I understand the concern, but you didn't have to go and fire her.. with the lack of jobs out there and her being with the company for 14 years... yes she did wrong . but have some heart..

I agree, kathy. That seems a bit harsh.

Are you kidding me? Are you not aware of HIV & Hepatitis?

Did the company that hires the cafeteria workers actually have training and refresher courses? If they didn't then they are also responsible, despite common sense.

*mistakes happen

The real question is not whether or not she should have been fired, she should have. She made a major blunder and got caught. She risked the welfare of children.

The real question is how many other things happen that we don't know about in this and any other establishments that serve food. I do not eat out frequently because of these incidents. I worked in a food establishment and had friends that did as well. The stuff they do is disgusting. Dropped food, gets rinsed and reused. Butter get reformed and served. Milk get served way past expiration date. Meat and other perishables gets left sitting out for hours.

There are not hidden cameras back in the kitchen watching everything that is done and the main purpose of a food establishment is to make money, not serve you.

I can't believe the responses to this article..have heart, mistakes happen? Are you kidding me?

Sadly, quality assurance measures should have prevented this whole incident. If the food service had a job opening for a non food handling position like cashier or driver, I'd have no problem reassigning the employee given her 14 years of service.

The worst part about it all is that the parents of CAS have not been contacted or notified!!

And, she deserved to be fired. There are plenty of people looking for jobs, a "mistake" like that is inadmissable.

yes ok i agree! i guess i just have a mushy soul. but yes i totally agree..

How about her supervisor? Firing her doesn't solve the real issues.

She should not have been fired.

I would not serve my own child a bagel with my blood on it. Why do you think it's ok to have a strangers blood on food that is served to 6-10 yr old kids?!?!

There are strict sanitation rules that need to be followed, mistake or not. What if the employee mistakes bleach for water! Use common sense folks

As a kid who has been eating the school food everyday since first grade, Pomptonian has always had a problem with sanitation and the freshness of food. Once when I bought mozzarella sticks, the bread included had fuzzy green mold on it. It is not uncommon, even now, for the milk they serve to be expired. When I was in elementary school, I frequently had to pick hairs out of my food because the lunch ladies usually did not wear hairnets. On the other hand, the staff they employ is overall spectacular. Many of the workers are moms of Madison kids, and nearly all of them bother to ask you how your day is going instead of just asking you what you want to eat. However, the lady should have confessed the accident immediately and thrown away the bagels, not endanger the welfare of the kids which her carelessness.

OJ walked around for hours without realizing he even knifed himself,so it doesnt make to much sense to fire the 14 yr veteran and replace her with the rookie! she must have learned something in all that time

Where were the gloves she should have been wearing when handling food? The knife would have sliced the glove, causing her to change gloves. Supervisors and other cafeteria employees should have noticed someone handling food with gloves...unless none of them wear them. Clearly, food handling and safety are not being addressed.

MOST KITCHENS, BOTH AT HOME AND IN PUBLIC ARE HORROR SHOWS
Tragically, irresponsible behavior such as this is typical and quite rampant in food service. It’s a combination of poor training, apathy and absence of code enforcement. If people knew the unsanitary and dangerous practices that occur routinely in most restaurant kitchens, they would never eat out. There are very few restaurants in Morris County that practice proper sanitation. And a large part of that problem is the lack of health inspectors to enforce the rules, ridiculous as that is. When it comes to proper handling and preparation of food, most people behave moronically. The things I have witnessed during many years in food service would turn your stomach. Someone should do a hidden camera tour of the area’s restaurant kitchens to document the horror. So, be warned; never trust anyone other than your mom to prepare your meals.

I can not believe there are people who think this is no big deal. Anyone ever heard of safe handling procedures in food service? The board of health can close the kitchen down for this... Of course she had to be fired. I am disgusted by the people who think this is no big deal. She may be disease free, but blood is one of the dirtiest substances on the planet! No blood for me thanks...

All due respect of course but, a few people are concerned about the job this employee had for 14 years, that being said, shouldn't she have known that passing those bagels were wrong? She should have made her accident known and those bagels should have immediately been removed. I have 4 grown children and if that had happened to them, I would have been beside myself with worry. When working in the food industry, you have an obligation to the people you supply the food to and cleanliness is, by far, the most important. Sadly, today there are many employees, not only in the food industry but in just about any given field, that just don't take pride in their job performance anymore.

Pomptonian Food Service, the company that provides food service to many schools is one of the worst food contractors. They only care about the bottom line and not what they feed the kids. They buy low quality food and serve that to the kids.

To paraphrase an old song 'Sue, city sue'.

The woman did not get fired because she made a mistake. She did cut harself, and yes that is a mistake. She was fired for not reporting the incident and then serving food that was contaminated with her blood. Deciding not to report the cut and intentionally serving contaminated food was a concious decision that she made, not a mistake.

Laura, I know why she got fired. My reply was for the person who said it was a mistake. I NEVER said it was a mistake.

nobody really knows what they eat anywhere. DO WE REALLY!!!??????

Parents must demand the Board of Education to get food handling guarantees, beyond OSHA, in writing, bid the contract out annually, and allow access to any Madison Board of Health inspection on all the cafeteria violations, e.g., hand washing, improper food temperatures, rodents, etc. To throw your hands up and say, "nobody really knows what they eat anywhere" is grossly negligent and complacent.

Rocco ~ Have you ever cut yourself with a knife to bleed enough to leave evidence on anywhere from two to sixteen bagels and not know it?! It's a sloppy, negligent school food safety issue and I'm sure this wasn't the woman's first offense...just possibly the first one she was caught on. The remaining workers need to be re-trained, Pomptonian put on notice, and the Health Department make an unscheduled site inspection.

