This is awful, a little girl being bullied by..

Phoenix__Rising

Those who are supposed to care. They say this 9 year old is overweight. I don't see it. I'm
worried she could become anorexic from this experience though.:grumble:

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mom-upset-9-year-old-girl-brought-overweight-note-home-n113731

vixx1405

Im sorry the little girl in the picture is supposed to be overweight??? I REALLY dont see it!!

conqueringsquidlette

How is BMI even useful at all when it's applied to a GROWING child?

That isn't how it's supposed to be used. :noway:

lilRicki

omg how disgusting...

salembambi

ahh yea lets teach children about the extreme importance of female thinness good and early def cannot have them thinking all body sizes are valid

smh

Phoenix__Rising

How is BMI even useful at all when it's applied to a GROWING child?

That isn't how it's supposed to be used. :noway:

I agree with you. BMI is a terrible gauge and for a child! Insane.
They really need to get their heads outta their south ends.
She looks slim/athletic maybe to me.

rowlandsw

This is more of the US public school system doing everything but their damned jobs. They'd rather tell parents how to raise their kids in the nanny state we're stuck in than teach. They've been caught sending letters home to parents bullying the kids about being heavy too. Just look at the lunches they force on kids and most of the food is getting thrown out as the kids refuse to eat it but the law won't let the school make food the kids will eat. This is why i advocate homeschooling.

CoffeeBugg

The picture may not be current as I can't see that as being overweight, she actually looks quite thin for a growing girl...

Sadly the picture appears to have been taken the same day as the news station did the report, as she looks exactly like that in the interview and is wearing the same clothes.

geebusuk

Just to be clear - she shouldn't have opened the letter, because it was addressed to her parents.

If that had been me, rather than going to the news to make a fuss, I would have been told off for opening mail intended for someone else.

Then - the letter suggested they check with their health care provider, I believe.
Again, this is reasonable. Sure, it was generically done from a forumula - but what's the harm in a parent asking the appropriate person if the kid was an ok weight? Or, just ignoring it, because the kid was not overweight?

It seems the parent is trying to find a scapegoat for her kid's lack of discipline.

crohnsfighter

Just to be clear - she shouldn't have opened the letter, because it was addressed to her parents.

If that had been me, rather than going to the news to make a fuss, I would have been told off for opening mail intended for someone else.

Then - the letter suggested they check with their health care provider, I believe.
Again, this is reasonable. Sure, it was generically done from a forumula - but what's the harm in a parent asking the appropriate person if the kid was an ok weight? Or, just ignoring it, because the kid was not overweight?

It seems the parent is trying to find a scapegoat for her kid's lack of discipline.

I disagree with everything you say.

CoffeeBugg

This is more of the US public school system doing everything but their damned jobs. They'd rather tell parents how to raise their kids in the nanny state we're stuck in than teach. They've been caught sending letters home to parents bullying the kids about being heavy too. Just look at the lunches they force on kids and most of the food is getting thrown out as the kids refuse to eat it but the law won't let the school make food the kids will eat. This is why i advocate homeschooling.

Nah. If you don't like the crap the school is serving your kids, then pack them a lunch. It's not being forced on anyone. Also the school here isn't trying to force the parents to put the girl on a diet or anything, they are giving the parents a letter and it's up to the parents to decide what to do with it. The issue isn't that they have health evaluations, so much as they have idiots running the evaluations and relaying bad info. They are probably people who have an education but lack the common sense to properly utilize the facts they learned in order to make a rational judgment. It's unfortunate but in every profession and field of expertise you will find educated idiots who are doing the world a disservice by having the jobs that they have.

geebusuk

I disagree with everything you say.

Presuming trolling, but I'll bite anyway...

So, you -
Think kids should open letters not addressed to them.

Think that my parents would have gone to the media rather than telling me off.

Don't think the letter suggested they check with their health care provider.

Don't think they calculated BMI from a formula.

(And so on.)

?

Phoenix__Rising

I disagree with everything you say.

Presuming trolling, but I'll bite anyway...

So, you -
Think kids should open letters not addressed to them.

Think that my parents would have gone to the media rather than telling me off.

Don't think the letter suggested they check with their health care provider.

Don't think they calculated BMI from a formula.

(And so on.)

?

Just wanted to give my opinion on that.
I think it's natural for kids to do such
things.Cuiousity is normal for them.
As a kid if they sent something
home to our parents myself/friends too,
would open it and want to know. Report
cards and such.


-edited due to my damn spell correct in droid. grrr

geebusuk

Of course kids want to do all sorts of things they shouldn't - be it running in to the road to pick up a ball, climbing a tree or indeed opening letters addressed to other people that may be about them.

