This is a very nice article...but the facts are that the school contacted us once with a vague response at 3:00 on Friday and no one has heard from them since. Kids were violently ill, fell asleep in class, some slept for hours on end after school. They better hope they dodged a bullet and no one taking medication drank it. The cashiers were told to only sell one per student...why? is this the policy with milk? NO! Parents were called to pick up their ill children and they at the least should have been called! This is absurd!

Why is this article hidden? Why isn't this under top stories? This beverage that was sold to our children made them sick. My son had elevated blood pressure and heart rate and fell asleep in class. He was dizzy and nauseous. I certainly feel that this warrants more attention than The Patch is giving it.

This is insane. How can they even think of selling something that is labeled as "not intended for children"? Chartwells should be gone - and now. I'd like to see a letter to all parents in the district that the account is up for review and that for the interim, the school staff are right now scrutinizing the labels of every single item and ingredient in the cafeterias. I thought what they served was nutritionally sketchy before, but selling stuff that is clearly labeled as *not* for kids is absolutely insane.

The menu & items for sale in the Holmdel cafeterias leave a lot to be desired. Chartwells has never been forthcoming nor "open" to questions when I've reached out to them....I'd like to know how the new school vendor in Hazlet's school district is working out. As for this incident, there should be some accountability. However, you wouldn't really expect the school to follow up over the weekend? It is a blog, not an article & that is why it was not under "news". We had no access to Satz personnel over the weekend. Great opportunity for dialogue. I do hope all of the kids who were impacted by this have recovered. I do encourage each parent to contact the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the Dept of Health for the State of NJ to let them know what happened. Unfortunatley, until enough cases of "harm" are reported, DSHEA doesn't permit the FDA to slap manufacturers' wrists nor demand products be removed from the marketplace.

My child did not drink it, but it upsets me that it was even made available. Many children take a variety of allergy and asthma medications that already cause some drowsiness. I am scared to think how this would combine with that.

Somebody made a bad decision by serving a drink not appropriate for our children. This mistake needs to be publicly acknowledged and systems needs to be put in place to make sure a mistake like this doesn't happen again.

@Felicia...yes, I do expect the BOE to follow up on the weekend. I didn't realize they would only protect and show some concern for our children Monday thru Friday.

As a children's doctor I am appalled.Multiple people dropped the ball here.The food service vendor as well as the Holmdel Township School Administrator who signed off on this.Didn't any other staff members notice this product ???.BOE members do your job.You know what to do !!!

To All Concerned Parents of Holmdel School Children- I am sure you will all recieve the standard line once again from both Administration and the BOE president. Per Ms Garrity "it has been investigated and dealth with--it has been thoroughly investigated to the satisfaction of the majority of the Board"-Hopefully additional board members, besides the courageous Mr. Pavlik and Ms. Vander-Woode-will step up

We have prided ourselves on our school system. We certainly have some of the most educated people living here. How can we allow our kids to be "marketing targets" when they're just trying to eat a hot meal in the safety of their school? I see A STUDENT WENT TO THE HOSPITAL ON FRIDAY, leaving from Satz, because of this Marley in a can. Where is the monitoring of our foodstuffs for our kids?

Not only am I disappointed with our Superintendent of Schools, Barbara Duncan, for her lack of leadership skills (especially during this past week!) but I am also disappointed with the Holmdel Patch. No offense to the author of this article because I realize you are an RD and you wrote your blog from that 'health' angle, but the way this extremely important incident was handled by the Patch just further proves to me that the Holmdel Patch is a shill for the school administration. We are talking about a large number of our Holmdel Township children who were vomiting in hallways, falling asleep in classrooms, experiencing elevated blood pressure and heart rate and instead of getting a 'NEWS' story we receive a personal blog that instructs us that we should spend more time speaking to our children about the food and beverage choices they make. Talk about blaming the victim. I will now think twice about believing anything that I read in the Holmdel Patch.

