Say WHAT? Student Refuses to Be Weighed; Sent to Principal’s Office?
Did you hear about Ireland Hobert-Hoch, the student from Southeast Polk Junior High in Pleasant Hill, Iowa, who refused to get on the scale to have her height and her weight recorded and was promptly sent to the principal’s office?
According to the Des Moines Register, as part of the FitnessGram program, Ireland’s class was having their height and weight measured to calculate their body mass index (BMI).
Ireland said that she didn’t feel like her weight was the school’s business, and her refusal to have her weight evaluated in front of the class inspired other girls to follow suit.
I wish that Ireland had been in my class or that back in my day I’d have had the courage to say “No!” to that type of humiliation.
For you see, when I was weighed and measured in second grade we girls were told to strip to our underwear, stand in line, and wait our turn on the scale.
I remember it well. The school nursed who frighteningly towered over all of us bellowed, “Next.” I approached the official doctor style scale and timidly climbed on. The nurse fiddled with the iron weight and once it held steady, she roared for all the world to hear, as her very quiet assistant charted it for the official records, “Taylor, 112.”
There I stood, not so tall, seven years old, 112 pounds. I was the fat one. “Next.”
I understand that Principal Daily with the school board will be discussing the matter at an upcoming meeting, at which time they will decide whether to continue weighing children. My vote: A Big FAT NO to weighty shame and humiliation!
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Janice Taylor
Weight Loss Coach, Hypnotherapist,
Happiness Expert, Author, Artist, Positarian