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
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The label, according to the FDA MUST specify alcohol since it is a POSSIBLE byproduct of the tea fermentation process. The same way a Twinkie must include peanuts on the label, because of possible contact with peanuts in processing, even though there isnt a single peanut anywhere near a Twinkie.
Any beverage with natural sugars will ferment and produce alcohol within hours of not being refridgerated… Including OJ. This is yet again a hysterical response by those hell bent on indoctrinating kids into being thoughtless automotons.
I hope the parents sue the doors off of that school, police departnent and board of education, THEN file civil suit against the individuals involved. Hitting them in the wallet is the only language that those with power trips understand.
No child should be held against their will, especially for 6 hours and Parents were not called immediately. The School Officials involved and Police Dept. had a right and responsibility to notify Parents in a reasonable time period if not IMMEDIATELY.
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 “20 years”, 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 think this issue is being blown WAY out of proportion – really, you think sueing in the right response? I’m generally sue-happy and even I don’t think this is worth that.
What happened was the school got wind of a child having alcohol, brought him to the office and looked into it. He wasn’t being arrested, so parents didn’t need to be brought in for the period he was being spoken to by the principal. And it’s quite commong for schools to have the police come in if they’re already on campus; it happened to me while I was in school.
As for all your crap about bullying, yes, maybe it will go badly for the child, but more than likely he’ll get to laugh with all his buddies about the stupid teachers who thought his juice was alcohol, and he’ll play up the “look, I’m drinking alcohol!” joke. That’s what would have happened when I was in school (and I’m only 22 so it wasn’t that long ago).
The school revoked the suspension when they had gone through everything and figured out it was juice, and yes, in the end that meant they did the right thing. Yes, they should have said suspension revoked instead of not suspended, but in the end he WASN’T suspended because he was never actually kept from going to school.
Honestly, no rights were trampled or any of that bullshit you guys are going on about. They thought a kid had alcohol, looked into it, clearly didn’t know precisely what they were dealing with, and upon getting all the information the whole thing was done away with and now they’re trying to re-work the regulations to make sure this doesn’t happen again. Mistakes happen, and kombucha’s not really mainstream so you can’t expect everyone to know all about it. The school did what they thought was right – for all they knew it WAS an alcoholic beverage and they were keeping illegal substances out of their school. Give them a break – they made a little mistake, but really, so did the people who reported it as alcohol. The schools NEED to investigate all allegations.
PLEASE bring legal action against the school. I’m so sick of schools doing whatever they want because they think they know best. Take them to court and be sure to put a webpage for donations, I’d definitely throw in some money for that.
These officials should be put on probation if not fired for harassing a child about fermented tea. In the internet age this kind of ignorance is not acceptable of “education workers”.
As I look at this whole thing I see people who run the school systems in America as those who were educated in it and we should all know that after the great war our education was and has been influenced by communism. So, that said, it is no surprise that these people in ‘control’ did not contact the parent, did not want to and acted out according to the wealth of dung they had stockpiled in their minds.
If you can do it, don’t sent your children to public schools. Home school them yourselves, if you can or Seize The Time and band together to create an education network for your children so they won’t be tortured by the state. They will learn your values and principles, not those of others who think they know better than you.
Imagine what had happened if he had brought homeopathy medicine with 100% alcohol.
This is proof that a University degree does not require common sense…and these morons are not by theirselves….the education system in overrun with imbiciles like this running our education system… Do you onder why we’re at the bottom of the totem pole for ratings in the world’s edcation listings????????????? Curly, Moe & Larry are in charge !!!!!!!11
Somebody needs to go and photograph every thing in that school that contains alcohol (markers, cleaning fluids, hand lotion, hand sanitizer(!!) and file charges back on the school.
“Having a substance on campus containing any level of alcoholic content is a violation according to District policy.”