The lawsuit claims strict liability, negligence, unlawful confinement and violations of civil rights.

More than 50 middle school students in Oregon were fed pretzels that were seasoned with crushed oven cleaner last fall, according to a newly filed lawsuit.

About 37 pretzels coated with Alto-Cham concentrated oven cleaner — an industrial-strength caustic chemical made with sodium hydroxide — were served during sixth-grade lunch at Fowler Middle School in Tigard, a suburb of Portland, on October 20, 2025, according to a nearly $1 million lawsuit filed last month.

More than 50 students ate all or part of the impacted pretzels, according to Tigard-Tualatin School District records obtained by Fox 12.

  • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works
    1341·
    1 day ago

    The school wouldn’t want me on that jury:

    According to the lawsuit, poison control was not contacted until nearly half an hour after staff realized what had happened — and families were not notified until nearly two hours later.

    The lawsuit claims that L.L. was kept in a room for about an hour, where he was examined and monitored without his parents being told. He was later sent back to class after staff said he was asymptomatic, even though he came home with a sore throat and stomach pain.

    According to the lawsuit, a substitute kitchen worker, Chloe Larson, first noticed the chemical was being used as seasoning and had to push the lead kitchen worker to investigate. The lawsuit alleges that Larson was only interviewed after she contacted police about her concerns.

      • canttakeitwithyou@lemmy.zip
        2·
        23 hours ago

        I don’t think you can get personal liability for the principal and there’s no way that the kitchen worker could pay a million dollars. So basically the school district is going to be footing the bill.

        It would be interesting to see if any criminal charges could go to the kitchen worker. Accidentally poisoning people is a pretty terrible thing to do. Of course it depends on the precise wording of state law.

        • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
          3·
          9 hours ago

          There’s more to it than that. One of the first things a food safety inspector looks at is whether chemicals are stored separately from food, precisely so this kind of accident can’t happen. This kitchen left a caustic chemical in the food prep area, where it got used. Had they been following proper protocols, that wouldn’t have happened.

          They had to violate specific standards for this to occur. They are screwed.

        • cloudshouter@lemmy.zip
          1·
          9 hours ago

          That’s what the insurance company is for in the schools case. The kitchen worker and the principal not so much.

    • Obviouslywrong@lemmy.world
      142·
      1 day ago

      The article didn’t seem to say if it was put on before or after baking, but it seems that they probably had the crushed stuff in a plastic bag that looked like salt next to the oven for the pretzels, which would normally come frozen with a little bag of coarse salt. So I wouldn’t really blame the sub worker here, the problem was having the unlabeled cleaner sitting out.

      • Manjushri@piefed.socialEnglish
        3·
        8 hours ago

        So I wouldn’t really blame the sub worker here

        It was the sub worker who noticed the problem, she didn’t cause it. She also had to push the lead kitchen worker to even look into it.

        According to the lawsuit, a substitute kitchen worker, Chloe Larson, first noticed the chemical was being used as seasoning and had to push the lead kitchen worker to investigate. The lawsuit alleges that Larson was only interviewed after she contacted police about her concerns.

      • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de
        19·
        1 day ago

        So I wouldn’t really blame the sub worker here, the problem was having the unlabeled cleaner sitting out.

        I wouldn’t blame her either, since she wasn’t the one who did it.

        The lawsuit names the school district, the lead kitchen worker who made the error and Fowler Middle School Principal Cindy Pellicci, according to the report.

        More specifically stated in this article as:

        The complaint, filed Sept. 9 in Washington County Circuit Court, names the district, the lead kitchen worker who put the oven cleaner on the pretzels and Principal Cindy Pellicci. It seeks up to $950,220.85 and lays out seven claims, including strict liability, negligence, unlawful confinement and violations of civil rights. No court has ruled on the allegations.