The act of body shaming is alive and rampant in today’s society. According to Yahoo Health’s Body-Positivity Survey, only 11% of women consider themselves to be ‘body positive’ in today’s society, and unfortunately, the self-scrutiny doesn’t stop with adults.
According to the same survey, 94% of teenage females have been body shamed at one point or another— with 64% of teenage males having had the same experience.
While being body shamed seems to be more common than we think, one Georgia mother is taking a stand after she says her 5-year-old was body shamed in a way she had never expected.
In preparation for her daughter’s first year in kindergarten, Katie Dickens filled out a Form 3300— paperwork that is required for a child to enter a Georgia public school.
The form questions parents regarding various aspects of their child’s health, including vision, hearing, dental and nutrition.
Trying to move onto more pressing matters— like school supplies and new clothes— Katie mailed off the form, not thinking much of it.
A few weeks later, however, when her husband checked the mail, he found a puzzling letter which was sent by his daughter’s future school.
Not knowing what to make of it, he called his wife, asking:
“So, is the school calling our kid fat?”
Katie tells 11Alive that the letter stated that their daughter required further medical evaluation— because her BMI measurement did not fall within the recommended range.
The angry mother tells 11Alive, “I understand the hearing and vision because that affects their ability to be educated the proper way. [But] her weight, even if she had all black teeth or no teeth, should have no bearing on whether or not she is smart enough or is to be educated.”
The letter, which was signed off by the school’s secretary, recommends that Katie’s daughter be taken to a doctor for ‘follow-up evaluation’.
Katie feels the school has overstepped their boundaries and is incensed by the letter, telling 11Alive:
“One of the biggest things that you hear about in the news today is body shaming, and you’re body shaming a child you’ve never even met? […] I just feel strongly there is a line that the government should not cross when it comes to my personal family life and letters telling my child or any child is overweight just because they don’t fit in the government’s box of what weight should be is incredibly over the line.”
In response to the media attention, a Walton County School District spokesperson has told 11Alive that the letter “follows the recent recommendations the state’s Department of Public Health made earlier this year.”
Do you think the school’s letter was appropriate?
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