{"id":811,"date":"2007-09-10T11:13:10","date_gmt":"2007-09-10T11:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/?p=811"},"modified":"2007-09-10T11:13:10","modified_gmt":"2007-09-10T11:13:10","slug":"fat-kid-kidnapped-for-being-fat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/?p=811","title":{"rendered":"Fat kid kidnapped for being fat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Council takes overweight child into care<\/b><\/p>\n

Sarah Knapton
\nMonday September 10, 2007
\nThe Guardian<\/p>\n

A child has been taken away from his parents because, it is understood, they were not coping with his disability and social workers became anxious about his weight.<\/p>\n

Social services in Tower Hamlets, east London, removed the boy earlier this year and placed him in council care. He has not been returned to his home.<\/p>\n

Social workers were concerned about his increasing bulk which was far above normal for a boy of his age. The council said it could not comment on individual cases.<\/p>\n

It follows the case of an eight-year-oldboy who was nearly taken into care this year after reaching 14 stone, more than three times the average for a boy of his age. His family claimed the youngster had an intolerance to fruit and vegetables.<\/p>\n

North Tyneside council allowed him to stay with his family after his mother promised to change his diet.<\/p>\n

Britain has one of the worst records for childhood obesity in the world.<\/p>\n

Around 1 million under-16s are considered dangerously overweight, leading to fears that the country is facing a health timebomb.<\/p>\n

In an attempt to tackle the problem the government has launched campaigns to increase fruit and vegetable consumption and has poured cash into school sports schemes. The overall cost of obesity to the NHS is currently around \u00a31bn, with a further \u00a32.3bn to \u00a32.6bn for the economy as a whole.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/society.guardian.co.uk\/children\/story\/0,,2165891,00.html<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is an interesting story for several reasons, and thank you to that special lurker for bringing it to the attention of BLOGDIAL Man dem.<\/p>\n

Now.<\/p>\n

As far as I know, there is no legal definition of overweight<\/a>. Without such a definition, those council workers rely on their personal prejudices<\/b> to determine what a fat child is.<\/p>\n

In Wales, this might mean a fatter child than a one living in Tower Hamlets, where a thinner child is the average.<\/p>\n

It is completely absurd that workers in a council can exercise their personal prejudice in this way, and this has a direct bearing on those parents who Home Educate.<\/p>\n

If a Home Educator teaches her children that there is such a thing as Sin, and a worker in Camden Council does not believe that this is the case, the council worker, by the example of this ‘overweight’ child, could remove that child from its parents so that it is taught ‘correctly’.<\/p>\n

There is no difference between feeding a child’s stomach and feeding its mind, and if you accept that prejudiced workers at any council can take a child from its parents for the ‘protection’ of the child’s well-being in the case of obesity, then there are no limits<\/b> to what these people can do.<\/p>\n

They can take your child because you refuse to:<\/p>\n