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
The school’s pathetic explanation is an epic fail! You do not get exonerated from doing wrong by backtracking after the deed is done, which is exactly what the school is trying to do. That child has already been humiliated, punished for nothing, denied his constitutional rights, and bullied. Those wrongs should be compensated.
Thanks again, Sarah, for reporting the truth about this disgusting event.
Listen granny or gramps! There’s no LOL button and the Google can help you learn a few things! ;0) (is the Smiley face more to your liking) I run into plenty of idiots from public schools! That’s not the point! You people seem to think home schooled kids are the answer and I just think you’re wrong! And if you are a home schooler you are proving my point! Your logic and reasoning skills are horrible! You take ridiculous incidents and use them to justify your decisions! You do realize what schitzo means right? Because using it in that context makes no earthly sense?!
Why aren’t these incidents just evidence that there are idiots all around us?! But no it must be the schools? I did very well in one of those horrible school systems. And I managed to make it to college without being bullied, shot, suspended for hugging anyone and I was allowed to drink all the kombucha I wanted. Lol! (just seems appropriate here.) Then I took all that scholarship money that my horrible school helped me win and used it to succeed in college, at the undergraduate level and graduate level! Yes its your right to teach your kid how you wish, I just wish you’d shut up while you’re doing it! Its really distracting to those of us trying to change the world! :0) Lol!(I just couldn’t resist)
This was an attempt to respond to D. above.
Well, BC, you’ve certainly proved the point that we’re surrounded by idiots. Even supposedly educated ones. If you couldn’t understand my post, I feel very sorry for you.
If I were penning your comments myself, I couldn’t have written it any funnier. Really, the “I feel sorry for you” comeback?! Did you miss that whole kid who doesn’t like the game part of my comments. If you did, you would have chosen a different one. “I didn’t want to play your stupid game anyway!” and “my games are better anyway!” and when those didn’t work, “I feel sorry for you!” Clever! I apologize for the idiot remarks, if you thought I was referring to you. If I had known you had such witty comebacks, I would have chosen a different word! ;o)
Number one…the pic you used of the boy, and the Guinness glass, DOES NOT help the child in question!
Number two…the school district has done their job of realizing the principal did wrong, and will research other ways to handle this situation. That is over. Wasn’t our first child the child of experiments, and mistakes? Did we not learn from raising our first child, not to do it again, with our second? Same with the school and an “unheard of” drink!
Number three…let the child drink Kombucha at home..and drink the OTHER healthy drink at school……purified water!
It’s not the “unheard of” drink. It’s the school turning into complete Nazis, holding a student incommunicado for hours with police present, doing interrogation, and not calling the parents. Just who the hell do they think they are? That’s the point. Don’t their protocols say something about informing the parents? Didn’t they have Legal Affairs look over the rules they concocted?
Some of you truly sound a bit schitzo! Yes some schools are horrible but so are some parent teachers! Indoctrination? Brainwashing? I’m guessing you don’t believe in the medicine that might help quiet the voices in your head! And I love how it is assumed that the best way to learn is from one person, without the inclusion of different view points. There is something to be learned from people who dont look like me, didnt grow up around me or just have a flat out different opinion than me! But hey your C+ plus average high school education is sure to make you a great teacher! I am a well educated man and I would do pretty well as a teacher in any setting. My kid would have a great understanding of facts but the social learning aspect would be missing which is important in learning how facts and laws effect people in our community differently. This is my tenth time saying this about home schoolers on this site, but for every well mannered wise-beyond -their- years dynamo, I have met just as many socially inept, undisciplined idiots whose parents think they’re great! Not all parents are created equal! I have coached youth sports for awhile and I have had the opportunity to interact with lots of home schooled kids. The difference you notice right away! Not always the case, but lots of times the home schoolers have trouble following directions! They might listen or they might decide they want to play with the ball by themselves. I work with most parents in this situation, because I realize that’s the reason they’re here. To gain the social part! Some parents don’t seem to get that in order to play group sports, some form of obedience, cooperation and discipline is required. If they won’t listen, I recommend tennis or golf! lol! But I’m sure all your kids are great! lol!