I contacted the Superintendent Saturday when I first learned about this incident from a parent of a Satz student. It will be investigated thoroughly. Speaking as both a parent and a member of the BOE, I want to know who made the decision to allow children to purchase this type of beverage on school grounds.

They are also selling "Black Water" at the schools. It contains several added minerals etc. I'm not sure if it is harmful or not, but why are they selling it to our kids? Who is making money off of this? If children weren't sick from this, it would be laughable that anyone would be that stupid to sell our kids anything with "Bob Marley" on it. I'm hoping Monday they won't be selling "Courtney Love" brownies...

First, there was no intent to "blame" the victim in this blog whatsoever. While I volunteer to "blog" for the Holmdel-Hazlet Patch, I have been trained as a journalist and strive for journalistic integrity. Christina Johnson does the same; thank goodness because the Patch was the best source of information during the hurricane this year and last.

In keeping to the facts, once school was over, it is nearly impossible to find out exact number of children who were effected by this beverage. We don't know all the specific side effects. Did all children experience them and to what extent? Was this the first day the product was sold at Satz? Have kids consumed it without incident in the past or is this the first time? Satz ends at 2:45 pm. I got a phone call on Friday at 2:30 pm to ask me if I ever heard of this product, my friend was on her way to pick up her son.

Let's remember that rumor can cause hysteria. In using media for reporting information - we must keep to the facts. The fact is that children had untoward symptoms after consuming this beverage. It should NEVER have been in the school in the first place. Beverages do not have to disclose their proprietary ingredients and quantities - it is a "trade secret". This is not about the Patch being in the pocket of the school board - it's about our access to information and resources after the school personnel have left. The doctors and ERs are trained to deal with outbreaks and clustered illnesses like these.

Felicia, I am not blaming you for your report. This shouldn't have shown up here. I believe during the hurricane a question was posed on Top 5 asking who had power back. Why not a question, "Any kids get sick at Satz Friday?" Any or all of your questions could have been posed. Sometimes you have to put yourself in others shoes....imagine your child was affected? Imagine you had a child on medication that drank this? People whose children were affected thought of it as more than "untoward symptoms".....and that's a fact.

Ms. Stoler,
I thank you for writing this blog and bringing this situation to light. Things like this need to be reported to the parents so that word of mouth doesn't make a bad situation even worse. I don't see anywhere in your blog where you finger pointed to any particular party.
As a parent I know how quickly misinformation can spread. I also know how badly it gets twisted when emotions are involved.
To anyone who is siding with those who are responsible for this beverage being available, you are so off base it isn't funny. I serve on three boards for children's organizations. I understand that my decisions will impact thousands of children's well-being. Should I fail to properly protect the children entrusted in my care, it is my failing. It doesn't matter that I give my time freely. It doesn't matter if it costs me money to do my job for this position. I accepted the position and accepted the responsibilities that came with it. I must be held accountable for all of my decisions. Children are dependent on that.
Those who made the decision must be held accountable for the decision. They clearly showed that they are ill-equipped to handle the responsibilities that come with this job.
Those who made this decision must be held accountable. They have proven how ill-equipped they are to handle the responsibility.

My son drank two cans and was very sick from this. I believe these kids had herbal intoxication. What I saw in the nurses office when I went to pick up my son was scary. I'm upset that I was not contacted through the weekend from the school. I only wanted a call for them to ask how he was feeling. He had stomach cramps, headache and he kept falling asleep. I received a call from the Nurse telling me that my son ingested a new all natural product in the cafateria and he was having adverse effects. She told me it was the first day it was offered. I was also told that he drank two cans but should be ok because of his size. I'm extremely upset that this was offered to my son on school grounds as it is something that I would never offer to my children at home.

Dear Mr. Sockol-As a school board member you are aware Superintendents of Schools know what administrators supervisor certain particular areas-this should be a no brainer for you--or maybe not

Well, we could all boycott buying lunches from Chartwells to show our discontent. If we hit Chartwells and our Administration in the pocketbooks (our school gets a percentage of food & beverage sales from Chartwells) that will surely get their attention - and force them to act.

