Ban on Bandz: silly, sensible or a stretch? Some say the fashion craze for youngsters has caused enough woes to justify ban
By TIM O'BRIEN, Staff writer First published in print: Thursday, May 27, 2010
COLONIE -- First came the rashes. Then came the clashes. And when students turned to stealing the cheap rubber bands, SillyBandz were banned in South Colonie schools.
If you have a school-age child, you don't need to be told what they are. If you don't, the items in question look like colorful, slightly misshapen rubber bands when worn around a wrist. Take them off and they pop into a shape: a duck, a guitar or the logo of a favored baseball team are among the dozens of varieties. Children compete to get the most or to find certain kinds.
In the past month around the Capital Region, they've gone from a novelty to a craze to a nuisance. Schools across the country have begun to ban them.
Bill Dollard, principal of Shaker Road Elementary in South Colonie, said he had no choice.
"They just became too much of a distraction toward what we were trying to accomplish," he said. "(Students) were going to the nurse's office with their circulation cut off from the 30 they were wearing."
The first ones appeared about a month ago, Dollard said. At first, a few students came to the nurse's office with a bit of an allergic reaction to the silicone bands. Then came the arguments as children traded them.
The final straw was when a girl came to school with 10 packs of the inexpensive bands -- they sell for $2.99 for a 12-pack -- in her backpack, and they were stolen. Dollard said he's never had a problem with thefts from cubbyholes at the K-4 school before.
"It just became even more rabid because of the inexpensiveness of it," Dollard said. "It all happened really quickly."
The genial principal said he doesn't normally like to play the dictator.
"You don't feel good about being authoritative like that especially in elementary school," he said. "It's a safety issue. Kids are getting upset because somebody grabbed theirs or broke theirs."
He banned SillyBandz at his school last week and he said other schools in the district followed suit.
Logged
