Heaps said one of her students was unable to use a standard-size desk in class because she was so heavy and had to be outfitted with a special table instead. That student habitually ate choco-tacos for lunch from the “grab and go”—two or three of them, according to Heaps—“and washed them down with a big Gatorade.”

Klondike brand choco-taco is an ice cream dessert folded inside a cookie and dipped in chocolate. A single choco-taco contains 290 calories (40 calories more than a McDonald’s cheesburger), 11 grams of saturated fat (four grams more than a BallPark beef hotdog) and 24 grams of sugar, (slightly less than a one-cup serving of Coca-Cola). “Of course the kids loved them and I’m sure the cafeteria made a boat load of money selling them,” Heaps said. “They were meant for dessert, but what middle school kids do—when they have money and there is a ‘concession stand’ open at lunch—is they buy only ‘dessert’ and eat it for lunch. Duh—they’re kids.” Heaps said the school no longer offers choco-tacos.

Heaps said she was told that sales from foods such as nachos and ice cream were needed to support the lunch program. But student behavior after meals was so disruptive, classes following lunch were rotated so that no single teacher would be forced to bear the brunt of it every day. “They were hyper and crazy…and then they crashed,” Heaps said.