I don't think it should be up to the school to mitigate these - if the kid can't be trusted, maybe the parent should arrange an alternate way to collect the letters? What if it was about something important the kid didn't want the parent to see, for instance?

If you found a report card that you weren't supposed to read that had some negative stuff in it about you, would you consider it 'bullying'?

AdventureFreak

The picture may not be current as I can't see that as being overweight, she actually looks quite thin for a growing girl...

I bet the whole fuss is BMI wise.. This is why I prefer the school fitness tests over BMI. BMI is retarded. Even judging growing children is just stupid. I could understand if a child was obese or getting to that but I bet this girls BMI is the only thing that says "Over weight" and it's probably like only a pound or 2. Which is ridiculous.

True garbage BMI is. According to a calculation that I did just now she is literally 1 pound overweight by child BMI charts. If she was a month older she would be in ideal range again.

SunofaBeach14

I hope the parent pushes this issue with the school board. I do believe that nutrition, fitness, and health should be taught at school but the problem is that I know this kind of thing is inevitable because, at least in some instances, the least amount of thinking and effort will be put into it. I personally wish we could simply fire whoever is responsible for an obvious lack of effort and concern, as we would do in the private sector, but alas that isn't an option. I'm honestly not sure what the answer is here.

ETA: Then again, by raising the issue and making a stink the parents bring more attention to the child. I'm not sure that's a good thing either unless they take the time to speak to her in detail about why this happened and help her approach in maturely. I'm not sure that will happen.

geebusuk

BMI is very much an 'average' - from another thread, I had a look at a chart and I'm right on the edge of being 'overweight'.
You can see my ribs and there's some definition in the upper two sets of abs at least - I'm sure there's plenty of people with lower body fat than me that it would put as significantly 'worse' because they've got decent amounts of muscle.

BUT - it DOES work for maybe 95% of people just fine.
Which is presumably why they suggest the parent talks to a health care professional about it .

CoffeeBugg

Most BMI measurements are not factoring in frame size. While not perfect something like this http://www.healthcentral.com/diet-exercise/ideal-body-weight-3146-143.html can yield results that are at least closer to the mark. Though I have my doubts about determining frame sized based on being able to put you fingers around your wrist or not.
at 5'10

I get

Small frame : Ideal weight range is 156 - 171.6 lbs
Medium frame : Ideal weight range is 166 - 182.6 lbs.
Large Frame: Ideal weight range is 176 - 193.6 lbs

compared to standard BMI
Standard BMI: Based on the healthy BMI recommendation, your recommended weight is 128.9 lbs - 174.2 lbs

RaspberryKeytoneBoondoggle

I'm thinking that if this is a program administered to all children in the district, then I would assume that parents are aware of it and would also be able to opt out. It would make sense to me that they should even be able to have their child do everything the other children are doing minus a letter. Perhaps the media attention will encourage concerned parents to ask questions and know what is going on.

bethlaf

yes both my girls were sent home from the Broward county school district.with thise stupid notes
its embarrasing for them , and they are insisting that the child see a DOCTOR to treat it ...
like its some infectious disease

same thing, the younger one is a little pudgy, but she is also almost 9 and starting to show signs of pre puberty.
my older daughter is 13 , and VERY tall for her age, and she bikes like 50 miles a week.
she has very thick legs muscles

msbunnie68

Wow. Just wow!

I am so glad we don't do this over here in Western Oz.

Where I am, we do daily fitness and dedicated sport and dance in govt schools, a traffic light canteen system (school foods have to be over 90% green light foods) and a focus on education about healthy eating/healthy minds/healthy bodies.

Part of my program for my kindy groups (3-4yr olds) is a daily climbing/crawling/balancing obstacle course (developing their climbing skills/upper body strength/balance/jumping/agilityco-ordination) and I then encourage those behaviours into their outside play times.

What they eat etc is the parent's responsiblity but I still show my kiddies my lunch box and eat with them, and I have a dedicated fruit time where they all bring a piece of fruit or vegetable to share on a social eating plate. Kids will try all sorts of things if they see their friends eating it.

Slacker16

ETA: Then again, by raising the issue and making a stink the parents bring more attention to the child. I'm not sure that's a good thing either unless they take the time to speak to her in detail about why this happened and help her approach in maturely. I'm not sure that will happen.

This.

I'm sorry, but this isn't bullying. It's bureaucratic uniformity, it just happened to affect a child. It's callous and unpleasant but a fact of life, any organisation (public or private) which has to deal with a large number of individuals will have this trait.

Good job on turning what should have been a "Don't worry about it honey, they're just being silly.", and a funny story to share with friends, into a crusade

RunnerStephe

She looks healthy, pathetic!