Ash Grove High School bans energy drinks

New Ash Grove High School Principal Greg White made the decision earlier this year to ban energy drinks from the high school campus. The decision, he said, was made for the benefit of the student body. 
 
“It’s my job to create a safe environment where students can learn and teachers can teach,” said White.
 
White said that the energy drinks can cause behavioral issues in the student body and that they can cause serious medical issues if consumed by children. Scientists back his point, as the American Academy of Pediatrics has sated that the drinks are not appropriate for children or adolescents because of their sky-high caffeine levels.
 
According to a report published by Johns Hopkins, children should consume no more than 100 milligrams of caffeine per day. A standard 16-ounce can of Monster Energy, a common size and brand of energy drink, contains 160 milligrams of caffeine.
 
“When they’re drinking two, three, four, five of those in a day, it gets to where… they can cause medical issues that I did not want to happen on my watch,” said White.
 
The Coca-Cola Company, which stocks the district’s vending machines refuses to even stock the drink in schools said White.
 
“They will not even supply energy drinks to schools because of the effects that they have on that age group of students,” said White. “So I figured, if the companies are not willing to sell them to us… we should be making sure that we put safeguards in place so they’re not consuming them.”
 
The change in the rulebook has gone over fairly well thus far, according to White. Most of the parents he’s spoken to have agreed with him on the matter, surprisingly, he’s seen little pushback from students as well.
“There’s some that have had personal meetings with me, they’ve done it respectfully,” said White. “They’ve emailed me and requested to have a sit down and just maybe get more information as to why I made the decisions and the conversations I’ve had with them have been pretty good.”