From what I heard, the Satz schoolers were chugging many of these drinks at one time. At the high school, the school has been selling this drink for a couple of months now and there has been no incidents.

Just because you don't know how to raise your kids & teach them about beverage consumption does not mean that that is the school's fault. Like "N." said, the drink has been sold at the high school & NOTHING happened. This is your children's fault. There's no marijuana in it. Nothing is wrong with black water. Raise your children to be a little bit smarter & this wouldn't be happening. The students are old enough to be making their own decisions but it is up to you as parents to guide them in the right path. Energy drinks like Monster, Rockstar, etc are more of a problem than things that make your already hyper children mellow. Boycotting lunches is just stupid. Stop overreacting. Your kids are still alive. Give them food & let them sleep. No big deal.

I heard the kids that did get sick purchased 2 or 3 of these and drank them one after the other during their lunch period. Also......who is in charge of purchasing for the school? I would hesitate to puchase anything with "Bob Marley" on it for children or adults. So......we banned cupcake sales because we're worried our kids might be getting too much sugar......unreal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am just curious to know where the Principal and Assistant Principal were during this time, I thought they frequented the lunch rooms. And if they saw a drink with Bob Marley's face on it, wouldn't they question it and maybe be able to put a stop to it! I heard it was sold during all of the lunch periods! I know Chartwell's is in charge of the food service, but ultimately the Satz Administration, Principal and Vice Principal are in charge of the school, and when kids started getting sick, why didn't they put a stop to selling it, just curious.

I give this stuff to my kids all of the time. It actually helps them go to sleep. I don't understand why some of the kids in this article would throw back two or three cans of it though. That just seems irresponsible. However they are only children and I am sure they have learned their lesson.

Dear Holmdel Repubs--A rationale for selling a can of juice with Bob Marley's picture on it --Marley considered Marijuana to be a sacrament and promoted it as such in his Rastafarian Spiritual Movement in the 60's --I do not think anyone can come up with a rationale for this -the Holmdel School District enforces a NO TOLERANCE DRUG POLICY -yet sells a drink in a can with the picture of a musician who elevated an illegal drug to the sacramental status-they will be hard presssed to find a rationale for this one

Marijuana is not a drug first of all, it is an herb much like the tea you dunk in your water and the spices you put in your pizza. It has killed 0 people from overdose in the past 5000 years and has been used repeatedly for its use in medicine as an anti-carcinogen, anti pain, anti anxiety, anti migraine, anti depressant, and even as a tonic to cure skin lesions. To say that the image of Bob Marley invokes drug use is as ridiculous as your knowledge of generally known and accepted fact. The can says not to consume more than one as well but your kids obviously were not taught to read. Also back to Bob Marley and your bastardization of him as a druggie; the religion of Rastafari is a Christian Ethiopian blend of beliefs which stems from Africa. The Rastafarian belief system is still alive and well predominantly in Jamaica but it is a religion, and a peaceful one. Your the most shallow, narrow minded people I have ever seen and it scares me deeply to believe that they let people like you vote or have kids. You have failed to raise your kids to read simple labels on the things they pay money for. I guarantee you that if I sat in the lunch room and slammed down 3 of their cheeseburgers i would get sick but you wont hear about that. At least the can had the decency to put a freaking label on it telling you how many to drink. And as a matter of fact I am holding a can in my hand right now, and i have checked the website and there is no mention of it not being for children.

This removes any blame from the school and the manufacturer, it only leaves you and your lovely children to blame people of holmdel, thanks again for making us look like dumb republican woosies yet again. Yall should be ashamed

This is exactly what I said would happen if the district implemented 'Reader's Workshop'...

Poor kids can't even read what they're drinking..

