Student's Protest Obama's Crappy School Lunch Mandates

[JimC]

We have a canteen where kids can buy stuff. Not particularly healthy, but not shocking, either. However, I estimate that at least 70% of kids bring a cut lunch. Obesity is a problem in Oz in general, but overweight kids are rare at our school - they seem to all run around playing ball games or kicking the footy any chance they can...

[Gerald McGrew]

So I don't know if this has been posted in the thread yet, but I've recently learned a few things about this controversy.

Turns out kids are free to go back for seconds, thirds, or whatever to get more fruits and vegetables. So the jocks really have absolutely nothing to complain about.

Schools are reporting that since these new requirements went into place, kids are throwing away more food, mostly fruits and vegetables.

So right now, this seems to be yet another manufactured controversy by conservatives that has little to no basis in fact. If the jocks aren't happy with the caloric content of their school lunches, they are perfectly free to go back and grab extra apples, bananas, veggies, etc. Or, they can pack some extra food for just before practice. Basically this is nothing more than kids bitching about the school feeding them less junk and having to eat healthier, and the right wing attempting to spin it into yet another "Obama is a socialist" attack.

Nice try.

Oh, and speaking as a former high school jock, anyone arguing that we didn't get preferential treatment when it came to late homework assignments, disciplinary actions, or borderline grades...is delusional. All I had to do to excuse missing an assignment or flunking a test was say I was tired from practice or the "big game" and it was all taken care of. And when it came to us bullying other kids, including beating them up, no big deal. We were jocks. That's what we were supposed to do.

[Ronja]

Thank you Gerald - that's a valuable POV. I would be interested in reading how the manufactured side of this controversy was presented and which sites did present it, so if you could post a link or two?

I was neither an athlete nor a gifted musician, but I saw how both groups were actively supported by the teachers in my school. As I was a true egghead, and always among the 3-5 best in my class, I never needed to envy them for anything, but concert tours, competitions etc. were definitely taken into account and gave them quite a bit of leeway. Bullying, however, was not tolerated from anyone, and in my case the worst bullies were the most intelligent and academically talented people who were neither athletes nor musicians - possibly because they were the most bored ones. The athletes were too busy training and competing with each other, and so were the musicians.

[Gerald McGrew]

I really don't have any info on how this whole thing started, but I think it's fairly obvious that the right wing media spun it into an attack on Obama (mainly the First Lady) and ran with it as much as they could. That the facts were against them was irrelevant.

As far as jocks and bullying, the difference in our experiences are interesting. I went to high school in the early 1980's in a rural district (my graduating class was ~75 people). We had some teachers that actively encouraged the bullying.

[Jesus_of_Nazareth]

I went to a Private School - we had a canteen, which cost money (albeit subsidised - by the fees paid by the parents!).

When I became a Prefect (yeah, really!) one of the jobs was to supervise the canteen - for which payment was traditionally "something" from the canteen for free. The norm was a bar of chocolate or a coke.

I introduced the concept of "something" being a full meal, plus desert, a coke and a bar of chocolate.

I also burgled the Canteen one night.

[Tyrannical]

For $2.50 at WalMart you get a little clear plastic lunch box with a ham & cheese sandwich (normal size bread, mustard and mayo pack included), cheese stick, animal crackers, small apple, and small juice box. Obviously designed for school, but my wife likes them too.

[Seth]

So I don't know if this has been posted in the thread yet, but I've recently learned a few things about this controversy.

Turns out kids are free to go back for seconds, thirds, or whatever to get more fruits and vegetables. So the jocks really have absolutely nothing to complain about.

Schools are reporting that since these new requirements went into place, kids are throwing away more food, mostly fruits and vegetables.

So right now, this seems to be yet another manufactured controversy by conservatives that has little to no basis in fact. If the jocks aren't happy with the caloric content of their school lunches, they are perfectly free to go back and grab extra apples, bananas, veggies, etc. Or, they can pack some extra food for just before practice. Basically this is nothing more than kids bitching about the school feeding them less junk and having to eat healthier, and the right wing attempting to spin it into yet another "Obama is a socialist" attack.

Nice try.

Oh, and speaking as a former high school jock, anyone arguing that we didn't get preferential treatment when it came to late homework assignments, disciplinary actions, or borderline grades...is delusional. All I had to do to excuse missing an assignment or flunking a test was say I was tired from practice or the "big game" and it was all taken care of. And when it came to us bullying other kids, including beating them up, no big deal. We were jocks. That's what we were supposed to do.

I be really interested to hear your legal reasoning that gives Michelle Obama or any other fed any authority whatsoever to meddle in local school lunch affairs. Used to be they used the carrot and stick approach by withholding federal low-income lunch funds from schools that refused to comply with federal mandates. Fair enough, take the King's shilling, obey the King's rules. However, the most recent incarnation simply baldly claims executive authority to control EVERYTHING that goes on in EVERY public school in the nation food-wise, including whether or not a school can hold a parent-sponsored bake sale, and what can and cannot be sold at said sale.

There is no fucking constitutional authority whatsoever in the federal government for such a mandate. None. Zero. There is no nexus to interstate commerce in local school lunch decisions, and it's strictly within the purview of the state, under the Separation of Powers Doctrine, to determine what gets fed to students at public schools.