A New York City teenager who was hospitalised after she ate a brownie laced with marijuana has sued the City of New York for allowing students to sell food in the cafeteria. The 17 year old student stated that she was unaware that the brownie contained marijuana when she purchased it from another student in her school’s cafeteria. The student who sold the brownie has been suspended by the school and the incident is being investigated by the police.

Adverse reaction caused ongoing harm

The alleged incident took place on 27 February 2016. After the student ate the brownie in the morning, she reported to the school nurse complaining of dizziness and nausea and was then taken to the emergency room and discharged later that day. At 3am the following day, the student returned to hospital and has been unable to leave due to partial paralysis. Tests showed that she had traces of marijuana in her system.

The claim has been filed against the New York City Department of Education, as the student attended a state school. The school in question has suspended the student accused of selling the contaminated brownie. The New York Post reports that the father of the accused student states that his son was part of a group of students who all contributed money to make the brownies.

Food safety at school

Although the New York case is an extreme example of a student prank gone wrong, food safety is an important area of risk that schools need to consider. There are a number of circumstances where the school should consider the risks associated with food served to students and staff including at:

• the school canteen;
• food stalls at fetes or carnivals;
• BBQs on sports days; and
• bake sales.

In the above scenarios, there are different levels of risk and duties associated with the preparation and selling of food. In some circumstances, the food may be prepared by employees of the school such as canteen staff who have been trained in food safety and hygiene and have obligations under food standards and legislation. A school should also have an accessible food preparation and handling policy to ensure all food prepared at the school is safe for consumption.

However, in other circumstances, the food may be prepared off-campus and brought in by students or volunteers. In these circumstances, the school has less control and there is a greater risk that the food will not be prepared according to best practice food safety guidelines.

The risks of not following proper food safety procedures can be broadly divided into two areas. First, proper hygiene when preparing and storing food is necessary in order to prevent food poisoning or other diseases from spreading. Bacteria can be spread if food is not washed properly, is under-cooked or is stored incorrectly. This could cause an outbreak of a disease such as salmonella within the school.

The second risk relates to allergies and food intolerance. Our recent article discussed the risk factors associated with allergies: Coping with extreme allergies: Total chocolate ban introduced in UK school. More and more students are being diagnosed with life-threatening food allergies, which necessarily has an impact on how the school must manage food safety. The relatively common occurrence of nut allergies has led to many schools being declared nut-free campuses. However, there are many students who may be unable to consume gluten, dairy, eggs, seafood or other common foods that schools cannot eliminate. In these circumstances, where the school has some control over the food being prepared, schools must be careful to ensure that there is no cross-contamination, as trace elements of the allergen can still cause a reaction. For example, when preparing lunches for students with coeliac disease, using the same butter or margarine for all sandwiches can cause crumbs to be transferred to the ‘gluten-free’ sandwich, which is sufficient to cause illness.

The risk of such contamination increases if students or volunteers bring food from home. Even if the ingredients used are nut-free, dairy-free or gluten-free, there could still be traces of the allergen in the food.

Legal responsibility in Australian schools

The level of legal responsibility of schools is based on the level of control the school has over the preparation of the food, and so appropriate measures must be taken. For obvious reasons, the school cannot guarantee an allergen-free campus as it is impossible to patrol the food that every person brings on campus. Instead, the schools should make it clear that certain foods such as peanuts should not be brought on campus. Educating and training all members of the school community can help to ensure that some foods are banned.

In addition, teachers should have ready access to a list of pupils with allergies so that proper precautions can be taken.

When food is being prepared off-campus and brought in, there is always a level of risk that it has not been prepared safely. Cake stalls, sausage sizzles and other food stalls can be useful fundraising activities, but the cooks should make it very clear that the food cannot be guaranteed to be allergen-free. Guidelines should be sent to volunteers and high-risk foods such as chicken or dairy should be avoided if there is no way of guaranteeing safe storage.  It would be a shame if common sense and sensible precautions were overlooked in favour of banning home-made cakes in favour of ‘safer’ supermarket goods, as this UK school reportedly did. In addition, schools should make themselves aware of local council by-laws associated with the running of sausage sizzles and so forth as they may breach the health or safety conditions as required by the council.

Members of the school community who have a serious allergy or intolerance should exercise their own discretion, but it is often safest for them to not eat the food based on the seriousness of the risk. It may be more difficult for younger students to make a fully informed and considered decision, so it could be helpful if schools provide alternative, safe options for the students with serious allergies.