Snuck meat in my food....Vegetarian?!
This is how it all starts. I'm a vegetarian. I didn't become one until about a month or so before school started. Anyway, I live right next to the school, maybe 6min away when walking. My school now has closed campus and we do not suppose leave. But my parents wrote a note and I gave it to an administrator and they denied it!! I live in Indiana. And in Indiana's law, a parent has the right to consent their child to leave campus. So anyway, my parents came in person to talk with the administrator and they said that if my parents wanted me leave, then they would have to come up here everyday and sign me out. So they just totally violated my rights.
So basically, I would eat the little side salads (those are the salads that didn't have meat in them) or eat nachos and cheese whenever they serve them. One day, they didn't have anything that I could eat, so I called my parents. My parents talked with the principal, and she promised that she would have something to accomadate me.
10 minutes ago - 3 days left to answer.
Additional Details
3 minutes ago
The next day, they had nachos and cheese, so I wasn't worried about it. But today, the lunch matrant, who the principal talked to about me, gave me this so called "cheese pizza" so I could have something to eat since there wasn't anything else that they could serve me. Anyway, I bite into the pizza, and I taste something really strange (keep in mind that I've been a vegetarian for almost 8 months now) and I have a weird feeling. So I bite a little bit more and I see a little piece of pepporoni on the side of my pizza. So I go back to the matron and tell her about it. She ended up giving me a salad. So I go to the office and ask to call my parents and they are being real difficult. The lady complains that I'm the only one who comes up here and talk about the lunch. I responded to her saying "Well maybe it's because I'm the only vegetarian here!!!" So she makes me go to the teacher to get a pass to use the phone. So I did.
1 second ago
I tried to tell her that I was an emergency because I ate meat and that my stomach hurted a little bit and she yeld and me and told me to go to the nurse.
So basically I went to the nurse and called my parents. The nurse said that she will talk to staff.
Well my question is.......... Could I sew? Like the lady totally lied and said that it was a cheese pizza when it was actually a pepperoni pizza with most of the toppings off. That is so neglectful!! For all she knows, I could've been allergic to pepperoni!!
I want to know if my parents could sew them for giving me meat.
Report It
Answers: Snuck meat in my food.....Vegetarian?
This is how it all starts. I'm a vegetarian. I didn't become one until about a month or so before school started. Anyway, I live right next to the school, maybe 6min away when walking. My school now has closed campus and we do not suppose leave. But my parents wrote a note and I gave it to an administrator and they denied it!! I live in Indiana. And in Indiana's law, a parent has the right to consent their child to leave campus. So anyway, my parents came in person to talk with the administrator and they said that if my parents wanted me leave, then they would have to come up here everyday and sign me out. So they just totally violated my rights.
So basically, I would eat the little side salads (those are the salads that didn't have meat in them) or eat nachos and cheese whenever they serve them. One day, they didn't have anything that I could eat, so I called my parents. My parents talked with the principal, and she promised that she would have something to accomadate me.
10 minutes ago - 3 days left to answer.
Additional Details
3 minutes ago
The next day, they had nachos and cheese, so I wasn't worried about it. But today, the lunch matrant, who the principal talked to about me, gave me this so called "cheese pizza" so I could have something to eat since there wasn't anything else that they could serve me. Anyway, I bite into the pizza, and I taste something really strange (keep in mind that I've been a vegetarian for almost 8 months now) and I have a weird feeling. So I bite a little bit more and I see a little piece of pepporoni on the side of my pizza. So I go back to the matron and tell her about it. She ended up giving me a salad. So I go to the office and ask to call my parents and they are being real difficult. The lady complains that I'm the only one who comes up here and talk about the lunch. I responded to her saying "Well maybe it's because I'm the only vegetarian here!!!" So she makes me go to the teacher to get a pass to use the phone. So I did.
1 second ago
I tried to tell her that I was an emergency because I ate meat and that my stomach hurted a little bit and she yeld and me and told me to go to the nurse.
So basically I went to the nurse and called my parents. The nurse said that she will talk to staff.
Well my question is.......... Could I sew? Like the lady totally lied and said that it was a cheese pizza when it was actually a pepperoni pizza with most of the toppings off. That is so neglectful!! For all she knows, I could've been allergic to pepperoni!!
I want to know if my parents could sew them for giving me meat.
