to be annoyed with how DD's school handled this situation...

[maffive]

Today a child vomited on DD's lunchbox at recess.

A member of staff placed the soiled lunchbox in a plastic bag. As she was unable to eat her lunch (a chicken and avocado roll and Baby Bel) they gave her a vegemite sandwich from the emergency supply, kept at the office, for children who do not have their own lunch.

DD has brought the vomit covered lunch box home, which I now have to deal with.

AIBU to think that the sandwich was a poor substitution and that they could have given her something more substantial? There is a canteen at school that has food similar to her packed lunch. Also, we live 5 minutes walk from the school - if they'd contacted me I could have taken her in another lunch.

I'm also peeved that I have to clean up another child's vomit who was , at the time, under their care and responsibility.

If you were me would you contact the school to complain, or should I just let it go? Thanks

Teacher here. Whoever bagged the box covered in vomit without rinsing it is lazy. There is no way that a member of staff wouldn't have any spare seconds at all to prioritise rinsing it- they just didn't want to. I'd complain. The vomiting incident happened between two children in their care, and for hygiene reasons all of the sick should have been cleaned up immediately with disinfectant, not just bagged.

The sandwich is a poor substitute but I wouldn't complain, just because schools are obsessed with budgets and don't give away much, even when it's obvious that your child had unfairly lost their own lunch. It's a bit tight of them, but at least they provided something.

let it go

I'd throw the lunchbox in the bin. The kid could've had any # of communicable diseases. Should never have been sent home!

i also think Vegemite is a bad choice for substitute sandwich but only b/c Vegemite is disgusting, and won't most kids not like it? Don't see why a school with a cafeterra won't let them have school lunch that day

Yabvu about the lunch, it's not great but will do for one day.,tgey should have taken out the contents and washed the box. I am sure there is a cleaners cupboard, sometimes with a sink where they could have sluiced the box.

I would also bin the box, bin the whole bag tbh due to infection, I am sure your dd does not want a box which someone has thrown up on, even if it's been washed and sterilised.

I'd bin the lunchbox, I couldn't face cleaning up someone else's child's vomit and I think it's disgusting that they've sent it home to you, aside from spread of germs etc, it's just gross and staff should have at least rinsed it off or called you for permission to bin it. I would let them know how you felt about it, certainly.

The sandwich isn't the end of the world, she didn't go hungry, not sure how meals work at your school but at DS' school there wouldn't be a spare lunch because they are cooked to order at another school and then delivered so maybe giving her a school meal wasn't an option?

Disgusting - but maybe they thought you'd want to bin it and so see how bad it was/provide the evidence.
Was it just the odd splash or truly disgustingly ruined ...
If they just binned it you might be annoyed
but if it was cleaned up you might not be able to decide whether you were happy with that ...
Guess it isn't something they experience on a regular basis .... and they made a judgement call ...
I think I would have phoned you and asked you what you wanted them to do - or at least have a chat with you at the end of the day ...
I think a pleasant email saying you weren't impressed is the way forward...

Ewww. I'm sure they could have just thrown it away! I'm also fairly certain the child who vomited will tell her parents that she was sick in X's lunchbox, and they will be mortified and offer to replace it... I would be emailing school and saying thank you for trying to salvage the lunch box but it really isn't good practice to send home a potentially contagious bag of sick...

gawd that's grim - another one who would have told them to bin the lunchbox if given the choice

Very interesting to hear the opinions from other teachers.

We are in Australia, so it's the local state school. Here they have a quick break during the morning period to have some fruit and a drink, then a snack at recess, then lunch. It all goes in the one box.

The incident occurred at morning recess, so she'd had fruit and snack. They take their boxes into the playground and leave them laying around while they play.

There would definitely have been time in between recess and the end of the day to clean it up. There are janitors on site as well who look after this kind of thing.

The lunch box is one of the soft, padded, fabric ones with a zip. Vomit was on the outside only. It didn't take a direct hit, but must have been very close as it was substantially splattered. They put it in two plastic bags, but didn't tie it up.

I'm not the type to go in guns blazing , and it's a lovely school generally, but I do think it requires some explanation re the vomit. On reflection, not so bothered about the sandwich.

I've ditched the contents of the box, and it's soaking in a bucket of disinfectant at the moment. Bin seems like the best place for it though

Thanks!

Mabey have a word with the teachers, tell them that you would have liked it cleaned first, not given to you in that state!