AUBURN – A year ago, Auburn took flak for testing Webster Intermediate School children to see how fat they were.

The machines that caused all of the trouble have been removed from the city’s elementary schools.

They have been placed at the middle and high schools.

The furor began a year ago when a Webster Intermediate School gym teacher measured students’ body mass index – body fat compared to height and weight – using new laser equipment that the school system had purchased through a $300,000 federal grant for fitness equipment.

Such tests were recommended by the Maine Department of Education. But many Webster parents said they knew nothing about them until their kids brought home a printout that designated them obese, average or underweight.

Some of the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders were in tears when they told their parents about it.

The middle and high school health centers will now use the machines on an individual basis. At the high school, freshmen will be analyzed as part of their required physical education course.

Officials say trained personnel will test students and release scores in private.

Many Webster parents said last year that their children were embarrassed when teachers handed them the scores in front of classmates.

Other Maine high schools routinely test students’ body fat composition. SAD 75’s Mt. Ararat High School, which won awards for its health program, uses a body fat analyzer as part of its freshman gym class.

There, teenagers are tested privately by trained personnel, who explain the scores and relate them to each student’s overall health. They tell students that the scores are personal.

Said Jeanne Billings, who heads the health and physical education departments, “We really haven’t had any problems.”