In Davis, California, a 16-year-old girl brought sugar cookies to school and offered them to her classmates. The treats were an old family recipe, but not in the way you might expect: She claimed she baked them with her grandfather's ashes.
Reportedly the teenager told some students about the "secret ingredient," but withheld the information from others. Some students were horrified by the cremation cookies, and refused to take a bite. Some students knew what was inside, and ate them anyway. And some students ate the baked goods without any idea they allegedly contained human remains.
"The cookies were gray and they didn’t look like regular sugar cookies," said Angelina Boggess, a senior at Da Vinci Charter Academy, speaking with BuzzFeed News. "Everyone around her told me not to eat it, and I thought it was an edible [containing marijuana]. I had it in my hand for a split second, then she said she had put her grandpa’s ashes in the cookie. The craziest part to me is that she seemed unfazed and was bragging about what she did. Saying that his leg could be in one cookie, with a big grin on her face. That’s when I handed it back to her and just was in total disbelief."
"I didn’t believe her until she pulled out the urn," said Andy Knox, another student at Da Vinci, speaking with local news station KCRA. Apparently, he took a bite of the cookie before learning about its morbid contents. When asked to describe the taste, he said, "If you ever ate sand as a kid, you know, you can kind of feel it crunching in between your teeth. So, there was a little tiny bit of that."
Police have launched an investigation and working with the school on how to proceed. Since they don't have any of the cookies, they are unable to test their contents for ashes. However, after speaking with students, teachers and the baker's parents, they believe the allegations are credible. No charges have been filed, as of this writing, but the baker has been suspended from school. Police say nine students ate the cookies, and one student helped the baker distribute them. It is not clear if the accomplice has been punished as well.
So, what happens if you eat cremation cookies, besides getting grossed out? In a letter to parents, Tyler Millsap, the principal for Da Vinci Charter Academy’s stated "there is no health risk to our campus or to any one of our students" and they "take all allegations of wrongdoing seriously." He added, "We regret that this issue has been taken up by the media." As Jay Johnson, a senior at Da Vinci, put it on on Twitter, "i can’t believe they got us on international news and now we gonna go down in history as the ash cookies school."
Well, that's not quite as revolting as the guy who made tacos from his friend's amputated foot, but it's up there! We hope everyone at The Ash Cookies School can resolve this issue.
