San Antonio Lawmaker Wants to Grade Children on Weight

[Freddie Stubbs]

A Texas lawmaker filed a bill Tuesday that would require school districts to measure the body mass index of students and include the information in regular report cards, 1200 WOAI news reported today.

"We should be just as concerned with students' physical health and performance as we are with their academic performance," said Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio.

When the measurement, which calculates body fat based on height and weight, indicates a student is overweight, the school would provide parents with information about links between increased body fat and health problems, Van de Putte said.

More than a third of school-age children in Texas are overweight or obese, according to the Texas Department of Agriculture. Such obesity has serious health implications, including Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.

more: http://www.woai.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=61CA8CD2-286A-4460-96AF-CD58EE176EA8

[Celeborn Skywalker]

1. How about improving the school lunches ?

This would help a lot more than putting their weight on a report card. Most school food is complete crap, full of trans fats, processed food, and high fructose corn syrup.

[smirkymonkey]

12. Because to make real, substantive changes would cost money

and they certainly don't want to spend any more money on something as frivolous as education!

How about more Phys Ed classes and healthier school lunch options - also no vending machines?

I am not saying childhood obesity is not an issue, but I think this system is going to make the problem worse by encouraging eating disorders and discrimination toward kids who don't measure up.

Educate the parents if necessary, but don't make it a fucking performance issue!

How on earth do people like this become legislators in the first place? (Ooops...wait..I guess they elected GWB governor, so what can you expect?) :eyes:

[oldcoot]

13. What a logical idea

This would help more students than humiliation would.

[Coyote_Bandit]

2. Arkansas Has Been Doing Something Similiar

for a couple of years now if I remember correctly.

[feistydem]

3. Let's face it, Americans are killing their kids with Twinkies and fries.

...some Americans, anyway.

I would hope something like this would not be used to humiliate kids, but sometimes drastic measures are called for to change an unhealthy pattern. Obesity is a killer --especially if it takes hold in grade school.

[Wright Patman]

4. Childhood obesity is a "huge" issue

Here are the first few grafs of a NYTimes Magazine story a couple of weeks ago. The story was very long. It is a very "heavy" subject here in Texas.

January 2, 2005

Heavy Questions
By ELIZABETH WEIL

The road changes just past the Starr County sign. The shoulder disappears, the grass is left uncut and the black-eyed Susans and big pink Texas sage have to compete with the orange traffic cones set out by the border patrol. Just two counties up from the Texas tip, where the flood plains along the Rio Grande change to rolling hills and eroding cliffs, Starr County, largely Mexican-American, is one of the poorest counties in the nation. Fifty-nine percent of its children live below the poverty level, and in the strange new arithmetic of want, in which poverty means not starvation but its opposite, it is also one of the fattest.

In the colonias on the edge of Rio Grande City -- jerry-rigged neighborhoods that are home to many illegal immigrants and lack adequate municipal services -- houses that look as if they might fall down neighbor houses that look like fortresses, a result of the boom-and-bust drug economy. Little gorditos run around in juice-stained diapers, and as the kids get older, they only get fatter. By the time they are 4 years old, 24 percent of the children are overweight or obese; by kindergarten, 28 percent; and by elementary school, 50 percent of the boys are overweight or obese, along with 35 percent of the girls. The concern is not just cosmetic. Overweight children are at significantly greater risk for developing Type 2 diabetes, and by early adulthood, hypertension, heart disease, stroke, colon cancer, breast cancer, gallbladder disease, arthritis and sleep apnea. ''Stop by any time,'' said the local school district superintendent, Roel Gonzalez, inviting me to visit. The child of migrant farm workers, Gonzalez is perhaps the children's greatest advocate and the community's greatest critic. ''I will take you down the hall in any one of my schools, and you will see most of the children aren't slim anymore; they're all beefy. Kids are 30, 40 pounds overweight already, and they're only in high school. We're basically walking time bombs.''

[cornermouse]

5. How much does the Senator weigh?

[Freddie Stubbs]

6. Looks like she could lose a few pounds herself

[cornermouse]

7. Lol. It figures.

[rachelbirds]

8. oh my!

[TEXASYANKEE]

9. PE

Why not put PE back in the schools? Some of these kids get little or no exercise whatsoever. This is a very sad development.

[smirkymonkey]

10. Because, face it, the State of Texas sure as hell isn't educating

them.

"Ok, you're stupid, but don't you look stunning in that bikini..."

I smell a big DISTRACTION!

[Momgonepostal]

11. that's a health issue, not an academic issue

This should be brought up with the children's doctors, not by the school. I hope this doesn't pass.

I can't imagine my employer bringing up my weight in my annual review.

[Moderator]

14. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1163220