A group of Canadian junior high school students have alleged an adult tricked two of them into chewing on moose droppings while on a school canoe trip. Lord Selkirk School Division trustees are hearing the accusations by Grade 8 students from Grand Marais in a closed-door meeting. The allegations stem from a May 25 trip involving about two dozen students from Walter Whyte School, accompanied by teachers and other adult chaperones.
Some of the children say the adult convinced two kids by telling them the moose poop was a nutritious mixture of wild berries and grass. Angie Jonski said her nephew was one of the victims. “They all laughed — he ran to the river to wash his mouth out,” Jonski said.
Her niece later turned down the droppings, Jonski said, but her niece’s friend accepted. “She was told ‘it’s nutritious, it’s berries and grass.’ She was chewing it, and it got stuck in her braces.” Jonski said some parents have not allowed their children to go back to school since the canoe trip.
Lord Selkirk superintendent Scott Kwasnitza confirmed he has been conducting an investigation, but would not discuss any details. “We’re trying to deal with it internally,” he said. Jonski said the school is dismissing the incident as a poorly considered joke, and no one was supposed to reach the point of putting the material in his or her mouth. “If it was a joke gone bad, why would you offer it to a second kid?” she asked.