Brickbat: Another Brick in the Wall

Officials with England's Bromet Primary School demanded that Kerry McCann drive 160 miles to pick up her daughter Holli, 11, and take her home early from a school trip. They said Holli could no longer take part in the trip because she'd not only eaten some chocolate she'd brought with her but shared it with a couple of classmates. Teachers discovered Holli's crime when they opened a sealed letter she had written to her mother that mentioned the snack. They immediately searched her bags for any more contraband.

Comments

[RBS]

Just when I thought England couldn't get any more ridiculous

[Mickey Rat]

The chocolate ration has been increased to 0 grams.

[Ted S.]

I bet the McCanns can tell what time it is, though.

[Fluffy]

This is coming to the US. Don't kid yourself.

Schools will begin to routinely abuse children who are in possession of "dietary contraband".

Because even though you can tell from the picture that this child does not have a weight problem, she has to be treated as if she does, in the name of "fairness" to the obese defective human waste she goes to school with.

That will happen here, too. Because it "wouldn't be fair" to let thin children eat what they want, and only restrict the diet of the physically and morally defective. Oh, no, not at all.

[WTF]

Well, it would be wrong to eat chocolate and other sweets in front of fatties. It might make them feel bad and hurt their self-esteem, don'tcha know.

[Live Free or Diet]

Actually, as a fatty, and former extreme fatty, I enjoy watching people enjoy their carbs. After having gone so long without it, much of it tastes weird to me now. Like Coca-Cola. Gawd, I used to love Coca-Cola. Now it all tastes over-sweet and stale.

[Suthenboy]

I was never a fattie, but getting older and fear of diabetes made me quit the sugar a decade ago.

Not only does Coke taste overly sweet to me, drinking half of one gives me a sick feeling. Too much damn sugar.

[SugarFree]

I swear I can smell the sugar when I get a regular Coke by accident. Although I mostly tell by color if it's fountain. Regular Coke is a medium-dark carmel, whereas Diet Coke and Coke Zero pour pretty much black.

[RBS]

I've never been a fan of Coke and the other sugary drinks which is weird since I have a huge sweet tooth.

[Rasilio]

Here is the thing though, assuming it was real chocolate and not that brown waxy substance that Hersheys calls chocolate it is actually a good thing to eat, high in antioxidants and mood enhancing chemicals with a nice quantity of healthy fats and really unlikely to lead to your getting fat.

[Finrod]

Schools have tried implementing Michelle Obama's school diet in their lunch system, and they're giving it up because the kids are throwing the food in the trash and they're losing serious amounts of money for a system that used to make them money.

It's like the old story about the dog food company where the president can't figure out why their product isn't selling, until finally someone at the bottom of the corporate food chain speaks up and says "But sir, the dogs don't like it!"

[Fist of Etiquette]

That parent wouldn't have had to drive 160 miles if England would only adopt the metric system.

[WTF]

But then she would have had to drive 258 kilometers, which sounds much worse.

[UnCivilServant]

NEVER!

All measurement systems are arbitrary, but at least quasi-anthopometric systems make sense. Bring back the Cubit!

[WTF]

Yeah, how else will we know how big to make the Ark?

[Bardas Phocas]

I'll buy that for a quatloo!

[Finrod]

Personally, I want a car that measures its speed in furlongs per fortnight.

[Almanian!]

I WAS TOLD THERE WOULD BE NO MATH!!!111!

[PS]

I didn't realize it was possible to drive 160 miles in England without entering Scotland or Wales, or the sea.

[UnCivilServant]

100 miles is the distance from London to Bristol. it's about 200 miles from London to Leeds. The country is a bit bigger than your mental image.

[PS]

So I was off by 50 miles?

[Almanian!]

I drive more than that every day going back and forth to work.

England's a punk ass bitch of a landmass. How'd they ever rule the world once upon a time?

[Finrod]

I heard an old saying once: the difference between the US and the UK is that in the UK, 100 miles is a long distance, whereas in the US, 100 years is a long time.

[Careless]

US old saying or UK old saying?

[RBS]

Good question. It's like at some point in the last hundred years or so they were replaced with pod people.

[PS]

Mrs Graves looks like she could skip a bit of the sweets herself.

http://www.bromet.herts.sch.uk/about_us/index.html

[Suthenboy]

Heh. - "Our Mission Statement is "Enjoyment and Achievement for all".

I dont think she really knows what that means.

[Bryan C]

It means just what she chooses it to mean ? neither more nor less.

[Rich]

Yet another reason to never set foot in the UK.

[Almanian!]

I took a shit in the UK more than once.

/channeling Sandi

[Rich]

This never would have happened if Holli had brought *white* chocolate.

[Ted S.]

You mean White Hispanic chocolate.

[Rod Flash]

From their Positive Behavior Policy:

? Everyone matters; people are very different in a number of ways, but everyone has equal status.
? Everyone has the right to high self-esteem.
? Everyone deserves to be treated fairly and with respect.
? It is important to 'see the whole picture'.
? Everyone has the right to a fair hearing.

Chocolate addiction must be the exception.

[Rich]

Everyone has the right to high self-esteem.

"I'm very proud to be a worthless asshole!"

[PS]

Self-esteem is not earned but granted by the State.

[Drake]

Officials at my kids' school would not like the way the conversation would go if they called me. "No, I'm at work, click." would be my response.

[Eduard van Haalen]

The English chocolate industry was (in)famous. At one point, it was 50% of the economy. Well, no, not really, but it was big. Apparently now they don't care about their heritage.

[Marshall Gill]

Since obedience to the State is the main goal of public indoctrination this isn't surprising at all.

[tumb]

This brickbat description is not very accurate. Was it researched or did they just reprint the sensational article?
Look at http://www.digitalspy.com/odd/.....olate.html
and the comment by Belle1979 especially for a more likely version of what happened.
--
My libertarian take on this is was a field trip - not state coerced and the organizers should get lots of freedom to decide the rules. The parent then decides not to go if she doesn't like the rules.
I'd like it even more if the parent has a choice of schools to attend but that's a different story.

[Killazontherun]

Before the children went on the trip we signed a consent form that clearly listed unacceptable behaviour and we signed that the children would not bring any foods into the hotel rooms, this is because the hotel it's self has banned food in rooms and set this rule very firmly to the school.

Breaking this rule would result in the school not being able to use that hotel again and therefore future year 6 children would miss out on the trip !

Oh, man, and you believed that shit! In the private sector, we do not miss out on an opportunity to make money because of some nit picking aside like that. It doesn't do the hotel any social or economic good to behave like school marms themselves. Quite the opposite. No one who behaved that way would last a week in the service industry. You know how much money they stood to lose by banning an entire school who does a yearly field trip? Quite a bit, buddy.

[Bryan C]

The commenter feels compelled not tell us a half-dozen times that the little girl BROKE! THE! RULES! Apparently minor issues like what the rules are, whether they make any sense, or why anyone should actually care about the fucking rule are not worth examining.

[RagingAlbino]

I can tell you from experience that American teachers wouldn't hesitate to do this given the chance. The rules they enforce on kids are ridiculous and mostly serve as scare tactics. I've seen kids in worse trouble for less.

[creech]

The kid should have been drooling over the Royal Prince like 80% of the rest of the country, not eating a delicious Cadbury.