Below is the official press release from the Newport-Mesa School District regarding the story posted yesterday about the elementary school boy suspended from school for having kombucha tea in his lunchbox which school administration deemed with no testing or due diligence to violate the district’s drug and alcohol policy.
It appears that the school must fear the legal ramifications of their over the top reaction as they are spinning the story already.
The statement insists that the child was not suspended and no disciplinary action was taken.
You call keeping a child in the school office for the entire day, interrogating him about where/when he obtained this “illegal” beverage, telling him he may have to transfer to another school, attempting to sign him up for a youth alcoholics program and then having him sign a 5 day suspension notice “no disciplinary action?”
Revoking the suspension does NOT mean the suspension and interrogation somehow never happened! And, Police Officers in uniform (per a statement from the child’s mother who had another meeting yesterday – this time with the Principal) were called into the office to assist with the child’s possibly illegal interrogation since the child was questioned about any medicines he was taking etc and there was no attorney or parent/guardian present. Whether or not the officers were already on campus is immaterial.
I do hope the parents consider legal action to be played out in a court of law. A very strong possibility exists that their rights and that of their son were horribly violated and doing nothing just ensures that this type of abuse will continue.
Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s Statement Re: Alleged Action of Suspension for Possession of Kombucha Tea Drink
For Immediate Release: Friday, October 12, 2012
Newport-Mesa Unified would like to respond to a recent article posted in The Healthy Home Economist titled, “Child Suspended from School for Kombucha in Lunchbox.”
No disciplinary action was taken and the student was not suspended. The parents of the involved student met with the school principal to discuss and resolve any issues that resulted from Wednesday’s incident.
The issue resulted from the student being in possession of a beverage called, Kombucha, a tea, which states on its label that it contains 0.05 percent alcohol. The substance came to the attention of school officials through other students who reported that a student had alcohol. Having a substance on campus containing any level of alcoholic content is a violation according to District policy.
The article also references police involvement. The Newport Beach Police Department provides two full- time School Resource Officers who work with our Newport Beach and Corona del Mar campuses. Police were not called in specifically for this incident. The SRO was already on campus and participated in a routine discovery process. All this being said, the incident itself and the perception of how it was handled is something the District is committed to correcting. School districts implement policies and procedures to ensure consistency of practice. For most circumstances, the practices work. However, this was a new situation.
Seeing the need to review some of the practices regarding policies and procedures regarding discipline, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District Board of Education has requested the Superintendent to research programs that would emphasize a more nurturing approach to the discovery process and avoid overly aggressive practices when dealing with the discipline process.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Wow! We really do live in 1984, don’t we? Pulling a student out of class, getting interrogated by the VP and a cop, and then signing a suspension form = no disciplinary action just like 2 + 2 does not equal 4. This stuff sucks when it happens, but I like to think it gets people mad enough to quit this crap. We can’t control everyone’s behavior on everything. Sure, there are things that everyone needs to do for the public good, but we can’t control everyone’s actions. We can’t legislate morality. We can’t legislate health requirements like stupid vaccines. We need to start taking responsibility for ourselves, our morals and principles, and how we raise our children. It’s about time we start taking back control of this country from corrupt people on both sides of the political aisle and from the local level, like these crazy school districts, all the way up to the federal level. This nonsense has to stop. It’s freaking kombucha….
Here is a very good music video that is against drugging our kids. It’s not the style of music that I normally listen to but it has a good message.
The song is called Define Better by Chill EB.
Andrea,
Thank you for sharing that video. It was very moving, profound and true.
Also, welcome to the real world, kid Where you get in trouble for victimless crimes. better to learn this sad fact earlier than later. true story.
This was posted on the previous article but needs to be posted again here…
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’
@ Izumi: Well, that is not to say that he might not have been found to have the kombucha just because it was in a thermos. That’s not a guarantee. So the point here is to educate people about what to tell their children. The first thing all parents who have children in public schools should tell them is that they don’t have to say a word to anyone in a situation like this. Adults don’t have to, either, for that matter. Whenever you talk to authority figures, it’s practically their job to distort your words, so the less said the better.
@D.
Well said. This is the point I hope can be hammered home to anyone who has not (yet!) had a scary encounter with “police state” behavior and is still lulled into thinking we can move about freely and without any of our rights being violated because if we behave, then the authorities (in this case, the school and the police) will behave.
Unfortunately, we no longer live in that kind of world. Perhaps there are pockets of communities where most everyone (the people and the authorities) behave, but if you live in one of those communities now, be aware that the encroachment is happening.
So prepare yourself and your children now. Again, the main thing I wish I had “thought to do” was to include in my child’s education (by me to them — not the school-based indoctrination) FIRMLY what their rights are, and what they need to do to stand up for them. This includes absolutely NOT talking to authorities without parent notification or being present.
