The lunch police have struck again. First, there was the story of a preschooler at West Hoke Elementary School in North Carolina who was given a highly processed, cafeteria lunch containing pink slime chicken nuggets because the school decided that the turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips, and apple juice her mother packed was not nutritious enough.
Now comes the story of an elementary school boy from Newport Beach, California who was suspended from school this week for the kombucha in his lunchbox that school administration said violated the school district’s drug and alcohol policy.
The boy’s mother contacted me 2 days ago the very afternoon her son was suspended in a plea to help her resolve the situation.
The trouble apparently started because the kombucha drink was packed in a glass bottle which is the appropriate container for this healthy, vitamin and probiotic filled beverage. The mother even took care to safely place the glass bottle in a foam sleeve as I’ve demonstrated in my videos which is exactly what I do for my own children so that if the bottle is dropped, it would not break and cause harm. It is important to note that the mother had sent kombucha to school in her son’s lunch many times before with no problem.
When the lunch police noticed the glass bottle safely tucked into the foam sleeve in the child’s lunchbox, they confiscated it. The next morning, the boy was called into the Vice Principal’s office and interrogated about the drink and where he got it. The school even called in the Police Officer assigned to work with all the schools in the area.
The Police Officer told the boy that the kombucha was illegal and very dangerous if he takes any medications – antibiotics or anything. Then, the officer asked the boy point blank if he takes any medicines.
Most outrageously, the Vice Principal told the boy that he may have to transfer out of that school and that she was looking into it. She even tried to enroll him in an alcoholics class for teens! The boy ended up spending the entire day in the school office and then was suspended for 5 days for violating the school’s drug and alcohol policy. The issue was also reported to the Newport-Mesa School District. Lest the school or the district deny the child was suspended or try to spin the story, the boy did indeed SIGN a 5 day suspension form.
It is important to note that these events took place without the school even attempting to test the alcoholic content of the kombucha or conducting due diligence of any kind which would have revealed that kombucha is a healthy beverage similar to apple cider and clearly not the equivalent of beer or wine.
The child’s distraught mother managed to get a meeting with the school’s Vice Principal the next morning who informed her that the Principal had decided to retract the suspension and not pursue the issue further. The child was then immediately allowed to return to school.
Unfortunately, the incident had already been reported to the Newport-Mesa school district so it is possible that the parents of the boy could face additional disciplinary action if the school district decides to pursue the matter.
The worst aspect of this incident is the extreme embarrassment, emotional trauma and shame the child no doubt experienced for being called out by the lunch police and then interrogated like a criminal the next day by school administration and even a uniformed Police Officer!
When I talked to the Vice Principal on the phone yesterday, she acted as if the incident was minor and that everything had been resolved satisfactorily. What? Giving a child the third degree in the school office with a Police Officer standing by and no parent present to defend him is no minor scene!
This incident could have far reaching implications for the child’s emotional state and could even result in bullying or snide remarks from classmates for years to come!
For all you traditional cooking Moms and Dads out there who also send healthy homemade foods and drinks in your child’s lunch, it may prove worthwhile to have a discussion with your children about this story and what to do should school administration ever harass them about the contents of their lunchbox.
I will keep tabs on this story in the coming days and if the Newport-Mesa School District decides to do something ridiculous like pursue disciplinary action against this family, I will be sure to let you all know so that the phone lines can light up and public pressure exerted to restore sanity to the situation.
**Update: Following the publishing of this article, the Newport-Mesa School District issued a press release regarding this incident. Click here for the full transcript and rebuttal.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
As an elementary school teacher I have some major problems when people’s first response is to yank your child out of school! I have 20 students in my class and feel that each one is worthy of a first class education. A caring parent will assist their child in whatever they feel the teacher does not cover to ensure a good education. I have a third grade daughter and a pre-school daughter and I supplement their education with values and Bible class at home. We also work on science experiments and other topics of interest. The school system here in WV where I work has done a tremendous job of educating children and my children love their schools. The largest problem we face here is not lunch police (we are glad they are fed) but the lack of caring parents. Some of our students are ONLY fed at school and do not eat dinner at all! Our lunch standards here are very high. Our school lunches must be whole grain, contain a vegetable and fruit choice and all our bread is home made every day it is served. The chicken and beef must be from a reputable USA company and the children can only have low fat or fat free milk. Yes there are still problems and my children pack most days but to say home school is the ultimate choice is not always true. I have three degrees as a teacher and I would not home school my children as they are very social and learn from the ill mannered children at school how thankful they should be for our God fearing family and close friends. If you shelter a child too much they will not know how to deal with those around them when the need arises as real life is all around us. I have many friends who home school and just as many who do not. The children are all well educated, just in different ways.
