Gum chewing in school

I will address your rebuttals in chronological order: 1) You state they are laxatives by definition. No, gum is not a laxitive. They may have chemcials used in laxatives, but they are not laxadives. You didn't state that they should be used as laxatives, but you insinuated that they can/could be used as laxatives. In which case, I ask you to present a source. 2) "..chewing large amounts of sugar free gum every day can cause severe gastrointestinal problems.." You state it CAN cause 'severe' problems like direhhea, not that it does. So, you can not say that it incessantly and constantly induces direhhea. 3) Reguardless, just because gum may not have a postitive, benefical effect does not give reason to ban it unless you can prove why it is BAD. Also, the confines of this debate is not isolated to sugar-free gum. http://children.webmd.com... and http://www.upi.com... say that, yes, chewing gum may increase grades. In many schools, it is stastically more likely that students chew sugary, name brand gum as opposed to sugar free. 4) You don't have to tell the person everyday. All you must simply do is take progressive punishments, but to disreguard the other students right to chew gum is not justified by the possibility of one person's loud gum chewing. Who's to say anyone would chew gum loudly, anyways? Perhaps they will all chew quietly and focus more. You do not know unless you give them the chance. If not, you punish everyone without a concrete, justifiable reason. A MORE effect solution that enhances brain function and promotes a good teacher-student relationship is the one I've presented over my opponent. 5) You stated that people, which can be inferred as a collective global society, found gum chewing annoying generally, so no, you can not prove it. 6) First of all, not all gum on sidewalks, floors, etc. is by students attending a school. Perhaps some students do litter gum by choice. However, it is not fair to deny them the right to chew gum out of fear. If it is a problem, they can ban it or abolish it or whatever. That is not my concern for the debate. If you legalize gum, you will know for certain and have justifiable evidence other than, "The school is afraid the students are too immature to know how to properly chew gum." "Simply telling students to spit their gum out into the trash can is not adequate since you said schools that have bans still have gum underneath the desks." If the gum is banned, why would a teacher tell their students where to spit it out? It doesn't make sense. 7) Okay, Nicotine gum does not get you high. It is much, much more expensive than regular gum. If they distribute to their friends, as you say they might, then they probably would not have enough to kill themselves? This is a rediculous claim and it is incredibly far-fetched. I will not debate it anymore. 8) The point being, it's not the school's reponsibility. The choice to chew gum and regulate their body, to some extent, is the student's, including this. 9) Your source states, that there could be concerns with a jaw muscle if you chew gum at all, even more so frequently. Again, the repercussions of chewing gum and the health concerns are of no consequence to the school. It's legal, just like smoking, and, actually, chewing gum is recommended over smoking. Nothing in this world is 100 percent healthy for you, and chewing gum in school is a far cry from being unhealthy. CONCLUSION: It appears my opponents main arguement is that there are medicle issues with the deteriation of the jaw muscle(s) associated with chronic chewing of gum. Just because there may be, as my opponent puts, "concerns" with chewing gum, does not mean the school should ban it. It will not kill the student to chew gum, it will not harm other students. In practicality, the worst that could happen is it being littered, in which case, it can easily be banned again. However, you don't know until you find out. I leave you to ask yourselves this, "Is it justified to punish everyone, for the sake of one mans potential wrongdoings?" =VOTE PRO=