@ BC: I believe you’ve worn out the “LOL” button now. AND – if you’re an example of a well educated man, you had me fooled all the way through your post.
[QUOTE FROM BC’s post:] “This is my tenth time saying this about home schoolers on this site, but for every well mannered wise-beyond -their- years dynamo, I have met just as many socially inept, undisciplined idiots whose parents think they’re great! [end of quote] Oh c’mon. The very same can be said of kids trained up in public schools. If you want to see undisciplined kids, pick a public high school, any public high school.
There are lots of ways for children to have social interaction and today’s public schools are certainly not the answer. I remember reading an article a few years back about some cute little kindergartener who landed in trouble because he hugged one of his classmates. Remember that? Oh but that’s a sign of socially intelligent public schools. Who did you say was schizo?
In response to BC, I find it amazing that people who don’t homeschool think they know what it’s all about. In fact, one cannot even generalize about what homeschooling is as each family does it differently. I do want to clear up some HUGE misconceptions about what it is though. To think that the children are learning only from the homeschooling parent is just not true. In my metropolitan area, there are homeschooling classes offered all day, every day, in all imaginable topics. Those classes are taught by people other than the children’s parents. They are out in the world learning and being exposed to more variety of people and activities than the kids in school, who see the same people everyday of the year! There is so much homeschooling activity that most of us are overwhelmed by the choices of classes and activities, so that whole lack of socializing is the most misunderstood aspect of homeschooling. The kids have the chance to socialize all day if the parents choose. Kids in school are not allowed to talk to each other. Trust me on this one, I know it’s true. Making friends in school is nearly IMPOSSIBLE. Lots of home-schooled kids do online curriculums and book-based curriculum, so in fact the teachers are not the parents. The parents did not create those curricula. When left to their own learning, many of these kids take the work and run with it, meaning that the parents are not like teachers in school, standing in front of the kids teaching them all day. It’s not like that at all. The kids are self-guided learners in many cases and they graduate from “high school” typically 1-3 years early. Colleges accept home-schooled kids over schooled children. This is a new trend that happened once the admission departments started noticing how much more well-adjusted the kids were and how they were academically superior to school kids.
If you do not believe in the indoctrination and brainwashing program in effect in school, then I guess you have not seen this:
http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/
An excerpt from the above website:
A WHISTLEBLOWER’S ACCOUNT
Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt, former Senior Policy Advisor in the U.S. Department of Education, blew the whistle in the `80s on government activities withheld from the public. Her inside knowledge will help you protect your children from controversial methods and programs. In this book you will discover:
-how good teachers across America have been forced to use controversial, non-academic me
-how “school choice” is being used to further dangerous reform goals, and how home schooling and private education are especially vulnerable.
-how workforce training (school-to-work) is an essential part of an overall plan for a global economy, and how this plan will shortcircuit your child’s future career plans and opportunities.
-how the international, national, regional, state and local agendas for education reform are all interconnected and have been for decades.
I don’t know how this is in response to my post?? First off every home school parent always says the same things about their kids. “My child does great with other kids and socializes just fine.” Yes, to you! It’s almost laughable. The same can be said for public school kids in other areas and yes even in socializing with others. However, you people always seem to have the exalted view of your children and those like yours. Public school parents aren’t immune to the my-kid-can-do-no-wrong syndrome, but it seems we have a better grasp on reality. If you’re saying that there are no socialization problems in a good portion of children who are home schooled, one would have to imagine that you yourself might have been similarly categorized before. You speak of not generalizing and then speak in generalizations? Again, I’m sure there are plenty of home schooled children who are academic wunderkin. Even at a greater rate than, public schools. That’s not my argument. And I’m not sure why it’s even controversial. When kids are taken out of public schools for private schools or home schooling, the public schools loose out. Whether you think that’s good or not is another subject. I went to several great public schools but I realize not every public school experience is as mine was. You guys just keep spouting off about how bad public schools are. Sounds like generalization to me?? While at the same time acting like every parent who takes their child out of public schools is Mother Theresa?? Your logic assumes those kids who did well being home schooled wouldn’t have done well in public schools. Do some kids do better? Yes, of course. But its still flawed logic! I have a friend who is always to bad mouthing “the system.” He refuses not participate in town hall meetings, vote, run for office of any kind nor anything else that might improve the situation. He just talks shit! You’re the kids who don’t like the game so they take their ball and go home. That’s your right. You just don’t have to do it like a whiny little B! “Their game is stupid anyway. Humph! I didn’t want to play anyway!” Shut up already or do something about!! Oh yeah, I forgot. You already believe you are.
