LAST SIP FOR CAMPUS SODAS SCHOOL BOARD BANS SOFT-DRINK SALES.

Byline: Helen Gao Staff Writer

In a groundbreaking move that could start a nationwide trend, the Los Angeles Unified School District board voted unanimously Tuesday to ban the sale of soft drinks on its middle and high school campuses.

The decision, applauded by health advocates, upset many students and left principals worried about how to replace thousands of dollars they get each year from soft-drink sales to fund sports and other extracurricular activities.

Under the ban, cafeterias, student stores and vending machines would only offer water, milk and beverages that contain at least 50 percent juice and no added sweeteners. Soda sales already are banned at elementary schools.

``It's a major victory for the nation that a large school district has taken a step like this,'' said board member Marlene Canter.

``In order to focus on student achievement, we need to focus on the well-being of the whole child,'' she said.

Authored by board members Canter, Genethia Hudley Hayes and Julie Korenstein, the ban takes effect in January 2004 - the same year the state will implement a law prohibiting soda sales at middle schools during certain hours and establishing higher nutrition standards.

However, effective immediately, the LAUSD and individual schools must stop signing new soda contracts and extending existing agreements.

The district has already agreed to stop selling sodas in its cafeterias starting in September.

As part of the vote to ban soda sales, the board also directed the district to improve nutrition and physical-education programs.

And in an amendment to the soda ban, the board directed Superintendent Roy Romer to come back at a later date with a plan on how to make up the revenue loss to schools.

Health advocates expect school districts nationwide to follow the lead of the nation's second-largest school district in a growing battle against childhood obesity.

``You are taking steps today that will have ramifications all across the country,'' said Zev Yaroslavsky, chairman of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, who spoke at the school board meeting to support the soft-drink ban.

``This country is facing right now an epidemic of obesity among its teenagers. This is a tragedy,'' Yaroslavsky said.

Fearful of the ban's implications, Coca-Cola has threatened to withdraw its annual $20,000 sponsorship of the Academic Decathlon scholastic competition.

But Coca-Cola is not alone in being concerned about the ban. School district officials are worried about losing tens of thousands of dollars from soda sales that currently fund a range of extracurricular activities.

San Fernando High School Principal Jose Luis Rodriguez said his campus netted $40,000 last year from its contract with Coca-Cola - money that went for athletic programs, school field trips and other projects not funded by the district.

Rodriguez had been counting on the soda money to buy a surveillance and security system for the school, but now might have to delay the project.

``We are told the drinks will be substituted with other types of drinks. I am just not sure as yet whether kids will respond like they respond to pop,'' he said.

Christine Ellen Clark, principal of Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley, also doubts that healthy beverages will generate the same revenues as sodas, but is confident that students will adjust to the change.

``If there are no other options on campus, they would purchase them,'' she said. ``We would receive a portion of the (proceeds), but I don't think we would continue at the same level.''

Polytechnic students interviewed during lunch hour said they were opposed to the ban.

``We're mad,'' said Abraham Mijares, 18, of Sun Valley, drawing on a 20-ounce Wild Cherry Pepsi. ``I'm gonna bring sodas and start selling them - underground sodas!''

Mijares was among many Polytechnic students who seek ritual lunchtime relief at one of 19 beverage machines - 11 peddling Pepsi Co. sodas, eight selling fruit juice and water.

Together, officials say, the drink machines generate about $4,000 a month - 30 percent of the student body budget - to support Polytechnic athletics, dances and a student store that sells P.E. uniforms, school supplies and snacks.

Without soda sales, students will be forced to step up fund raising through pancake breakfasts and traditional after-school candy, balloon or flower sales, officials said.

Students gathering around the Pepsi machines scoffed at the potential health benefits of a ban.

``That's why they got sports, to keep us healthy,'' said Adrian Valdez, 15, of Arleta, who'd just downed a Sierra Mist. ``We need our sodas.''

Opponents of the soda ban criticized the measure as a ``Band-Aid'' approach unlikely to have any significant impact in addressing childhood and adolescent obesity, which has reached epidemic proportions in the nation.

A 1998 study by the University of California, Los Angeles, found that 40 percent of 900 LAUSD students surveyed were obese. Research also shows that obesity disproportionately impacts Latino and African-Americans, who are more likely than others to be uninsured.

Obese people are at higher risk for cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, asthma and certain cancers.

The key to reducing obesity, said Sean McBride, spokesman for the National Soft Drinks Association, is exercise and a balanced diet, not banning sodas.

Gregory Vallone, principal of Monroe High School in Sepulveda, said despite the revenues soda sales bring to schools, it's not worth sacrificing students' health.

As someone who is admittedly portly and grew up on Fritos, Vallone is already working to phase out junk food from his school, with the help of a two-year, $250,000 grant from the state.

``If I do lose a little (revenue), and you are talking about making kids healthier, there is no question in my mind which direction to go,'' he said.

In a similar move, Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to secure funding to support programs that encourage physical activity and healthy eating to reduce the prevalence of overweight children.

``This is a chronic disease epidemic,'' said Dr. Jonathan E. Fielding, the county's director of public health. ``Obesity is the fastest-growing disease we have and it costs the county an estimated $3 billion a year, but it's something that is entirely preventable.''

Dr. Francine R. Kaufman, head of the Center for Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, said the hospital is inundated with children with high blood pressure and other diseases that once were associated with elderly people.

She said the fast-food and soda drink industries spend $25 billion a year advertising their products, and mainly target youths.

``The average child is only active 15 minutes a day,'' said Kaufman, who heads the county Task Force on Children and Youth Physical Fitness, which released a report Tuesday stating that 15 percent of low-income children in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys are overweight.

``Children are targeted to want to eat these highly dense foods that have almost no nutritional value.''

The supervisors also voted to share county facilities with local schools, parks, libraries, health-care clinics and community-based organizations to increase opportunities for physical activity and to promote healthy eating habits.

Staff Writers Troy Anderson and Dana Bartholomew contributed to this story.

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(1 -- 2 -- color) On Tuesday, the LAUSD unanimously voted to ban soft-drink sales at all its middle and high schools beginning in 2004.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer