Our
view
Ban
on soda equals lost profit
Amid all the petty or maybe not so petty
things that we as college students have
to complain about, now we have something
to be thankful for. We should all give thanks
to the gods of the carbonated beverages
that we still maintain our right to drink
soda whenever we please. For this much cannot
be said for the unfortunate students within
the Los Angeles Unified School District.
That’s right, in an effort to curb obesity
among youths, the sale of all carbonated
drinks during school hours is to be banned
in the LAUSD.
Approximately 748,000 elementary through
high school students can no longer enjoy
that afternoon pick-me-up that used to get
them through fifth and sixth period. Students
will now have to wash down their candy bars,
donuts, cupcakes, cookies, pizza, French
fries and deep fried hot lunches with a
healthier alternative such as milk, water
or juice.
That should do the trick.
One glance at a school menu will tell you
that the problem of obesity will not be
curbed by the absence of soda on campus.
The only number that’s going to significantly
decrease is the amount of school profit
derived from the sale of sodas. And for
what, the pretense of a healthier, more
nourishing lunch menu?
Perhaps if the school eliminated all of
the deep fried, frosted and processed unhealthy
foods from it’s menu, sold only carrots
and tofu, and set up a bunch of running
wheels, (like those for mice, only bigger)
and made students run in them for 50 minutes
everyday, we might begin to see a decrease
in obesity. But we would most definitely
also see a sharp increase in the levels
of truancy.
But no, obesity is the fault of the soda
companies. Forget about the endless hours
students spend every week watching television,
playing video games or sitting at a computer,
and don’t mention the ever diminishing amount
of family time available for sitting down
at a dinner table to eat a well-balanced
meal. Now most meals are on the go, if not
pre-prepared frozen dinners, take-out or
fast food. But, let’s not worry about all
that and just point the finger at the soda
companies. It’s their fault.
Apart from the health aspect of the soda
ban there is another issue that should be
addressed.
Great deals of the “children” who will be
affected by the soda ban are high school
students. These students get themselves
out of bed in the morning, dress themselves,
drive, ride or walk to school, go to class,
do homework, many of them even have jobs.
If they are responsible enough to do these
things, then it is evident that they should
be allowed to decide if they would like
to drink a beverage that may not be the
healthiest for them. They are faced with
more difficult and life altering decisions
everyday.
In school and outside of school these students
are constantly told to act mature and be
responsible; they are admonished for acting
like children. It is an observed fact that
people, especially young people, act in
a way that matches how they are treated.
If they were treated as though they were
intelligent and worthy of praise, they will
feel and act intelligent and worthy of praise.
In the same way, if the students are treated
as if they were little children incapable
of making their own beverage decisions,
then they will act as such.
Also, lets not forget that the nature of
the teen-ager is to buck the system. If
teen-agers want soda at school, they’re
going to get it.
Some of the more enterprising individuals
will probably even start up their own businesses
selling Pepsi straight out of their backpacks
at $2 a can. All they have to do is pick
up a 24-pack at the liquor store on the
corner before school, pass around a few
notes and whispers before lunch to circulate
the news that the goods are in, and if they
sell out, that’s $48 in the pocket. Not
a bad day’s work, and what a profit margin.
No one is saying that soda is beneficial
to the body. Ok, so it’s somewhat unhealthy,
but so are many of the other food items
sold in schools that the average student
consumes in a day. People should not go
around banning perfectly legal foods in
schools just because they may be unhealthy.
The benefits of LAUSD’s ban on carbonated
beverages are not worth the amount of profit
that the school will loose in lieu of the
new policy. The ban may even have adverse
effects that no one took into account during
the planning and passing of this worthless
motion.
|
