We decided to ask some teachers about their experiences involving the weirdest foods that a student has eaten in their class. We went around the school and asked any of the teachers who were available to speak if they had any memorable moments involving a student and their food. Here is what we gathered…

Dr Lupo:

Dr. Lupo is actually the brains behind the idea of this article. Shoutout to her! She suggested this idea to me before sharing her weird food story. According to her, a kid once brought in ranch-flavored crickets 🦗 that he bought online and was just casually snacking on in the middle of class. This student ended up offering it to the other kids in the class which of course would be disruptive. I really don’t understand how people can casually snack on insects 😵‍💫.

Mrs. Renes:

Mrs. Renes was actually the first teacher we interviewed and let me just say, it was definitely one of the more interesting stories we heard. She shared that years ago, her class was having an end-of-year, study hall party. For this fiesta, a kid ended up bringing in ghost pepper hot sauce and dared other students to try the sauce. This party rapidly turned into a “fiery” disaster 😉🌶 with many of the kids getting sick.  Mrs. Renes provides a warning for those thinking of purchasing the ghost pepper hot sauce…

Once again, DO NOT bring illegal ghost pepper hot sauce into her classroom. ⚠️

Ms. Yackey: 

Ms. Yackey shared that there wasn’t really anything weird that she could remember, however, there was a time a kid brought in lollipops with bugs 🕷🍭 in them. The student then proceeded to offer them to the students, which of course was interruptive. Naturally, there is always that one kid who brings in a full meal and feasts during the class. Upon suddenly remembering a specific kid, Yackey exclaimed, “God Sean, every day, a full course meal, he’d have one of those thermoses and then two drinks”. We do not know who this “Sean” is or how long ago this was, but he seems to have left an impact.

Dr. Altman:

Dr. Altman also did not have any notably weird food stories but she was very passionate about one student she had last year, current sophomore Daniel Huang. Boy did she have a lot to say. Dr. Altman recalled, very exasperatingly, that one thing she never understood was when students would take out a whole meal to eat during class, as she said “It’s just snack time!”. I guess besides sharing a classroom wall, Ms. Yackey and Dr. Altman, both share the confusion of why students would bring in whole meals. Dr. Altman  proceeded to claim that Daniel Huang “ate constantly” and “more than anybody I ever knew”. She seemed beyond puzzled with his ability to continuously eat and even mentioned that she discovered that he would eat all day in other classes as well. We feel that we should relay her advice to those who have a full course meal in class; “you’ve got to choose a snack!” 😡

Daniel Huang:

After talking to Dr. Altman, we immediately reached out to Daniel Huang, asking for a response to Altman’s statements. Here is what Daniel had to say…

We then asked him if any of his meals were planned and what his favorite snacks were.

He closed off his statement by explaining himself, but also wondering how she was aware of his eating habits in other classes, not just hers.

Dr. Zerbst: 

While Dr. Zerbst did not have any specific stories, she fondly recounted memories of a tradition that occurred pre-pandemic, the Silk Road Feast. The history department would partake in this yearly feast where students would bring in foods that they thought would be traded on the silk road. Dr. Zerbst specifically remembered students bringing in fermented mare’s milk, quail eggs, and lots of good hummus. While some of those items don’t sound very appealing, we wish the tradition could return for current AMHS students to experience 😋.

Mrs. Lankford:

Mrs. Lankford shared an upsetting story of a kid taking out a can of cheese whiz during her class while she was videoing for the national boards. The kid supposedly shook it and spread it on a cracker, which although it is not one of the weirdest foods we heard about, the circumstances are most definitely not common, and frankly quite disrespectful 🧀😒.

Dr. Cassidy:

When we asked Dr. Cassidy to share any stories that she may recall about any weird foods eaten in her class, she took a moment before responding with a “no.” She then immediately followed up with a story about a kid bringing in a ghost pepper that was given to another student, causing the other student to become really sick and eventually go home. It was like deja vu hearing about ghost peppers again. It is interesting that both Dr. Cassidy and Ms. Renes shared stories about these dangerous peppers, but neither had known the other shared the haunting of these peppers prior to our interviews. Why did their past students have a fascination with this sickness inducing food? 😰

Furthermore, Dr. Cassidy recounted a complicated situation of one student who would eat “whole, hard boiled eggs,” but the student next to them hated eggs. Fortunately, they eventually talked it out when the smell became too much for the avid egg hater 🥚❌.

Mr. Rush and Mr. Stackhouse:

Next, we asked the dynamic teacher duo, Mr. Rush and Mr. Stackhouse, as they spend their planning period together. This is not an in-class story but we felt it should still be added. Both teachers shared a laugh as they remembered a student who would sell bacon to other students on the bus 🥓🤑. Said student would buy the bacon from a food store near their bus stop and don’t worry, we asked, the bacon was bought cooked. This is definitely an interesting after school job to have, but hey we appreciate the hustle. Although we don’t exactly know what this meant, amid laughter, Mr. Rush said the student’s car “ran on vegetable oil”…? In addition Mr. Stackhouse shared that a student once brought a baby squirrel in a box that he found. No, it was not eaten 🐿 😵.

Ms. Vann:

Ms. Vann shared an interesting story of a kid bringing in a Costco-sized bucket of cheese balls “EVERY” day, but refused to share them. An interesting snack choice, especially every day, but okay. In addition, apparently “Hot Cheetos and energy drinks is a breakfast of champions for lots of students.” I don’t think I have seen this combo here at Magnet, but energy drinks ⚡️ are most certainly a must-have. Previously, Ms. Vann taught in a school in North Carolina where we discovered that there were boys who brought in bear meat for their class party…interesting 🐻. Lastly, she finalized her list of weird experiences by stating that there would be boys who would bring in an entire jug of Bojangles tea and would drink it throughout the day. At least they didn’t drink it all in one class.

Bonus: Exciting in-action shots!!! 💥

In action “patiently” waiting to collect information for this exciting article!

Milla has a lot of experience “patiently” waiting for people to open doors. 

Side note: The best kind of doors are the ones that have peepholes 👀.