Sudbury Public Schools in Sudbury, MA now have more stringent visitor sign-in policies. They are also working to obtain enhanced security devices at each school.
Needham Public Schools – Update
Needham Public Schools in Needham, MA has upgraded their security with buzzers, surveillance system, and locked front doors.
Natick Public Schools – Update
Natick Public Schools in Natick, MA has started to lock the front doors of all of their schools. Before the Newtown CT shootings, only 1 out of 8 of Natick’s schools had a camera and buzzer system. Since January, locks and buzzers were installed at all 8 of their schools.
Weston Public Schools – Update
For Weston Public Schools in Weston, MA the previous policy was to have all school doors locked except for the front door. Their new policy is to have all doors locked including the front door. They also have plans to install either buzzers or cameras in the coming weeks.
Newtown CT School Shootings Aftermath
After the Newtown, Connecticut school shootings in which 20 children and 6 adults were killed, several school systems have put new security measures in place. These include locked front doors and tighter visitor sign-in policies. They have also launched reviews of their current safety policies.
Never Skate Alone
When skating outdoors, make sure your child skates with at least one other person. Kids that skate alone could fall through the ice and drown. There would be no one to save them.
Keep Your Child Home From School When Sick
If your child unfortunately does get sick, you must keep them home from school if s/he has:
A fever over 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the past 24 hours (or has taken a fever reducing medication within the past 24 hours).
A cold in the active stages: coughing, running nose, sneezing.
A sore throat and/or swollen neck glands.
An undiagnosed rash or skin eruption.
Vomiting or diarrhea during the past 24 hours.
Head lice that have not been treated.
If you are uncertain if your child might make the other children sick, you should contact the school nurse or your doctor before sending to school. It would be wrong to infect the rest of the students and teachers with your child’s illness.
Preventing Colds and Flu
As you have probably heard, there are a lot of colds and flu around this year. Both respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses have been especially circulating within the schools. This is due to the fact that children tend to spread germs easily and lack of fresh outdoor air. Remember all of these stay healthy tips:
1. Hand washing is one of the best ways to prevent the spread of illness. Wash your hands often — when they are dirty, before eating, after using the restroom, and after sneezing into a tissue.
2. Cough Etiquette. Avoid coughing or sneezing into your hands – use a tissue or your elbow. After sneezing, try and wash your hands as soon as possible. This will ensure that any bacteria or germs from your sneeze don’t remain on your hands all day, preventing you from spreading any germs.
3. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth. Germs spread this way. If you do have to touch these areas, try and clean your hands before and after to ensure no germs are being spread around your body.
4. MOST IMPORTANTLY stay away from people who are sick and stay home when you are sick to avoid spreading the flu around.
New School Lunch Rules: Students Fight Back
Most schools comply with the new low calorie limits (650 – 850 depending on grade level) by giving out smaller portions. Kids complain that after they eat lunch, they are not full. As a result of schools putting caloric limits on school lunches, some students have started to protest. Students in Kansas made a spoof video on YouTube called “We Are Hungry”. Many Wisconsin students boycotted school lunches and started to bring in food from home.
With a high school calorie limit of 850, they are not taking into account a student’s weight. For example an 85 lb freshman and 280 lb senior each get the same portions by law. Some students have to purchase 2 meals just to get full. To get the equivalent of the amount of lunch kids got last year, they would have to spend about $6 – $7 now.
These smaller lunch portions were created with the assumption that all students are getting a full and filling breakfast at home before school. Unfortunately in the real world this does not always happen. For some students this scaled back lunch is often the main meal they rely on to get them through the rest of the day. In fact this meal is supposed to hold athletes over until their late night dinner after sports.
School Lunch Regulations Silliness
In order to comply with the new forced limits on grains, protein, sodium and fats; schools have begun to act silly. For example Minuteman Regional Vocational Technical High School in Lexington, MA has removed its SALAD BAR!!! One would assume that salad is healthy however not the government. Being afraid that the school could not control the portions of protein or grains the students would take out of the salad bar, they decided to remove it all together. In Shrewsbury, MA they decided croutons on a salad added too much grains to the meal so they banned them. Also on the Shrewsbury hit list and now banned from their salad bar are hard-boiled eggs and turkey slices because the nanny state can not regulate how much protein one will take. Whole-wheat pasta salad is also a no-no because the nanny state says that kids may get too many grains. After all of this Shrewsbury silliness, the school system brought in $10,000 less in September 2012 lunch sales than in the same month 2011.