(Watch above: A Lethbridge student who was suspended earlier this month for selling regular Pepsi from his locker has found a new way to keep his business afloat. Emily Mertz explains.)
LETHBRIDGE – An Alberta teenager who was suspended for selling pop from his locker says he’s still selling soda, just not on school property where sales of the sugary drinks aren’t allowed.
Keenan Shaw says he’s continuing to sell drinks on the sidewalk beside Winston Churchill High School in Lethbridge.
Shaw, who’s 17 and in Grade 12, says he stores the pop in his locker, which he says school officials so far don’t seem to have a problem with.
Earlier this month, Shaw was suspended briefly after he was caught in the hallways selling soda to students even though he’d been warned to stop.
READ MORE: Suspended for selling pop?
The school only sells diet soda, and Shaw was buying cases of regular pop in stores and then selling the cans to his classmates at a markup.
News of Shaw’s suspension made international headlines and even got a mention on a U.S. latenight talk show.
“It got me a lot more advertising,” Shaw said about the effect the publicity had on his sales. “I feel like everyone knows about it now.”
“I can store it at school. I can bring it to school. I can drink it at school. I just can’t sell it (at school.)”
Lethbridge School District No. 51 superintendent Cheryl Gilmore told the Lethbridge Herald earlier this month that selling pop in the school “is not in keeping with the jurisdiction focus on Health Schools and Healthy Nutritional Choices policy.”
She also noted that schools “are not open door public places where anyone can bring and sell whatever they want.”
(Watch Above: An Alberta student was suspended for selling pop at school. Matt Battochio reports.)
Shaw’s mother, Alyssa Shaw-Letourneau, said she felt the school over-reacted by suspending her son. She said if parents don’t want their kids drinking pop, they should give them a lunch rather than sending them to school with lunch money.
Shaw-Letourneau also said it was good for students to question authority and not to accept things blindly, and pointed out a vending machine at the school sells vitamin water that states on the label it’s not suitable for children.
“Selling a couple of cans of pop, I would view it like running a lemonade stand,” Shaw-Letourneau said.
“Sometimes you do have to question things.”
Shaw said he doesn’t believe the anti-pop policy discourages teens from drinking the stuff.
“I don’t think they’re doing anything by restricting the sale of pop besides losing money, because kids are just going to go other places for it, whether it’s to me or 7-Eleven or Safeway or any of the other various stores that are just a five-minute walk away,” Shaw said, noting his conscience is clean.
“When they’re selling aspartame, and there’s actually been numerous studies that prove it’s worse for you, I don’t feel any remorse for it.”
Shaw said a few kids at school have even joked they might jump into the pop business, too, but so far he doesn’t have any competitors.
“I’ve told people go ahead, I don’t care,” he said, noting he could expand into other treats.
“There’s definitely other things I could make money on besides pop.”
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