Girl Scouts Sue After City Tells Them To Stop Selling Cookies

It's been a rough summer for entrepreneurial kids. July brought two stories of lemonade stands gone wrong: one was robbed, and the other was broken up by police who mistakenly thought it was in violation of city ordinances. And now a group of Girl Scouts has lost their right to sell cookies from their own driveway. This morning, Patch reported that a well-publicized law suit by a group of Scouts in Hazelwood, MO defend their right to do so was thrown out by a St. Louis County Circuit Judge.

Some background from New York Times: Two Scouts, sisters Carolyn and Abigail Mills, were selling cookies from their driveway this summer, as they had been doing for years, when a neighbor complained of noise and traffic. Hazelwood city officials told the girls, 16 and 14 respectively, they had to stop because their cookie stand violated zoning restrictions. The Mills, with the help of their mother Carolyn, applied for a business license but were refused, so they decided to sue the city. They pursued the suit until Friday, when it was dismissed by the court.

Jezebel's Anna North wrote vaguely in support of the Scouts' suit, though she admits that she finds the concept of Girl Scout cookies "a little strange." She argues that "turning girls into little salespeople isn't quite as wholesome as, say, teaching them different knots."

Hazelwood has a weirdly litigious record when it comes to children's rights. The town's school district was sued by a student in the 80's for censoring the high school's newspaper, in a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court. In 1988's Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, the Court decided in favor of the town. It was the first time the Court had ever allowed a school to censor student publications for education reasons.

Comments

[RdSparrow]

07:50 AM on 08/22/2011

If you don't want them, send them over to England. The Expat community is always on the lookout for these boxes of joy. You wouldn't believe how much we are willing to pay for them.

[novaguy1968]

12:55 AM on 08/21/2011

Boycott the Girl Scouts.

[pphhrogg]

09:22 PM on 08/20/2011

Sheesh...picking on Girl Scouts is pretty low.

[The Revolving Diet]

02:55 PM on 08/19/2011

Girl Scout cookies are awesome...too bad they made them smaller and increased the price. In addition the $4.00 per box price only give the troop selling them about $.25 per box profit.....
That is a shame that the troops are busting thier buts selling them and they get so little.

P.S. The Thin Mints right out of freezer are AWESOME!!!!

[Lisa Bee]

04:48 AM on 08/19/2011

Go ahead and hate me, but I find both the Girl Scout and Boy Scout "entrepreneurs" highly intrusive. They badger me relentlessly at 2 of my local grocery stores and most of the time, the kids look miserable while their parents sit there, prodding them on. I abhor the idea that one is only worthy if extreme amounts of cookies or popcorn or whatever, is sold.

[alex4anw]

08:57 PM on 08/20/2011

Plus the Boy Scouts discriminate openly against non Christians and gays, including even the CHILDREN of gays. I never buy their popcorn; why would anyone who cares about fairness to children support this hateful group?

[LutherArkwright]

01:54 AM on 08/19/2011

Constitutional Scholars they ain't, apparently..
I'd LOVE to be the Lawyer to get this outta that local yokel court into a state appeals court.. what kinda of pinch-sphinctered lemon-suck-faced jackholes doesn't LOVE Girl Scout cookies???

[alex4anw]

08:56 PM on 08/20/2011

Just because you like the product is no reason to allow it to be sold! Laws are not in place to favor your taste buds...I also love the cookies (thin mints!!) but I understand the city and its position...

[Nora Bahr]

11:35 PM on 08/18/2011

She argues that "turning girls into little salespeople isn't quite as wholesome as, say, teaching them different knots."

---
Stuck in the 1950's much? Selling Girl Scout cookies is wholesome and teaches important life skills such as customer service, how to manage money, how to approach/talk to people, organization, and good business sense.

What the girls then decide to do with the money from their cookie sales (it's generally a troop decision) can further give them experiences they might never have had otherwise. I know of a troop that used their cookie money to go to Mexico to learn about the country and participate in service projects.

How is this "unwholesome"?

[homer winslow]

05:32 PM on 08/18/2011

I bought a box once and nowhere in the ingredients did it list Girl Scouts. Never bought them again. Don't care for false advertising.

[nrlang86]

04:10 PM on 08/18/2011

They should have brought some complimentary thin mints, or some Samoas to the court proceeding. That would have done the trick.

[P Markham72]

03:16 PM on 08/18/2011

Are garage sales banned also? I'd be knockin on the neighbors door every morning asking them if they'd like to buy a box of Girl Scout Cookies. And by the way those little "No Soliciting" signs mean nothing, you can ignore them all day long!

[LutherArkwright]

01:56 AM on 08/19/2011

they are.. there's an HP thread about a woman having a yard sale for her OWN MEDICAL costs and got shut down by our wonderful UpHolders of Lawn Order....

[P Markham72]

02:05 AM on 08/19/2011

As long as it's equal across the board in that town. If the people don't like it its on them to boot out those in charge. There's always E-bay

[meredithm429]

02:28 PM on 08/18/2011

Wow, people need to lighten up. Pull the stick out of your butt will ya.?!

[peterack]

02:12 PM on 08/18/2011

Well...let them learn a good business practice early....it never hurts to make friends with a neibhbor (weither that's a biz or a person). I wonder if their genius mom every thought that instead of the huge legal filing fees, she could have footed the $4 and given a box of cookies to her neighbor for free, and made a friend before the sale.

[Oso Wallman]

02:10 PM on 08/18/2011

why hasn't it happened in previous years? HOA or not? it's not a business district, that's an exaggeration for support of a weak argument . it's a seasonal activity to teach young women about responsibility and has become an American tradition for millions. yes respond in kind to the neighbor, and yes neighbor -be neighborly and discuss your issues in a reasonable manner. it's ridiculous how much we outsource our won responsibilities to officials yet can't deal with the cost of it all. if she had simply worked with the neighborhood and found a middle ground so much time and energy could have been saved and better lesson across the board.

[Peace Walker]

12:42 PM on 08/18/2011

And nobody cares about the rights of people to live in their neighborhood and not have it turn into a business district? Noone said the girls could not sell cookies, just that they could not violate the residential zoning and sell THERE.

[Almondo]

01:25 PM on 08/18/2011

I hope they ban garage sales there too since they violate the same law.

[deepthicket]

03:41 PM on 08/18/2011

Little, tiny, small people with shriveled souls care about it a lot. The rest of us do not care very much at all, fortunately.

[pepper1311]

06:00 AM on 08/18/2011

If there's a HOA then they did the wrong thing. I'm a farmer but we have friends who live under the thumbs of HOA's can't park in there drive way, must be in an assigned spot fit visitors.

[LutherArkwright]

01:57 AM on 08/19/2011

Doesn't sound like an HOA.. the article says a "neighbor's complaint".. Gladys Kravitz LIVES!