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
Just one more reason to pull him out of the school system and homeschool him, where he can eat real, healthy food without fear of intimidation and harrassment. Their system only survives and thrives as long as it has enough people in it.
Yes because everyone has the time or the education to do so?? You are right about the system surviving though! I don’t know your individual situation but to advise everyone to take their kids out of the system is ridiculous and not socially responsible. The community would be better served if we all worked together to make the system better.
You don’t need “education” to homeschool — you simply have to love your kids more than the school does and be willing to help them learn. If you can read, you can homeschool. If you are too stupid to educate yourself on how to homeschool your kid you probably should just turn your kids over to CPS now and be done with it. Time is another subjective manner– whose kids AREN’t worth the time?? You don’t need to school your kids 8 hours a day during traditional times– fit learning into your lifestyle. If you need to change your lifestyle to make room for your kids then…. do it! But stuff like this has been happening in the schools for decades now. Anyone who continues to send their kids to school needs to be prepared to yank them out. “The community” is not entitled to my kids’ suffering to try to fix a problem that is inherent in the system itself. Read up on John Taylor Gatto working for decades to ‘make the system better’ [and winning teacher of the year awards doing it] and deciding that it’s a futile effort. Trying to tape up a broken piece of plastic w/ my kids is ridiculous and socially irresponsible too. No thanks. If they screw up w/ my kid, they lose my help. And I say that as a homeschool mom of 5 that put my 2d in a unique public high school last year. The schools exist to serve the students, not vice versa.
Me! Me! Me! For every well mannered intelligent home schooled kid I have met, I have met just as many who are socially inept idiots with little discipline. And the parents think these kids are GREAT! Not all parents are created equal as it is with schools! Yes I run into far more idiots from public schools but that just sheer numbers! There are many reason a parent could choose to home school. I’m not lumping everyone into one group. When your grown up child is car jacked, yeah I bet the guy did attend public school! That’s partly my point. Stop complaining about system you continue help break!
Repeating over and over that homeschoolers help ‘break’ the system does not make it true. Again, I ask you, have you been able to produce meaningful change within the system? Perhaps your school is a good school, so then I ask, should you remove your child from the good school and put him/her into a troubled school so that you can fix the system from within? If you don’t, are you ‘breaking’ their school.
I know plenty of teachers who homeschool because they refuse to put their own children into an unhealthy situation.
If after my children have reached mature adulthood they want to tackle the broken system, I would absolutely support their efforts! But until they mature, it is my job to make sure that they are fed emotionally, spiritually and educationally healthy information.
There is no fixing the “system”, it is doing exactly what it was designed to do, produce low-reasoning worker bees. That’s the way our government and businesses would like it, the fewer people there are who are able to challenge their authority, the easier it is to keep us dependent on the “system”.
This is not to say there aren’t noble people who go into teaching with the desire to “make a difference”, but the truth is they get squashed at every turn. Those in control only give lip service to the idea of helping every child reach their potential, the real agenda is to keep them under their thumb.
Fascinating. Guess what?
The system is so FUBARed that it honestly does not deserve anyone’s children in it. There is a reason we are behind many countries in education and it is not the fault of Home Schoolers. It is the Public School system we continue to pump more and more money into with zero positive results. In fact we would be far better off if we looked at some of the best Home School systems and implemented some of their methods in the public School. We would likely get back in the top 5 for Education and could probably do it at far less cost then we do now being in the bottom of the rankings…
If you are interested in fixing the system, then help remove the Federal interference so the State and Local people can fix this crapsandwich we have for an Public Education System. That one move would do wonders all by itself.
Then learn what works from our Home Schoolers.
Then get those idiots in charge to understand that kids are not cookies, our cookie cutter method of education does not work for everyone nor will it ever. We could probably get more kids interested in learning and more interested in Higher Education if we dispensed with the idiocy of one size fits all in education…
As far as discipline goes, discipline is not the School’s responsibility and has not been since we dispensed with corporal punishment within said schools. Discipline is the parents job and that being crap these days for most kids is the result of far different reasons than how those kids were schooled…
As far as idiots go, Schooling does not cure idiocy. This is made apparent by the moniker “Educated Idiot”. Idiots can go to College and get more education but they do not stop being idiots…
@Rage, there’s quite a few things in your post that I agree with. Public schools can learn a thing or two from the Home schooling system.
