School fined $15,000 for accidentally having a soda machine on during lunch

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**Frazzled**

Speaking of taxing soda.
School fined $15 large for accidentally leaving on a coke machine during lunch. Says will have to take money from fine arts program. Thanks again nanny state.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/utah-school-fined-15000-for-accidentally-selling-soda-during-lunch/

Utah School Fined $15,000 for Accidentally Selling Soda During Lunch
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 8:17am by Jonathon M. Seidl Print »Email »
Comments (107)A Utah high school is learning the hard way that the government is serious about nudging students away from food it doesn’t want them to consume. Davis High School in the Salt Lake City area is having to fork over a whopping $15,000 in fines to the Feds because it accidentally sold soda through a vending machine during lunch.

Federal law requires the school to turn off its soda machines during the lunch period, which is 47 minutes a day. And Davis High school did turn off the machines in the lunch room. However, the school didn‘t realize that there was another machine in the school bookstore that wasn’t being turned off. And when the food police realized it, the school was hit with a $0.75 fine per student for the duration of the offense.

Now the school is going to have to cut money to fine arts programs to make up the cost.

But here’s where things really get nutty, so to speak. Davis High School Principal Dee Burton said that the law is disingenuous. For example, while students can’t buy soda, they can buy sugar-loaded sports drinks and even Snickers bars because they contain, you guessed it, nuts. In addition, students can buy soda earlier in the day before the machines get turned off and drink it during lunch.

And simple economics is at play, too. The ban isn’t forcing students to stop drinking or eating the sugar-laced food and drink. It’s just driving them to places where they can get it.

“The misconception is if we don’t let kids buy candy and pop, we drive them to the cafeteria, it doesn’t drive them to the cafeteria it drives them off campus,” Burton told KUTV.

One commenter on the KUTV website picked up on that.

“The principal is right, the kids will leave campus. What are you going to do? Close Walmart and Quick Trip for 47 minutes every day?” the commenter wrote.

Don’t give them any ideas.
.

**Joey**

I'm all for reducing funding to arts programs.

**Melissia**

Screw that, they should take money from their sports programs, and focus on teaching the kids instead.

**biccat**

Joey wrote:I'm all for reducing funding to arts programs.

Ditto.

Melissia wrote:they should take money from their sports programs

That too.

**dogma**

The ban isn’t forcing students to stop drinking or eating the sugar-laced food and drink. It’s just driving them to places where they can get it.

Where have I heard this argument before?

**Kilkrazy**

Perhaps they could take the money from the contingency fund they maintain to cover cases when their legal liability insurance is inadequate.

**Hordini**

Joey wrote:I'm all for reducing funding to arts programs.

Dare I ask, but why?

I agree with Melissia, they should be cutting sports before they cut any academic programs (even though I know that would probably never happen), but the fact that they have to pay such a ridiculous fine at all is horrendous. It's only going to hurt the students, and it's not helping anything.

**Kilkrazy**

Sports are just as important as arts, sciences, and any other type of education for children.

Maybe the school should have invested $5 in a timer switch for their vending machine.

Are schools not supposed to obey the law and set a good example?

**dogma**

I don't know, it depends on community desires and realistic expectations.

Why fund a shop class, for example, in Menlo Park?

**Frazzled**

I take it you're ok with the fine then?

**dogma**

Frazzled wrote:I take it you're ok with the fine then?

Don't know, still looking for the actual law.

**Frazzled**

I doubt its a law, more of a regulation that the state has to comply with to get federal matching funds for something.

**juraigamer**

There's a law for this?

I guess I can always count on OT for showing our representatives are crazy.

**dogma**

Frazzled wrote:I doubt its a law, more of a regulation that the state has to comply with to get federal matching funds for something.

My guess as well.

This is a better write up, and makes it look even worse.

**d-usa**

dogma wrote:
The ban isn’t forcing students to stop drinking or eating the sugar-laced food and drink. It’s just driving them to places where they can get it.

Where have I heard this argument before?

Of course the same can be said for banning sex education. It isn't forcing student to stop learning about sex, it is just driving them to places where they can get the information:

Edit: Decided to switch it to something that maybe a bit more family friendly, or at least fit the PG-13 mindset of DakkaDakka. Original was a non-nude cover of Penthouse, but I hope this still gets the idea across.

**dogma**

Porn: where all women like anal.

**streamdragon**

Absolute waste of resources. I agree there's a problem with getting kids interested in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, but fining their school (which is probably underfunded already) is not the answer in the slightest.

