US schools ban birthday cakes

By Stuart Cohen
BBC News, Washington

The birthday cake bans are part of a wider national trend

A growing number of schools around the US are banning birthday cakes, saying the tradition has become too unhealthy.

Millions of students go back to school next week as their annual summer holiday comes to an end.

But one thing will be missing from classrooms across the country.

For generations American children have brought homemade cakes and cupcakes to school to celebrate birthdays with their classmates.

Like the rest of the country, children are facing what health officials call an epidemic of obesity.

The Centers for Disease Control estimate that one out of every six school-age children in the US is overweight.

The birthday cake bans are part of a wider national trend of schools discouraging sugary junk foods between classes in favour of healthier snacks, like fruits or yogurt.

But the new rules are not without controversy.

'Childhood tradition'

When one suburban school district just west of New York City tried it, the response from parents was overwhelmingly negative.

"The reaction was pretty overwhelming that this was not the way we wanted to treat kids," Kathy Meyer, a spokesperson for the Scotch Plains school district in New Jersey, said.

"Particularly elementary school parents who seem to think that the celebration of their children's birthday had become such a traditional part of classroom practice that somehow we were taking that moment of childhood from their children."

One state has even decided to offer financial incentives.

Connecticut recently passed a law giving schools 10 cents per student if they agreed to ban the sale of sugary foods, and they have compiled a 175-page list of foods that comply with the new guidelines.