Teachers granted power to ‘confiscate and destroy’ unhealthy school lunches

[Xann]

Teachers granted power to ‘confiscate and destroy’ unhealthy school lunches

LONDON – The British government is urging school leaders to use their “common law powers” to search student lunches and potentially confiscate any items they deem “unhealthy or inappropriate.”

Education minister Lord Nash tells Express, “Schools have common law powers to search pupils, with their consent, for items.

“There is nothing to prevent schools from having a policy of inspecting lunch boxes for food items that are prohibited under their school food policies.

“A member of staff may confiscate, keep or destroy such items found as a result of the search if it is reasonable to do so in the circumstances.”

The government’s foray into lunch inspections began when Cherry Tree Primary School in Colchester banned a Peperami sausage snack and scotch eggs from a six-year-old girl’s lunch.

OreosManchester’s Manley Park Primary School seized cereal bars from lunches, according to the Huffington Post.

“Government should get out of people’s lunchboxes and focus on trying to fix the big things like immigration and the deficit,” Ukip member Douglas Carswell says.

Iain Austin, a Labour MP, adds: “With Britain tumbling down the international league tables and with a generation entering the work force with less literacy and numeracy than the generation retiring, you would have thought that teachers might have better things to do than rummaging through children’s crisps and fruit.”

There have been glimpses of such policies in the U.S.

A teacher at an Aurora, Colorado school blocked a preschool girl from eating Oreo cookies in her home-packed lunch.

 

[Amethyst]

Wow. You know if we brought something like that across the pond every lunch provided by government funded schools would be banned. I always knew you were trouble, mysteriously green/brown stromboli?

By the way, they tried doing this at my private school. Guess what happened?

Junk food drug ring. Don't mean to brag, but I was pretty good at it, and eventually they realized it was a stupid idea to begin with.

 

[indra]

Junk food drug ring.

This sounds so fun :'(

 

[Amethyst]

This sounds so fun :'(

I would've let you be my cookie mule if you were around.

 

[Luke O]

Wow. You know if we brought something like that across the pond every lunch provided by government funded schools would be banned. I always knew you were trouble, mysteriously green/brown stromboli?

By the way, they tried doing this at my private school. Guess what happened?

Junk food drug ring. Don't mean to brag, but I was pretty good at it, and eventually they realized it was a stupid idea to begin with.

I've seen similar stories about. How much did you make in profit?

 

[Amethyst]

I've seen similar stories about. How much did you make in profit?

Well considering costs were outsourced to my parents, every dime I made was pure profit (except the hooky trips mid-school to fast food restaurants). It was only for two months but I was able to scrounge up like 200 bucks for a trip to Canada.

 

[Hitoshi-San]

Wow. You know if we brought something like that across the pond every lunch provided by government funded schools would be banned. I always knew you were trouble, mysteriously green/brown stromboli?

By the way, they tried doing this at my private school. Guess what happened?

Junk food drug ring. Don't mean to brag, but I was pretty good at it, and eventually they realized it was a stupid idea to begin with.

Damn. That sounds a lot more fun that my private K-8 school. It was a Catholic school, and there were more than a fair share of families with too many kids to feed. There was this one kid in my class who came from one of these families, was a diabetic, and also a troublemaker.

The school lunches in themselves were absolutely heinous (one time these chicken sandwiches were served and like 15 people got food poisoning from them). This was in middle school, after the whole government school lunch for "healthier children" took effect, but in reality the food was not healthy at all. Instead of fresh greens and other healthy stuff we got iceberg lettuce and ridiculously small portions (kindergarteners got the same amount as 8th graders.

So my grade only had like 30-something people in it, so the girls sat at one long table and the boys sat at another long table that connected to the girls' table. Remember the diabetic from a huge family I mentioned earlier? Let's call him Bob. Bob suddenly stood up and walked over to the girls' table, asking for food. I remember him getting some food, then minutes later he sits down, and his best friend comes over, literally dragging himself across the floor, and asks for food.

At this point, the lunch monitor yells at him to sit back down because he's being "disrespectful". He apprehensively does, and the split second he sits down, like over half of the boys' table starts yelling, "STRIKE!!!" Eventually the rest of them do the same. And as a consequence get held in the lunchroom for about a half hour getting lectured, but I personally think it was worth it.

Unfortunately they were only on strike for a couple more days. They would ask girls for their extra food, not buy school lunches, and be especially loud and roughhouse during lunch. It was pretty cool if you ask me.

