GA students' report cards may include their BMI twice per year.

[Fausto]

Kids could have another reason to fear getting an "F" on their report card ? especially if F also stands for fat.

Georgia lawmakers concerned about childhood obesity are proposing legislation that would require schools to list students' body mass index ? a measure of whether they're overweight ? on their report cards.

The intent is to "wake up parents who may not be aware their children are obese or heading that way," said state Rep. Judy Manning (R-Marietta), one of the bill's co-sponsors.

Students' weight problems are "showing up in their grades, their ability to stay awake, their ability to focus and their ability to run at recess," Manning said.

House Bill 497, introduced Wednesday, would require that the report card not only show twice a year a child's body mass index ? a formula based on weight and height ? but also tell parents whether it is below, within or above the normal range.

Parents of students in the above-normal range would receive literature about diabetes and other health consequences of obesity.

Some school officials and parents said Wednesday the legislation goes too far.

"It's ludicrous," said Mike McGowan, spokesman for Cherokee County schools. "There may be a problem, but why is that public education's responsibility? What does that have to do with reading, writing and arithmetic?"

Sharon Riviere, a mother of three children in DeKalb County public schools, said a child's body mass index and weight are nobody else's business.

"Can you imagine the teasing that would go on?" said Riviere, who has worked in health care and noted that weight is a subject people want kept confidential.

Georgia would not be the first to grade students' weight. Arkansas requires body mass index to be included along with grades on students' report cards. Pennsylvania will begin measuring students' body mass index by 2008, and Texas is considering doing the same.

Don Rooks, lobbyist for the Georgia School Boards Association, said schools would be forced to weigh each student, calculate their body mass and deal with the paperwork.

"My first question is: Where is the funding for this?" Rooks said. He also said he worries about privacy issues.

Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield (D-Atlanta), the bill's chief sponsor, said it would require the weighing and measuring be done in a manner that respects students' dignity.

"It wouldn't be any more embarrassing than getting your grades," said Benfield, the mother of a preschooler.

The Georgia Division of Public Health estimates that one in three middle-school students ages 11-14 are overweight or on their way to becoming overweight. In high school, 26 percent of students ages 14-18 are classified as overweight or at risk for being overweight.

This is not the first attempt by Georgia legislators to weigh in on the issue of child obesity. Attempts to ban soft drink machines in schools, require recess and add physical education classes to the school day have failed.

Chris Rosenbloom, associate dean in Georgia State University's College of Health and Human Sciences, said she believes schools should be involved in the fight against obesity.

"Schools frequently take the lead in vision and hearing screening, so why not screen for height and weight and body mass index to inform parents and educate children?" she said.

Rosenbloom cautioned that a licensed and registered dietitian needs to be included in any weight report card initiative so that clear and meaningful nutrition messages are sent home to parents.

Discuss. 😕

 

[Queasy]

Georgia's high school graduation rate for 2002 was 56%, 2nd worst in the country. I think someone needs to get their head out of their collective asses and concentrate on fixing that.

Link

 

[yobarman]

Sad, but something has to be done. The obesity epidemic among kids in America is the worst in the world. As long as they give kids physicals in school, i see no problem returning their BMI results along with their hearing and vision tests.


NOW HAND OVER THOSE TWINKIES YOU FATTY!

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

UNBELIEVABLE

 

[halik]

It's a step in the right direction. I'm not sure if that really helps (not to mention that BMI is kinda useless anyway), but something should be done anyway.

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: yobarman
Sad, but something has to be done. The obesity epidemic among kids in America is the worst in the world. As long as they give kids physicals in school, i see no problem returning their BMI results along with their hearing and vision tests.


NOW HAND OVER THOSE TWINKIES YOU FATTY!

Hang on....they're still in the deep fryer. 😀

 

[ohtwell]

I think they have good intentions, but I doubt it will help. Those parents who don't notice that their children are fat probably don't care enough to pay attention to the report card.


: ) Amanda

 

[Queasy]

How about physical education classes? Those have been all but cut out from most schools. And have the kids do something more than play 20 on 20 basketball while the coach who is supposed to be teaching the class is flirting with the 16 year old girls.

 

[MrBond]

I saw GA and immediatly thought "Graduate Assistant", which confused me because I don't think I've EVER seen a fat graduate assistant.

I don't see anything wrong with that really, don't they still do vision/hearing/colorblind tests in elementary school? The whole point is to alert the parents of a problem that they may not have noticed otherwise. Sure some parent's dont care (one of my friends would constantly fail his hearing test, yet his parents never did anything about it), but for the most part I think parent's wouldn't mind knowing.

It's not like they're giving the kids "FATTY" signs and making them wear it.

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: Queasy
How about physical education classes? Those have been all but cut out from most schools. And have the kids do something more than play 20 on 20 basketball while the coach who is supposed to be teaching the class is flirting with the 16 year old girls.

No, those are bad because they might hurt certain children's feelings and stuff. :roll:

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: Fausto

Originally posted by: Queasy
How about physical education classes? Those have been all but cut out from most schools. And have the kids do something more than play 20 on 20 basketball while the coach who is supposed to be teaching the class is flirting with the 16 year old girls.

No, those are bad because they might hurt certain children's feelings and stuff. :roll:

It was a sad day when they removed Smeer the Queer from the playgrounds...

 

[Tremulant]

Originally posted by: ohtwell
I think they have good intentions, but I doubt it will help. Those parents who don't notice that their children are fat probably don't care enough to pay attention to the report card.


