A California high school student is in hot water after allegedly handing out a full batch of homemade sugar cookies laced with her grandfather’s ashes to fellow students at Da Vinci Charter Academy in Davis, CA.
“This girl is going around telling everyone, basically at this point, that she had brought in these cookies to school with human ashes in them,” an anonymous student at the school told local news outlet Fox 40. He added that the school had asked any students who’d eaten the cookies to sign a statement saying that they would not share the news of the bizarre occurrence with the public.
“While we cannot comment on confidential student matters, the physical and social-emotional safety of our students is always our first priority,” a spokesperson for the Davis Joint Unified School District said in a statement. “Students are safe and there is no health risk at the Da Vinci Charter campus or to anyone involved.”
Yolo County police, however, seem to be slightly less sure. “This is a weird one,” Lieutenant Paul Doroshov told CBS Sacramento. “But I have not heard of anyone getting sick or anybody being harmed as far as physically, physiologically by this.” Doroshov added that it’s believed nine students in total ate the cookies, and that no arrests or charges have been made thus far.
Another student who tried the cookies, Andy Knox, shared with KCRA the following about his experience: “I was just about to go into my sixth-period class, environmental science, and a girl who was also in the class stopped me and asked me if I wanted a cookie. And I knew her, so I figured, ‘It’s a cookie, why not?’ She told me there’s a special ingredient in the cookie and I thought that she put drugs in it or something. So I asked her if like, ‘Is this a weed cookie or something?’ And she said ‘No.’ She said it was her grandpa’s ashes. And then she kind of laughed. And I was really, I was kind of horrified.”
While the school’s internal investigation into the matter has remained very tightly sealed about the girl’s identity and possible reasoning behind her baking the ashen cookies, her laughing and nonchalance corroborated by multiple students seem to indicate potential mental health issues.
Davis police are trying to determine which penal code would apply to baking human remains into food and how to best proceed.
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) October 17, 2018
"Some students knew beforehand and still consumed the cookies." https://t.co/ara2iFwMMx
Then Da Vinci Charter Academy Principal Tyler Millsap released a statement saying that “those who were involved are remorseful and this is now a personal family matter and we want to respect the privacy of the families involved,” which makes it sound like the police investigation will likely be called off soon.
What do you think of this situation? What were the girl’s possible motives in putting her grandfather into the cookies? Should she be punished in any fashion, by either the school or the law? Let us know in the comments down below!