KANSAS CITY, Mo. - An NBC Action News investigation has identified about 50 metro schools kitchens that had high numbers of critical violations, merited state corrective action, or were closed for health risks.
Using open records requests, NBC Action News sorted through health department records for school kitchens in five metro counties from Jan. 1, 2007 through Dec. 31, 2008.
We only included schools in our report if they had five or more critical violations during one health department inspection, were the subject of a state non-compliance notice or risk control plan, or were closed by order of the health department during the two-year-period.
Health Departments Move In
Updated information on school closures.Since September, health inspectors have shut down George Washington Carver Elementary twice for serving kids when the kitchen had no hot water for basic sanitation.
Inspectors also cited the school the hand washing violations, mold and food build-up on equipment, and multiple other violations.
Those are the kinds of violations that can make kids really sick.
Austin Neff got sick, along with 133 others in Silver Lake, Ks. in what the state linked to poor hygiene in the school kitchen.
“It was horrible,” Austin’s mother Missy Neff said.
“Uh, pretty bad,” says Silver Lake Elementary student Jessica Williams describing her bout with diarrhea and vomiting.
“She was out of school seven to 10 days,” her mother Kim Williams said.
A state investigation linked the Norovirus outbreak to mishandled school menu items.
“That's why we consider it an imminent health hazard,” Naser Jourhari with the Kansas City Health Department said about critical health code violations.
Our open records search of metro school inspections found multiple instances of workers who didn't wash their hands, kitchens without standard hot water, mice, roaches, unclean cooking surfaces, and other violations that could lead to food borne illnesses.
“We take these violations very seriously,” Jouhari said.
Over a two-year-period his KCMO inspectors shut down the nine following schools for health code violations:
Schools in red were added to this list after the original publication of this report upon the release of additional records from the Kansas City Health Department
- Warford Elementary School
- Attucks Elementary School
- Border Star New Montesorri School
- Benjamin Banneker Charter
- Hogan Preparatory Academy
| - Whittier Elementary School
- George Washington Carver Elementary
- St. Monica School
- Holy Cross Cafeteria (121 N. Quincy)
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Some Violators Can Remain Open
Generally kitchens are allowed to stay open if they acknowledge a violation and fix it on the spot.
An employee who doesn’t wash, for example is written up, but allowed to return to work after demonstrating he’s properly cleaned his hands.
It’s only when the health violations can’t be fixed immediately by kitchen staff --- like broken water heaters, or backed up drains --- that inspectors shut it down.
Our open records search of metro inspections in 2007 and '08 identified about 50 problem school kitchen inspections.
The following schools were the subject of state corrective action, had five or more critical violations on one day, or were temporarily closed by health inspectors at least once during the two-year period.
Schools in red were added to this list after the original publication of this report upon the release of additional records from the Kansas City Health Department.- Academie Layfayette
- Attucks Elementary School
- Barry School
- Barstow School
- Benjamin Banneker Charter
- Blue Valley West H.S. -
- Border Star New Montesorri School
- Brookridge Elementary School
- Center Middle School
- Center Senior High
- Central Classical Greek High
- Fairview School
- Genesis School
- George Washington Carver Elementary
- Harmony Middle School
- Holy Cross - 121 N. Quincy
- Hogan Preparatory Academy
- Ingels Elementary
| - Islamic School – Universal Foundation
- J. A. Rogers Academy
- John Diemer Elem.
- John Fiske Elem.
- Kansas City Academy
- Kansas City Kansas Area Tech School
- KCK Central Kitchen Unit
- Lee A. Tolbert Community Academy
- Lincoln Middle School
- Lutheran High School
- Manual Vo-Tech
- Martin L. King & Mary H. Weeks
- Melcher School
- North Platte High
- Northeast Middle School
- Northeast Senior High
- Northland Career Center
| - Olathe Central Kitchen
- Our Lady of Angels School
- Pembroke Hill - 400 W. 51st
- Rhein Benninghoven Elem.
- Ruskin High School
- Sante Fe Trail Elem.
- Scarritt School
- Shawnee Mission North H.S.
- Shawnee Mission South
- Smith-Hale Middle School
- Southwest High
- St. James Academy
- St. John Francis Regis
- St. Monica School
- St. Peters School
- St. Therese Elementary
- St. Thomas Aquinas
- Trailwood Elementary
- Warford Elementary School
- Whittier Elementary School
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