each school must develop a program to promote good health. Though the government doesn't direct schools on what the programs should include, typical programs are a mix of physical education, a health curriculum, and the elimination of junk food on school grounds.

No junk foods at school?

Nope, many schools have banned sodas, cakes and candies from being sold in vending machines. Many are more cautious about the foods they serve in their cafeterias. And many are banning sweets from being used for a variety of activities, such as fundraisers.

No sweets in fundraisers! But when I was a kid, brownie sales raised lots of money for all kinds of charities. How are you going to raise money now?

Our spinach-stuffed tofu bars are starting to sell. Look, if a school body sanctions the use of sweets in any way, isn't that tantamount to teaching kids that sweets are good? Isn't that tantamount to ENCOURAGING them to eat sweets?

You're thinking too hard. One of the best teachers I had promised my fourth grade class fresh donut holes every now and then if we did well in our classroom work. We always looked forward to the reward. It provided a welcome break from our regular regimen.

He might be arrested for that today.

They're just cupcakes. As the Post points out, cupcakes stoke our nostalgia. As adults, they bring back the feelings of security and good times we enjoyed as children. Without cupcakes, what will today's kids be nostalgic about when they're adults?

Celery stalks. Look, you need to get over it. Cupcakes are being banned at schools all across America – maybe even in Texas one day.

Texas?

They rabble rousers passed the "Safe Cupcake Amendment." They say it is to protect the rights they eat at home? Doesn't it have to do with a lack of exercise and playing video games at all hours? And parents who of kids and their parents to bring cupcakes to school, but I think they just like to make trouble.

Look, there is no doubt our kids are overeating, but doesn't the problem have more to with how aren't teaching good nutrition in our high-calorie society?

Sir, as an educator I cannot concern myself with what happens to kids in their homes. I control only what happens to them at school. And if I wish to keep receiving federal funding, I must do what the government tells me to do. That is why I established a wellness program, and ours bans cupcakes.

But your cupcake ban is another example of government seeking to control our behavior – another example of “do-gooders" unwittingly taking all the color and flavor and fun out of our public institutions? How can you possibly replace the cupcake?

You've obviously never tried our asparagus wraps.

F'in brilliant.

I might be in trouble.....I tossed a bag of Marshmallows to the boys at the Campfire the other night and said have at it.....Some might construe this as a criminal act..

Jimmy I'm on your side on this one.....effin rediculous.

Someday.......:wall:

TEXAS CITY, Texas — When 8th-grader Christian Thompson was suspended last month for wearing a Catholic cross at Blocker Middle School, he was incredulous. But he shouldn't have been surprised. Schools across the nation have been expanding their lists of banned items and activities, and many of them prohibit the wearing of jewelry, hair styles and various kinds of clothing.

Most schools in America ban a select list of items, such as fluorescent pink hair or U.S. flag t-shirts, but officials at New District High School in San Fernando, California, prohibited everything that other students, teachers or parents might find objectionable. Considered the "most politically correct school in the nation," New District adopted a ban that is so broad that it led to a prohibition of clothing, jewelry and even hair. Consequently, the school board during its April meeting voted to shorten the school's name to New Dist High.

Principal Polly Andrus said the clothing ban has been supported by a majority of parents in San Fernando, where about 90 percent of pornography in the United States is produced.

"Our parents have no problem with kids not wearing clothes," she said. "But they have a big problem with kids wearing conservative hair styles, carrying cultist books such as the Bible, or wearing crosses. It was an easy call just to ban everything, including all clothing, all jewelry and all hair."

San Fernando School Board President Gladys C. Hughe said parent support has been tremendous since the board instituted its Comprehensive List of Unapproved Expressions, Language, Extremisms, Snacks and Symbols (CLUELESS).

"Our parents have been supporting us like crazy," she said. "We've been selling out all our school plays and athletic events, which has been a godsend for our budget. Even the usually unpopular athletic events such as lacrosse and pingpong are packed. We've never seen so many parents volunteer as aides, particularly the fathers.

"And we've had no trouble recruiting the very best teachers; in fact, they've been volunteering."

PTA President Liv N. Wilder said the clothing ban began after the Legislature directed school districts to prohibit gang colors, religious symbols and political expressions.

"The list of gang colors pretty well included all the colors in the rainbow," she said.

CLUELESS committee member Sawyer B. Hind said colors that are identified with gangs in California include blue, red, white, gray, black, gold, orange, brown and green.

"That pretty well left us with pink and purple," he said, "but then a new gang, the Gay Kings, adopted those colors, which left us no choice but to ban all clothing."