If you are interested in fixing the system, then help remove the Federal interference so the State and Local people can fix this crapsandwich-AGREE. And I am actively fighting that battle.
We could probably get more kids interested in learning and more interested in Higher Education if we dispensed with the idiocy of one size fits all in education…-Agree. This has been done to some extent, but we need to go a lot further.
Your discipline comment?? I’m not sure we’re using the term in the same manner. Because, I agree, corporal punishment has no place in school.
As far as idiots go, Schooling does not cure idiocy. This is made apparent by the moniker “Educated Idiot”. Idiots can go to College and get more education but they do not stop being idiots…-Agree
While I’m quite certain that was directed at me, I still agree. ;o)
Sure there are a few points I disagree with, but when you find you’re agreement with most of your opponents points, I see no reason to argue about the ones we disagree on.
Peek A Boo, I think we are kindred spirits. I love the work of John Taylor Gattos. Have you checked out the podcast School Sucks? My daughter already homeschools (16) my 12 year old son wants to go to middle school with his friends but tells me daily of the ridiculous crap that goes on there. He got detention during the second week of school for forgetting to have me sign a form stating military service. He was in detention with kids that had been fighting, sassing teachers and were caught making out on campus. I already opened a can of whoop ass on the school for this one. One more incident and he is out like it or not!
Oh yeah, that would be the be a great reason to yank a kid from school?! There are reasons to remove your kid from a school but just because you don’t like the rules or you find the enforcement of these rules problematic?? What are you really teaching your kids! You guys remind of the kid who cries about the rules of the game so he takes his ball and goes home! You could change the rules, help create a different game or learn the rules of this game! That kid didn’t make any friends but at least he can drink kombucha and his mother loves him. lol!
Not everyone can homeshool their children. Some of us work full time! I agree that the public schools are crap, but we need to work to fix them, as well as do what we can to teach critical thinking skills during the time we have with our children. Stop voting for establishment politicians is a good step in the right direction!
There are parents who work full-time and still educate their children at home. There are single parents who homeschool. I have friends who work opposite shifts so that their kids can be home educated. Another friend of mine is an engineer. She works while Dad (who used to be a public school teacher and says he would NEVER send his kids to public school) homeschools their three kids. If you can read, you can homeschool.
If you downsize your life, you will often find that one parent staying home leads to a better outcome for the whole family, and supports homeschooling as well. If you are not willing to downsize or make the financial sacrifices that go along with being a one-income family, which is common, then of course homeschooling would be impossible.
Working for change is nice for future generations, but change is slow and I’m not willing to donate my time (and sacrifice my kids) to change the system. I put that time into homeschooling my kids.
The entire notion of – if you can read – you can homeschool is absurd. Anyone saying that is lucky in that department. While living in the US, my wife and I worked from morning till late evening and barely made the bills. Please, enlighten me on how, when getting home nearly kid’s bed time, would I been able to teach my children? Good one. I’ve since left the states and don’t have to worry about the abysmal school policies, disgusting and poisonous GMO filled foods and the prison like environment in schools. We made a decision to vote with our feet and not feed that system a single penny of our earnings ever again. They have failed us and they have failed our children, the last straw was the fact that my child was unable to attend a preschool, simply because she she didn’t get the flue vaccination. There are many things we can do for our children, homeschooling is one, but it’s definitely not the best of choices. Sending kids to public schools, teaches them about society and its rules and boundaries, children learn how to cope with social issues and learn to understand them from within. Homeschooling parents like to dispute that argument, yet this is 100% accurate. The reason why we see the flaws in the system, is because we had been a part of it and have a solid reference point. I think the best thing that you can teach your child, is that this world is their home, not a town, a state or a country. The most powerful message is that if you don’t like something, then change it, don’t hide out and hope for the best. We all want to give our children the world… well, it’s really that simple. Millions come to the US from third world countries, around 3 million Americans vote with their feet annually. That’s a fact. If you want to change the system, you must stop supporting it by financing it. The only way to do that, is to leave.