I also disagree with their taking funds from the fine arts classes though, in lieu of optional sports programs.

**Hordini**

Kilkrazy wrote:Sports are just as important as arts, sciences, and any other type of education for children.

Maybe the school should have invested $5 in a timer switch for their vending machine.

Are schools not supposed to obey the law and set a good example?

I agree that sports are an important part of education, and I'm certainly not suggesting it be cut entirely. The problem is, sports programs often get a large portion of school funds (and they also bring in a lot of money as well, which is a good thing), but the arts are often underfunded in comparison. My point is, cutting $15,000 from a school's arts program would likely have a much more drastic effect on the arts program overall than a similar fine would on a school's sports program. I'm not talking about things like gym class either when I refer to sports, but more the extracurricular activities.

Also, schools are supposed to obey the law and set a good example. But what they should not ever be doing is punishing students and harming their educational opportunities because the administration F'd up.

**d-usa**

dogma wrote:
Frazzled wrote:I doubt its a law, more of a regulation that the state has to comply with to get federal matching funds for something.

My guess as well.

This is a better write up, and makes it look even worse.

That article makes it seem like the are not only cutting funding to the arts program to pay for this fine, they didn't have much a budget to pay for the arts program to begin with. The money raised by the machine was used to pay for the arts.

And while I agree the law is stupid, it's the law and should be followed. Where are the Texas Rangers!

**Hordini**

d-usa wrote:
dogma wrote:
Frazzled wrote:I doubt its a law, more of a regulation that the state has to comply with to get federal matching funds for something.

My guess as well.

This is a better write up, and makes it look even worse.

That article makes it seem like the are not only cutting funding to the arts program to pay for this fine, they didn't have much a budget to pay for the arts program to begin with. The money raised by the machine was used to pay for the arts.

Yeah, this is the kind of thing I'm talking about. A fine like that to an arts program could potentially eliminate an arts program. I highly doubt a fine like that would eliminate a sports program, and the community backlash would be much stronger if it did.

**d-usa**

Hordini wrote:
d-usa wrote:
dogma wrote:
Frazzled wrote:I doubt its a law, more of a regulation that the state has to comply with to get federal matching funds for something.

My guess as well.

This is a better write up, and makes it look even worse.

That article makes it seem like the are not only cutting funding to the arts program to pay for this fine, they didn't have much a budget to pay for the arts program to begin with. The money raised by the machine was used to pay for the arts.

Yeah, this is the kind of thing I'm talking about. A fine like that to an arts program could potentially eliminate an arts program. I highly doubt a fine like that would eliminate a sports program, and the community backlash would be much stronger if it did.

Now that I had time to think more clearly, I realize that this entire scenario is the fault of Liberals. I have to admit, it was a very cunning idea that required lots of planning, but they were able to pull it off.

Of course you start with liberals in congress writing these stupid laws, that is always the first step. But what good is a law if you cannot get people to break it, that is where the money comes from. So Stage 2 of the plan was put into effect.

We all know liberals are hipsters and artists. So you get your local chapter of "High School Students for Obama"" to demand crayons and watercolors, maybe even demand to stage a play written by some communist playwright from Europe, because doing something pretty will help self esteem or something like that.

The local school board, already burdened to pay for sex education and classes like "why the government is awesome" in 3 different languages, now has to come up with a way to pay for these hipster classes unless they want to face a federal lawsuit charging them with damaging the future of the next USA hating artist to emerge in the post-conceptual art scene.

"Fine, we give up" the local school council surrendered, " but we are already paying for every other federally mandated class. The only way we can pay for 'Crayons for Hipsters' is to put in a soda machine to raise the money for supplies"

And so the trap was set, the plan complete, and liberals win again!

**streamdragon**

d-usa wrote:Now that I had time to think more clearly, I realize that this entire scenario is the fault of Liberals. I have to admit, it was a very cunning idea that required lots of planning, but they were able to pull it off.

Of course you start with liberals in congress writing these stupid laws, that is always the first step. But what good is a law if you cannot get people to break it, that is where the money comes from. So Stage 2 of the plan was put into effect.

We all know liberals are hipsters and artists. So you get your local chapter of "High School Students for Obama"" to demand crayons and watercolors, maybe even demand to stage a play written by some communist playwright from Europe, because doing something pretty will help self esteem or something like that.

The local school board, already burdened to pay for sex education and classes like "why the government is awesome" in 3 different languages, now has to come up with a way to pay for these hipster classes unless they want to face a federal lawsuit charging them with damaging the future of the next USA hating artist to emerge in the post-conceptual art scene.

