Posted on 05/17/2012 12:08:28 PM PDT by grundle
A Utah high school is learning the hard way that the government is serious about nudging students away from food it doesn’t want them to consume. Davis High School in the Salt Lake City area is having to fork over a whopping $15,000 in fines to the Feds because it accidentally sold soda through a vending machine during lunch.
Federal law requires the school to turn off its soda machines during the lunch period, which is 47 minutes a day. And Davis High school did turn off the machines in the lunch room. However, the school didn‘t realize that there was another machine in the school bookstore that wasn’t being turned off. And when the food police realized it, the school was hit with a $0.75 fine per student for the duration of the offense.
Now the school is going to have to cut money to fine arts programs to make up the cost.
But here’s where things really get nutty, so to speak. Davis High School Principal Dee Burton said that the law is disingenuous. For example, while students can’t buy soda, they can buy sugar-loaded sports drinks and even Snickers bars because they contain, you guessed it, nuts. In addition, students can buy soda earlier in the day before the machines get turned off and drink it during lunch.
And simple economics is at play, too. The ban isn’t forcing students to stop drinking or eating the sugar-laced food and drink. It’s just driving them to places where they can get it.
“The misconception is if we don’t let kids buy candy and pop, we drive them to the cafeteria, it doesn’t drive them to the cafeteria it drives them off campus,” Burton told KUTV.
One commenter on the KUTV website picked up on that.
“The principal is right, the kids will leave campus. What are you going to do? Close Walmart and Quick Trip for 47 minutes every day?” the commenter wrote.
Don’t give them any ideas.
yep, and driving them off campus to eat... will result in kids dying from car accidents.
But that money is coming out of the mouths of the child-run!
Just say no - “Not paying it.”
+1
Nudge my ass! A $15,000 is a kick in the crotch.
The gubment must be removed from power.
The fine is just a way of getting TAXES from the parents/taxpayers without the benefits of representation. Period.
The $15,000 fine that is.
It's going to take a lot of time and patience to fix what the last 3 plus years of Obama and cronies have done!!
School to feds: Drop the fine or we stop distributing free (or reduced) lunches.
Fine Arts??? Take it away from football, then people might start to care.
This is criminalization of commerce by regulation. These are the first fruits of totalitarianism whereby the state oppresses the subject through unknowable rules.
“But that money is coming out of the mouths of the child-run!”
Yes, however the feds will immediately reroute the money to hire people to rewrite American history and educate our nation’s yutes in the greater glory that is Obama.
“This is criminalization of commerce by regulation”
Yeah, but there’s the old principle of whatever they subsidize they can regulate. I’m sure their power to fine derives from the fact that they dump other people’s money on the school. We’ve got a vicious cycle going, with federal subsidies. They take money from the people, and in order for the state governments to get it back they havge to agree to a few concessions. Nothing major, just a little social engineering.
States can’t resist it. They’re governments, too, and they need their revenue. They haven’t any central back to print it up. Individuals can’t resist it, either. No one can. It’s their money in some, other people’s in many, cases, and damned if it’ll end up over the border. Filthy lucre is the feds’ trump card. At least until they go bankrupt, which isn’t far off.
Hope and change, indeed.
How was a drink machine sneaked into the school bookstore (school bookstore?) without the knowledge of any relevant school officials?
Not that the regulation isn't idiotic beyond belief, but still ...
I can see if this had been at my relatively conservative country school back in the 1980's. Most of the teachers would have announced, "Snack machines being shut down in 15 minutes for lunch, anybody that wan't to grab a coke for lunch take five and get it now!"
WHO WAS THE SNITCH??????
Words fail....
That was my thought also.
GMTA
If UT pols have any bols they’ll send DC a hearty GFY !
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.