Children protest school candy sale

Florida students boycott trip fundraiser, saying junk food is unhealthy

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updated 11:38 a.m. ET Feb. 3, 2006

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - More than a dozen elementary school students refused to sell chocolate bars and potato chips to raise money for trips, saying they had learned in class about the health dangers of such snacks.

“If they tell us to don’t eat junk food and then after school we sell it, that disobeys what they said,” said 10-year-old Daphnie Auguste, a member of the defiant class of 19 gifted fourth-and fifth-graders at North Side Elementary.

Their teacher, Monique Manigat, who is also the school’s wellness liaison, said the students came up with the boycott themselves but finding an alternative hasn’t been easy. She said she tried to organize car washes for her pupils but the school couldn’t afford the necessary insurance.

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“Parents are contributing as much as they can. They just don’t have the means to foot the whole bill,” Manigat said.

Fifth-graders have until the end of February to raise the remaining $12,000 needed for a weeklong trip in May to Williamsburg, Va., and Washington, D.C.

Daphnie said she hasn’t raised one dollar toward her personal $455 goal.

“I’m happy because people won’t get fat. But I’m sad because how are we going to get the money to go on our field trip?”

Eighty percent of the school’s pupils are eligible for a lunch program for low-income students.