"Fine, we give up" the local school council surrendered, " but we are already paying for every other federally mandated class. The only way we can pay for 'Crayons for Hipsters' is to put in a soda machine to raise the money for supplies"

And so the trap was set, the plan complete, and liberals win again!

*clap*

*clap*

*clap*

Amazing. Just amazing.

**Hordini**

d-usa wrote:
Hordini wrote:
d-usa wrote:
dogma wrote:
Frazzled wrote:I doubt its a law, more of a regulation that the state has to comply with to get federal matching funds for something.

My guess as well.

This is a better write up, and makes it look even worse.

That article makes it seem like the are not only cutting funding to the arts program to pay for this fine, they didn't have much a budget to pay for the arts program to begin with. The money raised by the machine was used to pay for the arts.

Yeah, this is the kind of thing I'm talking about. A fine like that to an arts program could potentially eliminate an arts program. I highly doubt a fine like that would eliminate a sports program, and the community backlash would be much stronger if it did.

Now that I had time to think more clearly, I realize that this entire scenario is the fault of Liberals. I have to admit, it was a very cunning idea that required lots of planning, but they were able to pull it off.

Of course you start with liberals in congress writing these stupid laws, that is always the first step. But what good is a law if you cannot get people to break it, that is where the money comes from. So Stage 2 of the plan was put into effect.

We all know liberals are hipsters and artists. So you get your local chapter of "High School Students for Obama"" to demand crayons and watercolors, maybe even demand to stage a play written by some communist playwright from Europe, because doing something pretty will help self esteem or something like that.

The local school board, already burdened to pay for sex education and classes like "why the government is awesome" in 3 different languages, now has to come up with a way to pay for these hipster classes unless they want to face a federal lawsuit charging them with damaging the future of the next USA hating artist to emerge in the post-conceptual art scene.

"Fine, we give up" the local school council surrendered, " but we are already paying for every other federally mandated class. The only way we can pay for 'Crayons for Hipsters' is to put in a soda machine to raise the money for supplies"

And so the trap was set, the plan complete, and liberals win again!

That's a fascinating theory, but I tend to prefer the policy of not attributing to malice what can be explained by incompetence.

**dogma**

Hordini wrote:
Yeah, this is the kind of thing I'm talking about. A fine like that to an arts program could potentially eliminate an arts program. I highly doubt a fine like that would eliminate a sports program, and the community backlash would be much stronger if it did.

Nonsense, we all know that real education suffers because of art programs.

You're such a filthy liberal.

**Chowderhead**

Why don't they (Gov't) just take away the Soda Machine and give them a 500 dollar slap on the wrist?

Seriously. 15 grand for a soda machine is way too much.

**Frazzled**

Chowderhead wrote:Why don't they (Gov't) just take away the Soda Machine and give them a 500 dollar slap on the wrist?

Seriously. 15 grand for a soda machine is way too much.

Apply facts, logic, and common sense has no place in government.

**Hordini**

dogma wrote:
Hordini wrote:
Yeah, this is the kind of thing I'm talking about. A fine like that to an arts program could potentially eliminate an arts program. I highly doubt a fine like that would eliminate a sports program, and the community backlash would be much stronger if it did.

Nonsense, we all know that real education suffers because of art programs.

You're such a filthy liberal.

Haha...I know, right? It's all just a secret plan to replace mathematics and science with Marxist art classes where students paint portraits of Barack Obama and write epic poetry about his heroic deeds.

**d-usa**

Somebody has to paint the murals of our dear leader.

**ph34r**

My question is why is their budget contingent on a soda machine that they are not supposed to use? Or do students only buy soda during lunch while otherwise they would buy it outside lunch time? At a fine of 75 cents per use they would surely still be making profit.

I see no reason in any case for them to cut the arts. Spending on sports can get ridiculous fast. 15 grand is huge to an arts program.

I saw a lot of people in college that couldn't do anything creative to save their life. Those people are going to have a damn hard time finding a job when they have to think outside the box.

**LoneLictor**

d-usa wrote:Somebody has to paint the murals of our dear leader.

Amen brother. In between pressuring catholic girls into having abortions, worshiping Satan, using welfare money to buy another mansion, banning commerce and murdering the last productive members of society I've been working on painting my own version of this.

UNEMPLOYMENT IS DOWN! OBAMUNISM WORKS! HEIL DEAR LEADER OBAMA!