Report It
A fried of mine orderd a fish burger at McDonalds and asked that they not put any tarter sauce on it so the person scraped off the sauce and what followed was a big arguement and - the person at McDonalds was sacked.
The reality is that you and your parents need to sort out your nutrition issues. The principal needs to get committed to catering for vegan/vegetarians. How hard is it to have a chickpea and tomatoe dish with rice or a vegie pizza or a chickpea and lentil burger? How difficult is it to make a toasted cheese and tomatoe sandwich?
And as for the cook/matron scraping off the pepperoni that is NOT appropriate and should be addressed.
All people including teenagers have rights and as far as I see the school is not taking your vegetarian committment seriously. So perhaps contacting whatever passes for an education department and finding out the policies for 1) You being able to get a pass to go home for lunch where you can better cater to your individual nutritional needs, 2) getting a copy of their equity and access policy - basically this policy will state taht all people regardless of the beliefes will be treated equitably - and that is important because you appear not to be treated equitably by the school system.
It is hard to sue these days but the facts are
1) You are a committed vegetarian and have been for 8 months
2) Prior to them refusing to let you leave the school grounds you ate lunch at home where you could cater to your specific needs
3) Due to them refusing to let you leave school grounds dispite parental consent you have had to eat sub standard foods and at times go without lunch due to the school's inability to cater to vegetarians
4) Now somebody it appears in charge has lied or accidently overlooked the pepperoni in the pizza and it appears that she scraped off a pepperoni pizza and stated it was vegetarian when it was not. As a result this action risked making you sick because you are not used to digesting meat.
I would sugest you place your concerns in writing and try to get your parents to help. The facts are dispite being teenagers everybody has a right to chose to eat what they want and this decision should be respected.
Also think about what you want out of this, maybe sacking people is extreme but you may be able to use this issue to highlight the needs of other vegetarian students.
Here are some compromises
1) Realy stress for More healthy options and alternatives for vegan/vegetarian students
2) Stress and push for more Training for catering and school staff regarding nutrition and different food/lifestyle choices such as vegan and vegetarian diets
3)Realy stress that it would "appear" that you have been subjected to unnecessary treatment (stopping you from going home for lunch because staff are not aware of school polices. Stress that All staff should be more familar with their polices and procedures
4) Realy get your parents to advocate For you to get a term pass signed by your parents to allow you to leave the premises to go home for lunch
5) An apology by the person responsible for the pizza issue may be possible - really try to obtain it because that would help you with closure -
I hope these thoughts have helped , good luck
You could probably SUE, but only if yo actually got sick and had to go to a doctor.
Could I sew?
Yes. Make yourself a cute little dress.
Bring your own lunch. That would alleviate the problem of feeding the "only vegetarian in the school".
man, what is this world coming to! You are in high school, and sue happy! That is SAD! Why in the world don't you just bring your own food from home!? You and your family are just looking for drama. Wow, that really bothers me. AND GOD PUT ANIMALS ON EARTH TO EAT! But that's beside the point. No, you can not sue.
its spelled sue. until you get this issue resolved, you should take your lunch because its obvious that your school isnt taking your concern seriously. stick with it. change is never easy. best of luck to you!
No you cannot sue because there were no damages. Just bring your lunch and stop causing so much trouble.
No.
You don't know if you're allergic to pepperoni. If you were and you told the lady, then maybe you could sue her. But you don't know. So you can't.
Also, you can't prove that you're a vegetarian. For all we know, you could be trying to get the lady in trouble for nothing by saying you're a vegetarian.
It could've also been a mistake (the lady not knowing there was pepperoni). It's also too small of a deal to sue someone over.
Bring your own lunch and every problem would be solved. Seems like you and your family are looking for drama. Tsk.
First, chill! It sucks to live in a world that does not understand being a vegetarian, but its YOUR responsibility to accomodate your own needs, if they differ from the rest. No, you cannot SUE them-no real harm was done. Its likely that the pepperoni came from pizza close by, and it was not intentionally put there. If you want to be certain that you are eating truly vegetarian foods, then bring your own lunch. My 13 year old daughter has been veggie most of her life, and she takes a hot thermos lunch every day. If you WERE allergic to certain foods, you would take extra steps to make sure you didn;t get them accidentally-I know, because I am allergic to loads of things, and I don't trust others to prepare my food for me. If you want to be a vegetarian, thats great-but don't give it a bad name by making it other people's responsibility to accomodate you-sorry but the world just doesnt work that way. Take action by bringing your own lunch, and avoid the drama of it all-it will only give others reason to criticize you and your choices. Sadly, its a meat eating world, and nothing you do will change that-you can only change the way YOU react to it. Expecting others to come around to your way of thinking is not productive, or in any ones best interest.