Hey, BC. Instead of hijacking the comments and turning it to what appears to be your pet peeve regarding home schooling, why don’t you write your own article, include some good citations supporting your views and let people comment on that subject?
Otherwise why don’t you just STFU? I strongly doubt you’ll do either.
I’ve only responded to some idiotic comments about public schools. I’m not downing home schooling any more than public or private. But don’t post stupid comments if you don’t want people to challenge them! The post was about an idiot who violated a kids civil rights. I must have missed the “bash public schools” sub-title. It seems I walked into a hornets nest of homeschooling activist! Others read this posts as well. If some parent, is out there considering home schooling or private schooling over public, its obviously your decision, but that decision effect on everyone! @DaveR if that’s all you have to bring to the conversation, then take you own advise. Well, the STFU part at least. The blog wouldn’t make much sense if you don’t have anything to say!
Look down the list for my other comments. Maybe we could stick to the subject of the article? The article had nothing to do with homeschooling.
Then stop talking ish to me and make your point else where! Again, all my comments have been in defense of the public school system. If I made a few jokes, it was only to illustrate the ridiculousness of the some of these comments and the vitriol way in which they were delivered!
Thats vitriolic. Oops
BC is a middle or high school kid. The LOL, excessive use of exclamation points, and see below for “the public schools loose out.” (Hang loose, man!) Not to mention four letter words. This is how adolescent boys write.
BC likes to say homeschoolers are all bad because he says so. And you’re (or he would spell “your”) an idiot that needs to be medicated if you don’t agree! You don’t need to read the entire comment, it’s always the same. Because he says so! Because he says so lol! You’re an idiot! No evidence or anything tangible is included. Often there are huge contradictions in what he says.
BC personifies everything that is broken in public schools illogical, incoherent, inconsistent, irrelevant . . . thank you BC for giving me another reason I’m glad my kids are nowhere near other kids like you.
I love how you criticize me for calling names, then you follow that up, by calling me a name. You people are just a little defensive about your home schooled kids. I said no such thing about home schooled kids being bad! And you question my logic! And if graduating at the top of my class, not having to pay for my college education and receiving several academic awards along the way, makes me an idiot, then so be it! But I suspect, as with most of the people responding to my post, you just don’t like what I’m saying! Exclamations, Lol, misspellings make me an idiot? Then just about everyone that has commented is an idiot! Its your ideas that make you an idiot!(I know how that little mark pisses you of but… well I actually like that it pisses you off) How about Smiley faces, do they get your dander up too. 🙂
I’m typing on my phone while I should be working. So my apologies if you don’t feel its worthy of a law review. And judging by some the comments, I am a bit younger than most of the people here!
And yes I am repeating myself. I did not say all home school children are bad! That makes about as much sense as you do! (another one). SO LET ME DUMB IT DOWN FOR YOU!(All caps means I’m yelling grandma) When your house is robbed, be sure to ask the officer coming to assist you, if he attended public school. How about that fireman? And when your little darling finds himself in a bind, be sure to request a lawyer that was home schooled. People walk into my office who want help dealing with situations outlined in this article, and no one has ever asked me where I went to elementary school. Seems you people accept some of those public school alums as worthy?! If you don’t want your ideas challenged then don’t post in a public forum! Just keep saying the system is broken. It seems your belief is all that matters even with evidence to the contrary. I’m used to this type of arguing! My wife argues against positions I’m not staking out, all the time. Lol! (oops, and no I’m not going back to edit or spell check this for you, but I understand home school parents are good at that) :0)
and if my wife is on here, I was just joking baby. ;0)
What logic? What are you saying that is debatable and not opinion?
