A school’s letter about an 11-year-old Florida girl left her mother outraged.
The letter said the girl’s Body Mass Index, or BMI, is too high for her age.
Kristen Grasso told Fox-4: “Lily is tall, she’s athletic, she’s solid muscle. By no means is she overweight.”
She took issue with the Florida school taking her daughter’s BMI, which is mandated by state law.
“This whole thing is stupid. It can hurt people. It can break their courage. First, I was hurt. Then, I was angry. Then, I just was concerned,” Grasso told ABC.
Grasso told the station that she encourages her kids to exercise and has them eat healthy foods.
BMI screening has been adopted at schools in several states, but some experts say they can be detrimental to a child’s self-esteem.
“Much of the criticism has centered not only around the letters themselves, but the concept that [BMI] is so erroneous that the childhood obesity epidemic has been overstated,” Dr. Michael Flaherty, an at Tufts University School of Medicine, told Today.com.
He added, however, the letters likely do not cause eating disorders or an increase in bullying.
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