Last week, an Op/Ed was written about children receiving “fat letters” from their school to bring home to their parents if the school saw the kids as unhealthy, or overweight.

This has caused issues within school systems and with the children themselves. According to CNN, children as young as three years old are worried about their weight. They recognize “skinny” as good and “fat” as bad.

The health of these children is determined by the Body Mass Index scale, which measures height against weight to determine health.

Schools are a place where students learn and grow so having their health be a concern does not seem too out of place. School is a safe haven for some and many children rely on school to receive the majority of their care.

Even though it is not a teacher’s direct duty to make sure students are safe and fed, it is something that they have been accustomed to doing, even when it comes to a student’s weight.

But for others, the fact that schools are sending home letters about children’s weight is crossing a line.  For some, schools have no say in what a child’s health should look like.

Some think that a children’s weight is not any of the schools business and subjects such as that should be left to the child’s family.

If the school were to send home a letter they should not send it home with the child, they should mail it to the child’s house.

This is because giving a child a “fat letter” right in front of their other classmates can result in bullying. It is also not necessary for the child to know that they are overweight.  A child should not have to be subject to seeing this information about
themselves.

If schools are so concerned over a child’s weight, they should take into consideration what they are feeding the students while they are in their care. Healthy meals should be provided and enough time during recess to get exercise should also be important.

The only problem with healthy food is that it costs so much more than less nutritious food. Many times, schools are given subsidies for unhealthy food, so to a certain point, schools can only do as much as they can with what they have.

Something else that is very important to note is that no one should be calling anyone fat or overweight. These terms don’t need to be said directly to anyone, especially children.

The BMI scale is also a problem, because it only measures height against weight. It does not take into consideration muscle mass or any other aspect that contributes to a
person’s weight.

If a school wants to do a health test they should make it more inclusive and more realizable than just looking at a BMI scale. They should test a child’s athletic ability during gym classes and measure health
that way.