ARHS
These days if you have a problems with a decision made by a government or corporate entity, the quickest way to demonstrate that displeasure is to start a petition.
Of course back in the old days you actually had to put pen to paper and someone had to carry that paper around to each individual signer. Thank God -- or Al Gore -- for the Internet.
By almost all accounts the sudden implementation of the nut ban (pause for Amherst joke) has been handled horribly. The schools (and town) really need to hire a PR person.
Maybe I'll start a petition.
How the Peanut Allergy would be dealt with at UMass.
ReplyDelete1: Refuse to do anything notwithstanding plea of affected individuals.
2: Require them to eat peanut butter even though you don't even require everyone else to eat it.
3: Tell them that you'd agree to not make them do it if they only could provide sufficient documentation that they are allergic to peanut butter.
4: Call their allergic reaction to the peanut butter you forced them to eat a "suicide attempt" and have the police arrest them & cart them off to the psych ward.
5: Kick them out of school for not showing up at a judicial hearing you held while they were locked up in the psych ward.
6: Proclaim to all how "socially just" you are.
And folks, this is just about how those schumcks and schmuckettes would handle something like this.
If you think Maria G is bad (and she's no shining star), you ain't seen nothing until you have seen The Swamp Creatures of the Purgatorial Cesspool.
(And you wondered why Enku wears knee-high boots...)
Too bad no one told the parents that they were looking at nut allergies. Too bad no one listened to the school nurses. Too bad they won't reconsider the policy. Too bad, again.
ReplyDeleteDr. Ed is Larry's CASH COW.
ReplyDeleteLarry's blog generates revenue from the amount of hits it gets, and advertising.
Dr.Ed is a complete idiot who feeds off his own ignorance and being a blowhard.
People keep coming to Larry's blog to see what stupidity Dr. Ed can come up with next.
The more Dr. Ed spews, the more people look at Larry's site.
In larry's world that means "Cha-Ching" more cash. Thus creating a (CASH COW).
So logic dictates;
Larry feeds off Dr. Ed and promotes his rantings. So much for all the rightous bullshit he so dearly promotes.
I really doubt anyone but Larry will even read this.
This is actually a Very funny headline, Larry!
ReplyDeleteAnon 8:54 a.m.
ReplyDeleteI think you've got it all wrong. I think that Dr. Ed's rants are a net minus for Larry's blog. My guess is that very few people are taking the time to read them, AND that some people have given up on the blog because of them.
My sense is that this is where Larry's belief in free speech trumps his profit motive. Ed's contributions are like algae accumulating in a lake.
Ed, despite the fact that this isn't about Umass or you, I will point out that all of the local colleges, including Umass, handle food allergies quite well. They are also very good at providing vegetarian meals and accomodate whatever other dietary restrictions are needed.
ReplyDeleteI will be sad if Ed ever leaves Amherst. Has anyone heard from David Hunt '90 recently?
ReplyDeleteKris '11
Dr. Ed? Who's he?
ReplyDeleteMaria Geryk called the nut ban "successful" in the recent Gazette article and I started laughing. As a high school student, I can tell you that nobody is following the policy, and the teachers don't care. I see people with peanut butter containers, nut bars and just bags of nuts. The ban is stupid and pointless, and although it had good intentions, I think it was a pointless mistake. I have a very good friend who has severe allergies to peanuts and she says that the ban is stupid. Poor choice Amherst!
ReplyDeleteInteresting to see the superintendent's spouse's name on this petition. He wrote "I disagree with the implementation of the guideline" -- wow!-- I wonder how MG feels about this especially given her objections to the slightest questioning of her decisions/policies by others, such as school committee members. In the petition comment, he does go on to say that "I also do not wish to see the hundred or so students with severe peanut allergies separated from their friends and peers at lunch and snack time, and I don't have a solution for that to offer.."
ReplyDeleteWho is the super's spouse?