: ) Amanda

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: Fausto

Originally posted by: Queasy
How about physical education classes? Those have been all but cut out from most schools. And have the kids do something more than play 20 on 20 basketball while the coach who is supposed to be teaching the class is flirting with the 16 year old girls.

No, those are bad because they might hurt certain children's feelings and stuff. :roll:

It was a sad day when they removed Smeer the Queer from the playgrounds...

I loved any form of dodgeball as a kid. Nothing like having a license to throw something as hard as you can at kids you don't like. 😀

 

[vi edit]

"It's ludicrous," said Mike McGowan, spokesman for Cherokee County schools. "There may be a problem, but why is that public education's responsibility? What does that have to do with reading, writing and arithmetic?"

And we had(and some places still have) P.E. classes for what....60+ years now? To me that sounds like it's a little more than read'n, write'n, and rythmetic. To steal a line from Amused - this is the pussification of America. I don't care if you are fat. Get your ass out there and play. Consider yourself lucky you've got a a dick of a P.E. teacher forcing you to do it. God knows your parents more than likely aren't pushing you to exercise.

I think it's a great idea so long as they aren't completely retarded about it and take into consideration the flaws that I have with using BMI as a measuring tool. Granted, that's probably not as big of a deal with younger kids as adults. You don't see many kids with low body fat and enough muscle on them to bump them into the "bad" BMI zones.

Outside of that though it seems like a good idea. At least on paper.

 

[Queasy]

I don't know, if your kid is already a lump of lard, is a note on a report card really going to change anything?

My brother-in-law who is in high school is overweight. Part of it is hereditary from his dad part of it is he ate alot and didn't get much exercise. His mother finally woke up a couple of years back and has been making him eat healthier....though, when you run a soul food restaurant that serves gravy on everything, that is difficult. It took a scare trip to the doctor when he was in the 9th grade for her to realize she had to make him eat better. Now he doesn't drink sodas or eat unhealthy snacks and is looking a lot better.

 

[0roo0roo]

yea. put phys ed back into schools. and include showers. seriously, having phys ed as first period= sweaty stank rest of the day...thats just disinsentive to even try.

 

[RagingBITCH]

Originally posted by: vi_edit

"It's ludicrous," said Mike McGowan, spokesman for Cherokee County schools. "There may be a problem, but why is that public education's responsibility? What does that have to do with reading, writing and arithmetic?"

And we had(and some places still have) P.E. classes for what....60+ years now? To me that sounds like it's a little more than read'n, write'n, and rythmetic. To steal a line from Amused - this is the pussification of America. I don't care if you are fat. Get your ass out there and play. Consider yourself lucky you've got a a dick of a P.E. teacher forcing you to do it. God knows your parents more than likely aren't pushing you to exercise.

I think it's a great idea so long as they aren't completely retarded about it and take into consideration the flaws that I have with using BMI as a measuring tool. Granted, that's probably not as big of a deal with younger kids as adults. You don't see many kids with low body fat and enough muscle on them to bump them into the "bad" BMI zones.

Outside of that though it seems like a good idea. At least on paper.

Overall I think it's a good general indicator but it wouldn't be a good indicator past junior high, if even that. Most JH/HS sports programs require weight lifting and such - two guys I played baseball with now play for the Indians and the Yankees AA teams - they were always big, muscular guys even during elementary.

 

[MrAustin]

This is retarted.

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: MrAustin
This is retarted.

Quoted for irony. 😀

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: Queasy
I don't know, if your kid is already a lump of lard, is a note on a report card really going to change anything?

My brother-in-law who is in high school is overweight. Part of it is hereditary from his dad part of it is he ate alot and didn't get much exercise. His mother finally woke up a couple of years back and has been making him eat healthier....though, when you run a soul food restaurant that serves gravy on everything, that is difficult. It took a scare trip to the doctor when he was in the 9th grade for her to realize she had to make him eat better. Now he doesn't drink sodas or eat unhealthy snacks and is looking a lot better.

True. Most of the time fatness "runs" in families. The kids grow up with the same dietary and exercise habit (or lack thereof) as their folks so fat parents = fat kids. My daughter might end up fat one day, but it sure as hell won't be because we set a bad example for her.

 

[SagaLore]

I think that's an acceptable idea. Well physical fiteness *is* a focus in school, with gym class, sports, and health class. So I say go ahead.

 

[vi edit]

Hell, I'd even go so far as to have it brought up in parent-teacher conferences. But again, that's assuming that the parents of these children would even show up.

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
Hell, I'd even go so far as to have it brought up in parent-teacher conferences. But again, that's assuming that the parents of these children would even show up.

Bribe them with donuts. 😀

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
Hell, I'd even go so far as to have it brought up in parent-teacher conferences. But again, that's assuming that the parents of these children would even show up.

If they did, they'd likely accuse the teacher of mistreating their child and demand an apology or worse.

I've always been amazed at the lengths some parents will go to to protect their children from a bad report card, bad attendence, and bad behavior.

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: Fausto

Originally posted by: vi_edit
Hell, I'd even go so far as to have it brought up in parent-teacher conferences. But again, that's assuming that the parents of these children would even show up.

Bribe them with donuts. 😀

Heh.

Sign in front of school -

"Parent Teacher Conference Feb 25th
Empasis on child obesity
Free Krispy Kreme & Sweet Tea"