As with all of the other things I have taught my children, such as “stranger danger,” there are ways to teach them how to navigate through the world in all sorts of situations, to increase their confidence and not cause them to be scared or pathologically mistrustful. I want my kids to have a realistic view of the world and thus be able to take care of themselves. This requires foreknowledge of the type of world they live in and the types of situations they are likely to encounter.
Sigh. I had mistakenly thought I could put off this lesson, as I had been unaware of the danger. But yeah, the public schools in general (and many private schools) are rapidly becoming way worse than they were even ten years ago. I say this particularly to parents of young children. I did a little homeschooling, couldn’t do more than I did, but I do think that is the way to go, if you can, for many reasons.
And please teach your kids about their rights and how to defend them. Sad but so very true.
I have sent he following e mail to the School board,
You should also harass them just as they harassed others.
[email protected]
http://web.nmusd.us/board
Hello.
I am contacting you to let you know what a disgraceful act you committed with this
” Alcholic Tea” fiasco.
Your lies and pathetic cover ups are not fooling anyone..tis family have been NATIONALLY and INTERNATIONALLY disgraced and their rights abused by your school board.
They deserve a full Public Apology from you in the Local Papers.and should be awarded compensation, If it were me. you would already have had my Attorney at your office serving papers.
You are nothing more than power crazed jackbooters who want to throw their weight around….
The Principal should be given 5 days suspension without pay as retribution for that poor kids traumatic experience.
I am posting links to your Board members on every website I can find and I hope you get a severe kicking for this.
Gary
Bali Indonesia
Gary,
Thank you for taking your time to write to the NMUSD Board and others with the horrific corruption they are inflicting on our children, families, Good Teachers and others.
My investigations go back almost “20years”, of the unlawful, criminal acts, school policies broken and created to coverup nepotism practices to DESTROY young children, shatter families trust in school officials, take away the dedicated and devoted Teachers that quit teaching public school indefinitely with retaliation when reporting complaints and claims. Can you imagine going to the police departments, District Attorney, Dept. of Education, and many other responsable Governement Educational positions and they DO NOTHING TO STEP IN TO HELP! Shocking enough to imagine some joined in on a topic rarely discussed, Bullying From Top School Officials.
The paper trail for over 2 years has been given to the District Attorney in Orange and the family and NMUSD Community are very interested in what their investigation concludes with and we all are hoping the DEPT. OF JUSTICE looks into these matters and criminal charges will be filed and not only accountability takes place, resignations immediately given and they can’t work around children ever again.
Look under the following sites to follow the story beginning 6-14-11 to the present time.
YouTube: Bullyingwarrior
Twitter: Bullyingwarrior
Bullyingwarriorblogspot.com
Facebook: Bullying Principals and Teachers
I am grateful for the healthy home economist website and all the useful information I have gleaned from it. What happened in this school is unfortunate and needed to be pointed out to the public so the misinformation about healthy food choices could be addressed. Rather than bringing lawsuits against the school, perhaps a wiser choice would be to use this as an inroad to teach and inform rather than use this incident as a means of breeding contempt and an attitude of “us” versus “them”. In other words, perhaps the threat of a lawsuit from a student whose rights were violated and the ensuing possible legal actions could be turned into an opportunity for some teaching about the food choices we all feel so strongly about. I believe it was my mother who taught me I’d catch more flies with honey than vinegar. What’s done, is done and prolonging it would be hardest on the child who has endured this humiliation. Turn this into a positive and show him and all involved the reason we choose to eat this way. Ask for an opportunity to write an article in their paper, on their website or be a guest speaker in a science or debate class and start informing people.
Sorry for another post so quick on the heels of the other one — my main point I wished to make and think I did not, is to warn parents, please consider now, in advance, how you will prepare your children in case the worst should happen — that they get called to a principal’s office and an interrogation begins, perhaps (especially if!) police officers are called, etc. Unfortunately it is most likely that parents will NOT be called. Don’t think that you and your kids are safe from this happening because you are a “good” family. Consider if you want to instruct your children now, beforehand, that should something like this ever happen, that they do not have to sign anything, talk to anyone, etc. unless and until their parents are called and are present, and they should request/demand this asap. They do not have to talk otherwise! And if you don’t want them to, then instruct them accordingly. I wish I had instructed my kids — but it had never occurred to me that any such thing would ever happen to them, so I did not.
This is a very large and somewhat hidden problem, so again thank you Sarah for shining light on it.
Ok, so if they allow no alcohol on school grounds I assume they interrogate any child that comes to school with gum as quite a few are made with alcohol and certain types of chocolate (especially the diet kind) because they contain chocolate liquor?
Hey Mike, the amount of alcohol in kombucha is equal to the amount of alcohol in a fresh orange. Not by any stretch was any of this behavior on the part of the adults involved justifiable or even rational. They should all be subjected to serious career-effecting treatment for sick and assaultive behavior toward children.
the kid in the photo looks wasted lol brilliant