High school student suspended after bringing in cup of coffee on first day

A teenager has told how waltzing into high school clutching a cup of coffee landed her in big trouble on her first day back.

Julie Kaputa's morning dose of caffeine caused quite the kerfuffle at Beaver River Central School in Castorland, New York, due to a new rule that was recently brought in.

The US student has now spoken out about how she was punished for bringing a hot beverage along with her as she returned to the classroom on 3 September.

Julie explained she had rocked up to her first lesson of the day with a latte from a local coffee shop as she began the new school year a couple of weeks ago.

But when her teacher spotted her consuming her caffeine fix, she says that she was informed that this violated school rules and was subsequently presented with three choices.

Julie took a morning coffee into her first class of the day and was punished (WWNY)

Speaking to local news outlet WTVM, Julie said: "I walked in, I had my coffee with me.

"I got to my first period class and my teacher said, ‘I’m either going to need you to dump that out or consume it on the spot or go down to the office."

The honours student and student body president opted to head for the office, where she was then slapped with an in-school suspension.

This means she was removed from her classroom and sent to be supervised elsewhere.

She received this punishment as she had allegedly violated the school's code of conduct, that recently implemented a new rule in regards to food and drink.

New school rules

In a bid to 'create a safe, instruction-focused environment for all students', youngsters are no longer allowed to consume outside food or drink on the premises.

The school district’s policy states: "The following food and drink guidelines help minimise distractions, protect students with food allergies, and promote a calm, equitable school experience.

"Students arriving with drinks or food will be asked to finish them before entering school."

However, Julie and her mother MaryAnne said the new rule was introduced last month without a public hearing taking place, meaning they were unaware of it.

The pair also suspect that other parents also had no idea about the new guidance.

The teen's mother MaryAnne spoke out about the incident (WWNY)

In a Facebook post, MaryAnne said of the incident at her daughter's school: "Julie was put in ISS today for refusing to dump out a 'banned beverage' (a latte from Moving Mountains). I was called down to the school.

"Meeting minutes from both July and August (where the code may have been discussed) were never published to the website until today when I pointed it out to the District Office, and the district office had no record of a public hearing being conducted.

"Just wondering if anyone else saw it and I missed it. I am certain that the school can not enforce a substantial change to the code of conduct without a public hearing."

Julie also told WTVM: "There was no public hearing to discuss it. Transparency in government is a big thing that I care about a lot, and it just kind of struck me as odd that there wasn’t a public hearing."

Superintendent Todd Green said that August's monthly board meeting was deemed to be a public hearing - however, he agreed with the Kaputa family that it wasn't adequately announced.

Julie explained she was unaware of the new rule (WWNY)

He said of the matter: "While our annual review process mirrors a public hearing in practice, we acknowledge the advance notice did not explicitly contain the phrase 'Public Hearing' and that the public may not have realised they were entitled to speak on the Code of Conduct before action was taken by the Board.

"Because we hold ourselves to the highest standard of compliance, we are correcting this administrative detail.

"It’s good to see students standing up for what they believe in. We really appreciate that. That often doesn’t happen.

"We’re a school district. We’re trying to do the best we can throughout this process. We know there’s open meeting laws. We try to follow that. If things get pointed out that we need to do and change or fix, we’ll do that."

Thankfully for Julie, the ISS will not appear on her permanent record. The school board is set to hold another public hearing on the policy later today (14 September).