Just some food for thought. I don’t expect and would never expect everyone to agree, leaving your homeland is not for everyone, but it does have benefits. I now enjoy 26 vacation days per year [by law], 30 sick days, great free health care and my children will attend great universities for free. In schools there are no cameras, no police presence and no GMO foods, for it is banned in my new homeland. By the way, for the right wingers who will without a doubt call me a commie – I’ve lived under communism before so please spare me your nonsense, and I now live in a western democratic society… it is possible. Think globally!
@Ralf: I’ll try to explain this so that you will understand. I’m not attacking you, so please don’t read snarkiness into what I am saying. Words can be easily misread in a forum such as this.
1) If you can read, you can homeschool. Period. Means just that. You do not need a college degree, or courses in education. If you are willing to learn yourself, you can teach your children. Studies have shown absolutely no difference in outcome based on the parents’ education level. Willingness to teach is what is most important. For the record, homeschooled students surpass public-schooled students on all standardized tests, often by a substantial margin.
2) If you are unable to homeschool because you are working to pay the bills, then you have a few options. Very few people are so genuinely poor that they require both parents to work from sunup to sundown to pay basic living expenses. Many however, are stuck because of poor financial choices in the past or present. Most homeschoolers I know sacrifice a great deal to stay home and teach their children, and quite a few have large families. We don’t have fancy cars, big houses, and the like. We personally do not have cable (don’t even have a TV), drive 10 year old cars, and use a prepaid cell phone (averages $10 a month). I make my own cleaners, cook almost all of our food, garden, and we rarely eat out or go out. We are willing to do this because the rewards (our children) are worth it. Now, if you *have* to have the latest gadgets, $100 a month phone, all the cable channels, big-screen TV, huge house, new cars, eating out all the time, etc., then yes, you probably have to work a lot longer to pay for it all. I don’t know your situation while you lived in the U.S., but there were probably ways for you to cut your expenses. It’s a matter of priorities. I want my children to have a superior education, other people choose gadgets. Their choice, not mine.
3) Sending kids to public schools *does* teach them how to cope with social issues. It teaches them to shut their mouths, downplay their intelligence, avoid hard work, not to question authority, succumb to peer pressure, get bullied, have sex before they are ready for the consequences, take drugs and/or drink, and above all to “fit in” no matter what. I’m sure I’ve missed a few of the “benefits” of public school in this short list. Just saying something is “100% accurate” doesn’t make it true. I have yet to meet a homeschooled child who isn’t generally respectful and well-behaved (excepting some children with special needs who would be that way regardless of their schooling), and we have now homeschooled in three different states. I’m sure there are some poorly educated and socially inept homeschoolers out there, I just haven’t met any. I have, however, met many poorly educated and socially inept public schoolers, including members of my own family. My children, while certainly not perfect, get along with people of ALL ages, not just their peers, which is the true definition of socialization. Homeschoolers are actively courted by colleges/universities and employers.
I’m glad you were able to vote with your feet. It sounds like you care about your kids. Unfortunately many parents do not, or at least their actions would imply that they do not. The fact that we are both reading The Healthy Home Economist would suggest that we have a lot in common in our food philosophies.
Raif – hands down, Europe has better food. However, what will you do when your new homeland becomes a Muslim majority, you have 365 of days off due to economic collapse or something else occurs that is in conflict with what you wish for your children’s schooling? You will have no option to homeschool. My family left communism too, but at least in the US, we still have choices. People aren’t shot in the street or disappeared . . . yet. All of the same underlying ideas with the state owing your children also exist in the EU. Moving elsewhere is checking out of the system as much as you say homeschooling is – you didn’t really do anything to change your community. You just found one that best fit your ideal. (Much like homeschool families.)
Go Ralf! Go Ralf! GO! Go!
‘“The community” is not entitled to my kids’ suffering to try to fix a problem that is inherent in the system itself.’
Word. What is up with people who think I should let my kid suffer for years for the sake of bettering something that can’t be bettered? Prove my solidarity? How very noble… Humans are not made to fit into a system. Systems don’t breathe, humans do.
