In an elementary school in Alaska, students complained on Tuesday morning that their mouths and throats were burning because of bad-tasting milk. The staff immediately noticed that the students had been served floor sealant.
According to the Juneau School District, 12 children at Sit Eeti Shaanáx Glacier Valley Elementary School in Juneau accidentally drank some floor sealant at breakfast. One student was sent to Bartlett Regional Hospital, while two others were picked up from the school and may have sought medical assistance.
The students were given a substance that they thought was milk by NANA Management Services (NMS), a food and facilities services firm located in Alaska. All of the students were taking part in the Relationships and Leadership, Learning for Youth (RALLY) program at the school. NMS and RALLY employees quickly discovered that the children had been offered floor sealant and called poison control when the students complained about the taste of the liquid.
According to the website of the Juneau School District, “Food service and RALLY supervisors followed up with the NMS staff to ensure that the served product was disposed of and the remaining product was removed from the premises and placed in chemical/hazardous storage…” In order to ensure the product’s safety, “the JSD food service supervisor and the NMS assistant general manager went to the off-site JSD commodity storage.”
As a result, the school district, NMS, the municipalities of Juneau, and the Juneau Police Department have all collaborated to conduct their own investigations into what happened.
The students were given Hillyard Seal 341, as stated by the Seattle-based legal firm Marler Clark, which specializes in food safety legislation. If a person accidentally drinks this product’s milky-looking liquid, the product’s safety data sheet recommends drinking water and getting medical treatment.
