In addition to their grades for math, English, and social studies, students at schools in Gilette, Wyoming are being graded on how fat or thin they are, and this new grading system has some parents upset. The "weight" grade is actually based on each student's mass body index (BMI), a a simple calculation based on a student's height and weight that, according to the school district, indicates whether a student is too fat for his/her own good.

Some parents don't think it's the school's place to be passing judgment on their children's size, and don't appreciate the "free offer" to join a "Strong Kids Club" for those students who exceed the normal range for BMI, in which students will exercise three times a week.

I understand the school district is trying to do something about a serious problem affecting so many young people today, but I have to say this seems like the wrong way to go about it. I remember truly obese kids in my schools growing up, and my recollection is they had things hard enough without getting officially judged by the school and segregated into an exercise program. But I also think the parents getting all defensive is pretty ridiculous too. The school is trying to send a message to these people that they obviously haven't been getting in their day-to-day interactions with their kids. Help them eat less and move more. Spend that energy on helping your kids rather than heaping on the self-righteous indignation.

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According to police, a dead newborn fawn was discovered abandoned at the Pantages Theater in Tacoma, Washington, wearing a n human infant sleeper and a bib that said, "You think I'm cute? You should see my aunt."

A police officer discovered the cute, yet gruesome, carcass on Tuesday night, and it was clear from the odor that the deer had been dead for some time. A vet from the local humane society said the fawn might have been stillborn.

Police are baffled as to why anyone would dress up a stillborn deer in baby clothes, place it in a basket, and leave it outside a theater that is a local landmark.

"It's just bizarre," said police spokesman Mark Fulghum.

What's up with all the dressing up of dead animals in baby clothes these days?

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When I was a kid, I used to make Meals on Wheels deliveries with my grandfather. The experience had a profound effect on me. It's the kind of experience I want to give my daughter as soon as she's old enough to appreciate it.

Students at Matthews Elementary School in Columbus, Ohio are participating in a program that supplements Meals on Wheels by providing free bags of pet food for recipients with pets. Run by the Progressive Animal Welfare Society of Columbus, it's called the AniMeal program. Meals on Wheels volunteers in the area had noticed that the recipients often gave the protein portion of their meals to their pets, and this allowed them to keep a beloved pet in their home. The program receives donated 50-lb bags of food, and the kids help by scooping the dog food into smaller containers, and then organize the containers in cardboard boxes to be distributed to the needy.

Click here to read more about the kids volunteering.

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Researchers in Britain have found a "definite link" between artificial additives with no nutritional value used in drinks, sweets, and processed foods to behavioral problems such as temper tantrums and poor concentration. The study also suggests a possible link between food additives and allergic reactions such as asthma and rashes.

This could be a potential wake-up call for the entire food industry, which could be forced to reformulate many popular children's food products by removing additives that could trigger such reactions. Vyvyan Howard, professor of bio-imaging at Ulster University said: "Parents can protect their children by avoiding foods containing the additives. I personally do not feed these sorts of foods to my 15-month-old daughter."

Britain already has laws banning such additives for foods designed for children under th age of one, and could easily extend the age affected by that ban. Most of the additives are simply used to brighten colors in the food. Those tested to produce the results above were artrazine (E102), ponceau 4R (E124), sunset yellow (E110), carmoisine (E122), quinoline yellow (E104) and allura red AC (E129). The researchers also looked at the preservative sodium benzoate (E211), a commonly additive in soda.

The complete results of the study aren't being published until a thorough peer review have been conducted.

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I was really influenced by the recommendations that kids shouldn't watch television until they are two. I became one of those self-righteous anti-TV people, and I took a lot of flak for that whenever I mentioned television here or at my personal blog. I know everyone thinks I'm a snob. You don't need to remind me.

Now that my daughter is two, I do let her watch about 20 minutes of television a day. She isn't that interested in it, and that anti-TV guy in me doesn't want to encourage it. But a new study just released shows that I am definitely in a minority in my beliefs. The study by the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine found that 40 percent of infants are regular television watchers by the time they are 3-months old. By the time they are 2 (the age that the American Academy of Pediatrics suggest parents start allowing their children to watch television) 90 percent of children are already regular television viewers. The study also showed that the TV is not being used as a "babysitter" to allow parents to get chores done or give attention to other kids, but that parents are actively seeking out television time for their toddlers because they believe television will "expand their minds, language skills and cognitive abilities." No study has ever been able to determine that television helps kids in those ways, but I have heard plenty of anecdotal evidence that it does.

A second study by the same entity determined that 14-year-olds who watch more than three hours of television a day are far more likely to "have a negative attitude toward school, skip homework and to have trouble paying attention" than kids who watch one hour a day or less. Kids who watch 3 or more hours are also less likely to go to college.

One recommendation from the study was resounding: parents shouldn't let kids have televisions in their room at any age.

