nosh nook #196 - monday, december 14, 2009

boy suspended from school for selling crisps (link)
12.14.09 - bbc news

did i say that peeps were getting a little too insane with their efforts to regulate kids' nutrition in the schools or did i not say that? i believe that i did say that. i mean, it's great that they're thinking of the children, but american parents & teachers & school boards have been going all spanish inquisition recently trying to put policies & initiatives in place in an attempt to combat childhood obesity. what gets me is that our education system is FUCKED & they're worried about whether or not sally & timmy are eating cool ranch doritos for lunch. how's about you get sally & timmy involved in some sort of outdoor extracurricular activity? i did as a kid & it kept me active & healthy despite a healthy diet of cool ranch doritos. maybe if you laid off of the convenient snack food-bashing you'd have time to focus on bettering their education.

the campaign for healthy children is by no means limited to the u.s. according to the bbc, last week a 12-year old boy in liverpool "was allegedly caught selling a packet of crisps at a marked-up price at cardinal heenan catholic high school" & as a result, was told "to stay away from school" the following day. the school apparently cares about their students' health, so when they caught lil' joel bradley hawking crisps for a second time, they suspended him. screw that american three strikes & you're out shizz! take the day off, sonny! anyway, their policy must be cricket-related or something, but i don't know jack about that loony, wicket-based sport, so i can't be 100% sure.

whatever the policy is, it's focused on keeping kids healthy. head teacher dave forshaw said that "we are a healthy school and proud of it. we are committed to the health of our students and it is very rare for parents to complain about us confiscating crisps, chocolate, lucozade and coca cola." um, what the hell is lucozade? it's actually a sports drink, but it sounds like some sort of british pharmy, so i agree that 12-year old kids shouldn't be selling it at school. what i don't agree with is kids being suspended for trying to spread the wonder of crisps to their mates & making a buck in the process. maybe if lil' joel bradley had pulled a blade on a fellow classmate because he tried to steal his crisps, i could see suspending him, but the boy was just selling crisps. take away his crisps, get him into a business class ASAP & move on, snack haters.