Hind said it was a simple solution that also eliminated controversies over other clothing prohibitions that the school had considered, such as wearing shirts with the Confederate flag, cowboy boots that have been associated with racist rednecks, head scarves, baseball hats adorned with the logos of teams that practiced racism before Jackie Robinson, denim jeans with holes in the knees, low-slung trousers, patriotic clothing and veils.

School District Superintendent Offeh Menazzi said an exception to the clothing ban will take place during Woman's History Month. Following the example of a school in New Jersey, she decided to require all students to wear women's clothing during March.

Menazzi said the district surveyed schools nationwide to determine other bans that could make sense. Other than clothing, the most common bans dealt with hair styles. Some schools prohibited spiked hair, but San Fernando officials had a difficult time writing an equitable definition.

Hart Burne, the attorney for the school district, wrote a regulation that defined spiked hair as "a hairstyle that features groups of 10 or more individual hairs drawn together at angles more acute than 19 degrees, including the base of each group." The district rejected the definition as unworkable, saying few teachers understood acute angles and lacked the necessary protractors and expertise to measure them.

Burne also wrote a regulation that prohibited artificial hair coloring, but most of the female teachers objected, saying they would not enforce a regulation that they themselves did not obey.

The district considered several other hair style prohibitions, such as butches on girls, long locks on boys, and hair styles that are not commonly associated with a student's own race or national origin. Officials wanted to prevent white students from wearing their hair in African-American braids, but then some minorities complained that such a rule would keep them from wearing their hair in a manner similar to styles worn by most Caucasians.

P.C. Wright, a Socialist Studies teacher who served on the committee, said the group eventually decided the simplest solution was to require students to shave all hair off at least weekly.

"Some complained that this was a symbol of white supremacy," he said, "but I pointed out that most bald people do not support neo-Nazis, so beginning April 1 all students were required to shave. At first they thought it was an April Fool's joke, but when the teachers shaved, they realized we were serious. Luckily, I'm already bald.

Jewelry is prohibited altogether, particularly so-called chastity rings, which some students claim create artificial barriers among pupils. The only permitted jewelry are sex bracelets and watches.

Donna Savy English, who teaches migrant students, said watches cannot be made of gold, "a symbol of European conquests of aboriginal Americans," or bear commercial logos, "such as Mickey Mouse, a symbol of capitalism run amuck."

Wearing rosary beads is grounds for expulsion. "Choose the Right" rings that are commonly worn by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are banned, as are WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) bracelets favored by some Baptists. Crosses are prohibited.

New Dist High School Assistant Principal Childe A. Beusser said crosses are a symbol of torture, genocidal oppression and death and are, hence, illegal to display as part of the prohibitions that resulted from the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School, Colorado. Ever since, authorities have been cracking down on students who draw, write short stories about, or wear symbols of death and torture.

The library has been sanitized with all politically incorrect or offensive books, tapes and movies removed. The Bible was among the first to go, said librarian Rita Booke, because it contained not only sexually explicit passages regarding Solomon, David and Onan but also language that denigrated non-Jewish races.

"We found that the G word — gentile — is pervasive in this controversial book," she said.

Following examples of other schools, New Dist banned Anne Frank's diary; Huck Finn and other racist books; dictionaries, including Merriam-Webster, if they contain definitions of private body parts and sex; Ray Bradbury's book on censorship; any book dealing with ghosts, witches or fairies, including the Harry Potter series; To Kill a Mockingbird; all books by political extremists, including all those by Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity; biographies dealing with capitalists, such as Thomas Edison and Elvis Presley; books promoting religion and morals; works by racists, such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson; writings that make men or women look stupid, and any magazine showing women in suggestive clothing or in clothing that covers so much of the body that it symbolizes religious repression; and volumes about creationism or the creations or acts of God.

Booke said the only items left in the library are President Barack Obama's Dreams From My Father, his The Audacity of Hope, and The Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin.

"Nobody around here disagrees with President Obama on anything," Booke said. "Either that or they're too afraid or embarrassed to say anything."

No soda pop is sold on school grounds in order to comply with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's decree though vending machines dispense high-protein drinks, some of which are rumored to contain the sort of anabolic steroids that gave Schwarzenegger his outsize muscles and his resulting career in the public eye.

