Miscellaneous

Fatty Fatty Boom Ba Latty!

I don't know if they still do this or not, but a few years ago, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee pushed through legislation that required schools to grade a child's weight on their report cards, thinking it might decrease the state's problem with obesity (in fact, though it was very controversial, I think it worked in shaming some parents to lay off the Burger King).

But if you think that's bad, over in the United Kingdom, one set of parents is being threatened by social services, who told the parents that their six children would be taken away if they didn't get their weight under control.

Their parents have been told to send the children, the oldest of whom is 12, to dance and football lessons to shed pounds?or risk losing them.

The family claim the slimming deadline was set at a meeting with child protection officers last Thursday.

They say they were warned that all six children could be taken into care unless significant improvements are seen by June.

For the record, there's a 12 year old in the family who weighs 16 stone (which converts, roughly, into 220 pounds), a three-year old who weighs 56 pounds, and a 21-month old who weighs 26 pounds. In other words: Average weight for an American child.

Note: This sort of thing is not unheard of in the United States, either -- social services recently attempted to take a 250 pound nine-year-old away from her parents for neglect. (Hat Tip: Overlawyered.)

Full post as published by Quiz Law on March 24, 2008 (boomark / email).