Herbal supplements have no place being sold in a school. I believe that "xo xo" is out of her ever loving mind for blaming this on the children. The can states that is not for children therefor it should not be made available in a children's school.
Your post shows your gross ignorance. Children who are truly "hyper" would not react to a sedative the way you're assuming. That is why hyperactive children are given stimulants like Ritalin.
Someone should smack you upside your head and remove any children from your care.
This is a big deal. If there was a child with a medical condition or on a medication they could have been in serious trouble. I've since learned that one child did end up in the hospital because of this. You are a fool to think this isn't serious.
The persons' who made this decision to allow this beverage to be available are liable. They undertook the responsibility for the health and well being of these children when they accepted their jobs.
Since you seem to think this isn't such a big deal, I'm left to wonder if you are somehow connected to this or to someone who is. I can't find any logical explanation as to why any person would find any part of this acceptable.
I am honestly disgusted by your lack of concern.

BTW, I've gone through every item available through Chartwells and have not been able to find any beverages other than skim milk, 1% milk and water. I've not been able to find a mention of it anywhere on any part of it's site. Not even for college cafeterias.

Oh and jeanne, you must have not looked hard enough, they are sold at brookdale.

Dear Robert E Lee

I happen to be a" hippie from the sixties" love Bob Marley and his music and am very familiar with the Rastafarians --it is still totally inappropriate to promote a juice/drink that is presently known on the streets as, Marijuana Juice, to children.

I am so disgusted with the school for not telling me that this could have been the reason for my child being sick and for even being allowed in the schools!!!!
But, I am not surprised especially since water is more expensive than gatorade!!!!

Each "headline" re: the Holmdel School district alone is disturbing. When you put them all together (selling inappropriate beverages to children, the mysterious issue raised by members of the BOE, the "new" Wordly Wise program being introduced @IH, the Readers/Writers Workshop curriculum) you have to wonder who is steering the ship and not if, but when it is going to sink?

True statement Pat. Maybe everyone should put their pitchforks down and go volunteer helping those impacted by Sandy. In the grand scheme, the Marley impact is insignificant

Here is an update...Fox 5 local news is allegedly doing a story on this tonight. Per Tom Paolella, a spokesperson for Bayhore and Riverview... this was seemingly an isolated event and there has not been a greater incident of this adverse reaction other than what occured on Friday at Satz. A parent of a child who was ill, did receive a voicemail message on Sunday from a school administrator to check on her child. The corporate office of Marley Mellow Mood is aware of this... their Marketing Director is at a conference this week. The company stands by their label. From what I have gathered so far, the real question is why was this targeted to school food service in the first place? Waiting for Chartwells/Compass group to respond. Until then, as I have offered to Mike Sokol, the school cafeterias need some review of items made available to kids of all ages at the schools - having an RD do it is really ideal. As more information is obtained, we will share it with you.

From Chartwells:

The safety and welfare of the students of Holmdel Schools and all of the schools we serve is Chartwells number one priority. As we are conducting our investigation, here are some facts that we have identified regarding the situation:
• Marleys Mellow Mood Drinks and Teas are an unauthorized purchase of a beverage product not approved for sale in schools by Chartwells
• The product in question has been removed from schools completely and will not be available
• The on-site Manager has been removed pending our further investigation

We sincerely regret that this product was sold and that students had an adverse reaction to it. Chartwells takes great pride and care in partnering with our school communities to provide the best school dining experience possible and we take this situation very seriously. As stated, we are in the process of conducting a full investigation on this situation and will continue to report to the school district regarding our findings.

Fruit juice is no different than soda. It is pure sugar. This woman clearly knows nothing about nutrition despite her supposed credentials.

Larry, there is a difference between fruit juice and soda... it's called vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients (plant pigments) which act as antioxidants and yes, there are calories from naturally occurring carbohydrates that some people like yourself just think of as table sugar. A bit different than soda. The Starbucks beverages have no place in the cafeterias either. There are nationally recognized school nutrition and competitive foods guidelines. Look them up. Stop trying to pick away at my education and training because of your opinion about what you think nutrition should be - it's as petty as some of the entertaining dialogue that went on here. I'm highly regarded in my field - in the nutrition AND exercise science space nationally - take the childish rant elsewhere.