Was there only one blood test done on the woman who cut her hand? And it was negative? That doesn't mean she has none of the diseases that can be transmitted by blood. When blood exposure occurs, customarily one test of the potential infecter is done at the time of exposure and another done 6 months later. Until the second test is negative, no one can relax.

Hasn't anyone here ever cut themselves while slicing food and not realized it for a few minutes until they saw blood on the lettuce in the salad bowl or whatever? Maybe she didn't feel it, and maybe she didn't even see it, and maybe it WAS an accident. She should've been questioned extensively and only fired if she had been negligent, careless, uncaring, or just plain stupid.

Why was the employee so afraid to admit that she was injured? I love how you "perfect" people have no compassion for a 14 year employee who was fired. I hope you all do your jobs to absolute perfection.

It sounds to me like the employee took the fall for the company, but hey profit is all that matters. Oh by the way people, get over yourselves no one is contracting AIDS or Hepatitis from a little dried blood. Your precious children were never in any danger.

She made a mistake???????? You can't be serious!!!! Would you think it was all right if it was YOUR kid who got served the bloody bagel? Besides that, was that person wearing gloves? "Drunk" drivers make mistakes too and they get punished.

all of you people here are really stupid what do you think happens in restaurants that you eat at at least once or twice a week or maybe more ? I'm a electrical contractor and work in these kitchens all the time, it is very digusting in all of them thats why I will never go out to eat, how can you trust someone that makes below minimum wage or a little above to give you food ? besides that if you ever send the food back it will be even worse the chiefs will spit on it and who knows what else the waitress will do after that before they bring it to you are you really this stupid ? because they know if you complain about the food you will not leave a good tip so they will do all kinds of things to your food in every restaurant from mcdonalds to the most expensive one in town I have seen it over a thousand times and there is no way of stopping it except eat at home and make it your self

Reportedly an English student commented, "those bagels are bloody good".

I go to the Madison High School and that is extremely gross. Although when I used to buy Lunch the lunch ladies were very nice, the food was always terrible!!!!
Noah's Bagels is good though and I agree it was irresponsible of the Lunch Lady to not report it. She didnt get fired for the mistake she got fired for possibly endangering students by violating the food safety rules.

Personally I think an adult who gets any bodily fluid on food they are about to serve and knowingly hands out the food to children, is disgusting. How can you cut yourself, know you did, know you are getting blood on the food and continue to work as if nothing happened? Like the article says, common sense was not used here. It should have been automatic to discard the food and properly wash her wound etc. I don't serve food but if I were and that happened even I would be grossed out. I wouldn't think of giving it to someone to eat. Yes, she was tested but so what? It still doesn't change the fact that she gave the kids bloody food.

Some people believe it is a sin to eat blood.

This could have all been avoided if the woman had simply stopped, washed her hands, put a bandaide on and THEN went back to work. I would have fired her as well because if after 14 years she did not know to follow those common steps to protect those she was serving than she did not have any care or concern. Those in the food industry know better. A hard lesson here.

No, this is Michelle Obamas new diet for school kids.

Don't worry they will still be serving dead animal parts for lunch.

The cafeteria managers get crazy if you have an accident! You have to fill out an incident report and then the company running the cafeteria (I worked for Marriott) has a fit because instead of going 100-something days without an accident, now it's 5 days. This cafeteria worker probably didn't think the cut was that bad. In the kitchen I worked in, we used to have students help out...until a kid got burned really bad on the door to the convection oven. Then to make matters worse, the manager didn't know the proper procedure to treat a burn. She sprayed Solarcaine on it! If you get burned on a hot oven...flush the area for 15 MINUTES with cool tap water- NEVER ice and NEVER spray anything on it. NO butter, NO ointment. When you get a burn, the layers of skin underneath are literally cooking, so you have to flush the area with cool water.

They did what was right. No one ones what she has. To me it also sounds like she was not wearing gloves. Working in food service is MANDIDTORY of wearing gloves around food.

Sherri

No excuse for what she did...what else has she done or any of the other food preppers...blood borne diseases are serious...she should have been fired whether she worked 14 hrs or 14 years...there is a reason for health inspectors.

If we all knew exactly what happens to food items prepared in restaurants, buffet lines, fast food businesses, frozen dinners we buy in stores, etc......WE'D ALL STOP EATING ANYTHING WE DIDN'T GROW, HARVEST, AND PREPARE OURSELVES. Just because we don't see all the stuff that goes on in our food chain, doesn't mean this and other contamination doesn't happen. I've worked restaurants in the past, and I'm saying this in all honesty. If you're thinking that most people preparing our food are conscientious, think again. It isn't that most of them intentionally contaminate what we eat, but a good amount of them are careless and won't report something stupid they have done or they've seen someone else do. Then, there are those who do intentionally contribute to this problem just for the satisfaction of knowing they've gotten away with something disgusting. Bon Appetite everyone!

Bagels are only flour dough that's been boiled then baked. Not very nutritious food and very high in carbohydrates. Yuk

she shouldnt have been fired. if she was one "those" people everything would be just fine.

The first thing I would have done is had my own child tested regardless of whether I was assured that the woman was tested. As a 14 year employee, she should have known better. She deserves to be fired even if she has difficulty finding another job, that's her problem.

Sean S.
I'm surprised those kids in Madison had to wait in a line for food. Don't they have waiters and waitresses to bring them their meals. What is the world coming to? Poor little silver spoons.

there's really nothing going on in Madison if this story generates this level of commentary....

First time she was *caught*. All she had to do was stop, report it, and everything's fine. But no, keep cutting.