ReplyDeleteHooray for spousal independence! I think it speaks well of their marriage.
Ever seen the movie "Adam's Rib" starring Hepburn and Tracy?
Anon 9:50 is correct. When I joked with my high schooler about the kids leaving all their peanut Halloween candy at home, I was told they all took it to school anyway. While we have stopped sending nut products to school I am sure others still are. I hope the kids with allergies don't get a false sense of security.
ReplyDeleteSo, those comments give us our first and only look at a possible number of kids in the district who may have nut allergies. What a round about way to have to get information. These questions have been asked of the Superintendent, but have not been replied to.
ReplyDeleteBig headline in Section C of the Daily Hampshire Gazette this morning: Eat More Nuts.
ReplyDeleteThe ban on nuts in Amherst is absurd and not well thought out. Hope the School Committee can figure out a way to step in and rescind the ban. I am one of the parents who is forced to send their child to school with cheese Its for a snack. Would rather send in a hand full of nuts instead. Something with actual nutritional value.
My elementary school child tells me that the peanut free tables still exist for the kids with allergies, so one stated goal of the ban--getting rid of those tables--is not even being implemented.
ReplyDeleteWhat about having a nut-free tables and tables of nuts? Kids with allergies could sit anywhere but just be extra careful when they are around nuts, just like they are for their whole day anyway.
ReplyDeleteYou can't ban nuts in Amherst because if you did Führer Geryk would be out of a job.
ReplyDeleteAnyone get a laugh out of the new (December implemented no less) way of keeping the kids out of the schools in the morning since there is no one to watch them. Now all kids will march around the school buildings.
"Students who need to eat breakfast will still come in the building after 8:30 and have a supervised meal in the cafeteria. All other students will drop off items in the lobby (if necessary) and go back outside to begin walking around our building, supervised by adults stationed outside.
This program will hopefully allow for two things to occur:
Increase academic engagement and success. School aged children who started their morning off with vigorous physical activity while waiting for classes to start showed results of improved focus and attentiveness, and decreased overall behavioral problems (Quick, 2008).
Improve overall health of our students. An increase in physical activity will be used to aid in the battle of childhood obesity and support students to develop a routine for daily exercise."
Heinrich Himmler will run the program and children’s loyalty will be developed with a policy of indoctrination.
This proves anything is possible - for the first time, I am on the same page as Wally. The new MANDATORY walking program at Fort River School, to be implemented on December 2nd. I am totally opposed to the mandatory nature of this program. If kids want to walk around a school building for 15 minutes every morning, fine, let them. But to force EVERYONE to do this smacks of a totalitarian regime. I hope the cafeteria stocks up on extra breakfast food - especially on really cold days. I can imagine there will be many more kids eating breakfast in the morning then there used to be.
ReplyDeleteBTW - this is not a district wide program so it is not something that Ms. Geryk is implementing. This really bad idea is all Monica Colley's idea, who by the way, just left for maternity leave. So, its the vice principal who is stuck holding the bag on this one.
If you want kids to have some physical activity in the morning, let them play on the playground before starting their day. This is what the kids in South Hadley do. But a forced walking program. Can you picture it? Kids forced to march around their school building. Will they be in single file? Will they be allowed to talk to their friends during this mandatory physical activity period? Again, you want to give kids an option to do this, let them. But do not force everyone to do it.
No, it is not a district wide plan. It was started at Wildwood"
ReplyDelete"This is a successful program at Wildwood, and we are modeling our system after theirs (thanks, Wildwood!)."
As a result of all the teachers being forced into early meeting and no one to mind the shop now Fort River will join the walking revolution and soon more. BTW A fantastic outdoor program to initiate during the coldest months of the year, isn't it?
Next will be mandatory shoveling of snow. Then mandatory painting of the classrooms, all under the guise of "ain't health a healthy thing" aka these schools are a madhouse in the morning with the new school schedule where teachers are locked up till 8:45 so we'll lock the 'animals' outside.