Kids Visit Margaritaville

Report: Alcohol Accidentally Served To Students In Alexandria
Pitcher Of Margaritas Mistaken For Limeade


ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Officials at Alexandria Country Day School are apologizing to parents after students were accidentally served margaritas during lunch.

The school's international focus this year is Mexico, so the day before the first day of class, teachers celebrated with nachos and margaritas after preparing their classrooms.

"The faculty's not a big drinking group, and so we had the mixed margarita together -- the tequila and the mix -- and we put the pitcher in the back of the refrigerator," said Headmaster Alexander Harvey IV. "Next day, school starts. Everyone's focusing on kids and making it a good first couple of days of school."

But on the first day of school, the milk supply ran out after two lunch periods, so students were served what an employee thought was limeade. It turned out to be the leftover margaritas and was served to third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students.

The cafeteria staff consists of two people: the housekeeper and either a volunteer or another staff member.

"We asked the teachers to start observing the children, because this is at 12:30 and school's not over 'til 3, and to see if there are any abnormal reactions, if they are sleepy or anything like that, even though we knew that the exposure was basically one sip to a very small number. The majority of the kids pushed it away, saying, 'We don't like the smell,' and didn't even taste it."

School officials say they acted quickly, checking students' medical and religious records to insure there weren't problems.

A letter explaining the incident was sent home with students.

"I view it as an unfortunate incident that the school handled as well as they possibly could," said Laura Colton, the president of the parent-teacher association. "Our children were inadvertently exposed. We were told immediately. No child was harmed."

Harvey called it a humbling and embarrassing accident, and it won't happen again. Alcohol has been banned from the campus.