Sensitive parents are putting up a stink:
Jasmine is one of 139 students at the school who came home last week with a height and weight screening referral letter. Though similar letters went to nearly half of the school’s 295 students, Jasmine’s mother, Vicki Elliott, said she is unhappy because the letters not only single out easily rattled youngsters for being “fat,” it’s none of the school’s business.
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{ 10 comments }
The girl in the article is 4 feet and weights 66 pounds. Is this overweight?
if you’re fat i’ll notice, and i’ll let you know if you happen to forget. I kind of think fat people don’t like to be called fat, as if its rude or something. Maybe its a self esteem issue. If you have a problem with it, lose the weight? I dunno, I see calling someone fat the same as calling them tall or short or white or black or asian. If you don’t like it, don’t be it. Its not offensive, its a statement of fact, right?
This is an issue of bad parenting. I don’t see any reason for humiliating the child. Kids are keenly aware of their weight and how they compare to their peers. This is the parent’s fault. They buy and prepare the food. Is a note sent home with the child going to suddenly make parents realize they need stop buying Twinkies? Somehow, I doubt.
This is a public health issue, not far removed from mandatory vaccinations in importance. Many of the bad dietary and exercise habits are related to poor parenting. The end.
The picture in the article says it all:
School: your daughter is overweight
Mom: I’m outraged, I want a second opinion.
School: OK, you’re overweight as well
The quoted height is suspicously rounded to 4 feet; the BMI calculated from this is 20.2.
For age 9 (guessing high for a third grader) this still puts her above the 85th percentile.
So yes, she is at risk for overweight. If she is less than 4 feet by just an inch or two, or is only a more typical age 8 in grade 3 then she is overweight.
This is a BMI growth grid from the CDC. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/major/nhanes/growthcharts/clinical_charts.htm
Are you the same doctors who bitch and moan when the schools send patients to you demanding ritalin for hyperactivity and ADD?
You have just a bit of a double standard going on. If it is something you agree with then it is perfectly alright for a school to stick their nose in health issues, but otherwise, it is not?
I want to know how a 9 YO at 4ft tall and 66lbs is overweight? Also please tell me how this is comparable to not getting your child vaccinated? Obesity is NOT a communicable disease!
and Chemeng, keep doing what your doing and one day, someone will shut your fat mouth for you!
Its also a statement of fact that you are extremely rude. Don’t like it? Then don’t be it!
…the letter made her feel angry because she doesn’t consider herself to have a weight problem.
I see this syndrome all the time:
… angry because she doesn’t consider herself to have a drug problem
… angry because she doesn’t consider herself to have a cholesterol problem
… angry because she doesn’t consider herself to have a alcohol problem
… angry because she doesn’t consider herself to have a diabetes problem
Fact is, unless there is an immediate danger to health, a child’s weight is the parents problem. My daughter is chubby, as was her mom and me when we were her age. I am still overweight (6 ft, 1 inch and 220 lbs) but generally healthy. Get this, my chubby first grader has a 3rd grade reading and math level. So how does weight affect intelligence?
Anon at 3:42, weight doesn’t have anything to do with intelligence, nobody claims so. It is, however, one of the risk factors for health problems. And yes, some fat people are healthy and some thin people are sick. It is a risk factor, not a guarantee.
It is also much easier to not get fat in the first place than to loose it later as you probably know yourself; it is also easier to loose a little than a lot, to loose weight when you are young then when you are older. Just wait till you hit menopause … So by the time extra weight gets to the point it may start threatening your or your daughter’s health it’ll be so much more difficult to loose it than to take care of it now.
Still, I think the school should’ve found a way to pass the message to the parents directly without traumatizing the kids. In that I agree with anon at 8:36.
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