One HISD elementary's killer muffins
The press release we received last night from a Houston ISD kindergarten teacher expressing outrage over an incident involving the school district's effort to serve breakfast to all students at their classroom desks certainly caught our attention. E-mails with subject lines such as: "Houston ISD Breakfast Contains Melted and Hardened Plastic" tend to stand out among the hundreds of story pitches we receive daily.
Such e-mails from teachers are rare, and this one was very nicely done. Along with the eye-catching headline, Red Elementary School teacher Rachel Everson attached quotes, results of an informal survey and photos:
Here's a snippet, followed by Everson's pictures:
This morning as students of Houston ISD prepared to eat breakfast, they were unfortunately treated to more than expected. A piece of melted hard plastic was inside every warmed, and pre-packaged muffin. In some instances the plastic was melted completely into the muffin exposing students to the remaining sharp edges when removed. On other muffins the plastic piece had melted and merged with the muffin top. Still other packages contained a loose piece of hardened plastic that had obviously been subjected to high heat. The pieces of plastic were square shaped, with ridges or a bubbled surface, and measured approximately 2"x2" to 3"x3".Terry Grier, Houston's often controversial Superintendent of Schools, recently implemented a change in the school breakfast program that requires all schools in HISD to serve breakfast in the classroom. Despite resistance from principals, teachers, staff, and parents, Mr. Grier characterized these comments as "push-back" and required all schools to serve breakfast in the classrooms without further review. The program has been initiated in phases. Last Tuesday S.C. Red Elementary School began serving breakfast in the classroom.