Gwendolyn Williams is aš pencil-thin, bubbly 9-year-old who is a š²perfectly healthy third-grader.
ą¹But according to city bureaucrats, sheās praš½ctically obese.
āI was like, āOh, my God! Why did I get this?āā the Staten Island kid recalled Thursday after getting a Department of Education-issued āFitnessgramā that described ź§her Body Mass Index as āoverweight.ā
āIām 4-foot-1, and 66 pounds, and Iām like, what?!ā Gwendolyn exclaimed of the school handout, which the city is sending home in the bookbags of 870,000 public schoā±ol students, grades K through 12.
The kids, who weš re weighed and meā±asured back in November, are told not to look.
But the Fitnessgrams are sealed with only a small, easily replaced round sticker ā and peeking is rampant, parents complain, with devastating effects on kids’ self-esteem.
Gwendolynās mom, Laura Bruij Williams of Portš Richmond, says she found out about her daughterās Fitnessgram Wednesday night, as she was tucking the girl in for the night.
āShe āsaid, āHey, Mom. The school told me Iām overweight.ā And then she started jiggling her thighs, and saying, āIs this what they mean?āā
āThat was heartbreakąµ©ing,ā said the stay-at-home mom of two.
The next morniį©į©į©į©į©į©ā¤ā¤ā¤ā¤į©ā¤ā¤ā¤ā¤š²į©ā¤ā¤ā¤ā¤į©š±į©į©į©ng, Williams sought out Gwendolynās principal at PS 29.
āShe was sympathetic, but saidį£ the kids werenāt supposed to open it. My response is, theyāre kids. How can you believe theyāre not going to open it?ā Williams said.
āItās a very positive thing for some kids who are overweight, but we shouldnāt be putting these assessments in the childrenās hands,ā šthe mom added.
āFat-shaming,ā experts callą¼ed the practice on Thursday, criticizing both the fallibility of BMI calculations and the mental-health effects of kids being graded on their size.
āMy frš¬iend who was next to me, she opened hers, too, and she was overweight too, and we were both saying, āDid the Fitnessgrams get mixed up?āā said Gwendolyn, who plays softball and loves to ride her scooter.
āI just donāt think that itās fair to be called overweight when youāre not really overwāeight!ā
BMI, while supported by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was designed decades ago by thše insurance industry as a way oź¦f assessing the health of groups of people, not individuals, said Chevese Turner of the Binge Eating Disorder Association.
āDieting, especially for kids, is the gateway drug for eating disorders, and so is the public shaming ź¦that can come wiā±th this,ā she said of the Fitnessgrams.
āMy organization and others believe that BMI report cards have noš§ø place coming from ź¦ schools and can be more harmful than helpful.ā
A DOE spokeswoman defended the Fitnessgrams Thursday as ājust one indicator … which helps students develop personal goals for lifelong health.ā
But for Gwendolyn, the FitnessgāØrams are just dumb.
āI know that Iām not overweight, so why should I believe the New York Department of Eš§ducation?ā she said.