Tag Archives: Arrested Development

25 Chicago students arrested for a middle-school food fight

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The cafeteria food fight, as immortalized in the 1978 film, Animal House, has become a high school rite of passage.

Except in Chicago (home to John Belushi, right)

The New York Times reports this morning that 25  students, ages 11 to 15, were rounded up, arrested, taken from school and put in jail on charges of reckless conduct, a misdemeanor, after a food fight at the middle-school campus of Perspectives Charter Schools, in the Gresham neighborhood on the South Side.

That was last Thursday afternoon. Now parents are questioning what seem to them like the criminalization of age-old adolescent pranks, and the lasting legal and psychological impact of the arrests.

“My children have to appear in court,” Erica Russell, the mother of two eighth-grade girls who spent eight hours in jail, said Tuesday. “They were handcuffed, slammed in a wagon, had their mug shots taken and treated like real criminals.”

 

UK: It’s a bummer heights high

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Doug and Amy introduced me to what is now one of my favourite TV shows, up there with The Office, Arrested Development and Flight of the Conchords. Summer Heights High is an Australian mockumentary following the lives of highschool students. One of the main characters, Ja’mie (not to be confused with Jamie) has transferred for a year from a private school to attend Summer Heights High public school. On multiple occasions Ja’mie refers to how povo (poor) the public school is.

Students at a UK private school may have been better off attending a povo public school after five pupils became ill this past week, reports This is Croydon Today.

Cumnor House School, in Pampisford Road, South Croydon, has been hit by an outbreak of campylobacter – a bacteria that causes food poisoning.

Headteacher Peter Clare-Hunt insists there is no proof that the bug came from the school kitchen. But nevertheless environmental health officers who were called in to carry out an inspection have "reminded" the school about good hygiene practice.

Headteacher Hunt explained,

"We have had five confirmed cases of campylobacter which is a type of food poisoning. As soon as that was confirmed we underwent a visit from the food hygiene consultant and environmental health…"

"There is no safety issue with regards to school lunches. I would say 99 per cent of the boys, if not more, are having school lunches and can do so without any fear of risk whatsoever.

Continuing,

“In terms of tracing this back to the kitchen that will never be proved one way or the other."

All the boys who fell ill at the school, which takes pupils aged between four and 13, are now back in class "healthy and doing fine". Campylobacter is the most common cause of food poisoning and symptoms can include stomach cramps and severe diarrhoea. Anyone who contracts the bug is normally ill for two days to a week and infection can come from inadequate cooking of food to handling domestic pets. Infection from person to person contact is, however, uncommon.

Headteacher Hunt should focus on apologizing to the sick students rather than insisting his cafeteria couldn’t possibly be the source of illness.

Foodhandlers should be never-nude: Australia restaurant learns the hard way

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In one of my favourite Arrested Development episodes Zach Braff, who plays a producer for the spoof television show Girls with Low Self Esteem, reveals he, like Tobias, is a never nude. Never nudes, are (as the name implies) never nude. Employees at Vinh Phat restaurant in Australia should abide by the same rules if they wish to avoid repeated fines for breaching food hygiene laws.

Foodweek.com.au reports that three male foodhandlers in the Sydney restaurant were preparing food topless.

Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald, said,

"This incident is a blatant breach of food safety laws, it goes against every basic rule in the book… there is no excuse for not wearing the appropriate clothing, regardless of how hot it may be in the kitchen.”

Continuing,

"This type of behaviour disregards fundamental food handling rules for eliminating the risk of cross-contamination. onsumers should not have to take any risks when dining out."

The restaurant’s owners were fined $330, and appears on the New South Wales Name and Shame website.

If only the foodhandlers had been wearing denim cut-offs like Tobias.