BELTON, Mo. – Parents at Hillcrest Elementary School are airing their frustrations with the Belton School District after students were sent home with a letter from their teacher highlighting potential weight problems.

Parent Amanda Moss told Fox 4 her daughter 3’10”, 54-pound daughter became concerned with her body image after reading a letter from her teacher that alleges her body is too big for her age.

“She wanted to know if it meant that she was fat because she saw ‘lose weight’ on it,” Moss told the news site. “Whenever she read it, she only needed help with one word and that was ‘body composition,’ and when she knew that her number was bigger than the number for her age, she knew that it meant something.”

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Moss said she believes the note should have been sealed and sent directly to parents.

“It was frightening to know that a child in second grade would worry about what their body image is,” Moss told Fox 4.

School officials calculated students’ body mass index in their physical education class using their height and weight. Officials then give suggestions based on how each child’s BMI fits into ideal ranges set by the government, according to media reports.

“They send home a piece of paper that says, ‘Here is a box. Your child doesn’t fit into it. Here is what you should do to fit into the box,” Moss said. “And to me that’s completely against what they’ve been teaching to accept each other and to not discriminate.”

And discrimination is exactly what some parents are worried about.

Heidi Hickam said her son Kaleb suffers from a liver disease that makes it difficult to control his weight. She’s concerned the district’s lack of privacy with the BMI measurements could result in her son or others becoming the target of bullies.

“If they’re going to send it home without being in an envelope … where all the kids can get into someone’s backpack and see the biggest kid in the class’ BMI and them maybe tease and bully him about it,” Hickam said.

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Dr. Alberto Suarez told Fox 4 BMI is far from a precise measure of health.

“The BMI is sort of a rough indicator of what your body mass is,” he told Fox 4. “I mean, you could be fairly muscular and your BMI might be outside the norm, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re unhealthy.”

Regardless, the BMI measurements are part of the school’s “Healthy Hillcrest Plan” that also includes a healthy snack list on the school website and a contract for parents to sign, Yahoo Parenting reports.

The letter sent home with students explains what the BMI means and how they should interpret the information.

“BMI is a ratio between a person’s height and weight and there are different healthy ranges for each age. If your child was measured … in the fall, I have included a BMI from September 2014 as well as their current BMI,” physical education teacher Mrs. Brown wrote in the letter. “This information can be very helpful when you can look at trends over a school year or multiple school years.”

The letter goes on to explain that if the BMI is above the ‘healthy’ range, a child is likely taking in more calories than they burn. If it’s below the range, they could be taking in less calories than they need. If it’s within range, caloric intake and calories burned are roughly in balance.

It also provides tips for parents of students with higher than normal BMI numbers.

“Trading current snacks for healthier ones and finding more opportunities for activity will help,” Brown wrote. “Focus on maintaining weight, we will never advocate for a child to lose weight. Children have plenty of time to grow in height which should lower the BMI number.”

Belton superintendent Andrew Underwood told Fox 4 Mrs. Brown “did not mean anything malicious by” sending the letters.

“I think our teachers are just really trying to help out,” he said.

Officials told the news site it’s the first time they’ve sent a separate letter home regarding students’ BMI, and it was previously included on their report cards. In the future, families will be notified in advance and provided an opportunity to opt their children out of the BMI tests, KMBC reports.

Moss believes it might be a good idea for school officials to scrap the BMI measurements altogether.

“Personal image is a big deal and if you are starting out a child at a very young age telling them they are overweight, it is a problem,” Moss told KMBC. “It is absolutely unacceptable.”