Sale of Junk Food at School Banned

The Los Angeles Unified School District decided Tuesday to secede from Candyland.

Its 713 campuses next year will be kicking out Twix, Snickers and M&Ms in favor of more healthful treats, such as nuts, baked chips, fruit snacks and pretzels.

In hopes of slimming down its many chubby students, the Los Angeles Board of Education voted unanimously to ban fried chips, candy and other junk foods from school vending machines and student stores and to put strict limits on the amount of fat, sugar and sodium in any snacks sold during the school day.

Most of the changes are to go into effect July 1, 2004, joining a previously approved ban on soft drinks that starts in January.

"We have a chance to make a difference in the health of our kids," said board member Marlene Canter, who was the driving force behind the proposal. "The provisions of this motion move us in that direction in a big-time way.

"As the second biggest school district in the nation, our actions today will resonate," she said.

The junk-food ban does not affect regular cafeteria menus, which are governed by separate federal nutritional guidelines. But the plan urges the district to increase the variety and accessibility of fresh fruits and vegetables. It also directs administrators to figure out how to end contracts with brand-name fast-food vendors that sell pizza and burgers on some campuses.

The school board also voted unanimously Tuesday night to adopt a new one-year pilot policy that relaxes a former ban on students' use of cell phones, pagers and other electronic devices on Los Angeles Unified campuses. The new trial rules permit students to use them during lunch and nutrition breaks but also gives campus administrators the power to revoke those privileges if the phones prove disruptive.

The cell phone change was adopted with little discussion, unlike the nutrition measure. Some teachers and coaches expressed concerns that the junk-food ban would prevent candy sales that fund many extracurricular activities. But Canter and other advocates said that the sale of more healthful foods could prove as lucrative, and a lot less fattening.

According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 15% of American children between the ages of 6 and 19 are considered obese, up from 6% two decades ago. In addition, doctors are seeing more children with ailments that were once considered "adult" problems often linked to obesity: high blood pressure, clogged arteries and type-2 diabetes. Those risks, the CDC reported, are especially high for Latino children, who make up the majority of Los Angeles district students.