# School seeks to ban lunch trays, pencils, all objects **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 11, 2004, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291 "2004-11-11T23:21:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![caphis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19adc/32.png) [@caphis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caphis)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/1 "2004-11-11T23:21:20Z")
[http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/11/11/no.cartwheels.reut/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/11/11/no.cartwheels.reut/index.html) > [@](#): > > “Our first concern is the safety of all children,” San Jose-Edison Academy Principal Denise Patton told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. > > Patton said Deirdre could accidentally strike another student, or injure herself, and other children could get hurt trying to imitate Deirdre, who has been doing gymnastics for five years. There’s no eye-rolling smiley big enough. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/2 "2004-11-11T23:41:54Z")
Bolding mine > [@](#): > > Deirdre Faegre was suspended for a week after **repeatedly disobeying school officials** who told her not to perform gymnastic stunts during lunchtime ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/3 "2004-11-11T23:43:07Z")
> [@World Eater](#): > > Bolding mine Bracketing mine. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![laigle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@laigle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/laigle)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/4 "2004-11-11T23:59:43Z")
Oh for cripe’s sake. What, she’s going to accidentally bump into someone, and… well, there must be something here right? Didn’t any of these neurotic twits ever have a major accident, or get in a fistfight when they were kids? Kids need to learn that when you get bounced off a wall you say something obscene and then get up and go on with your life. You can’t live always cowering away from any physical pain or hardship. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/5 "2004-11-12T00:11:39Z")
Not enough information to know whether this is unreasonable or not. The article only says that she was told “not to perform gymnastic stunts during lunchtime”. So where was this taking place? If she was turning cartwheels and handsprings in a crowded lunchroom, or on a basketball court where kids are playing basketball, or in a crowded hallway where kids are trying to get to the lunchroom, then the prohibition seems perfectly sensible. When you’re turning yourself upside down and flinging yourself across a room, you don’t have full awareness or control over what you might bump into, and you have no business doing that in a room full of other people. If she was doing gymnastics on a playground or other space designated for free athletic activity, though, and she had enough room to work without clonking into somebody, then I agree that the school is being ridiculous. To be fair, though, the reason that schools are nervous about this sort of thing is lawsuits. **laigle:** _Kids need to learn that when you get bounced off a wall you say something obscene and then get up and go on with your life._ Then parents need to learn that when their kid bounces off a wall they shouldn’t sue the school. ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/6 "2004-11-12T00:21:28Z")
In other news, the president signed a bill ordering the removal of all corners from schools and forcing all new schools to be constructed out of NERF. Existing schools will simply be coated in NERF. Maybe the girl should’ve yelled “Kids, don’t try this at home” while doing the cartwheels. ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/7 "2004-11-12T00:26:43Z")
My best friend and I were class of '01. Back when we were in third grade, the school district held monthly “skate parties” for all under-grade-5 students. At one of them, I fell down and broke my wrist. Another time, my best friend was running down the hall because she was late for gym, and she ran into the door - with her hands out, thinking she would open the door and run in; a reasonable assumption, but a flawed one, and she broke HER wrist. Neither of our parents even THOUGHT of suing the school for that. It wasn’t that long ago that people were reasonable! ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/8 "2004-11-12T00:38:25Z")
> [@laigle](#): > > Didn’t any of these neurotic twits ever have a major accident, or get in a fistfight when they were kids? Kids need to learn that when you get bounced off a wall you say something obscene and then get up and go on with your life. You can’t live always cowering away from any physical pain or hardship. No, they didn’t, and if they did, they’re overcompensating for the fact that they were traumatized by the fact that they did. I suspect, in less than a generation, kids will cease to learn all of lifes’ important lessons (ones that you learn on the playground) and be brought up completely sheltered from anything “dangerous” and “offensive”. It’s a poorly run PC disaster we drag kids into these days, we don’t want to offend them, we don’t want to tell them they’ve failed, we don’t want to judge or score them, we don’t want to instill any self-doubt or humility, or issue any responsiblity or set boundaries, but we DO want to over medicate, and thereby stifle creativity and so-called “hyper activity” while we sit them down in front of computers and video game consoles, and let them stuff their fattening faces with incredibly sized portions of processed foods and drinks. I’m VERY glad I’ve only got a dog. He knows his boundaries, he knows right from wrong, he eats what I feed him, he wears what I buy (only a collar, but still…) he respects my authority, and loves me no matter what. Life is good. ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Girl)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/9 "2004-11-12T00:39:22Z")
Maybe NCLB should be rewritten to mean No Child Lacking Bubble. Sheesh! :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![furlibusea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@furlibusea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furlibusea)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/10 "2004-11-12T00:47:09Z")
While I do agree with the rest of your rant **buttonjockey308** on this little part > [@](#): > > , but we DO want to over medicate, and thereby stifle creativity and so-called “hyper activity” I have to tell you you are talking out of your ass. If you had ever dealt with a kid with ADHD you would realise it is very real. In the old days these kids would have just been labled as lazy losers and written off. Now for some of them there is a chance with medication and behavior modification. (the second sort of gets lost alot.) ---
