INDIANAPOLIS — It's not the kind of report card you want for your child's school cafeteria: multiple critical violations from mice.
Regular meal service will resume at Ben Davis High School Tuesday after the Marion County Public Health Department found multiple violations.
Health violations temporarily closed the cafeteria at the school Tuesday.
Inspectors found nearly a dozen mouse droppings in the kitchen area and a door gap greater than a quarter inch, which could let in rodents.
Marion County health inspectors made the discovery Monday at Ben Davis, after someone called in a complaint. They closed the cafeteria from normal food service operations, following the inspection.
"For schools, it's pretty rare that we would do that," explained Janelle Kaufman, food and consumer safety administrator for the Marion County Health Department. "It was the amount of droppings. It was just the area was not being monitored as heavily as we'd like and not having the documentation we'd need to know we feel safe walking away from that without some limitation of food service."
The mice droppings were found in the following areas, according to health inspection documents obtained by 13News:
- Along cove base and on equipment/boxes in equipment storage room
- Behind cooking/baking equipment throughout kitchen
- In laundry room behind washer/dryer
- On speedrack in walk-in cooler
- Along cove base throughout kitchen
- On floor behind unused equipment/old oven/cambros in corner of kitchen
- Under/behind dish machine and under 3 bay sink
- Mop sink room/shelving located on far side of kitchen.
MSD Wayne Township sent a letter to families, letting them know about the situation.
As a result, the school was going to serve prepackaged cold and hot entrees, including PBJ uncrustables, pizza calzones, cheesy pull-aparts, mini cheeseburgers, fruit variety, mixed fruit cups, applesauce cups, bagged carrots and fruit juice cups.
School staff cleaned and sanitized the cafeteria Monday evening, and all food boxes were inspected.
Hours after sanitizing, cleaning and calling its pest control service, the school got a recheck and reopened for lunch Tuesday. Inspectors will continue to monitor the cafeteria. The school plans to fix the door gap as well.
13News obtained a reinspection report from the Marion County Public Health Department that showed the mouse droppings issue was corrected, and the gap — which the district said would be handled Tuesday — still needing resolved.
School leaders say this is actually a good lesson in "see something, say something."
"We are grateful that somebody brought this to our attention," Wayne Township Superintendent Dr. Jeff Butts said. "It's the season where mice are trying to find warmth and certainly find a food source."
In Marion County, like restaurants, schools get food safety inspections twice a year. Complaints can catch issues in between.
"If they see something, please let us know, I'm not going to tell you we'll have a mice-free environment. That's just not going to be possible with the amount of land around our schools and the nature of what those mice are trying to do: find warmth and find food," Butts said. "But I know when I go to a restaurant, I want to have that standard upheld if I'm going to eat food, and we certainly should be held to that same standard."
"I would say if parents have their kids tell them they're concerned or see something to please let us know because this came from a consumer complaint," Kaufman said, "and we really value those to make sure we can get in when there is a concern because we can only be in there so many times a year, and if they're there every day, they're going to see things we don't."
Also, just like restaurants, food safety inspection reports for schools are publicly available. You can look up your child's school and see the reports and any violations for yourself here.