Let’s say an elementary school wants to have an assembly on physical fitness. Great idea. Now, who would be perfect person to lead the assembly? How about a local karate instructor? Or perhaps the person who runs a local gymnast school. They could bring along a few older students and put on quite a show.
No, someone better. Someone really qualified to tell kids how to lose weight and get healthy. I know! How about Ronald McDonald, the mascot for a restaurant that serves the worst food you could possibly give your kid!
Guess what choice St. Mary-St. Michael School in Derby made last week. Yes, they brought in Ronald McDonald to speak to the third graders about exercise.
It’s hard to come up with a more ridiculous decision. This makes Paris Hilton teaching a class on abstinence sound perfectly reasonable.
Derby public schools recently brought in Ronald McDonald to teach kids about safe behavior. The Derby public library brought in Ronald to inspire kids to read. Do you detect a pattern here? Do you think the owners of the local McDonalds are really interested in kids’ reading or physical fitness? Or do you think they would love to have these kids as a new generation of customers?

That’s what’s insidious about making Ronald McDonald available to local schools. There are probably parents at St. Mary-St. Michael who are working hard to keep their kids out of the McDonalds gravitational pull. So what does their school do? It endorses a restaurant that literally puts kids’ health at risk.
And don’t bring up McDonalds new menu of sliced apples and milk. That’s just public relations. The real focus is on $1 fries.

I’ve said it before: Keep McDonalds out of our schools.