Julie Kaputa, 17, was suspended on her first day of senior year for refusing to surrender a latte.
The Beaver River Central School student walked into her first-period class in Castorland, New York, on September 3 with a coffee from Moving Mountains in hand. Her teacher immediately confronted her and issued an ultimatum: finish it now, dump it out, or go to the office. Kaputa refused to comply.
“I walked in, I had my coffee with me. I got to my first period class and my teacher said, ‘I’m either going to need you to dump that out or consume it on the spot or go down to the office,'” she told WTVM.
Kaputa was hit with an in-school suspension for violating the district’s Code of Conduct, which administrators say exists to “create a safe, instruction-focused environment for all students.” The district’s food and drink policy mandates that students finish outside food and beverages before entering school grounds, citing the need to minimize distractions, protect students with allergies, and promote equity.
The teenager and her mother, Mary Anne Kaputa, argue the rule was never properly enacted.
Mary took to Facebook to challenge the policy’s legitimacy and rally other parents. She wrote: “Julie was put in ISS today for refusing to dump out a ‘banned beverage’ (a latte from moving mountains). I was called down to the school.”
She continued digging into the district’s process. “Meeting minutes from both July and August (where the code may have been discussed) were never published to the website until today when I pointed it out to the District Office, and the district office had no record of a public hearing being conducted,” she posted.
Mary pressed the community for answers about whether anyone had seen proper notice of a hearing, which she noted is required for substantial changes to the code of conduct. “Just wondering if anyone else saw it and I missed it. I am certain that the school can not enforce a substantial change to the code of conduct without a public hearing,” she wrote.
The district appears to have relented under scrutiny. In a follow-up Facebook update, Mary announced that the school board will hold a public hearing at its next meeting on Monday, September 14, to revisit the food and drink rules. She added that administrators plan to solicit input from several students on rewriting the relevant section of the code to address both administrative and student concerns.
Beaver River Central School serves the rural Lewis County area, where the new academic year began with the policy already in place despite the disputed approval process. The district had not published July or August meeting minutes on its website until Mary flagged the omission.
The confrontation has drawn national attention to a small-town policy fight, with coverage spanning British tabloids and American viral news sites. Kaputa’s suspension lasted one day, but the dispute over how the rule was adopted has extended well beyond the classroom.
The September 14 board meeting will take place in Castorland.