Bitter grounds.
A New York high school senior was suspended for bringing a cup of coffee to class but challenged school administrators for quietly adopting a new outside food policy without notifying the public.
Julie Kaputa said she was minutes into her last first day of school when a teacher confronted her over her Cup of Joe on Sept. 3 at Beaver River Central School in Castorland, NY.
“I walked in, I had my coffee with me. I got to my first period class and my teacher said, ‘I’m either going to need you to dump that out or consume it on the spot or go down to the office,’” Kaputa told WTVM.
The soon-to-be graduating honors student was handed an in-school suspension (ISS) for her drink, which allegedly violated the school’s Code of Conduct regulation that sought to “create a safe, instruction-focused environment for all students.”
Kaputa argued the school district adopted the policy illegally as there was no public hearing on the matter when the school board met in August.
“Julie was put in ISS today for refusing to dump out a ‘banned beverage’ (a latte from moving mountains). I was called down to the school,” Kaputa’s mom, Mary Anne Kaputa, wrote on Facebook.
The infuriated mother asked other parents if they had seen any advertisement from the school about a public hearing for the newly adopted student code, a required step before any policy is made official.
“Meeting minutes from both July and August (where the code may have been discussed) were never published to the website until today when I pointed it out to the District Office, and the district office had no record of a public hearing being conducted. Just wondering if anyone else saw it and I missed it,” Mary Anne Kaputa said.
“I am certain that the school can not enforce a substantial change to the code of conduct without a public hearing,” she stated.
The new policy was added to the school district’s 2026-2027 Standards for Community-Wide Conduct released before the school year and affects middle school and high schoolers.
“The following food and drink guidelines help minimize distractions, protect students with food allergies, and promote a calm, equitable school experience,” the school’s district’s policy on Food from Outside Vendors states. “Students arriving with drinks or food will be asked to finish them before entering school.”
Kaputa questioned school officials on the policy and was allowed to return to class with coffee in hand after speaking with them, her mother said.
“Glad that we have reasonable and rational administrators that are willing to listen….with some prompting…” she said.
The school board will reconvene Monday and hold a public hearing on adopting the new outside food and drink policy while getting feedback from students.
“They will be holding a public hearing at the next board meeting and asking several students to have input into rewriting this section of the code to address both the administrator and student concerns,” Mary Anne Kaputa said.
“There was no public hearing to discuss it. Transparency in government is a big thing that I care about a lot, and it just kind of struck me as odd that there wasn’t a public hearing,” the high school senior told the outlet, adding the suspension won’t be on her record.
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