You don’t make me feel angry. I feel very sorry that you graduated highly but cannot properly distinguish “advise” and “advice,” spell Mother Teresa correctly or use apostrophes. (I will assume that key is broken or you texted through that lesson.) This is all basic primary English usage and not being able to communicate does, in fact, make you an idiot. I feel even sorrier that your work ethic (or lack thereof) allows you to feel it is appropriate to comment on company time. If I read your writing as an example of your generation’s ability, you are living evidence that public schools have dumbed down their students.
Any time you would like to posit something, please do. I’m still waiting. This is called a debate or exchange of ideas. Yelling and opining are not.
Again, more of “you’re wrong because I say so.” Good luck to you!
You did it again. LOL! This is not a debate. What are we debating? You’ve only commented on my grammar and punctuation! And as for my work ethic… I own this firm! I built it!(And I don’t mean that to sound so Republican)
All you’re doing is trading barbs with me. If you have something specific to say then say it.
My generation?? Your generation has done a bang up job! We’re still cleaning up your mess. I respect my elders but this “your generation” crap is just that, crap. My mother gets on me to this day about my text lingo. And?? That’s it? What do you want to debate? Say something or take out your red marker and go to work.
What’s this “because I say so” mess? I didn’t know that it was so controversial to state that public schools have turned out quality people.
Maybe, you’re referring to previous posts?? Not sure, BECAUSE YOU HAVEN’T SAID ANYTHING YET?! Your generation always has something to say about how bad we’ve become. No work ethic… this text language… twitter and facebook… I’ve heard it all before. I debate for a living. And maybe I am enjoying this a little too much, but this is the most fun I’ve had in weeks(Now that should have you feeling sorry for me). I’m guessing you don’t use a cell phone to send emails, text or comment on obscure posts. Oh, I forget, you’re probably too old to see a cell phone screen. When you type on one of these lovely devices, there’s this thing called auto-correct. And it doesn’t always get it right. Maybe I should care enough to go back and proofread but I honestly don’t! I’m sure there’s a comment forming in the blue haired head of yours about my generation and those “fancy” devices. It allows me the ability to wait on a Judge and argue with some old bitty(?) about… well I’m not sure. What are we debating again?
And if you agree with most of these posts, then you are proof that wisdom does not always come with age! I would have stated that in the earlier post but it honestly took me second to come up with a suitable comeback! :0)Damn that public school education.
Someone else pointed out that my style can be confusing. They pointed out that not everyone speaks “tweet.” Here’s what I shared.
I have become so used to sending texts, tweeting and posting quick comments on facebook that I guess it’s just gotten so easy. It’s the new shorthand. When you’re typing with your thumbs on a 4 inch screen, where half the screen is keyboard, you tend to cut corners. With auto-correct, word suggest and Swype, you can communicate quickly in environments you wouldn’t otherwise be able to. Most people sending texts know the dangers of auto-connect! ;o) Scrolling back thru your comment to proofread almost defeats the purpose. I am not trying to be condescending. I can now see why some of my “debates” were so strange.
LOL- most people get this one but it doesn’t actually mean I’m laughing out loud. It means the sentence before is a joke. Or you’re quite pleased with how witty you think your sentence was.
;o)- The wink is meant to relay sarcasm or to let the person know it’s a joke.
:)- The smile is just letting the person know that, you meant your statement in a light-hearted way. Or again, they are pleased with something they said.
?- After a statement, means you are questioning something they said.
??- means you know what they said, but it doesn’t make any sense.
In the age of the tweet, Thru=through, u=you, c=see and so on. And apostrophes are just annoying and require you to switch screens sometimes.
That is brief tutorial of texting lingo. Im sure there’s generational joke just dancing in someones head right now but I hope that helps. 🙂
Ive stated nothing that needs a citation?! But if you want evidence of some sort ask for it. What are you questioning?
