Given my recent posts on school lunches this story out of Liverpool, England caught my attention.

Many schools have eliminated junk food from vending machines on campuses, and some have even gone so far to ban it entirely.  When schools have outlawed junk food, some students have responded by “dealing” fatty snacks to their peers.  Recently, a 12-year-old boy from Liverpool was suspended for ‘‘crisp dealing”.

"Crisp" is the British version of potato chips.

Cardinal Heenan High School states that a “great emphasis is placed on maintaining firm, but fair discipline.”  As part of this “fair discipline”, Joel Bradley was given a one day suspension for “allegedly selling a packet of Discos at a marked-up price of 50 pence.” This was not his first offense; however, his father feels he has been “victimised”.   Ironically, his father has also been busted selling junk food!  

Mr Bradley, from Norris Green, admitted he too had once been caught selling canned drinks, chocolate bars and crisps from a van outside the school.

This story has all the forboding elements of one of those cautionary drug movies they used to show at school, with vans lurking around the school campus and fathers who are "users" corrupting their young children. Somehow the brand name "Discos" takes the edge off.

I'm going to have to do a little research on this to make sure that it didn't originate at the Onion satire site.

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