Coke in School

OK, the title grabs you, right? No, I'm not talking about cocaine...I'm talking about Coca-cola. And other kinds of soda (for those of you who live in the North and don't know that "coke" means all kinds of soda...)

Anyways, I'm not talking about sodas in vending machines in the high schools. Or maybe even the middle schools. And I don't think the schools should be able to dictate what kids bring in their school lunches. If some other parent wants to put a can of coke in their child's lunchbag, it's none of my business. But to actually promote sodas in the elementary schools? I draw the line there.

So at our school for the school carnival last fall, they have this bottle-ring toss game. They ask parents to send in 2-liter sodas and they use them all to make this giant field of bottles and the kids throw rings and get to keep whatever they can throw the ring around. Why they couldn't use 2-liter lemonades, or fuit punch, of whatever else, I don't know. But I donated 2-liter lemonades and protested silently in that way.

But for the holiday party (remember it's not called a Christmas party) this is what happened. Parents in our class where given a list and asked to bring in something from that list. The only beverage listed on the list was "the small cans of soda." Keep in mind, this is 3rd grade. Not juice boxes or juice pouches, but small cans of soda. Of course, I chose some other snack item to send in, but I knew that for my child, the only beverage that would be served was soda. That is just plain wrong! Well I sent an email to the room mom asking if we could have some other options, which she arranged for, but then my child is in the awkward position of wanting the coke but choosing the fruit juice because mean ol' Mom said so. I know I can't control what my kids drink forever, but I had hoped to at least control what goes into their growing bodies at least through elementary school. And if someone were to seduce them with coke, I would have expected that from the media, but not from the PTA moms for goodness sakes.