Arizona School To Start Weighing Fat Kids, Sending Notes Home To Parents About Weight Issues
Because, you know, parents can’t see for themselves that their kids might have a weight problem.
Chubby elementary school children in Flagstaff, Ariz., have more than just bullies to worry about. If they’re too fat, their school will notify their parents.
Starting in the fall, students in the Flagstaff district will be weighed and measured at school. Students who are found to be overweight, marginally overweight, or underweight will have a letter sent home to their parents, which will include graphs showing a range of appropriate weights for a given age and height. …
A Flagstaff Unified School District human resources representative, who did not provide a name, said, “this is not really anything new, it’s not a policy, I’m not even sure it can be called a policy. Every child that shows something significant in testing will have a letter sent home.”
An Arizona Daily Star editorial on Nov. 16 suggested that this was, in fact, a new policy. “Beginning this fall the [Flagstaff] district will measure and weigh elementary-school children and send letters to parents whose children are overweight or heading that way,” the paper’s editorial read.
K. Alison Clarke-Stewart, a psychology and social behavior professor at the University of California, Irvine, expressed concern that letters of this nature could potentially harm the self esteem of children.
I don’t doubt that it could hurt the self-esteem of the children. Not that kids with weight problems shouldn’t have their problems brought to their attention, and get educated as to why they’re having such problems.
And a child’s health is the responsibility of the parents. And while I’ll stipulate that not all parents are good parents, most parents are good parents and we cannot let the ill-parenting of a minority justify the usurpation of parental responsibility by the state for the whole.
I wonder…when will the weigh-ins for teachers and school administrators begin? Maybe parents in this school district who see a fat teacher or principal should request a weigh-in and a preachy letter about nutrition and health sent home with the offending public employee.
Something tells me the public worker unions would be less than enthused.
Tags: nanny statism, obesity, public schools
