Did you know that all students in the Lake Washington School District (LWSD) aren’t allowed to bring sweets to school? Even for their birthdays? I strongly disagree with this restriction. I believe that schools should allow students to bring sweets to school, because students should have the right to eat what they want on their birthdays. It will provide a greater variety of foods to eat and adding sweets to students’ diets at school will not automatically make them unhealthy

First of all, students should have the right to eat what they want on their birthdays. In other words, when a student has a birthday it means that it’s that person’s once-a-year celebration of becoming a year older. As a result, one would expect them to be able to eat what they want for their celebration. But, imagine you wake up, having positive expectations for the day of your birthday. You may be even a little impatient about your cookie celebration at school. Except, when your birthday celebration time finally arrives, your teacher alerts you that you aren’t allowed to bring any high-sugar content foods to school. For example, the cookies you had brought. As a result, you would feel deeply sad and disappointed. You may even take it personally. In fact, this has happened to several of my classmates. That is why I believe students should be allowed to bring whatever sort of food they want.

Secondly, giving students this opportunity, will provide a greater variety of foods to eat. One reason for this is that the greater the variety of food consumed, the greater quantity of nutrition you can consume. In addition to that, it has been scientifically proven that having a more diverse diet with sugar is healthier than a less diverse diet without any sugar at all. As an example, “the stress of eliminating all types of sugar (both natural sugars found in fruit and added sugars), can wreak more havoc on your body than thoroughly enjoying a delicious treat every once in a while.” (Nutritionist Chelsey Amer). But, one may say you can still consume sugar without eating sweets. Yet, like I have already stated, yes you can consume sugar from non-sweets but adding this restriction is only cutting away from students’ freedom. But, what if this restriction is finally abolished yet somebody dislikes sweets? In that case, you would still be able to bring some sort of other food that contains zero sugar because allowing students to bring sweets to school will only increase the variety and freedom, not the restriction.

Lastly, allowing sweets into students’ diets at school won’t automatically make them unhealthy. Believe it or not, it would be healthier for the students to consume sugar than not at all because sugar is only simply a source of energy. But, you’re probably thinking what many other sources say: But, sugar is the main cause of diabetes and unhealthy people in general. I strongly disagree with this statement, because “it’s true that soda and candy are high in sugar and calories, but there isn’t any evidence that directly causes diabetes.” (J. Justin Wilson) Diabetes is caused by too much calorie and/or sugar consumption. Followed by, not enough or very little exercise to then burn off those calories and grams of sugar that that person had eaten. Students will have the opportunity to burn of this energy in activities in school such as P.E. and recess.

In conclusion, I believe that schools should allow students to bring sweets to school. Students have the right to eat what they want on their birthdays. It will provide a greater variety for the students. And just because schools would be allowing students high-sugar content food, doesn’t necessarily mean it will be unhealthy for them. Therefore, please do not only acknowledge, but deeply consider my reasons, put yourself in a student’s shoes, and absorb that enlightening and joyful feeling of how you would feel when you had the freedom to share your favorite sweets during your birthday.

Logan J.P. O’Hare,

Fifth grader, Mark Twain Elementary School

Do your kids like candy? You know, that was a stupid question. Almost every kid in existence likes candy. Anyway, if your kid does like candy (which they obviously do) then they’re going to be disappointed because all public schools in the state of Washington are being forced to ban candy.

Personally, I believe candy shouldn’t be banned because the government shouldn’t control our lives. Banning sweets won’t fix our problems and it’s better to eat sweets when you’re young.

First off there is the government. Even though LWSD is the one banning sweets, behind them is the government. In case you didn’t know, all public schools in the state of Washington HAVE to ban sweets. It’s a LAW!

Now don’t freak out and be afraid that your kid is going to jail for bringing in one tiny piece of candy, because that is NOT what it means. It just means that public schools must enforce the “no candy” rule. Why should the government make these decisions for us? By doing this the government is undermining the students’ abilities to make good decisions for themselves. That job should be left for smothering parents like Beverly Goldberg. The main point is that it’s up to you and your child to decide what they eat. The government doesn’t know people’s personal lives. Sometimes kids need the sugar for energy. It’s ok to keep kids from gaining to much weight, but let the families decide how they want to do it, if they do. So, instead of banning sweets teach us healthy eating and when not to eat sweets.

