MAY 23, 2007--An Illinois teenager was sentenced today for a repulsive lunchroom prank involving a bottle of salad dressing that he tainted with a certain bodily fluid. Marco Raphael Castro, 17, was charged last December with disorderly conduct after he ejaculated into a container of ranch dressing that he had taken into a bathroom at Wheaton North High School. Castro returned the befouled condiment to the student commons, though nobody was sickened as a result of the additional ingredient.
A letter went home to parents on Thursday, in which Principal Jill Bullo wrote that on Dec. 6, 2006 the student took the salad dressing container into the boys' restroom, ejaculated into it, and placed it back on the cafeteria condiment table.
The student, a senior, admitted his action after being questioned, and was "appropriately disciplined" by the school, Bullo wrote. "It is unclear if anyone subsequently used the salad dressing prior to its normal cleaning by food service personnel," Bullo wrote. Sodexho, the school's food service provider, requires that condiment containers be emptied and washed every other day. But Bullo said company officials are unsure whether the container was washed Wednesday after lunch. Officials determined that the contents could have been ingested during the last lunch period on Wednesday and during all five lunch periods on Thursday.
The school contacted the DuPage County Health Department, and indicated that it was unlikely any pathogens could survive in the dressing, the student should be tested for sexually transmitted diseases. Several students reported the incident to the dean's office this past Tuesday afternoon, Bullo wrote.
But by then, students said, it was too late, and everyone knew about the incident already. And everyone was universally repulsed. "The whole school is disgusted," said senior Brian Corcoran. "That's got to be the sickest thing I've ever heard in my life," said Nick Anderson, also a senior student. "It's just pretty gross that someone would actually do that," said senior Edward Lee.
"It's been going on for a month. That's what we've all been hearing," said senior Katie Muir, but school officials say their investigation has shown that it happened just once, last Wednesday.
From now on the condiments in all 20 schools in the district will only be available in individual packets or in large containers, making them very difficult to tamper with.
The DuPage County Health Department, in consultation with the Illinois Department of Public Health, issued a statement Thursday about the incident. "The risk of acquiring a sexually transmitted disease or other disease from the ingestion of food contaminated with semen is considered extremely low," the statement said. "We are not aware of any documented cases of hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases that have been spread through this means." However, the person responsible is undergoing medical evaluation, the statement said. If he has an illness that may pose a risk to others, information will be provided to the parents of potentially exposed students.
The teenager was sentenced today to 120 hours of community service with an AIDS organization and ordered to pay a $750 fine. He was also ordered to attend counseling, write a letter of apology to the high school, and enroll in college (though expelled from school, Castro had amassed enough credits to graduate). Castro, pictured in the above mug shots, will be eligible to have the misdemeanor convictions expunged from his record if he stays out of trouble for two years. Parents at the school learned of the "very unusual and disgusting incident" via a letter (see below) from principal Jill Bullo, who reported that the school's food service staff, "has changed to larger, less portable containers that will make it difficult for any similar incident to occur in the future."
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