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 Headline: School Bans Talking At Lunch 
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http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/01/25/D8MSJNO83.html

Apparently, this Rhode Island elementary school has such problems with...choking?...in the cafeteria, they've decided to effectively ban talking.

Oh, I just got it! The kids are choking on FOOD--I kept thinking they were choking each other. Well, that's a load off.

Anyway, can it work? Is it worth it to try? Why not teach kids not to eat so quickly or how to do the heimlich instead?


Fri Jan 26, 2007 12:45 pm
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I personally think that this is ridiculous! Kids need the time that they have at lunch to be social. Maybe it's not about the teachers not being able to hear, but that they aren't paying enough attention. There does need to be some discipline so that the children aren't running around wild in the lunch room, but silent lunch is not the answer. I was in a school recently, where they used a stoplight to control noise in the lunchroom. When the light was on green, they were talking at an appropriate level, if it was on yellow, they were getting too loud and if it got to red, they had to be silent. This puts the control into the children's hands. This way, they know that they are being too loud, but they have an opportunity to bring the noise level down. I just find that silent lunch every day is too extreme of a solution to their problem.

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Katie David


Sat Jan 27, 2007 10:05 pm
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I agree with Katie about it being too extreme of a decision. I had never heard of a school using the system of using a stoplight for noise control, but it sounds like a more effective choice than silent lunches. I know from when I have visited my sisters and brothers for lunch at their elementary school the kids are full of energy, but they need that time to talk with their friends and not have so much structure because that is all they get for the majority of their day. I think that it is unfair to punish the students even further especially since many school do not have recess for upper elementary level students. I know when I was in school we had recess from kindergarten to 8th grade. I believe that if the children are acting so wild in the cafeteria it is because they are not given the proper amount of time for recess to get their energy out.

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Krystal Tarnaski


Sun Jan 28, 2007 2:19 am
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haha that tickled my funny bone a little. Socialization is a HUGE part of going to school. Students need to grow mentally, as well as socially to become a more functional human in society. I understand that the school is looking for the safety of the students but there is no need to cut out the ONLY time they get to gossip with friends. I think all students should be required to take a basic cpr class. CPR is a very vaulable skill to have and will benefit the entire student body.

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Amanda Nicole Ricketts


Sun Jan 28, 2007 12:19 pm
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I agree with Amanada when she says that socialization is a HUGE part of school. Students need their time at lunch to talk with their friends. These kids are in class all day long where they are told not to talk. I can see so many problems coming from this banning. Taking away their freedom to talk at lunch will only cause problems and make the school day seem even longer.

Students need that time to be social with their peers. One day students will be eating lunch with their co workers. They need to know how to intereact with the people they are around. The more social skills they have, the more likely they will build strong relationships with others.

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Meredith Kemper


Sun Jan 28, 2007 2:30 pm
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"Stacey Wildenhain, a teacher's assistant at St. Rose, said her 7-year- old son does not mind the policy. He told her: "The sooner we eat, the sooner we can get out to play," she said."

Awesome. So these kids are not talking to each other so that they are ready to explode which will transfer into causing problems for the teacher in the classroom. Also, they are stuffing the food down to their little stomachs so fast that their little digestive tracts are being overloaded, a habit which can lead to obesity. Yay Catholic schools!

Obviously, I don't agree with this policy at all. Noise control is definately an obstacle that lunchroom monitors have to deal with. What strikes me as odd, is why aren't the lunchroom monitors paying more attention to these kids? It doesnt take that much work, simply a watchful eye will do. I agree that CPR steps shoulod be taken as well, that's always really good knowledge for a kid to have.

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Mary M


Sun Jan 28, 2007 8:48 pm
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In response to Katie's story about the stoplight--Whoa!! My own elementary school cafeteria used the noise-stoplight as well, and this is the first time I've ever heard that someone else had experienced it, either in their own school or by seeing it used somewhere. Amazing! Did anyone else have the stoplight??

