A school district in the suburbs of Seattle has outlawed birthday cakes and other birthday sweets from all elementary school parties.
The ban is part of a broader set of wellness and nutrition policies by the Edmonds School District, where officials are blaming new federal wellness guidelines, reports Seattle CBS affiliate KIRO.
According to school district officials, the new federal wellness guidelines require schools to scrutinize what children are eating.
Rather than pieces of cake or cupcakes, district bureaucrats say, students can now enjoy pencils or perhaps handmade cards on birthdays.
Some parents are unhappy about the sweets ban.
“It’s not necessarily the district’s job to control that, to take away from everybody,” parent Marcus Shelton told local Fox affiliate KCPQ. “It’s overreaching.”
Thus far, the district has received three written complaints.
Other parents think the ban is a fine idea.
“Because there are so many birthdays throughout the year and they are getting treats throughout the year, I am fine with it. I don’t think it’s a big deal,” satisfied mom Lea Agol told the Fox station.
School district spokeswoman DJ Jakala suggested that the district concluded that too much cake could cause kids to act up.
“In a week, say you have three kids who have birthdays — you do see a change of behavior in the classroom,” she told KCPQ.
It’s not clear how many weeks in a school year a single class sees three birthdays (or why teachers wouldn’t combine those birthdays). A typical school year is nearly 40 weeks long.
District officials noted that students will still receive sweet treats chosen by school employees during three parties interspersed throughout the school year.
If there’s one thing school officials and school district bureaucrats love to do, it’s finding new and exciting things to ban.
Earlier this month, a San Antonio mother was furious because officials at her 10-year-old daughter’s elementary school prohibited sunscreen during a field trip. The poor kid came home crispily sunburned. A school district spokeswoman defended the ban because the district considers sunscreen a medication. (RELATED: School Sunscreen Ban Causes 10-Year-Old Girl To Get FRIED On Field Trip)
Last month, a flyer for a Michigan elementary school’s field day attempted to ban competition by warning parents that their children should not try to win any of the events. “Since we believe that all of our children are winners, the need for athletic ability and the competitive ‘urge to win’ will be kept to a minimum,” the flyer threatened. The public-school flyer also promised “a carnival like [sic] atmosphere.” (RELATED: Grade School Field Day Flyer Warns Parents: ‘Competitive Urge To Win Will Be Kept To A Minimum’)
Also last month, officials at an affluent Rhode Island middle school tried to ban a traditional honors night because rewarding students who do well is “exclusive.” A couple days later, in the face of embarrassing national ridicule, the officials reinstituted the honors night. (RELATED: School That Banned Honors Night For Being Too ‘Exclusive’ Decides Not To Be National Laughingstock)
In March 2013, officials at an elementary school in small-town Michigan impounded a third-grader boy’s batch of 30 homemade birthday cupcakes because they were adorned with “insensitive” plastic figurines representing World War Two soldiers. (RELATED: School Confiscates Third-Grader’s Cupcakes Topped With Toy Soldiers)
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