62 replies to this topic

[Fatal]

Well for those of you in the US, you should know soda was banned from all schools in a lot of states 3 years ago, do you think they should allow soda, or keep the ban on soda in schools?


My view on this is, they took out the soda, and replaced it with something almost as bad or worse (the energy drinks they sell). They're still full of sugar and have even more sodium than the soda's did, so I think this is pointless, US really doesnt seem so free anymore, We have the safety police making sure we dont harm ourselves at all times and it gets annoying

Edited by Fatal, 15 October 2007 - 02:35 PM.

[Kyle]

Soda was banned? My school still sells it...

I think its the persons choice. I never drink pop, but I should have the right to whenever I want.

[Bryan]

Er, I'm pretty sure it's only Public Schools, and still it doesn't make much of a difference.

Kids will do what they want, and all schools do is make the parents think they have control.

But honestly, it's just soda, aint no big deal...

[Black Flame]

My school still has it, but it's only in the vending machines and machines that sell soda are locked until 2:30pm, when school ends. For lunch time, they sell juice, milk, and shit.

I don't really have a problem with it being sold in schools, in fact I agree that it's better than energy drinks in some instances.

[Plew]

My school banned soda. but they still have carbonated juice. i dont see the difference but whatever. i think its a good idea to ban soda. hteres a ton of fat kids that cant survive without it. and its funny to watch all the sugar deprived kids walk around

[Bryan]

My school banned soda. but they still have carbonated juice. i dont see the difference but whatever. i think its a good idea to ban soda. hteres a ton of fat kids that cant survive without it. and its funny to watch all the sugar deprived kids walk around

Actually put thought into your response.

The big deal with Soda isn't sugar.

Edited by Bryan, 15 October 2007 - 02:37 PM.

[Fatal]

Actually put thought into your response.

The big deal with Soda isn't sugar.

what is then? I believe sugar is the biggest reason...

[Stryyp]

Alot of kids are quite sensitive to sugar andcaffeine, making them hyper and absent minded when those is consumed. They cannot focus as well and are wasting time that could otherwise be spent doing productive activities, such as paying attention in class. If a kid sits in his seat shuffling his feet, staring at the clock just waiting for class to get out, has he really learned anything, or just wasted a teachers time?

I guess instead of just trusting kids to not drink soda right before class and actually drink something that isn't really bad for you, they are removing that choice and just getting rid of them all together =S

Assuming that is part of the logic behind it (Just speculating), I can kind of see where they are coming from, but I do not think they should be banned =S

Edited by HydroLink64, 15 October 2007 - 02:47 PM.

[emme80]

Alot of kids are quite sensitive to sugar andcaffeine, making them hyper and absent minded when those is consumed. They cannot focus as well and are wasting time that could otherwise be spent doing productive activities, such as paying attention in class. If a kid sits in his seat shuffling his feet, staring at the clock just waiting for class to get out, has he really learned anything, or just wasted a teachers time?

I guess instead of just trusting kids to not drink soda right before class and actually drink something that isn't really bad for you, they are removing that choice and just getting rid of them all together =S

Assuming that is part of the logic behind it (Just speculating), I can kind of see where they are coming from, but I do not think they should be banned =S

yes. i heard something like that from the princapal when they took our pop/soda away. But they still have the vending machines, but are off until school is over, which just tells me you can drink all the pop you want and the schools will take all the money they can get their hands on, just don't plan on having a sugar high during classes...

[Akira]

It actually came from parents complaining that their children were being given the option to be unhealthy.

Personally, here's my two cents:

There were gas stations that sold soda that were literally less than two minutes away from the school. Kids brought sodas in from outside every day. Instead of having the money go to the school, it went to gas stations.

The carbonated energy drinks that were sold in the cafeteria to replace the sodas were actually less healthy and less tasty. Everything else was either pumped full of chemicals, or it was water from the water fountain. Nasty crap.

Whenever there was a party, we got soda. Anyone see an issue with this?

Instead of teaching the kids to make smarter health choices, they were literally depriving them of soda. Without the choice to make the choice on their own, teens wanted to naturally rebel and drink soda. In addition to that, kids would get out of school and think that soda was extra awesome after a day of shitty drinks. Now that I'm in culinary school, I find that I drink maybe two sodas in a week, and I drink a lot more cranberry juice and water. We have full access to soda machines AND free soda every day. If the option is there, people are less inclined to abuse it.

