My colleague wrote an article called Getting Weighed at School. In the article she explains how her children from the grades of 3 thru 12 were getting weighed at school and given their Body Mass Index number. She also explained how her son started to stop eating breakfast and lunch due to the pressure of being weighed at school. The school is weighing all children regardless of being obese yet admitted they wanted children to see they were obese. I am not sure about you but I am completely appalled at this. My children are homeschooled so I am unaware if the schools in my area are weighing children. I cannot see the benefit in weighing a child at school other than to humiliate the child who is overweight or impress upon children the wrong body image. I also think it is none of the school’s business what my child weighs.
Childhood obesity is a real issue today. More children are obese than ever. To fight obesity education is needed but not weighing in. A child can be negatively impacted by being forced to weigh in. An overweight child is likely to crumble under the pressure and implement unhealthy and even dangerous weight loss methods. A child who struggles with self image will feel even more pressure to skip a meal or have the idea reinforced that skinny is best. My 6 year old just said that skinny is pretty and we never speak like that in my home. However, with outside influences and possibly or most likely my 30 pounds of extra weight struggle she is getting that impression. Weighing in at schools will only add to that and increase the anxiety of weight issues for children.
If schools want to do something positive to encourage a healthy body weight they can stop serving junk food and get rid of the soda machines in their hallways. The schools can offer healthy selections and focus on nutrition in health class. The school has no right to weigh children for their medical “benefit”. This is overstepping their bounds and I implore you to call your school system if this is going on with your children.