Chartwells is a joke. Any organization that serves funnel cake to school children is not even remotely interested in providing nutrious food or promoting healthy eating habits. Chartwells needs to be replaced with a quality food provider that is interested serving healthly, nutrious food that tastes good instead of the junk that is currently being served in our schools.

@ Jeanne-Marie on your comment made to my previous post: The way you worded your reply makes it seem that you think the school drugged the kids. That is preposterous as this is simply not the case. No one was DRUGGED. Should the school sell this quality beverage? Probably not but on the other hand does it make any sense that children were buying two at a kind? No!!

Chartwell's sucks. I brown bag my daughter's lunch every day, and control her ADHD symptoms through diet, amino acids and herbs. I work in the natural health industry and am trained enough in this area to feel confident of the safety of the ones I use with her. I do not use anything controversial or unsafe for children.

That said, my daughter loves this drink. Yes, I read the warning label, but I also am familiar with all of these herbs and they are EXTREMELY mild. She never even had a calming reaction from it. She just likes the taste and loves Bob Marley, so always clamors for it. I usually share a can with her as an occasional treat.

I just want to say, this is not an issue of the herbs here, but probably a medication interaction or batch contamination. Or, as someone mentioned, a combination of factors: the Olestra, which is incredibly sickening stuff that causes diarrhea and stomach upset, and an overly strong batch. There may be a problem with product consistency.

Until I find out, I'm not buying this anymore. But I also want to clear up all the scares about the herbs. Chamomile, people. Hops. I used these herbs while nursing, to help my colicky baby sleep. They are safe but should not be used during school hours. Lemon balm is a nerve tonic, not a sedative. What that means is that it gradually strengthens the nervous system. It is VERY safe and also immune supporting (great for cold sores). Anyway... sorry you all had to suffer this nightmare.

I would like to know who the person is from the Holmdel school district that oversees what is served to our children. That person needs to be retrained or fired.

Chartwells is also very expensive. My lunch bill in NYC is equivalent to what our kids are charged to eat in the cafeteria!

Also, great job Felicia and thanks for staying on top of this.

Marley Beverage Company is deeply saddened and concerned about the incidents reported at William R. Satz School in Holmdel, NJ involving the sale of our products. Our packaging clearly states that Marley’s Mellow Mood is not intended for consumption by children. As Chartwells acknowledged in their statement, they are responsible for the selection of food and beverage products sold in the cafeteria system at W.R. Satz. However, Chartwells is not an authorized reseller of Marley Beverages. Our company’s policy is not to sell Marley’s Mellow Mood into schools and we have no intention of ever doing so. We have launched our own internal investigation into this incident and will be forthcoming with those results.
Respectfully,
Kevin McClafferty
President and Chief Executive Officer
Marley Beverage Company, LLC

Shame on PATCH for not posting this as an article on the front page Friday! Why was it placed in the "BLOG" section! It should of been posted immediately. It was a big enough story for Fox News to come to SATZ today & interview the kids & parents. Kids can purchase a Marley Mellow Mood beverage, but yet my child can't seem to buy FRESH FRUIT during lunch, amazing!

Jacklyn - Felicia did a great job & I am so happy she blogged about it! I enjoy reading her blogs. Sorry if you miss understood me. I am not against Felicia at all. I was just wondering why didn't Patch address it as a front page article, that's all? I thought for sure it was a very important topic for the Community, especially since it's regarding our children. I kept searching & never found anything till today, Monday. I love reading the Patch & look forward to my daily updates. I appreciate all the contributors & have never posted anything negative.

So, the school board has taken no responsibility for this. Barbara Duncan did not even sign her name to the most recent letter regarding this issue . Who is really in charge of our schools cafeterias ?