Drinking a gallon of milk at school as a contest

[jdsf]

As I'm sure everyone has heard of this stunt, I won't bother to explain the logistics, but in any case, it's pretty much impossible and has the potential to make one quite ill. Anyway, my dd's high school somehow sanctioned this activity as part of a homecoming week thing. Luckily my dd isn't stupid enough to try something like this, but a couple of her friends did and threw up, of course. One managed to keep it down but then disappeared from school a couple of periods later... They did not send home any kind of permission slip or inform parents about this at all. I want to talk to the school's administration about this, and was wondering if anyone else was aware of a school doing this during the day/without permission. I've heard of clubs or college groups doing this, but I would expect a head's up at the least as parent of a minor child.

[QueenOfTheMeadow]

Wow!  That's awful.  No, the schools around here wouldn't do that and they certainly wouldn't do it without a permision slip.  Just the food allergies alone would keep them from that.  They aren't even allowed to have parties with food in the classroom!

[kythe]

I've never heard of anything like this.  What is the purpose?  I can't imagine any of our local schools sanctioning an activity like this.

It reminds me of that "wee for wii" contest a few years back where a woman died of water intoxication, and the subsequent lawsuit:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16614865/ns/us_news-life/t/woman-dies-after-water-drinking-contest/#.UImQHIZlnbw

http://www.broadcastlawblog.com/2009/10/articles/general-fcc/1657-million-verdict-in-hold-your-wee-for-wii-case-what-are-the-fcc-implications-and-what-should-broadcasters-learn/

I wonder if the school has thought this through in terms of potential dangers?

[fruitfulmomma]

Seriously doubt that this would have been allowed if they had spoken with their legal and/or insurance departments first. 

[jdsf]

Thanks for the replies. I am definitely going to talk to them. Unfortunately this type of thing seems to be an issue since our girls have started public school. Most of the charter schools in our area are elementary and we haven't been able to home school for the past few years, but the schools they go to are among the best supposedly, so I can only imagine what's happening at other schools. This contest happened while I was in high school, but it was always a club (even the Christian group Young Life did it) and that was some years ago, so I really am baffled how they could have let this happen.

[mamarhu]

I feel like I must be missing something. I don't see how this is worth getting upset over. Teens at Homecoming will be adults in a couple years - do they really need to be protected from something so relatively harmless? Stupid, yes. But teens with food allergies could be expected to monitor their own in take. And anyone else foolish enough to partake can expect to barf. No fun, but not something I would necessarily protect my teens from. My Dumplings are 16 and 17, and if they want to participate in something so dumb, well, have at it. Sorry if I have offended anyone, but I really don't get the concern.

[QueenOfTheMeadow]

Originally Posted by jdsf 

Thanks for the replies. I am definitely going to talk to them. Unfortunately this type of thing seems to be an issue since our girls have started public school. Most of the charter schools in our area are elementary and we haven't been able to home school for the past few years, but the schools they go to are among the best supposedly, so I can only imagine what's happening at other schools. This contest happened while I was in high school, but it was always a club (even the Christian group Young Life did it) and that was some years ago, so I really am baffled how they could have let this happen.

Interesting.  My kids have always been in public school, and around here the public schools are significantly stricter with food than the private schools around here.