DISGUSTED WITH JUNKY SCHOOL SNACKS

[abbe]

Hi Everyone,

 

I sent this letter to my son's school today. I want to fight for our children and ban on unhealthy snacks for our children

 

 

 

 

 

To the Mount Laurel School Administration:

 

As I sit here writing this letter I realize I am one frustrated mom. My son Nicholas has gotten ill two times this year directly after two school parties. Out of nowhere he exhibited a neck tic after this year’s Halloween party and also a Martin Luther King party. After extensive allergy testing I have realized that my son is not allergic to any foods and has a slight milk intolerance. No foods that Nicholas has ingested have caused such a severe reaction. The culprits seem to be msg, high fructose corn syrup and artificial dyes. As you may or may not be aware these substances are poisonous to children. I have attached numerous articles for your perusal in the event that you are not aware of the negative drawbacks of these “junk foods”. A news broadcast just last week says that high fructose corn syrup contains Mercury. Mercury is toxic to the system even in small doses. I cannot stress to you the importance of not feeding our children these sugary snacks. I do not understand if we know that these substances are unhealthy or bad for our children WHY IN THE WORLD OUR WE SERVING THEM AT SCHOOL? School is for learning not for eating junk food. Why must I send in healthy snack for my child and he feel excluded from the others because you are allowing straight sugary snacks that are not healthy or conducive to the learning environment? I give you the following example to drive my point home. Certain movies and video games are appropriate or not for 1st graders. At Springville school you would never expose a child to an R or even a pg 13 movie. You would know as an administration that they are “bad” or “unhealthy” for the child. A parent might in the comforts of their own home or on their own time allow their child to view what they think is appropriate and that is the parent’s choice. Just like a parent can feed their child “junk food” in the comfort of the own home or outside of school. Now what if you took that example and told all of the kids in Nicholas class that they could watch a pg-13 or R movie. They were all excited and couldn’t wait. They knew the movie is “bad” for them but hey if the school is allowing it then it must be ok. So what if all of the students got to watch that movie but one mom at home didn’t want their child exposed to the dangers of a pg 13 or r movie, rightfully so. So you took that child away from the other kids and made them watch a “healthy” G movie. Well I suppose that child would feel awful, and different, and upset, and singled out and different. All because the parent was making the right choice. Well I can tell you now that is how Nicholas feels and it is not right. I AM MAKING THE RIGHT CHOICES. Kids should not be fed junk at school. So at what point do I hold the school system accountable for feeding my son these unhealthy snacks and singling him out for eating correctly and making the right choice. STARTING RIGH T NOW. I appreciate your immediate feedback and explanations.

 

 

Abbe Lang

[CSP]

Hi Abbe,

 

Just wanted to wish you luck with your letter.

 

When my kids attended private school the Head Master told parents that they were not aloud ANY snacks that had sugar in them. He told the parents that studies show kids are more restless after lunch and they can not learn or sit still after having cookies and punch ect...in their lunch. If we didn't agree we could remove our kids from the school, he believed in it that much. I tell you they were the best behaved students from K-8th I have ever seen.

 

Good Luck,

CP

[abbe]

 

Thanks I realize I am taking on a monster with this but who know maybe I will follow it all the way through and call it "Nicky;'s Law" his dad ( my x) is a lawyer and says he will back me

 

 

 

abbe

[faith]

That's a great letter, abbe, and you are SO right. are you a lawyer? I couldn't agree more.

 

I do know that in our middle and high schools, they seem to have taken away the soda machines and now I see just bottled water machines. But yea, the amount of sugary things given out as a party food or "reward" kills me every time. My son's teachder even gives out a small lollypop sometimes as some sort of "reward". ("here you go, sweetheart, you are such a good boy, here's your lollypop, now go jump around and then zone out for a while").

 

I wonder if there is any groups within the schools' PTA that deal with this kind of topic? I guess it could be a start. But you know, some parents don't really care if there kids don't have any problems. I remember a meeting getting kind of hot one time because the school was saying third graders shouldn't have "birthday" cupcakes and such because there were alot of allergic kids, but some parents were actually annoyed about this, they thought it was unfair and WANTED to have the birthday cupcake thing. I was amazed at how much time was spent talking about this rediculous issue.

 

 

Faith

 

edit: oh, you slipped in a response above me, and you say there IS a lawyer in the house. I am intuitive, I am I am!

[Char]

abbe,

 

I totally agree with you, schools should not allow all that junk food. I think that letter is great. I am so sick of my sons school trying to give him candy for rewards. Why can't they do something else like stickers or pencils etc. My sons school parties always have junk food, I try to send alternatives for him and his class to eat. But my son still feels some what left out because he can't eat all the junk food, other parents send. I just wish my sons school would decide to give kids better food choices. My sons school has pizza day every month, the pizza is okay. Although my son can't eat that either but, the rest of lunch is all junk food. I have suggested maybe to change pizza day to something else or maybe 2 choices, other then just pizza day. I got shot down and looked at weird. I wish you luck and all the best. Char...

[abbe]

Dear Faith and Char,

 

No I am not a lawyer I was just married to one for over 15 years so I think the same way. I feel as if I can prove to them that Mercury even in small doses is toxic to our kids then they have no right to serve snacks that have high fructose corn syrup. If they push on me I am going to consider taking this to court with my x. I am not going to have Nicky come home embarresed anymore for eating healthy. I took mostly all of Nick's food restrictions off after his last bad episode and I am just keeping him away from "the junk" we did this anyway in our house. I have no problem standing up to the administration. My middle son (13) is add and they tried to push me into meds HARD> I always told them they could never tell me what to do or ever, ever to lable my son. He never knew by the way until last year. I have always told my boys we all have our "stuff" we take herbs and eat well because the body is the healer. I have since cut Nicks supplements way down also. We took him to the healer in MD again and got very good results. All tics (neck, stomach, throat) gone. He just is now doing the eye roll again. (back where I first started ha ha) I just want him to be a little kid and enjoy his life. I feel that all of the food restrictions (on normal , healthy food) and the supplements were making us both crazy...

 

 

abbe