Alaska school thought students were getting milk for breakfast. They got floor sealant instead
Children began complaining shortly after breakfast that the milk tasted bad and burned their mouths and throats.
A dozen elementary school-aged children in Alaska consumed floor sealant that they mistook for milk at a breakfast program, school officials said Wednesday.
Children enrolled in a care program at Juneau's Sit Eeti Shaanáx Glacier Valley Elementary School received the sealant on Tuesday, according to a school district statement.
According to the statement, shortly after breakfast was served at 8:45 a.m. Children began complaining that the milk tasted bad and burned their mouths and throats after it was processed by an outside company, NANA Management Services.
According to the statement, school and company personnel discovered that it was "actually a floor sealant resembling liquid milk." "Staff immediately directed students to discontinue consumption of the substance and removed it."
According to the statement, a school official immediately contacted poison control and alerted the parents.
One of the twelve children who ingested the sealant sought medical attention, and two were picked up from school. According to the statement, they may have sought medical advice.
The students' whereabouts were unknown.
The care program is for students aged 5 to 12.
According to the statement, the remaining sealant was removed from the school and placed in hazardous storage.
The cause of the mix-up was not immediately clear.
The Juneau Police Department, according to Superintendent Bridget Weiss, is leading an investigation "not really because we believe there's anything criminal or mal-intent at this point, but we do want a thorough investigation into what occurred and how it occurred"
According to her, the milk and sealant were both stored at an off-site facility, and boxes containing large pouches of each were moved on the same pallet.
"When that pallet arrived, we assumed it was milk because that's what we expected to see."
A request for comment from the Juneau Police Department was not immediately returned.
NANA Management Services, based in Anchorage, said in a statement that it immediately dispatched a safety team to the state capital after learning of the incident.