The Flin Flon school board has no plans to enact a policy around energy drinks, as chairperson Trish Sattelberger says beverage choices are ultimately up to students.
“We can’t tell people what they can have and what they can’t have,” she said at Tuesday’s board meeting. “All we can do is say it’s not going to be available in the drink machine or it’s not going to be available in the cafeteria. But if somebody brings it in, you can’t confiscate it at the door and say they can’t have that.”
Energy drinks are treated as part of the school division’s healthy foods policy.
“We encourage [students] to make healthy food choices and do the healthy thing and not have the cake and the cookies and all this other stuff in the classrooms for different events that they might have,” Sattelberger said. “But you can’t stop somebody from baking a dozen cookies and sending them with their kid. You can’t do that. All you can do is say you’d rather [they] not.”
Sattelberger said the division can disallow certain foods, however, if there is an allergy concern.
She said she has seen energy drinks being used by students, often when they have slept too late and must rush to get to class.
As The Reminder reported last week, energy drinks are a popular choice for area young people despite growing health concerns over the high caffeine content.
While local dietitian Joanna Ledoux urges adults to avoid energy drinks, or at the very least have no more than one can a day, she is most uneasy about minors.
She says local youth as young as those in Grade 5 are consuming energy drinks, with many gulping more than one can daily.
As for the vitamins added to energy drinks, such as niacin, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12, Ledoux says they do not offset the risks and are in fact dangerous.
Once dismissed as a passing fad, energy drinks – with brand names like Monster, Red Bull and Rockstar – constitute a multibillion-dollar industry worldwide.
