Minor in Possession of Tea is Suspended from Cali School

Officials seem to be having a difficult time keeping their hands out of school lunches lately.  Recently children complained of being hungry when schools across the nation began instituting caloric rations on cafeteria lunches.  Many people said, “If you aren’t happy with what the school is providing, send your child to school with a lunch from home!”

But what happens when that lovingly packed nutritious lunch from home gets your child suspended for violating the school’s “zero tolerance drug and alcohol policy”, due to the ignorance of the educational authorities?

That was just the situation faced recently by a Newport Beach, California family.  A 7th grade boy was pulled from class for the entire day after school officials spotted him with a bottle of kombucha, a fermented tea, packed cozily inside a foam sleeve to protect it from breakage.  The lunchroom Gestapo confiscated his drink and the next morning, upon his arrival at school, he was sent to the principal’s office.

At the principal’s office, the boy was questioned (without a parent present) by a uniformed police officer. According to the student:

1. There was a Police Officer there, who informed him drinking this beverage is against the law.  The beverage he has was illegal.  AND Tried to enroll his in a AA for kids??!! AND talked to him about Drinking and Medications and asked him right out…If he takes any pills also!!! …
2. The school Vice Principle told him they were looking into transferring him out of that school.
3. They pulled his school record and went over his “problematic” history.  Obviously, trying to make him feel responsible and teach him a lesson???

His mother, like any mother, was shocked and outraged.  She describes the call she received from the Vice-Principal of the school:

The phone call I received from the Vice Principle was very abrasive.  It went like this:  Hello, Gavin had a beverage taken away yesterday at school and we are going to be sending him home today because on the label it says this contains .5% alcohol and this violates our Drug and Alcohol Policy.  He will be suspended for 5 days.  I then, informed her that Kombucha:

1. Is not deemed by the FDA as an alcohol beverage.
2. He can purchase it himself at the store.
3. The alcohol produced is due to fermentation and that label HAS to be there for FDA.
4. I brought it to him for lunch.

Well, I wasn’t getting far.  She was not listening to me.  Finally, fed up and with my heart beating fast I informed her.  “My son will not be treated this way, I do not like the way you are verbalizing this, I will not have you telling my son this is a drug and alcohol when it has not been researched yet and If they suspend him, there will be a fight. She would not listen to me and informed me that I would have to Appeal this considering it was turned into the district.

The worried and angry mother spoke with a blogger who wrote about the issue to publicize how the boy was being victimized by the ignorance of the school authorities.  This negative publicity caused the school to refute the incident in a statement, despite the physical evidence of a 5 day suspension form the boy was forced to sign.

“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.  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 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…”

The most insulting part of the entire situation is the way the school attempted to downplay the mother’s reaction to having her child questioned by a uniformed officer, sent home from school in shame, and threatened with drug and alcohol classes.  In fact, the matter was only resolved when the mother went to the alternative media with the story.  The people in charge lied on more than one occasion, only backing down when faced with evidence of those lies.

The school board said in their statement that in the future the discipline process should be more “nurturing.”

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.”