Family of student who ate school pretzel seasoned with oven cleaner files $900k lawsuit: ‘They were pale, you could see them holding their stomachs’

An Oregon middle school mistakenly served poisoned food to students during a lunch break. Now, a family is suing the school and school district for nearly $1 million.

The incident occurred in October 2025 when sixth-grade students at Fowler Middle School in Tigard, Oregon, were served 37 pretzels coated with crushed Alto-Shaam concentrated oven cleaner. According to KPTV, the lawsuit claimed that more than 50 students ate part or all of the pretzel.

The school allegedly waited 27 minutes before contacting poison control after realizing the students had consumed the contaminated pretzels. According to the lawsuit, emails notifying parents were not sent out until nearly two hours after the incident began. School officials stated that they immediately identified the students who ate the pretzels and had them monitored by the school nurse for any signs of illness.

Lawsuit says student felt burning sensation after eating the pretzel

Alto-Shaam oven cleaner mainly contains sodium hydroxide, which can cause a burning sensation or vomiting when consumed in significant amounts. Oregon Poison Center advises those who ingested the chemical to quickly rinse their mouths with water and temporarily eat bland food like bread or granola bars. They should also monitor their symptoms for a day.

The Tigard-Tualatin School District claimed the contamination was a “human error.” However, parents are demanding accountability from the school and school district, according to Dexerto.

The student named in the lawsuit, identified as L.L., claimed to have felt a burning sensation in his throat and mouth, along with an upset stomach and chest pain, which resulted in anxiety about eating school food. He was allegedly prohibited from contacting his parents at the time of the incident and, instead, was kept in a room for nearly an hour before he was sent back to class despite feeling sick.

The student’s family is seeking a total of $950,220.85 in damages for unlawful confinement, strict liability, negligence, and civil rights violations. They named the school principal, kitchen leader, and school district as the defendants.

Kaylee Spiering, a parent of one of the Fowler students who ate the pretzel, said she was left disturbed by the incident. “How they put it was they were crushing up the oven cleaning tablets. After they crushed it up, they put it into a bag. That bag was left on the counter, and someone mistook it for salt to put on the pretzels,” she told KPTV. “There were kids crying. There were ones that looked worse. They were pale, and you could see them holding their stomachs.”

As of now, the case has not yet gone to court. The school district reportedly declined to comment on the ongoing lawsuit that was filed on Sept. 9.

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]