The latest fad among children, Rainbow Loom bracelets, has been banned from Orange County schools as they were found to be 'disrupting.'
The students from Lake Silver Elementary and StarChild Academy have been told to keep the colourful bracelets and necklaces at home. "Children are in the classroom playing with them, having them in their desks, throwing them around the room, exchanging them. They're more than just a bracelet," said Cindy Zimmermann, owner of the StarChild Academy, which has students in kindergarten to grade five, according to Orlando Sentinel.
Caryn Oxley Sommersdorf admits her daughters' Rainbow Loom bracelet-making creates a bit of a mess.
"The little rubber bands are a pain in the butt when you find them all over the floor, and you have to vacuum. And my cat eats them," she said Friday.
But the Orlando mom is perplexed that the woven rubber-band bracelets have been banned from Lake Silver, which her first- and third-grader attend. "I think they've gone a little overboard," she said.
The school said that any such wrist bands would be confiscated. The teachers said that the children were busy playing with the bands in the class rather than paying attention.
The ban has come as a surprise to the children and parents. "They're kind of bummed," April Stringer, a parent of a first and third grader told the Sentinel. "If they want to wear a rubber-band bracelet, I don't see the problem with it," she said. "It seems to be a bit much."
The Rain Loom bracelets trend began last summer. The colourful bands became instant hit among the school-going kids aged between 7 and 12. Even psychologists said that there was no harm in the development children who were hooked to these bands. "Right around age 7, you see fine motor skills taking off," Cynthia Edwards, professor of psychology at Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C told the Associated Press. "Anything that helps them to use those hands together, left and right, helps to develop those areas of the brain and the muscles themselves."
