Healing begins

Q-Line

The SMMUSD Board of Education last week promised changes in curriculum and training in the wake of an alleged racially-motivated incident at Santa Monica High School.

So, this week’s Q-line question asks:

What steps do you think are in order?

Here are your responses:

“Another laughable example of the SMMUSD school board incompetence. The lackluster Samohi principal, Mr. Pedroza, and the superintendent, Mr. Cuneo, will be the fall guys. Mr. Pedroza has his walking papers to the city of Lompoc and the superintendent’s three-year retirement enrichment program both to educational oblivion. Like so many others they punch their tickets and move on. How many of you remember being young? Youth is full of repressed energy, especially a wrestling team. Have any of you seen “Smackdown” on TV? Coach Black did the right thing when he told the students to lay off this horse stuff. Sadly, now with professional haters like the NAACP, Urban League and Pico Youth & Family Center you have a mountain out of a mole hill. Scum sucking lawyers advocating financial justice will pressure the weak school board to institute sensitivity, cultural and financial disparity and potty training to our students. This episode is just youthful energy. A former administrator told me this is a teachable student moment. I think adults have more to learn.”

“I saw on the television what is happening with the school board and I was absolutely horrified. You know the Indians were here first and of course the Mexicans. We need to treat people with respect. So, I think it’s in order to find out about what’s going on and get to it.”

“What steps are in order? Fire those that directed students to delete photos from their cell phones, then identify them so the police can arrest them. The school principal and superintendent should resign, pack their bags, and slink out of town like the scumballs they are.”

“To be honest, I think no steps are in order. And I think SMMUSD has always had a tolerance for such acts to take place. I know. I was a little kid there when I was persecuted for my learning disability, and the supervisor on duty simply looked the other way.”

Here are some responses left over from the prior week’s Q-line question regarding flavored milk in schools:

“Flavored milk has been around for decades. I grew up on it, my kids grew up on it and we’re all fine and healthy. All food consumed should be done in moderation, including ‘healthy food.’ If the sole purpose of eating was to simply sustain our bodies with fuel, then we wouldn’t need tastebuds and there would be no need for the culinary arts or flavored milk.”

“I believe it is absolutely ridiculous that parents are asking to ban flavored milk from the school menu. For some students it is the only form of calcium, vitamin D, E and protein that they receive daily. I have even been hearing rumors that there is caffeine in the chocolate milk. I work in the Food and Nutrition Services Department and I can assure you that there is no caffeine added or otherwise in chocolate milk. Recently, the school food service departments have been getting a bad rap. The School Food Service director of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, Orlando Griego, and the Nutrition Specialist Dona Richwine work very hard to make sure that the menus contain nutritionally sound and healthy options for all students, chocolate milk being one of those items. The American Academy of Pediatrics states that if flavored milk is the only way your child will drink milk, be assured that research demonstrates that consuming either flavored or plain milk does not adversely affect body mass index measurements in children. Further, flavored milks can help your child meet her recommended daily dairy servings. The AAP 2006 report on optimizing bone health recommends consuming low-fat or fat-free flavored milks, cheeses, and yogurts containing modest amounts of added sugars to meet calcium recommendations in children. It would be a huge disservice to our youth (for health reasons) if we eliminate flavored milk from schools. Especially for those children whose parents do not monitor their child’s eating habits to make sure that they receive calcium, vitamin D and E and protein in their daily diet. In this day and age when our children are becoming obese due to inactivity, we should be focusing on getting our children up and out to play.”

“Generations of kids have been drinking chocolate milk, benefiting from the nutrition of milk without any adverse effects. Flavored milk doesn’t cause obesity, but sitting on their duffs in front of TVs, playing with video games, computers and iPhones, does. Get them moving into more physical activities to burn up the calories.”

“They had chocolate milk when I was a kid. It was lousy. It always tasted better when you mixed it yourself, with Nestle’s powder. The Hershey’s syrup may have been good on ice cream, but lousy for milk. Ovaltine was even worse. If kids want chocolate milk, all they have to do is what I did, take some of the Nestle’s powder from home.”

“When we were kids way back in B.C. (before computers), we ate potato chips, candy and chocolate milk by the quart and never got fat. We used to actually go outside and play ball, ride bikes and swim in the ocean. Now babies are already lost in cyber-land playing video games, texting and watching limitless videos. Many schools have done in mandatory P.E., and we blame them getting fat from chocolate milk! Parents and teachers need to take the kids phones away and shut off their video games and TV and tell them to go outside in the sunshine and run around. Take your kids to the playground and shoot baskets and throw the old football around with them and don’t rely on cyber toy baby-sitters to occupy your kids’ time and then wonder why they’re fat.”