If you have no interest in your community, so be it but you people shit on a system you help break! You guys are that whiny little kid who doesn’t like the rules of the game so he decides to take his ball and go home. Lol! yeah its your right but it doesn’t stop u from looking like whiny little B! And last I checked most of the advances in society have come from people who were the product of public schools! But those home schoolers sure can spell and while they have few social issues, at least their mommy loves them! lol!
Actually we have a great interest in our community, starting with the basic block of the community – the family. Your comment sounds like the kid nobody will play with because he dictates all the rules without any negotiation. So some people homeschool, you don’t think it’s best for you, but who put you in charge of “best” for the rest of us? Any why do you assume homeschoolers do so as a reaction? What about the wealthy who almost exculsively use private schools? I hope you make the same points to them.
I’m not dictating the rules. If the game is basketball, you must pardon all those silly kids who don’t want to join your little genius in trying to kick the ball in the basket! Then play by yourself and shut up! And let the rest of us go about our miserable game. It’s been my experience that those who are happy with their lives, don’t need to complain. They need to complain about “them over there” so that “us over here” can feel better! If you’ve done the right thing for your child then whats the need to complain about public schools??? Do you feel better??
And yes I tease private school children as often as I can. ;o)
Where is the rule that says I’m not allowed to homeschool aside from in your imaginary world?
The only person calling their kid a genius here has been *you.*
I am not complaining about public schools, only about the whiners who complain everyone should be there. I am thankful to have choices and these choices are within the “rules” of the game. We homeschool because it is our best option, not because we are angry at public schools.
Sorry if you want to play basketball but have experienced others deciding to play soccer instead. If the basketball game is miserable, as you say, why would you expect others to stick around?
If you’re not complaining about public schools then I’m not talking to you! There is no rule that would bar you from educating your kids the way you like. And if there were, I would be first in line to fight it. I am talking to those who chose to bash public schools in order to justify taking their kids of out. You don’t need to justify why you took your kid out to me, but if you do so by bashing the “system” then yes you should expect someone might disagree,
I never took my kids out. They just never went. Most people I know headed into the kid rearing thing with the idea of homeschooling. There are reasons to homeschool that are not reactionary.
If you tease the private school kids that they helped “break” the system, then aren’t you saying the system has long been broken? We’ve always had a significant number of kids in private schools.
I’m not against homeschooling! And I’m not the biggest fan of our public schooling system. But I am pro system! Many places don’t have a “system.” We are lucky to have some sort of system! If it’s broken, as a part of the community I feel obliged to help fix it. If you don’t then so be it! That’s another great thing about our system. You have choices! You denigrate the very system that allows for that choice. Yes, the public school system is your government. As with any other part of government here, if you don’t like it, change it! If you have no interest then shut up and get out of the way! And should you choose to mouth off about the “system”, using sometimes flawed logic. That again is your right. But its also within my rights to tell you how ridiculous your argument is.
And not that it matters, but I was not talking about YOUR kids. The jokes are directed at the parents. I am not making fun of anyone’s actual kids!
No apple juice either, I suppose?
nanny state….
That’s crazy. Poor kid. Glad you’re helping the family.
wow…so sad. keep up posted! i’m in california with a young child in school who drinks kamboucha. IF anything happens to these parents, please let us know so I can bombard them with emails and phone calls. Maybe we can also get some of the kombucha companies involved like GT Kombucha to vouch for the family!
Outrageous!
This is nuts! Thank you for sharing. I guess we also have to talk about this also with our kids – why do they make it so hard to eat traditional foods?!
Why? Because the processed food and beverage giants see the increase of these nourishing, traditional, homemade foods as a threat to their marketshare domination, and their minions the registered dieticians who oversee the school lunch programs are funded and influenced by the likes of Coca Cola.
I too send it in my daughter’s lunchbox. Wow.
have they looked into how the sugar and food coloring has the effect of drugging their students?
unbelievable! i have heard other stories if schools taking kids healthy packed luncges and making them eat the fake processed gmo crap they serve! school lunches are a HUGE concern and its unacceptable that we allow it!