 

[1487610420]

 

[Habba]

I saw Jamie Oliver talk about school food on TV. I was totally apalled to see what children eat at the school in UK and USA. What kind of parent sends their kids to school with potato chips as lunch? A MONSTER!

Providing healthy food for kids is one of the most important responsibilities parents have towards their children, because this is where their eating habits are formed. Healthy food prevents diseases, increases energy, reduces concentration problems and most of all, enables efficient learning. And it should be free. Students shouldn't be carrying their lunch from home to begin with.

While I'm against the idea of rummaging through student's belongings as if they were not allowed to have anything private, I'm for taking drastic actions to improve students' eating habits. It's a small expense to reduce more expensive problems later on.

 

[Coriolis]

Providing healthy food for kids is one of the most important responsibilities parents have towards their children, because this is where their eating habits are formed. Healthy food prevents diseases, increases energy, reduces concentration problems and most of all, enables efficient learning. And it should be free. Students shouldn't be carrying their lunch from home to begin with.

While I'm against the idea of rummaging through student's belongings as if they were not allowed to have anything private, I'm for taking drastic actions to improve students' eating habits. It's a small expense to reduce more expensive problems later on.

It always helps to be goal-oriented. Let the critics of these schools' methods come up with a better way to ensure that children eat healthy, at least in school.

 

[Tellenbach]

Same mind-set as book-burners. Only approved food may be consumed and only bureaucrats can decide what's healthy and unhealthy. I'd like to see the BMIs of these food nazis.

 

[miss fortune]

school lunches I grew up with were horrible and didn't exactly fall into the nutritious category... we weren't a rich school district and everything was overcooked and heavily starchy (and often fried)

I refused to eat school lunches (they dipped it out with ice cream dippers... eww!) and brought my lunch every day... I may have had a homemade cookie or two in my lunch, but it was significantly healthier than anything that the school served up. my dad packed my lunch and it was often heavy on fresh fruits and vegetables since I grew up on a farm. had anyone tried to take my cookie I most likely would have bitten them and then run away... I was kind of an evil child

 

[ceecee]

It always helps to be goal-oriented. Let the critics of these schools' methods come up with a better way to ensure that children eat healthy, at least in school.

But that would require thinking and effort as well as common sense, which school policy removed long ago. All I wanted for my own kids was a reasonable amount of time to simply sit down and eat, even in elementary school. So many kids and they were so rushed - this is why I always packed their lunches. At least it eliminated wasting time in line for a school lunch.

 

[Jaguar]

Sieg Heil. For crying out loud . . .

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

First they came for the fruit roll-ups, and I did not speak up, because I did not like fruit roll-ups. Then they came for gummi snacks, and I did not speak up, because I did not like gummi snacks.

 

[SpankyMcFly]

By the way, they tried doing this at my private school. Guess what happened?

Junk food drug ring. Don't mean to brag, but I was pretty good at it, and eventually they realized it was a stupid idea to begin with.

OMG, that'd totally be me as well.

 

[SpankyMcFly]

Same mind-set as book-burners. Only approved food may be consumed and only bureaucrats can decide what's healthy and unhealthy. I'd like to see the BMIs of these food nazis.

Me2. I'll even cut em a break and use the caliper method to measure their body fat %, cuz BMI doesn't work too well if you are wide chested/shouldered male with a good amount of chest muscle.

 

[SpankyMcFly]

$20 says they are going to start training 'junk food' sniffing dogs and use them at entrances to schools to assist in the WAR on Junk Food. This will naturally require an expansion of government, training programs, manuals to be printed, canine trainers etc. Your tax dollars hard at work protecting the children. For the greater good and all that jazz.

For the Children!!!


P.S. Sorry childless peoples that your tax dollars are being spent on this, it has to be done.

 

[Carpe Vinum]

As if teachers don't have enough to do already.

"Mr. Smith, can we talk about my grades?"
"Maybe some other day, Billy. Right now I have to carry all these Doritos to the headmaster's office."

 

[ChocolateMoose123]

I don't agree with policing lunches. At the same time, is this where we are now? That is sad. Obesity is a problem but I don't think this is going to be the solution.

I would like to see more emphasis on physical education and health education instead. It's been a long time since I was in school but do they still have Phys. Ed?

I know some schools have cut it because of scheduling but please someone enlighten me on it.