Posted on 05/23/2014 10:35:38 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Mother Outraged After 9-Year-Old Daughter Sent Home From School With Note Calling Her Overweight
May 23, 2014 11:30 AM
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - One Staten Island mother found a message sent from her daughter’s school hard to swallow.
Gwendolyn Williams, 9, brought home a “fitness-gram” from PS 29 this week.
Her mother Laura Williams told 1010 WINS Gwen was upset because the message said that, according to her body mass index, she was overweight.
Gwendolyn is 4’1″ and weighs just 66 pounds.
“She’s not overweight,” Laura Williams told 1010 WINS. “She’s healthy. She’s active. She plays softball, she plays outside with her friends, so it was ludicrous to read that.”
“What really concerned me is that then she started asking questions about, you know, she touched her thigh, and she said ‘Is this what they mean?’ And I said ‘Gwen, no, everybody’s thigh jiggles like that,’” Williams said. “It just really disturbed me on a deep level.”
The Department of Education is defending the “fitness-grams” as a way to help students develop personal goals for lifelong health. The messages are carried home to parents by the students. Apparently, Gwendolyn took a peek at the contents of her message.
(Excerpt) Read more at newyork.cbslocal.com ...
Can we have the Department of Education step on the scale please?
I was always the fattest kid in the class. It never ceased to amaze me how many people thought I didn’t know!
Yeah. The fat kids NEVER know they’re the fat kid!
If only someone would tell them!
Better yet, have them step on the chopping block.
I was so skinny, Bangladeshi refugees used to slip me food.
The bullies would tell them, but are no longer allowed.
I got one of those notes once. 9 1/2 pounds at birth and my BMI index was high.
Right.
Who needs playground bullies when you have the administration and teachers to call the kid fat!
A running back with less than 10% body fat would be considered overweight by BMI standards.
According to her height/weight her BMI is 19.2 which is a normal BMI.
So the school can’t even get that right.
This article has the picture of the kid.
She does not in any way look overweight. In fact, if I had to go on how she looked, she almost looks like she could still use a few pounds, imo.
http://nypost.com/2014/05/22/nyc-says-this-girl-is-fat/
The chubby fifth grade girl in my class turned into a high school knock out.
the families need to send fat-grams to the school board members, too
Unless she is a big-boned girl a 19.2 BMI for a 9 year-old girl might be a bit high; but I think think 66 lbs for a 9 year-old is not unreasonable.
Just for the record, I think BMI numbers can be completely irrelevant in many cases, especially for athletes.
the child’s BMI is 19.3, which is normal weight even by mooshelle’s standards...
You and me both. There were daily reminders, just in case I had forgotten.
That girl is slender.
From the picture she looks like she should gain a little weight. Certainly not overweight.
BMI, or any effort to use a simple formula to determine health is stupid and inaccurate.
When I was in the air force they started using a bike test measuring heart rate. It was supposed to measure how efficiently your body used oxygen. We had to take it at our assigned station. I was stationed at Cheyenne Mountain (NORAD) at an elevation of 9,564 feet. They claimed there was no difference between this elevation and taking it at sea level which is what the metrics were designed. Our significantly higher failure rate was simply due to our laziness.
“the families need to send fat-grams to the school board members, too”
Along with that Jabba the Hutt impersonator, Karen Lewis, President of the Chicago Teachers Union. Maybe Lewis can join Moochelle in a “Let’s Get Movin’” video.
Mivhelle Obama. You have a big fat butt. You’re fat. Stop eating our children.
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