Md. Bills Would Put Schools on the Scales

Lawmakers will meet in the next few days to decide whether to combine or modify the bills to make them more politically viable, Pinsky said.

Pinsky, a former high school history teacher, said the backlash generated by his legislation took him by surprise. "Some people are in avoidance," he said.

His bill also includes language that would ban the sale of vending-machine junk food during school hours and restrict items heavy in sugar or fat, reprising a theme of earlier legislation. Although 17 of 24 Maryland school systems are voluntarily switching off their vending machines for parts of the school day, Pinsky said, "I want to shut that door permanently."

Local school boards have opposed school-nutrition legislation, noting that the Maryland State Board of Education has voluntarily raised the nutritional standards of campus dining.

Britt has another bill that would gradually increase the time devoted to physical education in elementary schools to 150 minutes a week, or 30 minutes a day.

Squeezed by increasing academic demands and reluctant to lengthen the instructional day, Maryland schools have compressed gym instruction to as little as 20 minutes a week, Britt said.

Should either of the body mass bills become law, Maryland would join a few other states, including Pennsylvania and Arkansas, that have adopted height-weight screenings.

Pennsylvania elementary schools began statewide body mass screenings in the fall, expanding on a pilot program that drew few complaints after an initial burst of outrage over "what people called the 'fat letter,' for lack of a better term," said Richard McGarvey, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

"There's going to be a lot of talk about it. People are going to be comparing their weights," said Harry Brandt, director of the Center for Eating Disorders at Sheppard Pratt Health System in Baltimore, who has testified against Pinsky's bill.

Rochelle McConkie, a senior at Broadneck High School in Annapolis, applauded the crusade for fitness but wondered how a schoolwide weigh-in might go over among her friends.

"A lot of people, especially girls at this age, are sensitive about their weight," she said.