The scariest part of being a parent is that we are unable to control every aspect of their lives.
And if history has shown us anything, it’s that the places we thought would be the safest for our children can actually be the most dangerous.
You just never would’ve expected that school lunches would pose a serious health risk – and in the worst way!
In Juneau, Alaska, a dozen elementary school children attending a summer school program thought they were drinking milk with their lunch – until it began burning their throat and mouth.
When the children complained about it to staff, it was discovered that it wasn’t milk they were drinking at all.
The Juneau Empire reports:
“A dozen elementary school children in Alaska’s capital accidentally drank floor sealant instead of milk on Tuesday, sending one of them to the hospital.”
How does someone mistake floor sealant for milk?
And how did the cafeteria staff not smell the floor sealant when loading it into the dispenser?
Juneau Superintendent Bridget Weiss said the floor sealant and the milk were both stored in in the same area and had the same “milky-white appearance” according to the Associated Press.
While it is never a good idea to store chemicals with food, mixing the two up in an elementary school is more than an oversight.
Superintendent Weiss continued to try and explain the horrible mishap:
“We don’t know how that happened, but they were all put on the same pallet.”
“That pallet was delivered, and the assumption was that it was milk because that’s what we thought was being delivered.”
It seems like feeding the children chemicals that burned their throat was minimized when the superintendent said they are all “fine” because school chemicals are “low-ingestion risk.”
I wonder if the parents whose children were harmed felt the same sort of complacency – probably not.
The standards for determining low-ingestion risks are set by government health and regulation agencies that don’t always have our children’s best interests in mind.
It’s nice to know that floor sealant might not kill you, but it sure isn’t something we’d ever imagine our child could one day ingest when we send them off to school.
The workers serving the children that day were not the normal school staff, but were with food service company NANA Management Services.
When Insider reached out to the company for comment they did not receive a response.
The horrifying incident is being investigated by the Juneau Police Department, according to Insider, but no charges have been made.
But someone needs to be held accountable for making such an avoidable that put a child in the hospital and made others ill.
Dangers to our kids lurk in the most unlikely of places – like store receipts, baby powder, and baby oil – but we never would’ve expected school milk.
At the very least, the floor sealant should be removed and stored away from the kitchen and food area as is required by food safety regulations.
Because the standard is real low if serving chemicals to children is just an honest mistake.