You could try..If you can't sue them atleast you made a statement and let all the people in that area know that your not going tolerate this crap any longer. That they messed with the wrong veg. Or you could forget about it and bring a lunch to school, but sadly the next vegetarian who comes around will be subjected to the same treatment you were. A funny looking cheese pizza with pepperoni prints. :(
That's kind of a bad answer to your problem. Suing someone is NOT the answer. The way you put it, it sounds more like you are just looking for the attention. If you are going to be a vegetarian, then you have to put up with all that it entails and that includes pssibly, and ACCIDENTLY getting some meat products in your food, which is what your case sounds like. You are not going to die if you have one tiny piece of meat here and there regardless of your diet. So why not learn, and live on? If it tastes funny, why keep munching away on it?
As to the school administrators, yes that is B/S on their part and you could contest it with the district, but I believe it to be waaaaay out of line to just bring the lawyers in right away. You will lose all credibility if you jump the gun and try to sue. If you create a paper trail (IE district hearings, PTA meetings etc...), then you would have more ground to stand on, but I still think you could resolve your issues using lower levels of problem resolution. I'm sure that if you raise enough of a stink about it, someone will help you out, but you really need to adopt a more adult approach to taking care of your problems
Just my 2 red cents
Yes I know that meat tastes bad and is disgusting when you are a vegetarian, I know cause I have had that happen to me before, but it is not something to take to court. I am guessing that the lunch lady probably made you a piece next to a pepperoni one or the one you ate would have had grease and disgusting taste all over it. In other words, sounds like an honest mistake that a little bit got on your slice.
What is sad about your school is that they don't have more vegetarian choices. Salad and veggie soup at the least should be a part of every school lunch. In my opinion, you shouldn't have to bring your lunch or eat nachos or pizza. That school needs to change their menu and that is what you should be trying to change. Maybe you should start a petition or something and if you get enough signatures they will have to listen to you.
SUE FOR WHAT? I HAVE BEEN A VEGETARIAN FROM BIRTH AND NOBODY IN MY WORLD EATS LIKE I DO EXCEPT MY FAMILY. AND I CANT FIND ANYONE OUT THERE OTHER THAN MY CHURCH MEMBERS THAT EAT VEGETARIAN SO I HAVE TO FIX MY OWN FOOD AND TAKE FOOD WITH ME ANYWHERE I GO THE FAST FOODS ARE NOT EVEN GEARED TO MY DIET.
SOME OF US JUST HAVE TO LEARN THAT NOBODY CARES THAT WE EAT DIFFERENT AND MOST DO NOT EVEN KNOW THAT FISH AND CHICKEN OR POULTRY ARE NOT VEGETARIAN ON THE MENU.?????
AND TRY GOING TO THE HOSPITAL AND TELLING THEM YOU DO NOT EAT MEAT YOU HAD BETTER HAVE A SEVERE LOVE FOR COTTAGE CHEESE AND EGGS I CAN EAT THAT BUT WHO CARES IF YOU DO NOT OR IF YOU WANT MORE THAN THAT 3 TIMES A DAY????
LIFE IS NOT FAIR BUT WE ARE IN THIS WORLD ONCE AND WE HAVE TO TRY TO LET THE PERSON NOT CONVENSED DECIDED FOR THEMSELVES AND THE LESS YOU BRING ATTENTION TO THE FACT THE LESS FLACK YOU GET FROM FRIEND AND STAFF.
Dude, you sound like a little *****. Pack your own lunch in a goddamned reuseable bag! You think any of that crap at your school is even worth eating? Besides that pizza might have been made with gelatin as an ingredient. I'm sure they aren't making fresh dough everyday
If I was going somewhere everyday that wasn't going to have a veggie option I would bring stuff from home. REAL SIMPLE.
Hello
Ok, first of all. I don't think you can sue, however they don't sound like a very good school.
Try arranging a meeting with the Principle and your parents and calmly talk him through everything. I would even consider switching schools, but that's probably a little extreme.
