South Brunswick Teens Fall Ill At High School

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ — Multiple teenagers at South Brunswick High School fell ill last Friday after eating in the freshman cafeteria. Because some of the students ate chicken tenders before getting sick, the high school temporarily took chicken tenders off the menu for a few days. They will be back on again starting Thursday.

However, because an estimated one third of the students did not eat the chicken, the illness was likely caused by a virus, said South Brunswick schools superintendent Scott Feder in a letter sent home to parents Wednesday. He also sent a copy of the letter to Patch.

"On Friday, January 19 an incident occurred in the Freshman cafeteria at the high school," Dr. Feder wrote in the letter. "Some students felt ill immediately after the lunch session. A high percentage of this group had purchased the chicken tender meal."

However, not all of the children who reported being ill had eaten the same lunch (chicken tenders), Feder said. In fact, about a third of the students who fell ill did not eat the chicken tenders at all. Thus the district determined the illness was probably caused by a virus instead of bacteria, he said.

Fortunately, all the students recovered over the weekend, with many attending practices and weekend activities as scheduled.

Chartwells, the company that provides the food for South Brunswick schools, temporarily removed chicken tenders from all of the South Brunswick menus. Tenders will be placed back on the menus starting Thursday, Jan. 25. As an added precaution, both high school kitchens were disinfected over the weekend.

"We do feel badly if this situation has caused concern, but know that we have been on top of the situation since Friday," he wrote. "Now that we have all of the information and clarity on the occurrence, we wanted to communicate this with you and share why the chicken tenders (I am sure a favorite of many of our students) were temporarily removed from our menus."

Did your son or daughter get sick? If you want to talk to Patch about it, email carly.baldwin@patch.com