PrintA Minor Breakfast Ban in Baltimore?
From the story on Baltimore's ABC2's web site: "Currently, businesses are not allowed to wait on students unaccompanied by a parent or adult from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on school days or risk a fine of up to $500 fine. The bill proposed by Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke would start the ban at 7:30 a.m." Supposedly, students are getting to school late because they're getting their breakfasts too late. I really wonder what percentage of students are affected. But more iimportantly to me is to agree with the merchants, in that this is a family issue and should be dealt with as such. Besides, is there a clause for homeschoolers? Anyway ... your thoughts?
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18 Comments:
Florida's schools are notoriously a joke so truancy is a huge problem here. I do not believe this policy is in effect here but I wish it were.
It's definitely a family issue. Let's face it...It's a sad day when we need TV commercials to remind our kids to "go out and play" and have a specific date for "family eat dinner together" night.
Progress is a wonderful thing - but the family as we knew it, is a casualty.
chiff0nade at 1:05PM on 04/15/08
I wish they would pass this ban in Seattle.
unarata at 1:23PM on 04/15/08
As a life-time resident of said Bodymore, Murderland, I understand from where the powers that be are coming with this. However just like everything else in this berg, the intent is good but the resulting action is f****d-up. The city council seems to be taking away the responsibility from the parents and placing it on the business owners. That is par for the course of this city. If you've watched the news at all you no doubt know that the City school system is in shambles. The latest incidents being students physically attacking teachers in the classroom. So while it seems to the average outsider that this action is unreasonable, it surprises no one who lives here. Apparently the city council would rather blame anyone but the parents.
RichardCrystal at 1:27PM on 04/15/08
I would have starved to death my junior and senior years.
ChelleyD01 at 1:29PM on 04/15/08
Here's the thing...It seems to me the hours they are trying to ban serving food to students are geared towards high school students (those that have lisences or know people that do). AKA-Cutters, skippers, etc. I really don't see the point of this ban. They are just going to go somewhere else-they don't want to be in class. This is not going to deter the students from cutting. Are food joints supposed to verify id now? If I was in the businesses affected by this, I'd have some major problems.
Another thing: some students co-op (go to school part of the day and work most of the day). So, if they don't have time to pack a lunch in the am-they aren't allowed to purchase food??? There is usually not enough time in between school and work to go home and get food. They are to be penalized for being hard working??
Sorry, but all around-this is not a good idea. But, that's just me.
Butrflygirly at 1:47PM on 04/15/08
"Apparently the city council would rather blame anyone but the parents"
...and that is exactly my problem with this ban, RichardCrystal. It seems that the idea of taking responsibility for themselves and their children doesn't occur to way too many people - and this results in numerous frivolous lawsuits and egregious laws. I can't wrap my mind around the fact that such a ban would actually be necessary. But then, we see people filing suits against fast food for being overweight or for burning themselves or their children with hot beverages - hey, anything goes. Nothing is ever anybody's fault anymore, but since we do need somebody to blame, let's blame it on a third party. What's worse, it seems like the entire generation of children is growing up without an ability to take responsibility for their actions - since they are never taught to.
brooke29 at 1:48PM on 04/15/08
What happened to Charm City???? The ball belongs in the glove of the parents and the schools and the truancy officers, and even the police if necessary, in that order. If the students aren't where they're supposed to be when they're supposed to be, the parents should be notified immediately and if there is not a good excuse, somebody better find them and there had better be consequences.
What's next, murdered wait staff who refused to serve? It takes a village is being taken too literally! Start at the core.
PerkyMac at 1:52PM on 04/15/08
brooke29- Thank you. This has nothing to do with the students right to purchase food or the amount of time they have or don't have to do it. This has to do with accountability, plain and simple. If no one is going to penalize these students and blame everyone but the parents then why should these kids even care?
RichardCrystal at 1:55PM on 04/15/08
@RichardCrystal: I agree with you. This does deal with accountablilty-but it's aimed in the wrong direction. How does this ban force accountability on the age range (high schoolers) targeted? They don't care-they'll just go somewhere else. It's no thing to them. Why are the businesses to suffer?
I just wanted to share that not every teen is being devious trying to get food during those hours. This blanket ban is not the right way to go about trying to keep students at/in school.
If the city council is trying to keep students at school, I think new programs should be instilled in the schools. Start at the root of the problem. Institue stricter rules regarding leaving the premisis, etc.
