Would you complain if dc's elem. school sold candy during the school day?

[JustMe]

Where to start and what to say? The past 2 days have just really sucked parenting-wise and in the process I find out that the 5th graders at my 1st grader's school sell chocolate bars to kids at school with no adult supervision to raise money for their field trip (I find this out, btw, b/c my 1st grader comes home with about 18 candy bars...turns out she took money from my purse to buy them, but that's another story). Among the things I am incensed about right now is the fact that the kids at this school eat really crappy breakfast (free and during instruction time),lunch, and snacl. I realize the school can't control this food, but to then sell candy bars on top of that? I talked to the principal and he told me he was going to tell the 5th graders they needed to let him know if any 1st grader bought more than $5 worth (I guess dd is not the only 1st grader to have done this, which made me feel very slightly better), but I still am very upset that they sell chocolate bars to kids (and by kids) during the school day. Would you continue to complain about this? If you have a kids in elem. school, do they sell candy during the day?

Please, let tomorrow be a better day!

[elizabethkott]

Yes, this would bug the HECK out of me.
What if there is something in the chocolate that triggers a FA? IMO, 1st graders aren't exactly equipped with the control to *not* buy the chocolate bar if it's presented to them by a cool, older 5th grader, kwim? This is like elementary peer pressure 101! I would get some other parents of 1st graders involved and get on the principal to set some parameters about when the candy can be sold AND that there must be adult supervision of all the transactions.

[hillview]

HUGELY annoy me and I'd complain.

Candy does not belong in schools IMO.
/hillary

[zoestargrove]

HUGELY annoy me and I'd complain.

Candy does not belong in schools IMO.
/hillary

DITTO everything Hillary said.

[Tondi G]

WOW... our school was doing a fundraising ice cream sale on Fridays when school let out. The principal decided they wanted a healthier option and ice cream went away in exchange for fruit juice, fruit, fruit rollups and granola bars (honestly I don't know if it is really that much better... it's all just sugar but it looks healthier I guess). When the school has a chocolate bar fundraiser the kids have to sell the bars ahead of time (outside of school), turn in their money and then deliver the bars when they come in. The principal needs to send the 5th graders home with those bars and have them sell them outside of school.

[infomama]

HUGELY annoy me and I'd complain.

Candy does not belong in schools IMO.
/hillary
:yeahthat:

[shawnandangel]

No I wouldn't complain, but I would understand why you would. It might bug me a little bit but not enough to talk to a school administrator about.

[TwinFoxes]

It would bug me that the older kids are selling it to the first graders! That's just wrong.

[JoyNChrist]

It would bug me a lot and I would definitely complain. And the $5 thing is a total cop-out...that's 5 chocolate bars! What 1st grader needs to eat 5 chocolate bars?

[codex57]

Would you still complain if it was privately organized? Like some enterprising kid/parent knew they needed money to go to some cool trip, so they organized on their own to do a candy sale? Basically, not school sanctioned but for a "good" cause that's school related.

[TwinFoxes]

Would you still complain if it was privately organized? Like some enterprising kid/parent knew they needed money to go to some cool trip, so they organized on their own to do a candy sale? Basically, not school sanctioned but for a "good" cause that's school related.

Dude, this would bug me more! Candy from who knows where? And the school either lets random people sell it, or they're clueless it's happening.

[egoldber]

Absolutely this would really, really bother me and I can't believe it isn't against school rules. Our district is not allowed to sell candy or soda to students during the school day.

[Carrots]

I do understand your frustration, but I am going to take a different "big picture" approach.

I feel badly that the school and school district cannot afford to send the 5th graders in your school on a field trip. It just shows how badly our cities and town funding is hurting right now - everywhere.

Yes, candy is not the preferable way to raise the $, but it is guaranteed to sell quickly. (Don't be mad, but I think it is hilarious that your 1st grader bought 18 bars! That is going to be a great story to tell in the future.)

Maybe the 5th graders were told not to sell it on the playground, maybe they weren't. I am sure there are some kids who's parents gave them some money to buy the candy from an older kid, so it is hard to police a sale like this.

Just a thought, you could always return the bars to the principal and call the $ your DD spent a "donation" to the 5th grade class field trip. The bars would be sold again (I am guessing they would be put out in the teacher's room and if I taught there, I would gobble up at least 1).

Maybe you could help the school with researching alternative ways to raise money for school field trips. That would be very proactive since you have kids moving through the school.

Again, I do see your aggravation with a candy fundraiser, kids selling it on the playground to younger kids and then you ending up with 18 bars. I just thought I would put a different spin on it.

:)

[hillview]

Would you still complain if it was privately organized? Like some enterprising kid/parent knew they needed money to go to some cool trip, so they organized on their own to do a candy sale? Basically, not school sanctioned but for a "good" cause that's school related.

Yes. I don't think candy sales belong in school.
/hillary

[JustMe]

Thanks for the replies. This really is not okay with me, and I do plan to address it, but really need to think about how and when in regard to the other significant issues going on with dd.


Would you still complain if it was privately organized? Like some enterprising kid/parent knew they needed money to go to some cool trip, so they organized on their own to do a candy sale? Basically, not school sanctioned but for a "good" cause that's school related.

To agree with others, yes, this would absolutely bother me even more and woudl actually be completely unacceptable to me, no gray area at all. The school event is a good cause to me, this is an extremely poor school, family income wise. However, I do not support selling candy on school grounds during school time...and in this school it seems even worse given the fact that kids are eating junk for breakfast, lunch, and snack (my opinion that its junk of course).

[Melaine]

Yes. I would complain.

[bubbaray]

Our district is not allowed to sell candy or soda to students during the school day.


:yeahthat:

They have even pulled junk food out of the vending machines. AFAIK, door to door candy sales/fundraisers are also prohibited. The teachers at our school are huge into healthy snacks.

There is also the food allergy issue -- most of the candy sales I've seen here from sports teams are chocolate with nuts. Our school district is supposed to be nut free.

[Karenn]

For me it would depend on a lot of things. I don't have a problem with the fifth grade class, as a whole, under the direct supervision of their teachers, setting up a table every few weeks or so to sell small treats to other students.

Where I used to teach, the fifth graders would do something like this every few weeks to raise money for their cross country trip. I never had a problem with it. The sales were well supervised. The fifth grade teachers were out with the kids while they sold the treats. No first grader would ever have been allowed to buy eighteen treats. The sales were only once a month at most and the treats were 25 cents a piece, maximum of two treats per child.

I'd be find with candy under those circumstances, though I'd probably prefer cookies or something like that. I'd not be happy about the set up mentioned by the OP. Big expensive candy bars, sold in bulk, apparently unsupervised would be a huge problem for me. I'm also not pleased with the fact that our school lunchroom sells "fruit" roll ups in the lunch room every. single. day. But candy sold on occassion in the way I described above probably wouldn't bug me.