Homemade baked goods banned from some schools

<p>The days of sending homemade cookies, brownies or cakes to school to celebrate a student's birthday or a holiday may be over.</p><p>Schools across the country are banning such sweets from their classrooms. Some are doing it as a way to curb childhood obesity. Others cite food allergies or even contamination.</p><p>In Georgia, such policies are being considered after two recent incidents where students brought baked goods to school and some of their classmates ended up in the hospital.</p><p>Two 13-year-old girls were arrested for bringing a cake to class Tuesday that was laced with bleach and other substances, which sickened 12 students at the middle school in Marietta, an Atlanta suburb. Last month, eight students _ ages 14 to 17 _ were rushed to the hospital from Glascock Consolidated School in Gibson, 110 miles southeast of Atlanta, when becoming violently ill after eating parts of a large homemade cookie brought by a student.</p><p>Cobb County schools, which includes the one in Marietta, already have a ban in place against classroom parties, which school officials instituted several years ago, in part to curb the sharing of potentially questionable snacks.</p><p>"We recommend strongly that students and staff not share food of any kind. That's just not a good idea, especially when you don't know where food is coming from," school system spokesman Jay Dillon.</p><p>In the wake of the poisoned cake incident, school officials will likely strengthen their recommendations against food sharing, but are hesitant to institute an all-out ban.</p><p>"It's hard to institute a ban on that type of thing because that requires an enforcement of it, and that's a tough thing to enforce," Dillon said. "We feel that communicating to parents that students shouldn't share food at schools is best way to handle this type of thing."</p><p>A ban on homemade baked goods is expected to be discussed by Glascock school officials at the end of the year when they review their policies, principal Sally Garrett said Thursday</p><p>In the Glascock case, no questionable substances were found in the cookie after thorough testing by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. However, the rural school's 500-plus students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade already have been educated about being careful with homemade foods.</p><p>"I wouldn't eat anything that someone baked unless I knew that person and trusted the individual. That's what we've taught our children," Garrett said.</p><p>It's up to each school to come up with their own policies on food, said Kirk Englehardt, spokesman for the state Department of Education. "In this area, we don't have anything that governs outside food being brought to school," he said, referring to any possible statewide rules.</p><p>Other schools across the country already have put such bans in place. Comal County, Texas, banned homemade sweets from schools in 1998 after a hepititis A outbreak infected 60 children in one school.</p><p>In one case leading up to the outbreak, "a parent made 400 cupcakes for a school, then the parent comes down with hepatitis A. You have 400 kids who have eaten those iced cupcakes," said the county's health authority, Dr. Dorothy Overman.</p><p>The ban was lightened to a "strong recommendation" two years ago, after the hepatitis cases subsided, Overman said.</p><p>Statewide, Texas had prohibited sugary treats from public schools to address high obesity rates in children. After an outcry from parents, the ban was rescinded to allow schools three snack-filled celebrations per year.</p><p>"We did realize it was important for parents to participate in birthday parties for kids," said Beverly Boyd with the Texas Department of Agriculture, which oversees the state's school dietary rules. "We did hear from a lot of the cupcake moms about that."</p><p>In 2003, Albany, N.Y., city schools' then-Superintendent Michael Johnson cut out homemade snacks during class time, partly because of food allergy and contamination concerns. "It got miscontrued that teachers weren't allowed to have holiday parties and birthday parties anymore," Albany schools spokeswoman Tara Mitchell said.</p><p>At Meadowside Elementary School in Milford, Conn., officials banned homemade baked goods two years ago after a local case where a student suffered anaphylactic shock after eating a brownie containing peanuts.</p><p>"It's a saftey issue. The kids can bring individual snacks, but it's just bringing mass quantities in cupcakes and brownies, that we're cuting back on," Meadowside Principal Robert Davis said.</p><p>Possible contamination also was a concern, he added. "How do we know this is coming from proper hygiene? We'd like to assume we know, but we don't."</p><p>The issue raised some eyebrows after local media mistakenly reported that the ban was an effort to curb childhood obesity, but parents have since accepted the change, said Meadowside PTA president Alyson Rourke.</p><p>"When you're so used to doing something _ celebrating birthdays and holidays _ that's a tough thing to swallow," Rourke said. "Once those parents voiced their complaints and hear the school's side of the story, they begin to understand."</p>

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