Weight Grade on Report Cards Angers Parents

Aug. 27, 2007 — -- A survey released today by the Trust for America's Health reported that the rate of childhood obesity more than tripled from 1980 to 2004, and that approximately 25 million children are obese or overweight. One school is trying to do something to reverse that trend, but not everyone is happy about it.

Four times during the school year in Campbell County, Wyo., the school sends report cards home. Anxious parents and worried students are provided with the typical grading categories -- academic performance, attendance and a work ethic score.

But here in Gillette, there's an additional grade that has some families up in arms.

It's called the body mass index, or BMI, a calculation based on height and weight that indicates whether your kid is too fat. The school chooses the word "overweight." If your child scores too high, it's the fitness equivalent of a bad grade.

When Taylor Barbour came home with a BMI score of 32, seven points over the "normal range," his mother, Rosie Barbour, was none too pleased. Her anger was directed not at her 12-year-old son but at the school.

"It just doesn't have any place in the school," said Barbour. "It's fine if you want to teach them how to eat healthy, and make better choices during health class, but I don't think giving them BMI on their report card" is the answer.

On top of that, the school district sent a letter in the mail inviting Taylor -- and 172 other kids with high BMI scores -- to join an exercise program three times of week. It's called the Strong Kids Club and came free to his family, with a promise that "it will be fun."

Barbour found nothing "fun" about the invitation. "We were quite angry," she said. "[It] implied that the entire family needed help. And they don't know the family's situation."

Dr. Dave Fall, the chairman of the Campbell County School Board, contends that the offer was not intended to offend anyone. Since 2004, Fall, who is also a pediatrician, has spearheaded a movement, trying to whip the kids of Cambell County into shape. "We're not trying to hurt anyone's feelings, but we just want them to have the information," he said.

Fall has been practicing in the county for more than two decades and has seen at least half the childhood population come through his waiting room at one time or another. It is his opinion that a lot of Campbell County kids have a weight problem.