Grade School Candy Pushers Thwart the Nanny State

Grade school candy bans create little entrepreneurs

Teachers trying to kill the entrepreneurial spirit


Apparently there is still hope for America. And that ray of hope comes from, of all places, California.

The Daily Press of Victorville reported last week that the sugar and junk food ban in California schools has created an underground economy where kids are buying and selling candy bars and sodas at big profits:

“It’s created a little underground economy, with businessmen selling everything from a pack of skittles to an energy drink,” said Jim Nason, principal at Hook Junior High School in Victorville.

This has become a lucrative business, Nason said, and those kids are walking around campus with upwards of $40 in their pockets and disrupting class to make a sale.

Schools have been individually banning junk-food sales for years, and enforcement was increased in 2005 when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger passed legislation to combat childhood obesity, according to the office of the governor.

Since then, schools have slowly adjusted by offering more healthy alternatives, such as baked chips and granola bars.

But Nason said that he sees just as much candy and soda as ever, because students still bring it from home — for lunch, and to turn a profit.

“I think it’s original purpose was pretty good, but it doesn’t seem to be making that big of a difference,” said teacher Rolayne Allen of the junk-food ban.

Teachers are instructed to confiscate candy when kids have it in class, Nason said, and the punishment for making sales can be detention.


That last paragraph is typical of the Nanny State control freaks who want to control every aspect of our lives. They refuse to understand that we don't want to live by their rules--that we want our chocolate, grease, eggs, booze, smokes and anything else that tastes and feels good. And, they're making little criminals out of these budding entrepreneurs by giving them detention for selling candy!

Kids used to get detention for mouthing off to teachers, starting fights or trying to burn their schools down. And you can see where some of those detentions might have been justified. But detention for selling candy!

A judge once told me that the way everything is being criminalized and banned in this country, pretty soon all kids will be stamped with parole numbers at birth.

I think he's right.

But until then, God bless those grade school candy pushers.