I believe orange juice contains more alcohol than that. ALL orange juice contains alcohol.
This is simply ignorance and ridiculousness.
Thought some readers might be interested in this article about how the whole world is simply mad about education – and how education in today’s world is simply mad.
http://www.mises.org/daily/6154/Horrible-Schools-for-the-Whole-World
[short quote from article]: ”
So, if kids aren’t learning to work and play in their traditional cultures, but they aren’t learning to read or do math in these atrocious schools either, what are they learning? In a word, obedience.”
[end of quote]
Exactly. Like I mentioned in an above post, the kids are set up to be little trained robots and I do believe that has been the plan for some time. Parents just didn’t realize it and connect the dots until recently. Forced issues like this kombucha debacle make it even more evident.
As a regular reader of Acres magazine and after reading Joel Salatin’s book: Folks, this ain’t normal, nothing really surprises me anymore. It disappoints me and angers me, but it doesn’t surprise me at all. The raw milk raids with automatic weapons and swat teams don’t happen with the pharmacy that sold a product that has killed 15 people that they know of and sickened over 170 people out of the 14,000 that were injected with this steroid. Fair play, no way.
If this child was an adult, he would have been advised of his legal rights, but since he was a minor, they harassed and interrogated him all day with police officers who I assume are armed with loaded weapons without his parents consent of knowledge and I would be seven kinds of angry.
This reminds me of the two cases earlier this year where the food police at two schools decided that the healthy home prepared food wasn’t good enough to eat but the industrial poison in the luch room was and it wasn’t up to the parents discretion, but some obese teacher who probably wanted that good food for theirselves. Maybe that’s a tad irrational, but when I read stories like this I have to really pray about the way I feel about people like this. Whatever happened to common sense anyway.
However, posting the 4 letter words don’t help and do hurt the image of people who want to return to traditional values, food and raise their children the way the feel is best and not the politically correct food police. Wash your mouth out with some natural soap and try to express yourselves with dignity as I am sure children to read this blog, also.
I wonder if they will now ban soda since they have a “…any level of alcoholic content …” is not allowed on campus… According to a French study Coke and Pepsi contain some alcohol.
http://blog.seattlepi.com/hottopics/2012/06/28/coke-pepsi-contain-some-alcohol-study-says/
Here is a translated link to the study.
Here is a translated version http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.60millions-mag.com/actualites/articles/coca_pepsi_et_autres_colas_nbsp_ces_ingredients_qu_on_vous_cache&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.60millions-mag.com/actualites/articles/coca_pepsi_et_autres_colas_nbsp_ces_ingredients_qu_on_vous_cache%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DsvS%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26prmd%3Dimvns&sa=X&ei=ZSd8UO24G4T29gSvkIDYCg&ved=0CCcQ7gEwAA
What I hope you all understand is that school employees are given training to be mandated reporters in case of *suspected* child abuse and neglect. Their jobs are on the line if they fail to report. Having said that, where I believe this system and training breaks down is that it fires some employees up to report at the least little sneaking suspicion of a problem. You know, “see something, say something.” This is one step short of turning us into a Nazi-fied country of neighbors spying on neighbors. We all need to put a collective stop to this!
The other thing that happens is that some employees are naive and wellmeaning, in many cases young and do not yet have children themselves, so they lack the perspective of what a good parent looks like, what a neglectful parent looks like, and they shoot first and ask questions later. They do not care, in fact are completely unaware of the fallout to families — especially if their reporting triggers a CPS investigation!
What would be far better is for parents as a group to proactively approach their school and put them on notice about the policy having to do with mandated reporting. Tell them that parents need to be notified immediately of any concerns, before any police are called in or reports made, in order to clear up those many instances of misunderstandings (like Kombucha) and put things into perspective.
As for abused and neglected children, not saying that doesn’t happen, but false accusations exact a terrible toll on families, and it is never OK to err on the side of caution and just set a CPS investigation into motion, willy nilly. This is serious business. These investigations traumatize good families that are falsely accused.