Furthermore, banning sweets won’t fix our problem. The main reason why sweets are banned in Washington is to avoid obesity, and I think that’s fine. But to wipe out obesity, all junk foods would have to be banned. Kids would have to exercise even more, or my personal favorite and probably the easiest, you could teach us about how to resist junk food and eat healthier. Even if this rule is enforced, students will continue to bring sweets to school. I know this for a fact because it happens at my school. Sometimes kids even hand out the candy. There is really nothing you could do to stop kids from eating candy, not even if you made it a federal offense. The only difference would be that there would be more kids in jail. Say that kids didn’t bring candy into school, and that the cafeteria didn’t serve it on occasions (I’ll get to that in a second), where do you think the kids get the candy. STORES! And where else do they eat it? Their homes! No matter what you do kids will still eat candy at home. Back to the cafeteria, if they’re allowed to serve sweets why aren’t we allowed to bring them in? What they serve is just as bad, or worse for us then the sweets we bring in. If you’re concerned about your child’s health, you should be worrying about the lunch food, not the sweets. Kid are young and energetic so they will exercise the candy off but who knows what happens to the food.

My final reason is it’s better to eat sweets when you’re younger. When you grow up your bones get stronger and stronger. But when you reach a certain age your bones get weaker. And with broken bones, it makes it pretty hard to exercise. Adults know how bad sweets are, so every time they take a bite of something that isn’t healthy, they don’t enjoy it! Kids won’t do that. They will cherish eating their sweets. Every time we buy sweets or take them to school with us, it goes through our parents, so they will keep us from eating too much. Most of the time adults won’t drive to the store just to get sweets so kids exercise to get sweets. Also, when you grow up you have more responsibilities. So, you have less time to exercise.

These are the reasons why I think schools should allow students to bring in sweets. The government shouldn’t control our lives, banning sweets won’t fix our problems, and it’s better to eat sweets when you’re young. I hope you learned a lot from this and encourage others to rethink this law.

Alyssa Gerwin

Fifth grader, Mark Twain Elementary School

Did you know that LWSD banned sweets from school on Sept. 14, 2018 (Twain Times Newsletter)? I believe that students should be given the opportunity to have sweets at school because you have more of a variety to choose from, it is your special day, and it creates more excitement at school. We are upset about this new rule and we want to make school fun again on your birthday!

On your birthday, you usually have an awesome, big variety to choose from. Now, though, you can only bring fruit and sugar-free treats. If we can have treats at school again, we can bring both something sweet and fruit to school if we wanted to. You would not be limiting yourself with what you can or cannot have, but you would also not be eating too much sugar. Also, growing bones need energy to grow and sugar already provides that (Alice Andre-Clark). Your birthday only lasts one day, so you want to make it as fun and special as possible!

I remember that in third grade, I loved the Harry Potter book series, so my mom baked me a special Harry Potter cake. In fourth grade, I also had a very fun and special birthday party at school. But when I got to fifth grade, my mom told me that there were no sweets allowed, just a few days before my birthday. I was so bummed that I had to bring fruit to school, instead of an actual birthday treat that I wanted. After the rules about sweets in school changed, I couldn’t help but wondering why we could not bring birthday treats to school, when the cafeteria already serves cookies with their lunches. When you turn somewhere around 16, you won’t like sweets as much as you did when you were younger. Also, sugar helps with taking away any types of growing pains that kids might get (Alice Andre-Clark). Sugar makes your birthday more special, but it also helps by creating excitement at school!

When it’s your birthday, you probably feel like celebrating, instead of going to school to learn. But if you have the choice of bringing treats to school, it’s a cause for celebration, fun, and you might look forward to school that day. Birthdays usually make you feel like you are special and that you can hang out with your friends that day. If you can bring treats to school, then you can have fun with your friends, also while enjoying a special treat! Also, sugar doesn’t make you hyper, although the fun and the celebration are the things that make you so excited (Howard J. Bennett). School is more exciting with sugary sweets and it makes kids more excited for their birthdays!

As you can see, sugar makes kids happy every day. Students should be given the opportunity to have sweets at school, because you have more of a variety to choose from, its your special day, and it creates more excitement at school. Next time you eat a treat, try thinking about the joy it might bring someone on their birthday!

Ema Malacek

Fifth grader, Mark Twain Elementary School