On that note, however, I do remember something funny:

I was in an after school club (if I hadn't joined, I wouldn't have made it into Culinary school >.>) called 'Envirothon'. This ridiculously chubby boy was in it for the first time, and I was sitting there drinking some shitty flavored water, when I made the comment that I could really go for a coke (since the drink I had sucked). Chubbykins stated "Yeah, dude, I really want a coke, too. I had a coke for breakfast and my mom packed one for lunch, but I can't BELIEVE that they removed soda...I SO need one right now." I stared at chubby-wubby for a few minutes to see if he was kidding, and when I saw that he was dead serious, I had to leave the room to stop myself from screaming at him. Boy did it disgust me...yet made me laugh at the same time o.O

[Stryyp]

yes. i heard something like that from the princapal when they took our pop/soda away. But they still have the vending machines, but are off until school is over, which just tells me you can drink all the pop you want and the schools will take all the money they can get their hands on, just don't plan on having a sugar high during classes...

Precisely, they just care what you do while you are their responsibility.

In my state, we have the FCAT, which is the "Florida (something) assessment test", I think, which is pretty much a useless test, but it determines the future of the school if the kids score low. That is why the schools are only teaching what the kids need to know to pass the FCAT, which many teachers are griping about. That is another discussion for another time, though =P

Pretty much if they aren't focusing because (<-- allegedly) of the drinks, they will not do well on the FCAT, or whatever the test is for your state.

[Akira]

Precisely, they just care what you do while you are their responsibility.

In my state, we have the FCAT, which is the "Florida (something) assessment test", I think, which is pretty much a useless test, but it determines the future of the school if the kids score low. That is why the schools are only teaching what the kids need to know to pass the FCAT, which many teachers are griping about. That is another discussion for another time, though =P

Pretty much if they aren't focusing because (<-- allegedly) of the drinks, they will not do well on the FCAT, or whatever the test is for your state.

They had a similar test in Maryland, too. Essentially, if we scored low, they cut funding. So...we were taught for tests. I don't know shit about Chemistry, Algebra II, Geometry, Biology, or Physics because of it, but they don't much care. Teachers raised a ruckus, though; it didn't seem right to raise kids to be inherently dumb. Alas, that is the way of the system; bark over the next generation, then dump all of your problems onto them.

[Gargar]

All baning soda would do at my school is make me bring my own which i normaly do because i can get a big bottle which i pour into normal bottles for the same price my school charges for a normal bottle.

So are they going to ban french fries and brownies at school next?

[Akira]

What I don't get is that they can justify banning soda while serving us those disturbing cafeteria meals o.O The pizza slices they gave us needed to be -patted down- with napkins to remove all of the excess grease...and I won't even TOUCH the other food and how nasty it was >.>

[Grizzly]

Trust me on this, soda is on many different levels worse than sports drinks, regardless of whether you think sports drinks are bad or not.
But I don't think it should be banned. Obesity and unhealthy habits start way younger and usually at home.. they should concentrate on that age groups.. not high schools in which students are prepared for college...

[Fatal]

There is absolutely no need to sell soda or any sugary/unhealthy drink at school. It's counter-productive in terms of the student's attention, and general health. I also disagree with selling shitty foods like chips and fried foods, etc as well.

They should sell plain milk, water (although really there's no need to 'sell' water when there's fountains), and fruit juice that has not had sugar or anything else *added* naturally occurring sugars in fruit juice is a good way to get the small amount of sugar you actually need in the day.

While you can say that you should be given the right to choose what you drink, that's not the case with young people. You don't have the right to choose to drink alcohol because it's not healthy for young people. You don't have the right to smoke or to have sex until you're a certain age because kids and young adults don't have the capability to make the right choices in the majority of cases.

During the school day, the teachers and principle are in charge of you. They get to make the decision on what you can and can't eat like a parent would/should before and after school hours. If the parent allows their child to have soda after school then that's their decision, but at school there is no reason to be slack when there are clearly problems that stem directly from soda/sugary/caffeine drinks in young people.

I dont believe in any drinking age limits if there was going to be one, I would say make drinking at 16 or 18, at the most extreme, 18, becuase I like how I can die in a war before I can drink alcohol

[Akira]

And...it's not like they don't do it. Kids as young as 12 in my area were smoking, drinking vodka, having sex, and smoking pot. I'm pretty certain that NONE of that was legal. They even brought vodka into school via water bottle, but we'll be damned if they drink a soda!

It always seemed like cutting off one thing caused many more things to come...if a kid wants something, they're gonna get it....don't matter what rules there are.

