Silly Bandz Bracelet Craze: School Ban Over Distraction

[onehandle]

The Bandz are now contraband. Schools in several states, including New York, Texas, Florida and Massachusetts, have blacklisted Silly Bandz, those stretchy, colorful bracelets that are creeping up the forearms of school kids across the U.S. And starting this week, all 800-some kids at my son's elementary school in Raleigh, N.C., were commanded to leave at home their collections of rubber band–like bracelets, which retail for about $5 per pack of 24. What could possibly be so insidious about a cheap silicone bracelet?

"It's a distraction," says Jill Wolborsky, a fourth-grade teacher at my son's school, who banned them from her classroom before the principal implemented a schoolwide ban. One student stole some confiscated Bandz from her desk, choosing them over the cash in her drawer.

Students fiddle with them during class and arrange swaps - trading, say, a bracelet with a mermaid for one with a dragon - when they should be concentrating on schoolwork, teachers say. Sometimes a trade goes bad - kids get buyer's remorse too - and hard feelings, maybe even scuffles, ensue.

That's what prompted Karen White, principal of Snow Rogers Elementary School in Gardendale, Ala., in October to become one of the first administrators to forbid students their Bandz. "We try not to limit their freedom of expression and what they wear, but when this became a problem, I knew we had to nip it in the bud pretty quickly," says White, who has since extended an olive branch in the form of monthly Silly Bandz days.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100527/us_time/08599199179700

[FreeJG]

1. Oh...they did this with Beanie Babies back in the 80's and Pokemon in the 90's

[mzteris]

6. and little beads on safety pins . . .

and "pop-top" and gum-wrapper-braid necklaces/bracelets ...

(oh geez - I'm dating myself with this aren't it? )

[Toucano]

10. Gum wrapper braids did you in

:)

[Jennicut]

2. My 4 and 5 year olds love them. But I had those rubber neon bands

back in the mid 80's in elementary school. Don't kids always go through this?

[glowing]

4. Yep, ours were just plain and round.. Jelly bands.

[izquierdista]

8. They were around in the 60's

But back then there wasn't licensing and marketing to sell them to kids. They were called 'friendship bracelets' and you made them yourself or got one from a friend.

[Feron]

9. I had those and later on slap bracelets....

In the 80s there were also those plastic chain necklaces that had the detachable charms on them.

Then there were friendship bracelets we made out of floss and briefly it was beads on a safety pin bracelet. I spent hours making those bracelets. LOL

[Jennicut]

11. Slap bracelets! I totally remember that. And beaded safety pins, wore then on my sneakers.

[glowing]

3. I think its great to watch the kids, at least near by me, sit there and trade back and forth.

They will sit for a good hour, trading diff. bands.. and they do not quibble over anything. They have sooo much fun playing and laughing and doing something as simple as trading their items.. The joy is in the trade.. My son gets new one's and can't wait to trade these new one's and share them with his friends. They do this with the Poke mon cards as well.

[itsrobert]

5. Yup, get rid of them

Good job Karen!

[efhmc]

7. Give me a break. Kids go through these fads. This one seems

cheap and innocuous.

[woodsprite]

12. Our 'thing' to bring in from home was packages of Jello powder.

Lots cheaper than pixie stix. I couldn't see it as a problem then, but now as a parent, I would question kids going around the playground divying up a big pile of powder.

[Liberal_in_LA]

13. pics

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LNR8RbqvRtE/S8yECQHOuwI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/9O42sErYaQI/s1600/silly+bandz.jpg

[RaleighNCDUer]

14. I love this.

"One student stole some confiscated Bandz from her desk, choosing them over the cash in her drawer."

They skipped the money but took the bracelets - which means they were NOT interested in 'stealing' but in recovering property which they considered being stolen from them.

But nevermind - LET'S GET HYSTERICAL!!!!!!!!

[Posteritatis]

15. Ah, "distraction," the carte blanche of banning things in schools. (nt)