Brickbat: Fat, Fat the Water Rat

Charles Oliver | 5.27.2014 6:00 AM

Gwendolyn Williams stands 4 feet 1 inch tall and weighs 66 pounds. According to a letter sent to her parents by the New York City school system, that makes the 9-year-old girl overweight. The school system sent some 870,000 "Fitnessgrams" home with students recently.

Start your day with Reason. Get a daily brief of the most important stories and trends every weekday morning when you subscribe to Reason Roundup.

NEXT: Ira Stoll: IRS Sets Sights on Frequent Flyer Miles

Hide Comments (30)

Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.

Fist of Etiquette 11 years ago

BMI TMI? Not at all. It's the most important grade that will be sent home with children. The children are the future burdens on our intricately crafted healthcare system. That burden must be minimized through careful systemic bullying.
Rev-Match 11 years ago

Gwendolyn Williams stands 4 feet 1 inch tall and weighs 66 pounds.

Look at that horrendously overweight kid! She's like Jabba the Hut's niece!

But, seriously, it is ridiculous that they called this child "overweight". BMI is a fraud.
1. Ted S. 11 years ago
  
  Even if you think BMI isn't a fraud, 4'1" and 66 lbs comes out to a BMI under 20. Or have the defined the standards down again so that a BMI of 20 is now overweight?
  1. LiveFreeOrDiet 11 years ago
    
    The kid is slender. If anything she's on the light side at 19.3 BMI.
    Somebody at the school has gone nuts.
    1. BuSab Agent 11 years ago
      
      They won't be happy until the kids all look like North Koreans apparently.
      1. Drake 11 years ago
        
        More important that they OBEY like them.
  2. Snark Plissken 11 years ago
    
    Yeah, BMI is lame, but that's more about how it doesn't account for muscle and heavy bone, so someone like Warty gets automatically counted as grossly obese.
    
    Whatever metric they used is apparently much more idiotic than BMI, probably the rand{} function.
2. Radioactive 11 years ago
  
  kiddy porn!!!
invisible furry hand 11 years ago

I was going to post this on Friday AM Links, but the commenting system mysteriously broke. None dare call it conspiracy...

This farce has at least engendered some skepticism of the state in the child:

"I know that I'm not overweight, so why should I believe the New York Department of Education?"
1. UnCivilServant 11 years ago
  
  Never believe anything an agency of the State of New York tells you without independant verification. Even if they say that the sky is blue, go out and check.
  1. Ted S. 11 years ago
    
    I think this one came from an agency of the City of New York, an entity which might be even more corrupt than the State of New York.
    1. UnCivilServant 11 years ago
      
      When I think New York, I think State.
      
      I think we need to reintroduce clarity into the system.
      
      The State retains the rights to the name New York, and the city reverts to its previous name, New Amsterdam.
      1. Radioactive 11 years ago
        
        or as we in the hinterland like to call it..."that fucking shithole"
      2. Old Man With Candy 11 years ago
        
        Why they changed it, I can't say. Maybe they like it better that way.
        
        Swiss Servator, CH yeah! 11 years ago
        
        +1 Istanbul
        
        Seamus 11 years ago
        
        Why did Constantinople get the works?
        
        Old Man With Candy 11 years ago
        
        That's nobody's business but the Turks'.
      3. Ted S. 11 years ago
        
        And Manhattan is New York County.
2. Ted S. 11 years ago
  
  Yes, Reason broke the commenting system just to thwart some antipodean lady. 😉
  1. BakedPenguin 11 years ago
    
    It was the server wallabies.
    1. Swiss Servator, CH yeah! 11 years ago
      
      Server drop bears
      
      *shivers*
Notorious G.K.C. 11 years ago

I'm sure the NYC school system will be just as ruthlessly efficient in dealing with childhood obesity as it is in educating its students.

We're only a few nagging letters away from thin-topia!
BuSab Agent 11 years ago

Yet ANOTHER reason to home school.
1. Drake 11 years ago
  
  Another reason NYC is a no-go zone.
Rufus J. Firefly 11 years ago

This is scary stuff.

I don't get how people stand for this sort of interference by the state.
1. Radioactive 11 years ago
  
  FYTW
2. Ted S. 11 years ago
  
  They think they're getting to dictate what sort of interference the State is going to do.
Suthenboy 11 years ago

This is what happens when you put bean counters in charge of every aspect of life.

Tuttle.... Buttle, what difference does it make?
Rich 11 years ago

Laura said the next day she called the principal who she said was sympathetic but said the children were told not to open the letters.

So, not only is Gwendolyn overweight, she blatantly disobeyed the school's directive.

Expel that uppity fattie, or at least get CPS on the case!
1. Ted S. 11 years ago
  
  It also implies the children should be kept in the dark about what the State is doing to them. Because it's For Their Own Good.
lap83 11 years ago

Maybe they thought she was fat because she has the classic "thick and sassy" pose.

Please log in to post comments

Brickbat: Fat, Fat the Water Rat

Latest

Comic: The Bottom-Up POV of Jane Jacobs

Brickbat: From Officer to Inmate

Rise of the Samurai Lawyers

Marco Rubio Says He's Revoked 300 Student Visas Over Campus Activism

Pam Bondi Aims To Revive a Moribund Legal Process for Restoring Gun Rights

Recommended

Login Form