Among the banned foods at the school are Class I, Class II and Class III harmful foods as defined by Michelle Obama and her ObamaFare nutrition committee. The only foods that may be consumed on campus are water, tofu, alfalfa sprouts and lawn grass. The only animal product classified as healthful by ObamaFare are two ocean fish, pollock and whiting, but no animal products are permitted in the San Fernando school system due to opposition from parents who believe animal rights trump human rights. No snacks are available in snack vending machines, which have been refilled with bags of alfalfa sprouts.

"We don't want fat kids who eat Oreos and cheese," diet supervisor Kandi Apple said.

Lunchroom supervisor Thurston Unger said no talking is allowed during lunch because noisy students could prevent rescuers from hearing choking students. The silence policy has the added benefits of preventing controversies over politics as well as complaints and possible subsequent riots over the tastelessness of the food. Students may not leave school grounds to eat lunch.

"The school lunch costs taxpayers money," chief food server Melba Crisp said. "There's no such thing as a free lunch, and there's no such thing as free speech, either."

Also prohibited at the school are cell phones, body piercings, tattoos, homework, violent games such as tag, kick the can and dodgeball, football (because the players aren't allowed to wear pads or helmets), shake hands or perform cartwheels.

Parents who object to these rules will not have the option of home schooling due to a recent court ruling, said school district attorney Noah Lott, "so they might as well get used to it."

No Christmas cards or Valentine's cards are permitted. Halloween costumes, naturally, are not permitted, and no holiday celebrations with any racial or religious overtones are allowed with two exceptions. While Christmas celebrations of any kind are impermissible and no nativity scenes may be placed on school grounds, menorahs are permitted during Hannukah and the Islamic star is allowed during Ramadan.

All children are accepted at our school with the exception of those whose parents are bigots, said admissions counselor Sasha Klotz.

"If they openly supported Proposition 8, we don't welcome them here," she said. "However, we do welcome gay parents' children, who are banned from some Catholic schools."

To comply with rules of political correctness, the school's mascot has been changed from the Braves to the Tofu Chunks.

"We welcome all the new rules and stuff," said Student Body President Lois Deena Menadir said. "We know like the real world is one where like which only people who are like experienced, you know, in politically correct stuff like that can like succeed, you know, and get to do good things like that, you know."

Look people,this is PUBLIC school,where the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.Did you ever consider packing a lunch if you don't like what's on the menu?They have sent home notices telling us to pack ONLY healthy snacks.My kids can eat or bring whatever they want because they are active and involved students.Some ideas are good and others not so good,so make your own decisions regarding YOUR children.That's why I said have a cupcake party at home and invite the class. If you really believe they are cleaning up their own mess you have probably just awakened from a long nap.As Jimmy has demonstrated this all reads like an editorial piece for somebody with a cause for the day.Pick your battles,but I just don't consider this to be one of them.To me,educators must feel we are not helping our kids further their knowledge by having 800 cupcake parties per year."My birthday is on the weekend,so can I have my party on Monday".God forbid it's in the summer...

This is life in Mansfield, like it or not no cupcakes. On a related note, did you know you can not attend a yakfest gathering without a pfd?... Hey don't write a letter to the newspaper,just pm Bigfish. It's his rule, and it's for YOUR own good.

What if you go to school in Chicago....

Chicago school bans homemade lunches, the latest in national food fight

By Liz Goodwin – Mon Apr 11, 12:29 pm ET

Students who attend Chicago's Little Village Academy public school get nothing but nutritional tough love during their lunch period each day. The students can either eat the cafeteria food--or go hungry. Only students with allergies are allowed to bring a homemade lunch to school, the Chicago Tribune reports.

"Nutrition wise, it is better for the children to eat at the school," principal Elsa Carmona told the paper of the years-old policy. "It's about ... the excellent quality food that they are able to serve (in the lunchroom). It's milk versus a Coke."

But students said they would rather bring their own lunch to school in the time-honored tradition of the brown paper bag. "They're afraid that we'll all bring in greasy food instead of healthy food and it won't be as good as what they give us at school," student Yesenia Gutierrez told the paper. "It's really lame."

The story has attracted hundreds of comments so far. One commenter, who says her children attend a different Chicago public school, writes, "I can accept if they want to ban soda, but to tell me I can't send a lunch with my child. ARE YOU KIDDING ME????"


For parents whose kids do not qualify for free or reduced price school lunches, the $2.25 daily cafeteria price can also tally more than a homemade lunch. "We don't spend anywhere close to that on my son's daily intake of a sandwich (lovingly cut into the shape of a Star Wars ship), Goldfish crackers and milk," Northwestern education policy professor Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach told the paper in an email. She told The Lookout parents at her child's public school would be upset if they tried to ban homemade lunches.

