By lunch period Wednesday, most students at Middleton High School had heard the big news – the nation’s largest beverage distributors had voluntarily agreed to halt nearly all soda sales to schools.
There was disagreement over whether this was:
A.) A great day in public education.
B.) A sinister plot to rob youth of their sugar birthright
C.) No big deal.
6 thoughts on “Notes from Middleton High School on the Sugar Water Ban”
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Just because a pudgy ex-president shouldn’t drink Mountain Dew, doesn’t give him the right to deny others the pleasure. Kids will buy off-campus and bring it in. School vending machines will gather dust and a source of revenue will be lost.
The CEO of Kwik Trip must be dancing a little jig today.
Reed Schneider
reed
(Stretching your logic a bit, I’ll admit) following your argument, schools may as well put in cigarette vending machines, too, since the kids are just bringing those in as well.
Putting aside the legality (and there are some high school kids old enough to buy cigarettes), it’s a wise decision to stop selling products that aren’t conducive to good health practices in our schools.
I cannot for the life of me understand the willingness of some people to cede liberty to the Nanny State. There is nothing wrong with drinking a soda!!! There I said it!!! I know that shocks some of you. Drinking 5 of them, well, may be a different story.
It’s helpful to understand the mind of a Nanny Statist……they never stop.
Joan says it’s good to keep unhealthy things out of our schools. What about too much butter, cheese, fried food, peanut butter…….?? Too much of any of these will clog you up just as fast or faster than a soda. Shall we ban those next?
When the Nanny State comes a knockin at your door, to take away something you like (if you live long enough they’ll be there), don’t come running to me. I’ll be happy as a lark, laughing my head off, smoking a cig with a beer and deep fried cheese curds in my bunker.
Reed Schneider
I agree elementary and middle schools should not have vending machines, but I feel high schoolers have the right to choose. My kids never had schools “teach” them about nutrition, it has only come from home. My kids also know that a soda once in a while is fine.
Schools are allowing less and less choices for kids to take, what is going to happen to them when they reach adulthood. They are either not going to be able to make decisions, or they are going to go overboard because it is the first time they get choices. Look at how many parents pack a soda in kids cold lunches when they are on field trips, even in the elementary school level. I have even seen elementary level children with only junk food in their lunches. Parents send in junk food for snacks, even when told the snacks need to be nutritionous.
When kids are in high school, they need to learn how to become an adult. One of the ways of doing this is by allowing them some choices. Kids have less choices in what they take for courses, they should have some right what they put in their bodies. With open campuses, we are encouraging kids to leave the campus during this time, and there are problems happening because the kids are out of school. Frankly, I would rather have the schools closed campus and have the vending machines available, then allowing them to leave school during the school day to smoke, drink, do drugs, vandalism, stealing, etc.
If MMSD decides to get rid of vending machines at the high schools, they also need to get rid of those in the faculty lounges, and not allow teachers and other staff not to be carrying around soda cans either. This would even be the case at the administration building. Otherwise, MMSD will be saying do as I say, not as I do.
No one is saying kids can’t buy and consume stuff that is “bad” for them, just that the schools won’t enable it by contracting to allow for vending machines from suppliers who pay them for the convenient privilege. When it’s a private supplier who gets to put their products directly in the schools, I have no problem with a district deciding not to let that happen, for whatever reason, including that it’s not a healthy choice.