**Author:** ![LilyoftheValley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@LilyoftheValley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilyoftheValley)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/11 "2004-11-12T01:08:24Z")
Not to rain on the rant of “schools these days”, but lo so many years ago when I was in elementary school, I was forbidden from doing gymnastics in the schoolyard too. The schoolyard was asphalt, and it was considered dangerous to be doing flips or such on that kind of surface. I may have studied gymnastics, but other students didn’t, and the school felt that they had to make a blanket rule. The “accidentally striking another student” in the OP seems pretty silly (unless it’s actually happened), but you can get seriously hurt doing gymnastics if you don’t know what you’re doing (or even if you do but you have bad judgment or just bad luck). We also don’t know from reading the article whether she was doing something like a simple handstand, or running flips across the schoolyard like something out of the Olympics. I’ll withhold my opinion with such a sketchy article. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/12 "2004-11-12T01:15:42Z")
I’ve got a solution for you guys that looooove to bitch about all the idiocy in schools today: _ **GO BE A TEACHER** _ Or an administrator, or a volunteer, or a lawyer who takes on over-litigious parents, or a member of a school board. Start a petition to get a referendum for the next election, stating that so long as schools take reasonable precautions, they can’t be sued for every boo-boo students incur. Call the local school board and bug the bejesus out of them. Tell the neighbor who plans on suing because little Susie didn’t win first place that he’s an idiot. Something. _Anything._ Because the problem isn’t going to go away unless you do something more than just wail and gnash your teeth. Look, I’m a teacher. I’d like nothing better than to see the average administrator grow a pair and act like an adult as opposed to a spineless worm. But the administrators out there have no incentive to do so, and they have every incentive to continue chucking vertebrae like out-of-date yogurt containers before Mom comes to visit. It gets a little wearisome to read all of these rants - which are true and valid rants - when no one seems ready to do something. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/13 "2004-11-12T01:35:08Z")
Yeah, if I had done a cartwheel on my way into the lunchroom, a teacher told me not to, and I did it again, I would probably have been suspended too. Notice it doesn’t say “at lunch recess”; it says “at lunchtime.” Yeah, it’s insane parents, but the other kind: those who insist that their little darlin’s couldn’t possibly be causing a disruption and that those who attempt to calm them down are evil fascists. ---
**Author:** ![caphis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19adc/32.png) [@caphis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caphis)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/14 "2004-11-12T01:41:46Z")
> [@phouka](#): > > I’ve got a solution for you guys that looooove to bitch about all the idiocy in schools today: > > _ **GO BE A TEACHER** _ > > … I did. Next? > [@](#): > > Bolding mine And? So suspending her would be the first appropriate recourse? :rolleyes: She’s **11**. 11 year olds are very active. ---
**Author:** ![5\_time\_champ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/278dde/32.png) [@5\_time\_champ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5_time_champ)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/15 "2004-11-12T01:50:46Z")
> [@caphis](#): > > And? So suspending her would be the first appropriate recourse? :rolleyes: She’s **11**. 11 year olds are very active. Try reading your link **caphis** > [@](#): > > Deirdre Faegre was suspended for a week after **repeatedly** disobeying school officials who told her not to perform gymnastic stunts during lunchtime. I really don’t think there is enough information in the link for us to decide who is wrong or right in this situation. ---
**Author:** ![caphis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19adc/32.png) [@caphis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caphis)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/16 "2004-11-12T02:54:34Z")
> [@5 time champ](#): > > Try reading your link **caphis** I really don’t think there is enough information in the link for us to decide who is wrong or right in this situation. It sounds to me like the school officials should’ve, you know, given her a lesser punishment. Then again, that’s just me. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/17 "2004-11-12T03:00:26Z")
I don’t know what kind of schools yinz went to, but if we had been doing gymnastics (cartwheels and handstands and flips) in the freaking lunch room instead of, you know, sitting and eating our lunches, we would have gotten in trouble too. On the playground, well, we had an asphalt parking lot as a playground. I don’t think our teachers would have been too pleased. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/18 "2004-11-12T03:13:37Z")
> [@furlibusea](#): > > While I do agree with the rest of your rant **buttonjockey308** on this little part I have to tell you you are talking out of your ass. If you had ever dealt with a kid with ADHD you would realise it is very real. In the old days these kids would have just been labled as lazy losers and written off. Now for some of them there is a chance with medication and behavior modification. (the second sort of gets lost alot.) Do you believe that all children who receive medication are ADHD? Or even a simple majority? Or are thousands of kids misdiagnosed and medicated just because they are displaying normal high spirits that those in charge of discipline find too challenging? [http://archives.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/parenting/08/29/ritalin.schools/](http://archives.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/parenting/08/29/ritalin.schools/) > [@](#): > > Government studies suggest approximately 4-million school-age children suffer from ADHD. Yet, about 20-million prescriptions were written last year for stimulant drugs, according to IMS Health, a health care information company. The number of prescriptions written for the drugs has steadily increased since 1996 when about 14-million were written. > > [snip] > > There is currently no objective diagnostic tool for the disorder, so the diagnosis often comes down to a judgment call. Last year the American Academy of Pediatrics published guidelines recommending that children suspected of ADHD have at least 2 to 3 visits with a physician, and that the physician solicit additional information from parents and teachers. > > But Winkler says, in reality, too often it’s the teacher who’s making the diagnosis. > > “In some situations, even parents were told if they didn’t place their child on a psychotropic drug, their child wouldn’t be able to attend school. And I just found this horrendous,” she said. ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/19 "2004-11-12T03:55:25Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > I don’t know what kind of schools yinz went to, but if we had been doing gymnastics (cartwheels and handstands and flips) in the freaking lunch room instead of, you know, sitting and eating our lunches, we would have gotten in trouble too. > > On the playground, well, we had an asphalt parking lot as a playground. I don’t think our teachers would have been too pleased. Heck, when I was a youngster, we would kill one another during recess, using anything we could lay our little hands on, and as long as the killing was reasonably humane, the teachers didn’t care. So the mayhem continued, because it made us tougher, _and we liked it!_😛 ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/20 "2004-11-12T04:05:14Z")
I’m confused about the title of this thread. How does it relate to the story in the link? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291.md?page=2)