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
Ok it sounds like the school may have gone overboard and could have treated this different like talking with the Mom and given her a list banned drinks and a warning.
I tried One of these drinks and It wasn’t for me tasted like Vinegar anyways The label indicates it has alcohol in it even though it might not be alot its still mentions alcohol and any products with alcohol are not allowed so you have to abide by the schools rules but not allowing the child to return to the school over one drink is obsurd! As a Mom of a toddler I would not knowingly give my child products with alcohol and one must be careful when giving a child fermented un-Unpasteurized sometimes these health drinks hinder not help.
Perhaps the Nazis (Ie murders of millions) are not the police or administrators but the parents failing to realize that Kombucha does contain alcohol, and it varies…from brand to brand and batch to batch. In California, the stronger brands have over the legal amount of alcohol and thus they are labeled Must be 21 to Purchase: contains alcohol.
If that offends you, you should work to change the alcohol standards in your community.
Calling people Nazis who are trying (even if misguidedly) to protect the child is something only a Nazi could do. In California, if a child brings a brand of Kombucha to school which is over the alcohol limit, the law dictates that it should be prohibited. If you don’t like the law, change it….but calling people Nazis is not only Nazi in style but when you call someone such names (sometimes it IS appropriate for mass murders) is the last way to win them over to your viewpoint.
American cops tend to be rather fascistic, as a norm, but many are very friendly and professional. Lumping all together (i.e. stereotyping) is in fact a key feature to the propaganda efforts of Nazi regimes. All Jews are……..all liberals are…….all Muslims are….all home schoolers are…………….this is the rhetoric of fascism,racism, and oppression.
To see this rhetoric used to indict people who were dealing with the FACT that kombucha does have alcohol, and in some cases it violates the legal limits…..just makes me sigh…..
Here’s a solution: find out from the manufacturer what the alcohol content of your kombucha is and see if it meets legal limits. If it does, show that to the school so they are not afraid they are ignoring the law which prohibits alcoholic beverages to little kids.
It is easy to call someone a Nazi; it takes a little more effort to understand the others’ point of view and try to deal with the obligations they feel. The problem in public schools is not teachers or administrators but parents who would rather denounce them than work with them.
I do agree that this is ridiculous. From the experiences I had in elementary and middle school, the teachers and administrators are power-hungry busybodies. With that being said though and if I were the mom, I would send the kid to school with a healthy lunch and unopened bottled water from this point on and let him have the kombucha at home. If the school lunch nazis want to target him again, then it’s time to get a lawyer involved.
I am generally quite satisfied with having been a public high school teacher for most of my life. Sadly, there are times, like today,
when I am so very ashamed of the way those in charge of high schools unnecessarily abuse the rights of the students.
The boy who was threatened with discipline for having a bottle of kombucha tea because it contained 0.5 percent of alcohol, a quantity consistent
with the vanilla extract used in making muffins, will learn the very sad lesson that schools that claim to teach rationality do not
act rationally. In many cases hard core adherence to zero-tolerance policies does more harm to young people than would be the case if
schools acted on a one-by-one basis, evaluating the circumstances in each individual act. Unfortunately, overreaction seems to be
a very harmful manifestation of zero-tolerance.
I was in school long ago now, but when i was in 5th grade “The Peanuts” (Charlie Brown) cookbook was banned because it called for Vanilla Extract, which was alcoholic.
BC (and anyone else who might be interested): Read “NEA: Trojan Horse In American Education” by Samuel Blumenfeld. I think this book offers the best history of American public education, bar none (and that includes Gatto and Iserbyt, both terrific as well). It’s an absolute eye-opener. Without a good grasp of where we came from and why, we can’t possibly understand where we are, let alone know how to proceed.
If anyone else has read Blumenfeld’s book, I’d love to know what you thought of it.
My what a crazy response from the teachers and others at that school. I felt anxiety reading this-I wouldn’t have thought that teachers ,etc could be so ignorant and cause such trouble to a kid.
It is a say day indeed when we should inform our children to say nothing until their parents arrive on the scene. That day is now here. The police are not our friends, have no legal obligation to protect us and are trained to lie. Please remove your children from the government indoctrination centers that are run by a bunch of brain dead products of government control and teachers’ unions.