School Board offered ideas to help battle youth obesity

Dan Kulin

Monday, Jan. 26, 2004 | 9:25 a.m.

A group made up of lawmakers and parents fighting childhood obesity was expected to ask the Clark County School Board today to put healthier foods in school vending machines and make more students take physical education courses.

A parent with the group was to give a report on a schedule switch at one local elementary school that put recess before lunch.

The group, which includes state Sens. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, and Valerie Wiener, D-Las Vegas, was scheduled to meet with the School Board at 9 a.m.

While many drink machines already offer water as an alternative to sugary juices and soda, few vending machines, if any, offer foods such as yogurt, vegetables, salads, or cottage cheese, Cegavske said.

Cegavske said they will also ask that the board to make it a policy to never allow vending machines in elementary schools, which are the only schools without the machines now.

Cegavske, who is a member of a state committee on obesity that Wiener chairs, said the group would also ask that the board to review policies that let some students opt out of gym classes if they participate in other activities, such as band.

Children and teens who are obese are more likely to develop a variety of ailments including diabetes, joint and bone deformities, heart disease and cancer, Cegavske said. Obese students also have a high rate of depression.

Terri Janison, a parent who belongs to the group, said the presentation was intended to give the board a sense of the importance of offering healthy foods.

Janison, who is also a member of the Action for Healthy Kids group, said she would report on Lummis Elementary School's trial run of having recess before lunch.

The schedule switch happened in mid-November and has resulted in a reduction in student visits to the health office, and discipline problems, she said.

Janison, who has children in the second and fourth grades at Lummis, said the switch also makes it more likely the children are eating their lunch.

"If you had lunch and then recess, the kids are so excited to go out and play they eat a little if anything, and throw it away because they want to go play," Janison said. By putting lunch after recess, Janison said the students are also given time outside the classroom to unwind from recess.

Janison said she went to school administrators with the idea of switching recess and lunch a few months ago after hearing that some schools in Montana and maybe California have done that.