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
With all due respect, why would the mom seek your counsel on this matter? What does she expect you to do that she can’t?
@Maren HA! 😀
Honestly, I’m curious. If I felt my child was severely wronged at school I’d call my congressman (and I have done exactly that with prompt and just results). I’m genuinely curious add to what kind of help the mom was seeking.
This is another reason why socialized schools should be shut down.
The Powers that be that are now in charge of our executive branch, are the lunch Nazis. They are the ones pushing all this nonsense.
They, and the United Nations want to take all of your parental rights away from you.
I suggest you all read up on what the UN, and the US Dept of Education, and FDA, are doing to you and your children..right under your noses!
The primary point is missed in this story. Modern schools are child abuse. The bullying, etc was mentioned as an effect of this ‘incident’ – not the fact that an environment where bullying could occur for being ‘different’ was ‘normal’. ‘Schools’ primary functions are as indoctrination centers; bullying and ‘peer pressure’ is part of that ‘progrom’. Education is a secondary consideration.
I am reminded of the dog-owners who spoon-fed the melamine-laced, Chinese, toxic dog food to their pets as they were dying – not knowing that it was the food that waskilling them. In this case, schools ARE the harm, and parents fail to realize that they cannot be ever ‘help’ a child, because they were designed with the primary purpose of prepare children to die in war to protect a rich King’s overseas investments. Get you children out of school-torture facilities and form neighborhood cooperatives of like-minded parents.
the real problem here is that when facing these pre-programed tyrants, we talk about how there is EMOTIONAL TRAUMA and the CHILDS MENTAL STATE COULD BE HARMED, when mentioning our defense of such evil behavior. when the only true emotion the child or the parents should have is ANGER. NOT hurt feelings, this is a true problem within our society, IT must be fixed, we must change this way of thinking or all will forever be lost.
School police can stick it! My 6 yr old takes her lunch, she’s a huge fan or roasted seaweed chips, which are awesome and loaded with even more awesomeness, and she came home one day and said a teacher told her she couldn’t eat her seaweed. When I asked what the teacher said, my daughter said “the teacher said, don’t eat that, I don’t want to see it!”
The nerve! I volunteered in the lunch room the next day, the teacher wasn’t there, but I let the principal know how ridiculous it was.
Rage against the machine, you rebel you…. Sounds to me like she was eating in the middle of class.
So, you’re mad at the school? Need I mention that the parents in question are sending their child to a government run institutionalized indoctrination center? And they were dumb enough to break the rules? Are we really suprised that in today’s overreactive nanny-culture police state that there was overreaction? Also, are we aware that this whole stupid episode could have been avoided by using a thermos? Just Sayin’
<<<Also, are we aware that this whole stupid episode could have been avoided by using a thermos? Just Sayin’
no it couldn't. From what I read, most public schools have now banned having theremos's also.
The students are not allowed to bring any from home or anywhere else.
And are not allowed to have any at school, either,
OK, I am about as libertarian and health-minded as they come, BUT why are people so stupid? Can’t you sheeples just act normal? Why Kombucha? Give your kid some healthy veggies and fruits and fresh fruit juice. Why even subject him to get bullied like that or be the weird kid that brings a glass bottle sippy cup to lunch? I have a theory that most of the problems on this earth are best exemplified by examples like this. The school admin are totally in the wrong for infringing on the child’s rights and for following the Rothschild agenda to hurt us in every way possible. BUT, come on, the mother is a complete idiot too. This example also illustrates why people hate Californians (both the nosy admin and the overly-crunchy mother who probably does not put as much effort into making sure her son knows logic or can read/write.) sorry to rant, but you know I’m right. Just act normal people. Please. The world depends on it. And please, eat kombucha in your homes, not out in the open so you can show everyone how health conscious you are.
Matt, my libertarian comrade, you have, in your post, made totally unrelated anti-
Semitic allusions, as well as claiming, as do all people who live in shitty places, that Californians are hated. Why is California the most populous state, if people hate us?
Rednecks, racists, and grumps hate Californians. But if you have ever traveled throughout the world, you will find that when you tell people you are from California, their eyes light up and they smile. Perhaps in the Old Confederacy, Californians over half of whom are not “white”) are hated. Perhaps it’s sour grapes at living in a craphole; perhaps its hating minorities; perhaps it’s just needing a scapegoat to hate for reasons of self-loathing.
Kombucha is full of probiotics and very healthy. To argue that a mother, because she gives her child healthy food out of arrogance, should not have them take Kombucha to school, is to promote an absurdity based on a lie. Parents give their kids healthy food because they care about their health.
But blaming the “Rothchild agenda (code word alert: anti-Semistism)” and the much hated Californians and advising the mother not to show Komucha in public (as tho it were a form of dietary pornography)……is laughable.
Come on Matt, you have never tried Komucha, never even seen it, but here was a chance to badmouth not only the “Rothchild agenda (gee what does that mean? Mandatory Komucha for school kids; health standards for school food?) but those
goddamned Californians, with their education, their good jobs, their high pay, their unmatched beauty of landscape, their wonderful weather…yes, those bastards: we hate them. So lighten up and go Komuch….your digestive system will thank you. And if you are ever out here in California, please leave soon, as we don’t need more haters.
Normally, kombucha contains less than 0.5% ethanol, which classifies it as a nonalcoholic beverage