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A woman in Las Vegas is suing the hospital where she gave birth to her child because the hospital is refusing to release her placenta to her, and she had been planning to ingest it for its nutrients. Anne Swanson, 30, is an earthy mama who google searches reveal is an advocate for natural hypnobirth, and before the April birth of her second child by emergency C-section, she had planned to have her placenta dried, ground into powder and placed into capsules for the treatment of post-partum depression. The theory behind this non-traditional practice is that excess hormones build up in the placenta during pregnancy, and new mothers can take the pills and replenish depleted hormones and control PPD.

Swanson says the hospital has told her the organ was contaminated. "Like any other body part, placentas contain a lot of blood, which can carry infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis,'' said Twinkle Chisholm, a spokeswoman for the hospital. "We take great measures to prevent disease transmission.'' Swanson thinks that is ridiculous, because she does not have HIV or hepatitis, and believes she is really just a victim of intolerance for non-traditional beliefs. "I can keep my baby, but I can't have the link that connected us,'' Swanson said. "This was my last pregnancy. I am not going to have another placenta. To me, it was a big deal to have it, whether I was using it for medicinal reasons or planting it.''

Swanson is planning to sue the hospital, though concerns over legal fees have her considering the ACLU and Planned Parenthood for support. The placenta is scheduled to be destroyed tomorrow. There are no state or federal laws regulating whether hospitals should or should not return placentas to mothers. The hospital has not explained why Swanson's placenta is contaminated more than any other placenta, and it sounds to me like they are treating the matter this way because they think it's weird. It is a little weird, but I don't see how it's any of the hospital's concern what she wants to do with it. It came out of her body, wrapped around her daughter after sustaining her for so many months. If she wants to eat it, or bury it her garden, or wear it draped over her breasts during a naked solstice moon dance, I don't see why she shouldn't be able to do whatever she would have been able to do had she given birth at home according to her wishes.

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For years she has considered herself a stay at home mom, but staying at home is the last thing on Margo Pellegrino's mind these days. The 39-year-old mother from Medford Lakes, New Jersey recently embarked on a 2,000 mile solo canoe journey from Miami Beach, Florida to Camden, Maine. She expects that her journey will end in late July, and hopes to use the trip to help raise awareness of man's impact on the earth's oceans. "I'm just hoping to get enough awareness going so that we can put some pressure on the guys at the top to do some ocean conservation measures," she said.

Pellegrino hopes to paddle 25 to 65 miles a day and spend 90 to 95 percent of her time canoing along the Intracoastal Waterway. She will stay in the homes of members of a volunteer ocean conservation group along the way. Her husband, Carl, will be the sole parent for 3 months, and he told reporters he has "spent a lot of time with the kids without her in preparation." I'm willing to bet when Margo comes home, Carl will have a whole new appreciation for his wife.

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It's got to be hard when your mom is any kind of celebrity, but I imagine it's really rough when the primary role your mom has played in society for more than a decade has been serving as masturbation fodder for teenage boys and men with really bad taste in women. Pamela Anderson's kids are just getting old enough to realize their mom's entire oeuvre involves heaving her enormous breasts in slow motion, and they aren't comfortable with it. Anderson recently admitted that her son Brandon, 10, was embarrassed when he saw his mother's naked picture on the front cover of her novel Star. . .

Wait, Pamela Anderson wrote a novel?

But Pamela's kids aren't the only ones uncomfortable looking at pictures of her naked. The blond novelist herself says she is uncomfortable with pictures she sees of herself, but only because they don't do her justice: "I can't stand pictures of myself because I'm much better looking in my mind. I see pictures and go, that's not me."

Regardless of what she thinks, the pictures (and Playboy spreads) are out there, and for her sons with ex-husband and former Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee, things are only going to get worse. Someday they are going to realize that video is out there. And in addition to their mom expressing sincere and thorough admiration for the size of their father's penis, the video also purportedly shows them having sex on a boat. I can only imagine the psychological torment of realizing that your own fate was born of a presumably similar lurid encounter.

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Angelina Jolie and her partner-in-parenthood Brad Pitt have been in some pretty violent movies. They met and fell in love on the set of the uber-violent gunfest Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Jolie has played the double-pistol-packing and well-endowed video game heroine in Tomb Raider, and Pitt has handled a weapon in films such as Kalifornia, Seven, Snatch, The Mexican, and more. Despite their willingness to make these kind of movies, apparently Jolie and Pitt don't feel their kids should watch them. Your kids, though, well, that's up to you and your local cable programmers.

A source on the set of Angelina's new movie, Wanted (in which she plays a bloodthirsty killer) told reporters that the couple don't let their kids watch their violent movies, and have even prevented them from playing with toy guns of any kind. "Angelina is protecting them from seeing her making violence look good," the source said. "It's caused a few chuckles. Most of her successful roles have had her waving weapons and getting violent. Staff have been told the kids can't even see props. And toy guns are a complete no-no."

While I have no beef with Jolie and Pitt trying to protect their kids from the culture of gun violence, I do wonder if they are capable of appreciating the irony of how much their own movies have contributed to it.

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