Butrflygirly at 2:26PM on 04/15/08
Sigh, Baltimore. I've really grown to like this city but it is riddled with problems. I work in urban health/development here, and, quite frankly, the only way to fix the myriad problems here is to start from scratch. So many things are intertwined and it's virtually impossible to improve the situation by just fixing just one facet of the problem. EVERYTHING needs to be fixed and it takes a lot of time, effort, and oh yeah, money.
I'm going to stop before I go on and on and on about this.
charm city cupcake at 4:40PM on 04/15/08
What about homeschooled students? Or college students? Or Kids that graduate early? Or kids without full schedules? Or lunch? Or kids from out of town?
It sounds like a bad idea
sarahj at 6:08PM on 04/15/08
I wanted to add another thing to those of you who are not familiar with Baltimore City and its troubled school system (I work with a number of schools in East Baltimore, which is not one of the better parts of the city). It's clear that the city council is really grasping at straws here to try to solve some of the problems that plague our city's youth (violence, truancy, etc). Like I said before, there are so many problems here and solving them requires a serious effort to revamp the city. Until we get the resources (aka $$$) to do so, measures like these are really all we can muster in an attempt to solve our problems. Sad.
Also, through my work with children, parents, and schools in this city, I have come to learn that sometimes the city DOES need to take responsibility for children. So many children in this city have horrible home lives (parents who aren't around because they're incarcerated or they just aren't, parents with substance abuse issues, being shuttled between different relatives' houses because their parents can't care for them, etc etc etc). I completely understand that it is a parent/guardian's responsibility to properly raise their child, but when a child doesn't have a proper parent/guardian, then someone has to help them out, and sometimes that means that the city has to step in. (I am not specifically referring to this city council ordinance, I'm just talking about the situation in general). It is not ok to fail our children, because then the cycle just repeats over and over and over.
Wasn't this supposed to be about food??? ;)
charm city cupcake at 6:18PM on 04/15/08
Money doesn't fix education programs, families do. Only Switzerland pays more per student than America, but their students rank 6th internationally and US students ranked 18th. Spending more money isn't the solution, spending the money more effectively is.
sarahj at 9:29PM on 04/15/08
@sarahj: we may have a high per pupil spending average, but that varies huuuugely based on your neighborhood - schools are funded partly by property taxes, so the money spent per student in wealthy school districts is often three or four times that spent per student in poor school districts - and baltimore schools, i think, fall largely into the latter category rather than the former.
when i was in school, we didn't have a statute - the vice principal would just frequent known hot spots and demand id's of anyone student-aged that she saw eating there. frequently she accosted students from other schools or students who had finished class for the day and gone home. is that the best way she could have spent her time? probably not.billyburgwife at 9:43PM on 04/15/08
The fact that there would even be a discussion about something as baltantly stupid as this shows how far the bar has been lowered when it comes to education .... and local government.
srhcb at 10:17PM on 04/15/08
Ho-hum. We can go off into wild tangents with this. The fact remains that there are SO many other variables that have to be taken into consideration here (demographics, socio-economic statistics and the like) that there is no simple solution in 25 words or less. Like I said, Baltimore should have a sign upon entering the city on I-95.
"WELCOME TO BALTIMORE..THE CITY OF GOOD INTENTIONS".
RichardCrystal at 10:31AM on 04/16/08
As I sit here across the street from Virginia Tech where a year ago to this day one boy who could not be reached or who was not reached by any of the usual methods took out a gun and killed 33 people including himself, I've almost responded to this topic many times in the past two days.
As I sit here as a "grown-up" who as a child was not watched out for by the only parent that was there - as a child who was eventually discarded - as someone lucky, very lucky, to have survived as well as I did . . . I've almost responded to this topic many times in the past two days.
The means being discussed here are silly, yes - but it is a good intentioned thing. Good intentions are just like love though. They should not be thought of as an idea but need to be made real each day in actions taken.
The issue of how we care for our children as a society defines us.
I could go on for hours but thankfully won't. I will however beg each person who reads this to take a caring-at-arms-length interest in the child down the street or the unappealing teenager that rides the same bus as you. You don't have to take them home like a stray cat (though that is exactly what they may be, more often than one would imagine) or spend any money or real time with them. A simple smile costs nothing. A "hi' from a grownup where it does not happen often might make the difference between this person, this child, this teenager - feeling connected enough to want to do what they need to do sometimes - to raise themselves.
It might serve this need better than the hopeful solutions any bureaucracy can come up with. And it certainly would serve this need better than saying to storeowners "Don't feed them if they show up at the Wrong Time".
Karen Resta at 10:54AM on 04/16/08
I vote for less goverment in my business and more birth control. Watch more tv!
JerzeeTomato at 3:55PM on 04/16/08