Lawsuit: Fowler Middle School pretzels dusted with oven cleaner instead of salt, family says (Oct. 25)
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A Washington County lawsuit seeks up to $950,220.85 over pretzels allegedly dusted with crushed Alto Shaam oven cleaner at Fowler Middle School in Tigard on Oct. 20, 2025.
About 37 pretzels were served and roughly 50 sixth graders ate them, according to the district and the complaint.
The suit names the Tigard-Tualatin School District, lead cook Joyce A. Webb and Principal Cindy Pellicci.
The district has called the incident human error; Tigard police reviewed it and filed no criminal charges. Defense counsel did not immediately comment to OregonLive.
TIGARD, Ore. - Parents of a Fowler Middle School sixth grader are seeking nearly $1 million from the Tigard-Tualatin School District after staff allegedly served pretzels dusted with a chemical oven cleaner instead of salt, according to a lawsuit reported by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
The complaint, filed last month in Washington County Circuit Court on behalf of a student identified by initials in court papers, seeks up to $950,220.85 for an Oct. 20, 2025, incident during sixth-grade lunch at Fowler Middle School, OregonLive reported, citing court records. FOX 12/KPTV said the suit was filed Sept. 9 and lists seven claims, including negligence, strict liability, unlawful confinement and civil-rights violations. No court has ruled on the allegations.
Besides the district, the lawsuit names the school's lead cook, Joyce A. Webb, and Principal Cindy Pellicci as co-defendants, OregonLive reported.
What the lawsuit alleges happened
At the time, the district told parents the pretzels had been dusted with Alto Shaam, an oven-cleaning agent sold in tablet form. The lawsuit alleges the tablets were crushed and used in place of salt. The cleaner contains lye, also known as sodium hydroxide, and other caustic ingredients, court records allege.
The district later said staff served 37 contaminated pretzels. The lawsuit claims roughly 50 children ate them just after 10:30 a.m. that day, OregonLive reported.
The complaint alleges the crushed cleaner immediately burned the then-sixth grader's throat, mouth and gastrointestinal tract, and that the child later experienced emotional distress, fear, isolation, loss of trust in school staff and ongoing psychological impacts.
Response timeline in the complaint
According to court records cited by OregonLive, school staff called poison control around 11 a.m. but did not email parents until just before 11:45 a.m. The suit alleges that when a parent called around noon, staff said families of affected students would be contacted "sometime in the future."
The parents later learned their son had been sequestered in a room from about 10:45 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. while experiencing stomach pain and other symptoms, the complaint alleges. The school told the parents he was not experiencing symptoms and sent him back to class, according to the suit. The parents say they learned of his symptoms only after he came home.
As police investigated, other staff told investigators that Webb initially did not appear to want students to stop eating the pretzels, and that a substitute kitchen worker who tasted one felt an immediate burning sensation in her mouth and throat, court records allege. Webb told police she was in a rush and accidentally put the crushed tablets on the pretzels instead of salt, and that she had crushed them to prepare for cleaning a commercial steamer, OregonLive reported. The product's instructions advise against crushing the tablets and say to use them only as directed in ovens, court records say.
District and police
The district previously described the episode as human error. Tigard police reviewed the case and did not file criminal charges, FOX 12 reported. When reached by FOX 12 about the lawsuit, the district said it could not comment on pending litigation and confirmed the kitchen lead still works for the district.
Barrett Mersereau, the attorney for the defendants, did not immediately respond to an OregonLive request for comment. As of Oct. 23, FOX 12 reported he had appeared for the defendants but had not yet filed a substantive answer.
Sources
OregonLive: Middle school staff served students pretzels dusted with cleaning chemicals instead of salt, lawsuit says (Oct. 25, 2026)
KPTV / FOX 12: Nearly $1M suit filed after 50+ Tigard students served oven cleaner at school lunch (Oct. 23, 2026)
OregonLive: Tigard middle school serves 37 pretzels contaminated with oven cleaner (Oct. 22, 2025)
Cover photo: Bretzel_01.JPG, Arnaud 25, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
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