Junk food
Students looking for a junk food fix won’t find it in vending machines or snack bars on school grounds if legislation approved by the House becomes law.
Lawmakers voted 58-36 in favor of House Bill 60, which restricts what snacks schools may sell to students. No more high calorie salty, sugary snacks such as potato chips and candy bars. No more Cokes and Sprites. Instead, it’ll be food that meets nutritional standards.
The younger the student, the stricter the choices. For example, kindergarten through sixth graders won’t be able to buy snacks that exceed 150 calories. Regardless of grade level, fat content must not exceed 35 percent of total calories and sugar content cannot exceed 35 percent by total weight. And there will be a ban on trans fat.
Supporters say the bill, which now moves to the Senate for consideration, one step needed to help address childhood obesity.
An Ohio Department of Health survey of third-graders indicates more than 18.9 percent are overweight and another 16.7 percent are at risk for being overweight. Nationally, one-third of children ages 2 to 19 are already obese or overweight.
Some Dayton area high school students, however, say the schools have already replaced vending machine junk food with healthier options.
“They’ve already started to address this. I think they need to pass a bill on better cooks,” said Jourdan Smith, a senior at Dunbar High School. He said he is tired of the same old choices in the school cafeteria.
“Just because your kid didn’t eat a cookie or a donut for eight hours (at school) doesn’t mean they’re not going to get it,” said Edmund Lewis, a senior at Thurgood Marshall High School. “Most of us, when school lets out, we’re heading to McDonald’s, which is down the street.”
Teen dating violence
School districts will have to adopt policies and health education curricula for seventh through 12th graders to prevent and combat teen dating violence. The Senate voted 32-0 in favor of House Bill 19 that is named after Tina Croucher, who was shot to death Dec. 21, 1992, by her high school boyfriend. Her parents, Jim and Elsa Croucher of Monroe, started a foundation 14 years ago to educate teens and parents about abusive relationships.
Ohio will be among only a handful of states with such a law on the books, said Bridget Mahoney, spokeswoman for the Croucher’s foundation. Another House bill that is making its way through the General Assembly would provide for protection orders for teens, she said.
“We are on the path to making Ohio a lot safer for teens,” Mahoney said. “This is huge.”
Critics say the Croucher bill is an unfunded mandate that usurps local control of schools. But Mahoney said the state would provide a sample policy and curriculum as a way to minimize districts’ costs.
Land bank
The House voted 83-14 in favor giving county governments the power to organize land banks as a tool to acquire vacant and abandoned properties and then turn them into parks, new housing or other uses.
Officials in Montgomery County, which had more than 23,200 foreclosures filed between January and October, are supporting the legislation.
Dayton City Commissioner Nan Whaley said vacant properties aren’t moving on the market and they’re hurting surrounding property values. Currently, only Cuyahoga County is permitted to establish land banks. The bill would open it up for counties with 100,000 or more people, which includes Montgomery, Warren, Greene, Miami, Butler and Clark. Counties would use penalties and interest levied on delinquent property taxes to pay for the land banking program.
It now moves to the Senate for consideration.
About the Author
