Aliquippa Junior Senior High School enforcing limits on snacks starting Monday

ALIQUIPPA, Pa. — The Aliquippa Junior Senior High School is limiting what snacks students can take to school starting Monday.

The district posted the new rule on Facebook which has hundreds of comments and shares. It said that due to excessive amounts of snacks being brought in, each student will only be permitted to have a bag of chips of up to 4 ounces and one closed drink of up to 20 ounces.

Some parents said that’s reasonable.

“I’ve seen some of the snacks kids are bringing in when I drop my daughter off,” said parent Janisha Walker. “I’m asking daughter like, ‘Are they setting up a small store? Why are they carrying a variety box of chips and two liters of soda into the school?’”

However, other parents online are furious about the new rule because it also applies to students who pack their lunch, and lunches will be searched.

“I kind of see their view with as far as lunch goes, they are monitoring how many snacks they are bringing to lunch,” said Walker.

A school board member tells me she thinks this is in place for safety reasons.

“After seeing the news last night and seeing there are other districts that are dealing with kids bringing items into the school. South Allegheny just had six students that had edibles. We don’t need to put our children at risk, we have to make sure they are safe within our buildings,” said Aliquippa school board member Catherine Colalella.

The superintendent Phillip Woods told me some students are selling or trading snacks, which is causing arguments and distractions, so they want to minimize that.

“We kind of have to look at the bigger picture and understand what’s reasonable. I don’t think any child needs to bring in family size bags of chips for the day. The children aren’t going to starve because they do have free meals for breakfast and lunch,” said Colalella. “And a diabetic child isn’t going to bringing family sized bags of chips for themselves because they can’t eat that stuff.”

The school said if a student brings more than what’s permitted starting Monday, it will be thrown away. If any parents have any concerns, they should contact the district.

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