Guess What F Is For? Fat

CHRIS RUNYAN FOR TIME
LUNCH BUNCH: Kids of all shapes chowed down last week at a Little Rock school

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In Michigan, where some districts have experimented with health report cards, educators have learned some hard lessons. For example, in Livonia, just west of Detroit, parents complained to the state that kids had been traumatized by in-school weigh-ins. They also quashed the school superintendent's plan to expand fitness evaluations. Around the state, "we have seen students both thin and heavy going on extreme diets after getting their scores," says Karen Petersmarck, a nutritionist who consults with the Michigan department of community health. Petersmarck served on a task force that developed exacting guidelines for Michigan schools that choose to undertake weight screening. Among them: creating a process that maintains privacy, avoids labeling students, involves only trained staff members and provides an overall context for teaching kids that healthy people come in many shapes and sizes. "Some members of the task force argued that it's almost impossible for schools to put all these guidelines into action," says Petersmarck. "We said, 'Good!' Because everybody who does weight screening at schools has to understand that this is not a trivial thing to do."

Folks in Arkansas are beginning to get that message. "The BMI puts a cloud on what is otherwise a good piece of legislation," says Daniel Whitehorn, principal of the Pulaski Heights Middle School in Little Rock. While he supports the state's focus on improving nutrition and physical-activity programs at schools, which is also part of the new legislation, he is worried about stigmatizing kids. "Right before puberty, we have a lot of kids who tend to bulk up a little bit," he says. "You can prematurely label a kid. And these kids are so sensitive." Whitehorn's students seem to share his concerns. "Some people are not strong enough to handle the teasing," says eighth-grader Alex Weems, 12. "People should be allowed to be different." Neither Alex nor his peers are looking forward to having to make the grade in fitness. With reporting by Steve Barnes/Little Rock and Stefanie Friedhoff/Ann Arbor