"I think that lots of parents at least at my child's school do think that what they pack is more nutritious [than school lunches]," she said. A Chicago public school teacher started a blog to protest the city's school lunches, and last year the schools tightened their nutrition standards for cafeteria-served school lunches. Every lunch must contain whole grains, only reduced-fat salad dressings and mayonnaise are offered as condiments, and the meals must feature a different vegetable each day. Meal providers also must reduce sodium content by 5 percent annually. About 86 percent of the district's students qualify for free or reduced price school lunches because their families live close to the poverty line.

Change in Chicago's school cafeterias feeds into a larger effort to combat the country's childhood obesity epidemic. About a third of America's kids are overweight or obese, and since children consume at least 30 percent of their calories while in school, making lunches healthier is seen as one way to counter that problem. Poorer kids are also more likely to be obese or overweight than middle class kids, and to consume a bigger proportion of their calories while at school. Forty-four percent of American kids living below the poverty line are obese or overweight, according to a 2010 study published in Health Affairs.

While we haven't been able to track down another school that bans homemade lunches outright, many smaller food battles have been playing out in cafeterias across the country. As principals try to counter obesity in their schools, healthy intentions can come across as overreach, occasionally sparking parent and student anger.

Alabama parents protested a school's rule that barred students from bringing any drinks from home, as ice water was provided at lunch. East Syracuse, New York schools have outlawed cupcakes and other desserts. And schools around the country have kicked out chocolate milk and soda vending machines. Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin even showed up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with dozens of cookies to express her disdain for a debate in the state about recommending teachers limit the number of times per month the sugary treats are eaten in classroom birthday celebrations.

Tucson, Arizona's Children's Success Academy allows home-packed lunches--but only if nothing in them contains white flour, refined sugar, or other "processed" foods, the Arizona Republic reported in a story last year. The school has no cafeteria, so some parents told the paper they struggled to find foods to pack that meet the restrictions. Many schools ban fast food or other take-out meals.

Soon, cafeteria offerings across the country will all be healthier, whether students like it or not. Last year's Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, championed by First Lady Michelle Obama, calls for higher nutritional standards to serve the 32 million kids who eat lunch every day at school (most of whom qualify for free or reduced price lunches through a federal government program). For the first time, the USDA will set calorie limits for school lunches, and will recommend they contain more vegetables and whole grains, and less salt, USA Today reports. French fries should be replaced by vegetables and fruit, the guidelines say.

The bill also calls for stricter food safety checks on cafeteria food.

You have a unique perspective - Public means you (the taxpayer) has a say. Private means you do not.
The school says food is a problem for kids, yet serves garbage at lunch. My kids rarely by lunch.
my son turned 7 yesterday. he brought a big box of fatty chocolate chip cookies in to school. Tomorrow, he and a bunch of his buds will be running around shooting lazers and simulating combat. I hope none of the parents are offended.

Tell that to my Kid next time he brings in a pack of Peanuts for a Snack

Jimmy, try to take the meanings figuratively instead of literally. You have options if you don't like the rules. You can whine to the newspaper and see where that gets you,send them to private like Bill,or even a charter school.Happy Birthday to your little one,I hope he (and you) recovers from the cookies he was forced to settle for.For your sake, I hope he learns to fly.Not in his taxi.(taking tips and getting stoned)


TDF,I'm sure he was at the allergy free table because nowadays kids have more reactions to peanuts than those suffering eye injuries from paper airplanes.While some yearn for the simplicity of the olden days,I still recommend seatbelts be worn also.

ban goes into effect next year. Cookies are easier for him to carry to school. Cookies too are banned next year so this is the last time he can corrupt his classmates.
I not only whined to the newspaper I sent a note to school nurses and principals. I believe in democracy and voicing my opinion.

The neither nurse nor principal gives a damn. The school board is where the main issue is. If I had kids in the system, I'd give the superintendent, Brenda Hodges, a call. She used to be pretty easy to talk to (if you can get past that southern drawl) and I'd have to imagine she still is.

It's a shame any of them is required to take time out of their schedule to read such drivel but now you have stated your fact filled opinion for all to witness. I'm sure it will bear the fruit of your labor.

:think: maybe there's a reward or a class action lawsuit
for intentional sugar intoxication and subsequent hyperactivity ....Hmmmm:drool:

Easton Yuppy BS
 

So I just got a letter from my son's first grade teacher.

