SAN ANTONIO — They wanted strawberry milk.
Instead, students in two of San Antonio's largest school districts described the drink as "slimy" and "chunky".
Now, the beverage has been pulled from the menu.
SAISD and NISD stopped serving strawberry milk following reports of children falling ill.
Multiple parents say their child's stomach started to hurt. Others took their child to the hospital.
"I'm pretty sure a parent would have wanted to know about it and that's why I did what I did," said Leanne Trevino, whose children attend SAISD and NISD.
Wednesday around lunchtime, Trevino's son sent her a video of the TruMoo strawberry milk being served in SAISD.
"It's like slimy," she explained. "I was grossed out. My stomach turned...He was like, 'Hey mom I might have accidentally drank some spoiled milk, strawberry milk.'"
She said her son's throat started to hurt. He didn't take another gulp.
A short time later, Leanne got a call from her daughter who goes to school in NISD.
"She calls me and she's like, 'When I get home can you please take me to the hospital?' I said, 'Ok, what's wrong?' She said, 'My stomach hurts really, really bad,'" said Trevino.
She quickly learned her children drank the same milk at school: TruMoo strawberry milk.
"She started telling the doctor about some strawberry milk that she had and she was like, 'It was kind of clumpy and a lot of other kids were complaining about the milk, but it was just the strawberry milk,'" Trevino recalled.
She decided to share the story on Facebook. In less than 24 hours, the post has just under 1,000 shares and hundreds of comments. Many parents described a similar situation with their student.
A couple of comments mentioned a Laredo school district in which a nearly identical video was taken September 3.
"I was like this needs to get out there so people know. If your kid is having a stomach ache or something, this might be what's going on," said Trevino. "There was a lot of stories and a lot of kids coming out sick, I guess all surrounding the same milk."
In a statement, NISD told us:
"We are aware of three reports of parents alleging strawberry milk served yesterday causing their child to be ill. (To give you context, we served approx. 93,000 meals yesterday.) When our Child Nutrition dept. saw a social media post with the allegation, they immediately directed all of our campuses (130+) to stop serving the milk strictly as a precaution. None of the milk served yesterday was expired and NISD Child Nutrition used standard operating procedures in receiving, holding, and serving the milk products."
A spokesperson with Dairy Farmers of America said Oak Farms Dairy is one of its regional brands, adding TruMoo is the flavored milk brand made available for schools. We have been in communication with the milk supplier, Oak Farms Dairy, which is conducting an investigation into these isolated incidents.
SAISD took the same action, telling KENS 5:
"We are aware of an issue that arose yesterday with some milk having a different consistency and addressed it immediately by pulling the affected milk, and our cafeteria staff are not serving it. We are working with the vendor to receive a new batch. The vendor already has begun picking up the affected milk with the respective manufacturing date from our schools, and we will be receiving replacements.
We have not received parent reports regarding this issue. We received one report from one of our schools yesterday that a student received a milk with a different consistency. A teacher and cafeteria staff member ensured the student received a different milk that had the correct consistency. The cafeteria manager alerted Child Nutrition Services who then contacted all schools to pull the milk from the affected batch. The milk was not expired, and we are awaiting a determination letter from the vendor addressing the issue."
The milk manufacturer is also responding to the matter. In a statement, TruMoo told us: "We were made aware of a reported incident with our TruMoo strawberry milk at schools in the San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD) and North Side Independent School District [sic] (NISD).
"All milk produced by TruMoo is quality checked and tested before it leaves our plant and is kept to proper temperatures through and up to delivery. We are committed to delivering the highest quality dairy products and will work with the schools to identify the cause of this issue and support any corrective action necessary."
In case you're wondering, the manufacturer hasn't received any reports involving retail products found in local stores.