Oye, I was reading about a 6-year-old boy named Riley Pearson from Britain who got expelled for something I've never heard of before. La cosa es que Riley showed up with what his elementary school deems "unhealthy" snacks in his lunch. The school has adopted a healthy eating policy which bans edibles such as chips, chocolate, soda, and other items. Okay, so Riley showed up to school with banned items in his lunch more than once. At first the school suspended him for four days, but then they changed it to expulsion because they said that his parents refused to follow lunchbox policies. Wow! I can't believe a child was kicked out of school for bringing unhealthy foods in his lunch. Really? Is it okay to kick a kid out of school for not following food policies?
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I totally get that there are rules in school and I am all for encouraging kids to eat healthy. I also understand bans on certain foods. My daughter can't bring anything with peanuts to school because of other children's allergy issues. We also got a note at the beginning of the year asking that lunches brought from home be balanced and not include sugary snacks. I think this is totally reasonable, but guess what? We've sent my kid to school with "unhealthy" snacks before.
Yup, my husband has put a cookie in my daughter's lunch as a treat on more than one occasion. We've also put in a small amount of chips (the organic ones that make you think they are healthier, but are still high and fat and totally "junk" food). We do it because our kid is 5 years old and has a very limited range of foods that she will actually eat. Sometimes she eats nothing at all when she's at school. So when she does eat her healthy lunch we reward her the next day with a small treat. We find that putting a small treat in there makes her excited about lunch and she ends up eating a bit more of the healthy stuff..
Now, I don't know what the situation with Riley is. Maybe his parents are nuts and only pack junk in his lunch and the situation was so out of hand that the school felt they just had to take a stand, but the thing is that the kid is 6 years old. He's still very, very little and it does not seem fair to expel him for the actions of his parents.
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