Chicago Schools Oversteps

I have a question for the Chicago Public School District. Just who the heck do you think you are? Who are you to tell students and parents they can no longer bring sack lunches to school because you think they aren’t healthy enough? When will you idiots remember who pay your salary? We don’t do you bidding, you do ours. I guess this more than just “a question”.

In the idiotic move of the week (day?), the Chicago Public Schools has banned students from bringing most home packed lunches.  At one school, Claremont Academy Elementary, the school officials confiscate any snacks loaded with sugar or salt. I’ll repeat my question; who the heck do these people think they are? This is elitism at it most notorious. These people think because they have some fancy education centered diploma they are smarter than the parents and it their duty to do what is “for their own good”. Man, how I hate that statement.

Principal Elsa Carmona said her intention is to protect students from their own unhealthful food choices.

“Nutrition wise, it is better for the children to eat at the school,” Carmona said.  “It’s about the nutrition and the excellent quality of food they are able to serve (in the lunchroom). It’s milk versus Coke. But with allergies and any medical issues, of course, we would make an exception.”

Carmona said she created the policy six years ago after watching students bring “bottles of soda and flaming hot chips” on field trips for their lunch.  Although she would not name any other schools that employ such practices, she said it was fairly common. (Source: Chicago Tribune)

OK, let’s break this down some.

Protecting the students. Since when has protect students from unhealthy food choice become the domain of a school principal or district? I am not anywhere near Chicago, but I would be hard-pressed to believe the parents would willing abdicate the responsibility of raising children to schools.

The nutrition angle. It can be argued by the schools that their meals are nutritious. They do use government developed meal preparation guides when putting together meals. I won’t argue this point other than to say government is not always the end-all when it comes to knowledge on many things. Better to look at the quality of the meals provided. In the article linked above the writer mentions there is anecdotal evidence that students are not eating these wonderfully nutritious meals, throwing out much of what has been put on their trays. Ya think! Most kids won’t eat green beans and peas at home unless told “no TV time tonight”. You think they are going to eat brussels sprouts without mom and dad watching over them, You're just kidding yourself.  And I don’t know if the author picked out the worst picture of the food they could find, but the stuff on the trays looked awful.

Medical Issues. How very noble of her to allow parents to pack their children’s lunches if there are medical issues. I don’t think “not eating that slop” would qualify as a medical issues, but if my child said he wasn’t eating the forced lunch time meals and he was going hungry, I’d call that a medical issue. I wonder if the left would use my kid, who didn't eat the lunch because he didn't like, as part of the compiling of "kids going hungry" statistics.

Not naming the other school. Not her place, as far as I am concerned. If a reporter is writing a story on a subject matter that has an interest to the community at large, this principal should be obligated to tell the writer the full story.  It’s not like this is a national security matter.  If this were a common practice, as she mentions, then this needs to be nipped in the bud.

Any guesses who Ms. Carmona voted for in the last Presidential election? I don't have personal knowldge of her choice, but I'd be willing to place a sizable bet. No Las Vegas bookie would take the bet though.

But, you know what.  We only have ourselves to blame, especially when it comes to the education of our children. We let little Johnny and Jane off at the school doors and then proceed to go on about our business with just passing thoughts to how their day might be going and hardly thinking about what is happening inside those walls. Parents are no longer joining the PTA and if they are involved the PTA leadership has been hand-selected by either the unions or by the school board.

Here is where we can take a lesson from the Progressives. We need to start at the local levels and move out from there. We need to take back our school boards and PTA leaderships.  Those are our kids attending school and we pay their salaries.  They should be doing our bidding, not the other way around. If the parents of a school district want the lunchroom to serve jelly beans and coffee that it what the lunchroom should serve. Before you progressives get your knickers in a knot over the jelly beans, I think we lowly non-progressives are smart enough to not to have jelly beans and coffee served as a main course, just as a side dish only (wink).

The progressives are not bleeding the Liberty Tree by chopping it down, they are doing it by small, numerous cuts.