The SBUnified District in the most recent School Board meeting decided that water bottles should be banned from class time. This decision follows as Santa Barbara community members have been able to hear drop a Hydro Flask, to the crinkle of plastic bottles now across the street from the campus. Sending multiple complaints daily.

A recent report comes from the SB Unified School District about the number of water bottles in classrooms causing disturbance and causing students to lose focus during class. They have now banned all water bottles from entering school campuses, including Hydro Flasks, Owala’s, and even Stanley’s! If you enter campus with any of these water bottles, you will immediately be escorted to the office for a talk with the principal about switching your school location. 

Since you are not allowed to carry metal water bottles on you, you are more than welcome to bring plastic water bottles since they do not make loud sounds, and are not even that bad for the environment. The district thinks this is a very reasonable solution to the problem, and will make for a more quiet and peaceful environment for students to learn.

In addition, the district has allowed for teachers to bring metal water bottles to school because they are much more responsible to have a water bottle, and are less “clumsy” than students. This new policy has caused lots of controversy among the student community, causing students to protest about not being able to have water with them. This district does not care though, they think that this is a reasonable solution to the disturbance and plastic water bottles are just as good as metal water bottles. 

The district is expecting warm weather soon, and expecting large heatwaves this spring during the school week. Since they want to keep students as hydrated as possible, and make sure our students are happy and healthy every day, they have put in a notice to make sure classrooms are supplied with 5 oz water cups for students to have access to. They can be filled up at water fountains, but only once a day per student. This is so their water bill doesn’t reach extremely high numbers. 

SBUnified District shares with the Santa Barbara community, “Every child, every chance, every day.”