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
I hear deep fried pink slime nuggets are worth their weight in gold on the underground. shhh
Last year, our local health food store had to take the Kombucha out of the case because of the high alcohol content. It was allowed back only when the alcohol had been reduced to legal limits. It was pretty powerful!
Kombucha can have a high alcohol content….that is a fact. But if the state allows the stores to sell it, it should be legal at schools. I make my own kombucha….I don’t know the alcohol content. I can’t believe parents can kid their kids to drink kombucha….it is an acquired taste, it tastes like vinegar.
As a teacher in San Jose, I asked the district nutritional chief if we teachers could occasionally be offered an organic salad. She said: the cost is prohibitive. I said: we are willing to pay more for organic. I got no support from anyone.
Then I asked if we could have soup without meat (I and another teacher were vegans), and she said: we cannot obtain soup without meat. That response was so totally idiotic that I gave up completely. No one else cared. The food they served truely was crap. Everything came out of a can, and the kids preferred the off-campus prepared pizzas they sold. The nutrition chief said that they could only obtain what their vendor furnished.
I was asked to believe that the district, in a city of one million, was unable to find a vendor who sold soup without meat. Within blocks of the school where I taught, there were many stores which sold soup without meat……oh forget it!
Please see the larger picture. This is about turning all the children into the property of the state. This is about destyroying all parents’ rights. This is why these incidents are happening all over rhe world with increasing regularity.
David Icke has been writing about such things for 20 years and virtually everything he has had to say has or is coming true.
<<<Please see the larger picture. This is about turning all the children into the property of the state. This is about destyroying all parents’ rights. This is why these incidents are happening all over rhe world with increasing regularity
yes. you are correct. At first I thought it was just happening in the U.S., but then I noticed it's happening all over the world.
Unfortunately, most people probably don't realize it's happening all over the world.
I doubt the kid suffered any trauma and was probably glad to get out of class for a day. Besides, its good training for learning how to live in the police state.
Everyone righteously indignant about this report should contact the vice principal of this school and reply some of the most scolding, unkind messages possible.
-Uzziel-
III
This would be a great case for an attorney to take probono. Hopefully someone sees it here and signs on to help
Oh hell yeah, I would’ve ripped into that dipshit VP and made him give me money back for the drink he took. I would’ve given HIM the 3rd degree as to why he interrogated my son before contacting me. these idiot public school servants need to get a fucking life!
If my child ever experiences something like that, im getting a lawyer. ive been through things like that as a youth, and no one, not even a police officer, will tell my child what to do. if they do so, they will not only be told to shut their mouth, but i will protest that school and do whatever it takes to get that cops badge. if i only knew now what i knew then, i would not only have a few ignorant teachers fired, but a few ignorant police officers out of reign as well.
What is most chilling about this story is that it simply _has_ to be the case that the school officials were laying in wait for this opportunity – either because it had been observed that certain people were bringing Kombucha to school, or this specific child had been observed doing so. Someone had it in for him and his family. It seems like a stunt that fascists would pull – less to do with reason, or with the drink, than an overwhelming desire to do harm and to exert authority.
As a member of law enforcement, I get upset any time I read that a police officer ‘was used to intimidate’ somebody. More often, law enforcement is contacted as a part of the investigatory process not as an intimidation tool. That does NOT mean that I support what happened here. I do NOT! However, before you lump the officer into this whole mess, please realize that he/she was just doing his/her job. Believe me, officers do not agree with everything that they encounter. What really galls me is that people who label us as ‘intimidating’ have no problem pointing us out to their children in public and saying, “he/she is going to take you to jail if you don’t start behaving.” I’ve had this happen countless times and it sickens me.