The Department of Education is currently investigating the suspected food poisoning of students and teaching personnel from the San Francisco Elementary School in Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro.
DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa said at least 88 students and six teachers from the school were rushed to various hospitals on Monday morning after eating lumpiang shanghai from a vendor.
“The Department of Education will finally launch an investigation on the incident,” Poa said. “We want to go deeper and find out what is the real cause (of the alleged food poisoning). We want to know if there is really a vendor who entered the school and all those things.”
Poa also said that district nurses immediately responded to the incident.
“They were deployed to see what happened to the children,” he said, adding that they also took a food sample to determine the cause of the food poisoning.
Under Department Order No. 8, Series of 2007, vendors are strictly prohibited to bring in food items and sell it inside the school canteen or premises.
“We should not allow that there are outside vendors who enter our schools to sell food because we want to ensure the safety and health of our learners in schools. They’re only allowed to buy food from the school canteen,” Poa said.