I have had meet hidden in my food before, and I have had to actually tell people I was allergic to certain meats to get my point across, else they would have not cared.
Also, it is a very very huge and common misconception among some non vegetarians that we vegetarians eat foods that have had the meat removed from it.
I think the lunch lady is not at fault here.
I think she was trying to use her own common sense in trying to find a quick vegetarian sollution for you. Who IS actually at fault are the people that are taking you being a vegetarian not serious. The people that your parents called and promised to accomedate you. Those are the people that need to start planning a serious vegetarian option for every day.
It is NOT normal to not have a vegetarian option anymore. Almost every school has it. It's time for yours to step up.
However, if they are going to be assholes you may really want to start bringing your own lunch.
Again, I don't know how much fault should really go to the lunch lady, but you should indeed be outraged at the school.
But try to be calm and intelligent about it.
I'm pretty sure you CAN sue for anything, though in this case I doubt you'd get anywhere. What the real question is, is SHOULD you.
I understand why you are upset. You feel like your rights have been violated, and your convictions ignored. You do need to step back and look at things more rationally, though. It is possible that the lunch lady didn't know it wasn't acceptable to just take the pepperoni off and call it vegetarian cheese pizza, and she missed a little bit. You said it was underneath in the middle-- easier to miss. Maybe it was a mistake from the company who made the pizza-- it said cheese but a bit of pepperoni was on there. You don't know. I doubt she thought to herself "well, I'll show that vegetarian-- I'll put a pepperoni on it!" Okay, she might have-- but the chances are slim. You bring up a valid point -- "what if I was allergic?" Well, you aren't (unless there is something you didn't mention in the question), and if you were it would be on record. They would have been more careful (or should have, because that would be just asking for a lawsuit), and probably wouldn't have given you anything that had even been near the allergen. The truth is, as important as your vegetarianism is to you, many people don't understand that conviction. Eating meat doesn't seem like a big deal, and they don't understand why you're making such a fuss. That attitude probably comes from our culture. Yes, as someone who works with food, she SHOULD be educated about vegetarianism. This sounds like a backward attitude on the part of the school more than anything. It is possible that she wasn't trained well. Yes, it does sound like she handled it badly. But sue worthy-- think for a minute here.
Now you didn't mention WHY you are a vegetarian, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume it has something to do with animal rights and compassion. Where is the compassion in suing someone over something that was in all likelihood a mistake? We all make bad judgment calls at times-- imagine if we all got sued for them! There are rare times where suing might be appropriate, but this sounds like revenge. You weren't harmed, physically or financially. Where is the compassion in making financial trouble for someone who likely doesn't have much money to start with? In completely turning someone's life inside out? The answer to this isn't "teaching a lesson" by suing. It's going to come through rational discussions with people in authority with the school, who do need to be better informed about vegetarianism and how important it is to people.
I'm sorry that this comes off like a lecture. I will say this, though-- sad though it is, this sort of thing happens a lot. I'm a vegan, and if I got angry every time I was in a restaurant and there was some cheese on my salad that wasn't supposed to be there, or sour cream that I didn't know about touching the rice, etc... I would be angry a lot. Granted, meat would be a much bigger deal. Sometimes these things happen, and you just have to work with it. Getting angry and making a scene will only turn people off.
Do you have a school counsellor??
Can you speak to them about lobbying the school re: vegetarian choices.Maybe talk with the cousellor about how livid you are that the lady scraped the pepperoni off and lied to you.
I think i can understand what happened. The lady was asked about vegetarian options and thought maybe she could just scrape the pepperoni off and that should get you off her back. she was probably tired and harrassed and under paid. Yes it was silly but some people view vegetarian people as a pain in the rear because they think that they (vegetrians) cause more trouble and work by not eating what everyone else eating.
You can cause social change by using this issue as a forum to generate a discussion about the needs of other vegetarian students.
Ah, I'm in high school too, and I'd get angry too... but don't over react. I wouldn't sue a school - come on. I'm sure it was just a mistake, so don't worry about it... you haven't sold out your values, everyone makes mistakes in the first couple of months.
But since you're a vegetarian, and should know about health, I agree with the general crowd about bringing your own food.
If you're eating a crappy school-made pizza, you won't send a good message about vegetarianism...
Best of luck dealing with them ^^