The Weight of Depression
The Weight of Depression
By Kevin Mahoney
“Six-year-old Karlind Dunbar barely touched her dinner, but not for time-honored 6-year-old reasons. The pasta was not the wrong shape. She did not have an urgent date with her dolls.” (1). Dunbar is refusing dinner because in her recent report card she not only found her grades on conduct and counting, but her body mass scale, an 85%. Students in Dunbar’s school whose body mass index that were lower than 5% percent and higher than 80%, parents received letters of warning. Translation on a six year old level: my teacher thinks I’m fat. While the intentions behind these letters are moral, it is debatable that the distributions of the warning are insensitive. Although these warning have been adopted in multiple states, many of the parents at Karlind’s school were outraged when they noticed a change in their eating habits. Many of the students have also noticed an increase in teasing of over or underweight students, not only on an elementary, but junior and high school level. Many of us know that teasing amongst students can sometimes have consequential, if not deadly consequences.
On April 20, 1999 a mass murder at Columbine High School shocked the country. Two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, ran through the halls shooting and killing any students who got in their way, or did not obey their command. Although there were many subjects that sparked the massacre, such as violent video games, school bullying was the true motive of the boys’ rampage. After the mass execution, an increase in school unity was made throughout the nation at hopes that the warfare that happened at Columbine, would never happen again. Although it is impractical to state that body mass reports are the reason for school massacres, this odes not mean the teasing it could result in could have a deadly outcome.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/08/health/08obesity.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=sloginhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre
By Kevin Mahoney
“Six-year-old Karlind Dunbar barely touched her dinner, but not for time-honored 6-year-old reasons. The pasta was not the wrong shape. She did not have an urgent date with her dolls.” (1). Dunbar is refusing dinner because in her recent report card she not only found her grades on conduct and counting, but her body mass scale, an 85%. Students in Dunbar’s school whose body mass index that were lower than 5% percent and higher than 80%, parents received letters of warning. Translation on a six year old level: my teacher thinks I’m fat. While the intentions behind these letters are moral, it is debatable that the distributions of the warning are insensitive. Although these warning have been adopted in multiple states, many of the parents at Karlind’s school were outraged when they noticed a change in their eating habits. Many of the students have also noticed an increase in teasing of over or underweight students, not only on an elementary, but junior and high school level. Many of us know that teasing amongst students can sometimes have consequential, if not deadly consequences.
On April 20, 1999 a mass murder at Columbine High School shocked the country. Two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, ran through the halls shooting and killing any students who got in their way, or did not obey their command. Although there were many subjects that sparked the massacre, such as violent video games, school bullying was the true motive of the boys’ rampage. After the mass execution, an increase in school unity was made throughout the nation at hopes that the warfare that happened at Columbine, would never happen again. Although it is impractical to state that body mass reports are the reason for school massacres, this odes not mean the teasing it could result in could have a deadly outcome.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/08/health/08obesity.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=sloginhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre
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