Not sayin' the soda is any less bad for you, but that would be like saying all kids want to be healthy. I showed an interest in my health, but most drinks didn't taste right to me. For a while, I just drank carbonated water, plain or with a bit of lemon flavor and that was it, because I mostly drink soda for that fizz. In fact, I usually can't drink coke because it tastes too sweet.

If you look around, you can probably find some locally made drinks that aren't bad at all. I had a locally made orange soda that was made from oranges, a dash of lemon, and cane sugar. It tasted delicious, and it had next to no sodium, calories, or sugar. There was a local soda that tasted exactly like coke that had 20% of the sodium and sugars that was made with cane sugar.

It all depends on where you get it. If you dig deep, you can find local, good tasting soda. If you're lazy, you can find a coke.

[Tetiel]

Right. I don't see the big deal. It's just AT SCHOOL. They are not banning you from bringing it to school. You can just as easily bring it from home. It's just that if you want to buy your drink at school you have to buy (at least this was the case at my school in Washington) juice (had to contain a certain percentage), diet soda, or water. Energy drinks were not going to be sold. Again I don't see the freedom arguments. It's a school. They can choose to sell whatever they want.

What I object to the most in my school was the lack of healthy foods in the vending machine. If I was really hungry during the day I could not eat anything except chips or candy. It was unfortunate that was my only choice. I'd much rather be served healthy food than vending machines full of unhealthy food. I mean all I wanted was some peanuts >_<

[Ives]

To start out, theres no point of using the money for sodas towards the school if we're gonna keep on subsidizing the schools when we should be subsidizing the kids and the teachers, two people which deserve to have a choice in their curic. Schools should be privately ran and kids should be given choice of what to do with their voucher (if they drop out, it can be a useful investment as well.) Now, moving onto sodas in school, the actual topic. No, soda in school shouldn't be banned. If you truly respect kids, you should respect that theyre intelligent enough to know the nutritional value, or lack thereof, that come with white sugar consumption, and that they can make that choice for themselves. Some kids will say that because its so available at school its too good to resist, but to say these people should sacrifice the enjoyment of others - who can just buy sodas at the store anyways, because they have a bad habit, its ridiculous. A bad habit should be handled through helping yourself. Whatever it is, ultimately its the schools choice.

To what tetiel said, yeah - any wise school should have a healthy alternative. I'm not saying state legislation is the answer, but the general incentive should be increased and the costs should be as low. For example, I had junk food in my school, lots of it, but there was salad and a lot of healthy vitamin rich stuff. But the cost was too high. Why pay 5.00 for a salad when I can get two slices of Pizza for 2.00? Ridiculous. Ultimately, what I did to lose weight when I was a bit of a lardass (around 8th, 9th grade) was to bring a bulk of food that I could eat in between class that wouldnt take a toll - nuts and slices of fruit.

Edited by Athean, 16 October 2007 - 04:15 PM.

[Nick]

I go to a boarding school, we have soda, and I would die without the caffeine.

[nox]

they have soda vending machines and fountain soda at my school. but that's not the problem to be addressed, the food served is. i wouldn't be surprised if my school has the most unhealthy food in the state for sale - pizza, fried chicken, french fries, burgers, ice cream, etc. the only healthy things are old salad containers, and that's because nobody buys them. but..it's catholic school so they can do what they want

[Fatal]

Actually both school's i've been to with banned soda both prohibit you from bring your own soda, they simply tell you to throw it away and if you dont you get in trouble We CAN bring energy drinks from home though....

[Jewbert]

I'm sure it's already been said, buuut...

I don't think it's necessary to sell crappy snacks at schools. Chips, cookies, sodas.... It's all non nutritious.
They do it all just to make monehh because they sell//once sold tons of the stuff.

BUT.

They can bring the stuff from home! (granted the parents buy the kind of food...)
And if not, they will probably have friends SOMEwhere to bring them something.
Who knows.
I know if kids have access to it away from school, they're still going to eat//drink the crap.
And a LOT of parents out there don't give a shit about their health or their children's.

Oh well.
It doesn't matter to me because I'm not in high school anymore && didn't drink soda when I was there.

[Fatal]

Schools should be able to sell any kind of food no matter how unhealthy, just they should at least have healthy options available. This is america, we're supposed to be free to make our own choices, not have our choices made for us

[DudeOnline]

I believe that when you are in school your mind should be in school too, not on a caffiene buzz, which studies do show is counter productive.

nothing isnt saying you cant have soda when you get home from school either...