Caffiene Corruption
Every high school student knows the feeling. After a long, hard day at school you get home and you start your long hours of homework. Some kids are lucky and they can start their homework right when they get home from school. For others they go right from school to practice and get home at around 6. The day gets longer while you try to finish all of your homework.
You’re up until midnight trying to get everything done and you know you have to wake up early for school the next day. Most people would get a cup of coffee before heading to school to give them some energy so that they can take on the day. With the new school ban on caffeine the students can’t get the boost of coffee they need to function properly throughout the whole school day. According to the National Coffee Association, 37% of students age 18-24 drink coffee. The percentage of student who are 18 years or younger that drink coffee is 13%. Studies have shown that students are beginning to drink coffee at a young age.
Most students say they need coffee in the morning because it provides them with antioxidants that they need. Joe A. Vinson, a chemistry professor at the University of Scranton, found out that coffee is the best source for antioxidants in the American diet. If this is true, then why would they ban coffee in schools? Most schools banned coffee because of the new health guidelines that they have to follow. Obesity is rising in children and people are trying to put a stop to that.
Students should be able to make their own health choices. If a student is active and they eat well daily and one morning they decide to grab a coffee before school, they should be allowed to. Some schools are banning it because it causes spills and messes. If a student tries to sneak in a coffee and hide it from the teachers than that would lead to more spills than if students were able to keep their coffees on their desks. There needs to be some type of compromise about the caffeine ban.
It’s not fair for students to see teachers sipping on their coffees while they’re half asleep. If schools are worried about the mess coffee’s cause then they could make them clean it up or keep them after school as punishment. They could also ban teachers from having coffee because it’s only fair to have us treated like equals. If schools are worried about the rise of obesity in children then they could ban large cups of coffee so students have to get a small size. This would cause less spills, it would have less fat or calories than a large coffee, and the students would be happy to bring in a coffee and get the jolt of energy they need for the day.
Bibliography Associated Press. “Coffee the Norm for Growing Number of Children.” TODAY.com. Associated Press, 15 Apr. 2008.
Web. 20 Oct. 2012.
Associated Press, 12 Sept. 2005. Web. 20 Oct. 2012.