Does your state’s (WV) high school lunch standards have anything to do with Jamie Oliver’s efforts there?
It’s good they have somewhere to turn. Interrogating a child without a parent or guardian present? That is actually CRIMINAL, and it’s amazing to me they’re not calling for the resignation of the administrators over this. I’m surprised the police officer isn’t also being called to the carpet over this.
I make and enjoy Kimbucha myself. I’m glad there are people out there who are willing and able to introduce beverages to their kids that isn’t soda or syrupy juice. However, I think it’s a mistake to send Kimbucha with your child to school.
If you’re worried about the child being teased by peers and teachers for getting into trouble for having Kimbucha, why didn’t you stop and consider that such a thing would happen for drinking such a strange beverage in the first place? My Mom used to make me peanut butter and banana sandwiches on wheat bread when I was little and I caught so much flack for it.
Also, I’m sorry, but “No glass containers” means just that, not “no glass containers unless rules don’t apply to you for whatever reason you come up with on your own or read on a blog somewhere”.
I should also point out that I didn’t care about the flack I caught for having banana instead of overly processed jelly on my sammitches. I loved them and I knew my Mom made them for me because she loved me.
I’m more concerned, and identify, with the fear and mistrust this poor kid may have of teachers, principals, and police officers going forward.
<<<why didn’t you stop and consider that such a thing would happen for drinking such a strange beverage in the first place?
what you call strange other peole would call normal depending on where they're from.
So how are we suppoded to know what the school will consider "strange"?
For instance the public schools here consider "grits": a "strange" food. While the schools where some of my cousins are in the hills down south consider it "normal" food.
If my cousins moved up here, how would they know that their "normal food" is considered "strange food" by the school and can get them suspended, especially when the school rulebook doesn't mention it at all. There's nothing in the rule book that specifically says grits are not allowed to be brought to school in your hommemade lunch.
However, the school would just use the rule about "no unusual items allowed" or usually what happens, they would suspend them by using the rule about "causing a disturbance at school is not allowed" because all the other students would be causing a commotion by calling them "hillbillies" for bringing hillbilly food. yet the school would clain the other students didn't cause the commotion, that my cousins did, because their would not have been a big commotion and distrurbance by the other students if my cousins had not brought "unusual items" to school which is clearly against the school rules.
And that's not the only food. Some schools consider Italian food "strange" food. One of the public schools near me in the next city over now has an Asian principal who would consider some normal food here in America as "strange" and some as "racist". depending on who's eating it. That is, depending on what race is eating it.
It's okay if blacks are eating fried chicken, grits, and greens, but if a white person is eating fried chiken, grits, and greens at that public school, then they get suspended for "being racist against African-Americans" because you know, "only African-Americans like fried chicken, grits, and greens". Yes, my white cousins woud get suspended from that school also just for eating their normal southern food. Although for a different reason given by the school, "racist" instead of "strange". And my cousins are not racist.
Outrageous!!!!
Outrageous!!!!
Here’s the link to the blog post from the mom in this story firsthand.
I really don’t understand American schools. Surely they would of called the child’s parents if they thought he had alcohol. Well that’s how it works here in Australia. Where has parent-teacher communication gone?
Of course this happened in NC.. (born and raised here, love it, but… yea.)
I would never subject a child to today’s schools anyway.
A mother smart and savvy enough to provide such a nutritious lunch can do great job of home educating her child. It’s bad enough to deal with bullies who are students, but school officials too? How do these people get in these positions anyway?
It’s common sense to handle every situation uniquely. To say the school has overreacted is an understatement and in return they have inflicted emotional trauma to a child. I have grown kombucha and shared it with many hundreds of people and the alcohol percentage is on average under a third of a percent when made at home. Many people have to consume kombucha and other fermented beverages such as water kefir and milk kefir just to be able to pass a bowel movement. The parents might not have even been aware of the alcohol in the beverage. You can not become intoxicated off of these beverages but I understand this might not stop a young child from trying. You would have to drink gallons for any effect to take place and you would become sick from the overwhelming amount of beneficial bacteria and yeast far before you would get close.
I understand the school’s policy and I understand the parents should have talked to the school first but what the school has done in response is atrocious. The human body produces its own supply of alcohol naturally on a continuous basis, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It’s called endogenous ethanol production. They have obviously made an exception for this natural process so it would have been possible for the school to use common sense and negotiate the situation before blowing it out of the water and harming the family.
It’s because of the inappropriate methods the public school system uses to handle matters that I’ve chosen to homeschool and many parents do the same. For the short time that I was in public school with my two sisters years ago we had several issues come up that were enough for my parents to pull us out.