I was always skeptical though...I could never decide whether I believed that the stoplight was TRULY noise-sensitive or that there was someone at the controls, that it was operated by an actual person. I guess I just didn't buy the fact that our school was high-tech enough to employ such advanced technologies as noise-detection devices (like the Wizard of Oz, 'pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!'). I'm still unsettled on this question. Interesting, though, to realize that the conspiracy-theorist in me was alive and well even at this young age. I bet it's my mom's fault :) She was the UFO enthusiast of the family and I grew up under her eccentric wing. We watched the X-Files together every Sunday night for at least 4 years...but perhaps I've said too much...

Regardless of how the thing worked, I distinctly remember that the lunchroom responded VERY quickly to the red light. It was rare that we reached a "red light" volume without everyone immediately silencing themselves. This seems strange, though...makes me think that we had to have been actively watching the light as we got louder. Testing how far we could go, maybe? I also remember very well that I was aware enough of the light to actually consult it when I knew that the room was approaching red-light-levels of conversational anarchy. This also makes me think that I must have learned to recognize the volumes themselves from having learned their association with the different colors of the stoplight, and THAT, to me, seems to be quite an achievement of obedience, as it points to the development of self-regulation and the internalization of certain rules about what levels of loudness are appropriate and/or necessary for "civilized" conversation...rules and codes that would have extended in their application beyond the walls of the school itself...

Or maybe aliens ran the stoplight. I just don't know what to believe anymore 8)


Sun Jan 28, 2007 10:06 pm
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I think the stoplight idea is really cool. It is one way to put the students in control, and will therefore probably receive better responses. I think banning talking in the cafeteria will make more students choke because they're gonna want to eat faster so they can get out of the lunch room and talk with their buddies that they probably don't get to sit beside in class. If students are choking and teachers don't notice, then there are more than likely some other things going on in the school that aren't seen or heard, and these things could be pretty bad too...if you know what I mean. Teachers need to take the responsibility to watch out for their students, and they need to be able to tell the difference between chit chat and choking. And if all else fails, make the kids learn the Heimlich maneuver; I learned it in middle school and I still know it today. I think everyone should have to take a course in it anyway, before it becomes a problem and before students are punished for it.


Mon Jan 29, 2007 9:24 pm
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I don’t understand who thinks of such rules, and on a higher level, who in power thinks these are great ideas. You can’t just stop kids from talking, that’s just absurd. I remember lunch time as always being one of my times during the day because you get to see all your friends. There has to be a more effective way to solve this problem. Every lunch room has children talking in it, yet choking isn’t a crazy phenomenon sweeping through cafeterias across the nation. These chokings could all just be coincidence. I think it would be a good idea to educate the teachers in the Heimlich maneuver because these children may be too young to perform it effectively. I’m sure if the cafeteria just put up ‘no choking’ signs the problem would be solved. We all know how kids listen obediently to all the wisdom and directions of their elders. I just think teachers and school faculty could think of a better way to solve this problem.


Tue Jan 30, 2007 3:13 pm
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This is absolutely absurd. I feel like this particular Catholic school is taking some pretty extreme measures. Children have been eating in noisy lunch rooms for decades, and this is the first time I've ever heard of the noise becoming a health hazard to the students. I think of course, it's much easier to just wipe out the idea of talking altogether, but I don't really think that actually fixes the problem.

Also, I know the school is responsible for a child's safety while they are there, but seriously, has anyone spoken to the parents? Who teaches their child to eat like a caveman? Talking with their mouth full and taking bites that are way too big--- big enough to stop up their throat... that's crazy. Teach your kids to chew, or pack soup in a thermos for lunch. :wink:

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-Allison Sawicki


Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:48 pm
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This is probably the dumbest thing I have ever heard of. Are they gonna ban water because you can technically drown from just a teaspoon of it?? Plus if you're as graceful and sophisticated as I am (please note the sarcasm) you have probably choked on air before and food doesn't even make a difference...

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Diana Zong


Thu Feb 01, 2007 1:33 pm
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that's crazy, you would think that an educated group of adults could think of a smarter less detrimental way to handle this choking situation. Lack of socialization during free time like lunch could have bad effects in the classroom, where the kids would probably be more likely to talk when they aren't supposed to because they havn't had a proper release to do so. Someone said that they should teach the hemilic manuvear...I think that is a good idea, beacause it is such a valuable skill to have anyways.

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Susanne M Olson


Thu Feb 01, 2007 11:40 pm
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