# 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:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**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, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/21 "2004-11-12T04:19:27Z")
> [@Lord Ashtar](#): > > I’m confused about the title of this thread. How does it relate to the story in the link? Because it’s the inevitable result of continued overreaction on the part of schools like that. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/22 "2004-11-12T04:48:34Z")
I just wanted to say the “cartwheel cops” reference in the linked article cracked me up. And the school administrators are idiots, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![Marlitharn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/23 "2004-11-12T07:34:31Z")
> [@](#): > > Deirdre’s father, Leland Faegre, said it was absurd to suspend his daughter for doing gymnastics when students were allowed to play basketball and other sports. > > “Contact sports, apparently, are fine. But this one is so dangerous it requires the cartwheel cops,” Faegre said. Since when is basketball a contact sport? I don’t know what the school’s reasons were for asking the girl to stop gymnasticking - maybe it was for the reasons listed, maybe it was because they didn’t feel the surface she was working on was suitable, maybe she really didn’t have enough room to work without knocking people over, maybe the sight of an 11 year old flinging her body through the air was giving their lawyers heart palpitations; who knows. The point is she was asked _repeatedly_ to knock it off, and didn’t. For all we know she’s already served a few detentions for the same thing, and the suspension is the next step up. We can argue 'til the cows come home about whether the rule that got the kid suspended is reasonable or not, but the bottom line is the kid got herself suspended through her own actions. ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/24 "2004-11-12T10:21:02Z")
> [@caphis](#): > > It sounds to me like the school officials should’ve, you know, given her a lesser punishment. Then again, that’s just me. :dubious: They did. She was given detention after not listening to warnings, and before suspension. The kid felt wronged because she said that several other (untrained) children were doing gymnastics, but she was singled out for punishment. This is possible but it’s probably more likely that she had been warned more times than the others. Her father said that he’d be willing to take the fight to the board of education and/or the _Supreme Court_ if necessary. Imagine how he’d behave if his daughter was injured. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Silver\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Fire)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/25 "2004-11-12T11:24:23Z")
It she was warned repeatedly, and even punished already, I don’t see the problem with suspending her. **Omega** hit the nail, too; this is just the type of parent who would sue the school for a hundred _billion_ dollars when wee li’l Deirdre scraped her wittle knee. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/26 "2004-11-12T11:57:56Z")
Here’s a link to the interview with the extra information. [http://cbs2.com/video](http://cbs2.com/video) ---
**Author:** ![sugaree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@sugaree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugaree)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/27 "2004-11-12T12:38:42Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > 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/)[/url > > > [@](#): > > > > 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. I’d like to see these statistics broken down a bit. Some of those 20-million prescriptions were written for adults. And does the 4-million number exclude kids diagnosed with ADD instead of ADHD? ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/28 "2004-11-12T14:24:42Z")
> [@Marlitharn](#): > > Since when is basketball a contact sport? . Oh, it was a contact sport when I was growing up. The girls were mean, and would shove you aside if you weren’t good enough - which I wasn’t, but how the fuck was I supposed to get any better if you didn’t let me play? Then again, I survived it without any lawsuits on my parents’ part. As I recall, they told me to grow a skin. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/29 "2004-11-12T14:37:44Z")
[QUOTE=buttonjockey308] 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. [\QUOTE] > [@Lazy Boy](#): > > "It’s all about self esteem in the schools. Build the kid’s self esteem, make them feel good about themselves. If everybody grows up with high self esteem, who’s gonna dance in our strip clubs? What’s gonna happen to our porno industry? These woman don’t just grow on trees. It takes a lot of drunk daddies missing a lot of dance recitals before you decide to blow a goat in the internet for $50. And if that dissaperes, where does that leave me Friday with my new high speed connection? True true. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/30 "2004-11-12T14:41:35Z")
Instead of hijacking this thread, maybe the ADHD topic can be taken to another thread. I’m sure it hasn’t already garnered enough discussion here already. I knew a kid that got in trouble for – get this – holding a drawing too close to his face. Yes, you read that right. The class drew pictures, and each kid had to hold his or her own picture up in front of the class. This particular kid held the top of his picture close to his mouth. The teacher reprimanded him because he could have gotten a paper cut on his lip. How ridiculous is that? ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/31 "2004-11-12T14:48:52Z")
So I watched the interview in the second link. Only the kid and the dad are in it the Princepal is not available for comment. But, the kid was told not to do it, had been given detention and her parents were spoked to about it and still she persisted in doing it. Now when I went to school you did what the teachers told you do. Of course the dad is ready to take this to the US Supreme Court, if he has to. My Child has the RIGHT to disobey her teachers because she is in training for the olympics! ---
**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, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/32 "2004-11-12T15:27:58Z")
> [@sugaree](#): > > I’d like to see these statistics broken down a bit. Some of those 20-million prescriptions were written for adults. And does the 4-million number exclude kids diagnosed with ADD instead of ADHD? One more thing. My son receives a new written prescription from his doctor every month for the same medication/dosage. There are no refills given. I don’t know how common this is, but I wonder if it is factored into that statistic. Even if only 15% received 12 prescriptions per year, that would be a significant chunk of those 20 million prescriptions. This only relates to the topic in that we seem to be inferring all sorts of things from articles that don’t give enough information to make informed judgments. ---
**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, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/33 "2004-11-12T15:45:40Z")
> [@caphis](#): > > Because it’s the inevitable result of continued overreaction on the part of schools like that. :smack: I was really tired when I posted that last night. Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/34 "2004-11-12T17:02:55Z")
> [@Cinnamon Girl](#): > > One more thing. My son receives a new written prescription from his doctor every month for the same medication/dosage. There are no refills given. I don’t know how common this is, but I wonder if it is factored into that statistic. Even if only 15% received 12 prescriptions per year, that would be a significant chunk of those 20 million prescriptions. > > This only relates to the topic in that we seem to be inferring all sorts of things from articles that don’t give enough information to make informed judgments. All kids with ADD have to get a new script every month (I dunno if Strattera is controlled this way, but all of the other drugs - Ritalin, Adderall, Concerta, etc. are) and there are also adults with ADD; it’s become more and more common to recognize that the disorder doesn’t go away in childhood. I get a new script every month. I hate to think all the faddish hysteria about overprescription of ADD drugs is probably stopping kids from getting treatment when they have a legitimate need. In fact, I’m sure there’s plenty of parents who think that ADD treatment is a threat to their youngster when it’s not. But misapplied statistics like the one commented upon here are tools of the propaganda game. If there really were 20 million prescriptions, that’s one-year treatment for 1.7 million people. Including all the adults with the disorder. That’s not quite so horrifying. Still, you never here about the success stories from the crowd that wants to stop kids from getting legitimate medical treatment. ---
**Author:** ![Yeticus\_Rex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a698b9/32.png) [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291/35 "2004-11-12T17:51:34Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > Of course the dad is ready to take this to the US Supreme Court, if he has to. Not with that tie, he ain’t. Another California school, another California frivilous lawsuit brewing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-seeks-to-ban-lunch-trays-pencils-all-objects/274291.md?page=1)