Celebrating your birthday at school is a special day for each child.The children with summer birthdays also like to celebrate their birthdays in school.Therefore I am assigning each child a day in May or June that they can follow this custom.On their "almost birthday" they will have Happy Birthday sung by the class and myself,receive claps for each year and the ever popular"Pinch to grow an inch". The children may also bring in a special snack to share with their classmates(CUPCAKES,brownies,Hoodsies,popsicles and so forth).

So Jimmy, it looks like you would fit right in here in Easton.
Dangles

The more control teachers, (the Mass Teachers Association), have or you give them over your children, it ends up being easier and easier to get these policies in place. Many people want teachers to help bring up/rear thier children. Many years ago I was sitting next to a teacher/s having a beer in the local pub, who had just returned from a trip to Russia. He was also the elected president of the MTA, and he was bragging about joining the communist party while he was there. He truly did believe in the communist manifesto. He showed me his red ID card and badge. I had listen to Henry enough to know he wasn't bull#^&#^&#^&#^&ting me. He always thought that people who sent thier children to public school was surrendering them to the teachers to be "taught". Not that every teacher or maybe any others thought the same as Henry, you can see his ideas leaking through to the Mansfield decision relating to "cupcakes".

you never got my points, others did, so I wont bother. I could care less about my kids feeling special. its not about the cupcakes or the birthdays. Its about people telling me whats best for my kids when my kids are slim and trim and others are fat. Political correctness - lets punish everyone instead of targeting the ones that need it.
Did you see the HS track coach fired because a kids took his shirt off? Every point you made above about the cupcake decsion would apply here too. To me - once again its politically correct garbage and its taking over the US.

Good point JD and vote for O'Neil and Smith Jr.

Democrats. We are all stupid and need they're direction while they redistribute our meager paychecks into their pockets or the uplifted masses

Remeber the Bush era with liberals screaming that their rights being taken away by the patriot act, I never noticed any of my rights disappearing, did you?
2 years into the O admin and my kids cant bring cupcakes to school and it looks like chocolate milk is the next target. I looks like we are trying to breed the next supreme beings......

Schools may ban chocolate milk over added sugar


Chocolate milk has long been seen as the spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine go down, but the nation's childhood obesity epidemic has a growing number of people wondering whether that's wise.

With schools under increasing pressure to offer healthier food, the staple on children's cafeteria trays has come under attack over the very ingredient that made it so popular — sugar.

Some school districts have gone as far as prohibiting flavored milk, and Florida considered a statewide ban in schools. Other districts have sought a middle ground by replacing flavored milks containing high-fructose corn syrup with versions containing sugar, which some see as a more natural sweetener.

Los Angeles Unified, the nation's second-largest school district, is the latest district to tackle the issue. Superintendent John Deasy recently announced he would push this summer to remove chocolate and strawberry milk from school menus.

But nutritionists — and parents — are split over whether bans make sense, especially when about 70 percent of milk consumed in schools is flavored, mostly chocolate, according to the industry-backed Milk Processors Education Program.

Many, including the School Nutrition Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Dietetic Association, American Heart Association, and National Medical Association, argue that the nutritional value of flavored low-fat or skim milk outweighs the harm of added sugar. Milk contains nine essential nutrients including calcium, vitamin D and protein.

A joint statement from those groups points to studies that show kids who drink fat-free, flavored milk meet more of their nutrient needs and are not heavier than non-milk drinkers.

"Chocolate milk has been unfairly pegged as one of the causes of obesity," said Julie Buric, vice president of marketing for the Milk Processors Education Program

I read that article earlier today and immediately thought of you.....:hihi:

I wonder if I can be arrested for possesing Chocolate Milk w/ in 1000 feet of a school

Amen! It does every single kid some good to have a little celebration for his/her birthday...every kid should know that the anniversary of the day they were born is a great reason to have a treat...the notion that a 10-minute snack is detrimental to the education of a 7 year-old would be hysterical if it was a hypothetical discussion...it's sad that people buy into it.

That whole mental disorder thing...

My wife is a pretty hardcore Liberal and for one of my son's Kindergarten birthday last year she sent in a 100% glass (not even Pyrex mind you) dish full of high test home made brownies.

Nobody seemed to question her ideology, they just ate all the brownies.

-spence

Being hardcore liberal, I'm sure if the school administrators created a policy that told her brownies were inappropriate and are making kids fat, that she would accept their assessment and had not send the brownies to school.

No, believe it or not some Liberals are actually free thinking. She would have sent them anyway...

-spence

hence the term - "better half" :uhuh: