ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 22, 1996 TAG: 9612230006
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DALEVILLE
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
The Sugar Plum Fairy is persona non grata during the school day at Lord Botetourt High School. Has been since August.
Hit the bricks, Principal Jim Sledd ordered.
Take it on the heel and toe.
Beat it.
Since the start of this school year, soda and snack machines at Lord Botetourt have been shut off when classes start and turned back on when school is out. The sale of candy, even for fund raising, has been banned during school hours.
And, according to Sledd, Lord Botetourt is a lot nicer place without the sucrose-infused sprite's evil influence - not that it was a devil's playground before.
"There's just less hyper sort of behavior," Sledd said.
Nutritionists balk at the suggestion that there's any link between sugar and caffeine intake and hyperactivity, but Sledd said something is clearly going on at Lord Botetourt.
"It just seems like I'm seeing fewer people argue," the principal said. "We don't have as many conflicts as we've had in the past."
The evidence isn't entirely anecdotal.
Assistant Principal Charlie Van Lear, the school's main disciplinarian, said fewer students have been suspended "related to aggression."
During the first semester last year, 30 fights were reported to Van Lear. With three weeks left in the first semester this year, Van Lear has dealt with eight. Topping the list of disciplinary problems this year are refusal to dress for gym class and leaving the school ground without permission.
There's also a visible difference.
Custodian Edmund Huffman has spent a good chunk of his days at Lord Botetourt the last 11 years sweeping up trash in the halls.
"It's the cleanest I've ever seen it since I've been here," he said.
"Everywhere you look, there's a trash can," said senior Kirsten Hill. It's true. Pick any 60 feet of hallway and you'll find half a dozen trash cans along it.
But the improvement has not come without a cost. Those soda and snack machines used to generate as much as $10,000 a year for the school, Van Lear estimated.
And candy? Well, what club didn't sell some kind of nut-encrusted cocoa caramel nougat affair to raise money for a field trip?
"They'd be selling it in class," history teacher Melissa Suters said. "You'd trip over the boxes piled up in the aisles."
This year, the clubs had to find other things to sell, like cans of Virginia peanuts. They are NOT honey roasted.
It's been a sacrifice, Suters said, but the teachers, who proposed the candy ban, believe it was worth it.
"It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to take all the drink machines out of all the schools," said Dr. Donald Kees, assistant director of pediatric education at Carilion Health System. But not because they contribute to hyperactivity and misbehavior, at least not from a chemical standpoint.
There's no evidence to link sugar and caffeine with hyperactivity, he said, and those that suggest there is are "quasi-nutritionists." The "Mount Sinai School of Medicine Complete Book of Nutrition" supports Kees' claims.
The pro-sucrose Sugar Association, in its September newsletter, traces the link between sugar and misbehavior to the Puritans "notions about pleasure and sin," which made "sweetness suspect."
All this leads Kees to suspect there are other factors influencing the Lord Botetourt students' behavior.
And he may be right.
Besides shutting off the sugar valve, Sledd and his staff made some other changes that may really be behind the change.
They put a halt to eating breakfast and lunch in the hallways.
"If the school becomes a picnic area, you get a picnic mentality," observed teacher David Wheat.
Other teachers agree: the cleaner the school, the more pride the students have in it.
Another factor in the better behavior are new bus routes. In the past, students began arriving as much as an hour before classes started, Van Lear said. This year, they get to school 20 minutes early at the most. There's just less time to get into trouble.
The biggest factor may be the teachers, who are presenting a unified front. Even softies who in the past didn't mind teaching over the crunch of chips and gurgle of soda are holding the line.
"That's generally true," said senior Caley Sink. "They're kind of sticking together."
Sledd concedes the big change may have its roots in a speech he made to everyone at the beginning of the year. He told students about the new rules and urged them to have respect for their school and pride in its appearance.
"People just kind of laughed at first," said Hill, the senior, "but they're following the rules."
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