Suspended over a cheese sandwich: Girl, two, banned from daycare centre for taking in food

  • Girl, 2, suspended for bringing cheese sandwich to her Ottawa daycare
  • The centre has a strict ban on outside food being brought into the school to protect children with allergies
  • Students in 'possession of peanut butter' are automatically expelled
  • Suspension follows a similar incident last month in Colnbrook, near Slough

By Nathan Klein

Published: | Updated:

A two-year-old girl has been suspended from daycare for bringing a cheese sandwich into class.

Randy Murray gave his daughter Faith and son Michael sandwiches to eat in the car en route to the Centre D'Enfant Aux 4 Vents in Barrhaven, Canada, on Monday morning.

But instead of eating the sandwich, Faith decided to save hers for later and put it in her pocket.

Suspended: Two-year-old Faith Murray was suspended after bringing a cheese sandwich to her daycare centre

Suspended: Two-year-old Faith Murray was suspended after bringing a cheese sandwich to her daycare centre

When a staff member discovered the sandwich, her father was called and she was suspended immediately for three days.

Mr Murray said he only gave them the sandwiches to eat on the way to school because they were running late that morning and had missed breakfast.

'This wasn’t a packed lunch or intentionally brought in. This was purely accidental by a two-year-old,' he said.

The daycare has a strict ban on outside food being brought into the school to protect children with allergies.

Centre D'Enfant Aux 4 Vents assistant director Nancy Brisebois told Metro she could not discuss the specific incident, but that the French-language centre clearly communicates their policy, which also includes automatic expulsion for possession of peanut butter, to parents.

'Upon enrolment, parents must sign a contract which they review and we review with them, and this contract specifically mentions that we have zero tolerance,' she said.

Shocked: Faith Murray's father Randy said it was an honest mistake by a two-year-old, who shouldn't have been suspended for such a trivial incident. The daycare bans all outside food to protect children with allergies

Shocked: Faith Murray's father Randy said it was an honest mistake by a two-year-old, who shouldn't have been suspended for such a trivial incident. The daycare bans all outside food to protect children with allergies

Mr Murray, who doesn’t speak French, said he believed a warning would have been more reasonable under the circumstances.

'The automatic suspension kinda got right under my skin,” he said.

'We’ve decided that I’m going to take off [work] and be Daddy Daycare for the time being until we can line somebody else up. I feel too strongly about how this all kind of played out.'

It follows a similar incident in Colnbrook, near Slough, where a six-year-old boy was expelled for bringing a bag of Mini Cheddars to school in his lunchbox last month.

Riley Pearson was initially suspended for three days for 'continually breaking school rules', but was later expelled by the school when his parents told their story to the media.

The school has insisted the student was not disciplined 'for just having Mini Cheddars in their lunchbox' but because there had been a 'persistent and deliberate breach of school policy, such as bringing in crisps, biscuits, sausage rolls, mini sausages, scotch eggs and similar'.

Riley's younger brother has also been banned from its pre-school.

Riley Pearson was suspended from school for bringing Mini Cheddars in his lunchbox
C. of E. Primary School in Colnbrook suspended six-yearr-old Riley Pearson for bringing Mini Cheddars to school

Six-year-old Riley Pearson (left) was suspended from C. of E. Primary School in Colnbrook (right) for bringing a bag of Mini Cheddars in his lunchbox

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