By Rachel Dickerson
Special to Official Kids Mag
Esteban P. wants to be famous, according to his fourth-grade
teacher at Anderson Elementary School. And it would seem he is
getting a little closer.
After successfully circulating a petition to bring strawberry
milk back to his school last fall (the entire district ended up
getting strawberry milk), Esteban's story went nationwide.
Scholastic News published a story on whether schools should
serve flavored milks and mentioned his petition. Then The
Washington Post published a piece about a boy in California
named Jordan Reed who read about Esteban's petition and
decided to lead a protest at his school to try to get chocolate
milk served in the cafeteria there. The result of the protest
was that the school decided to serve chocolate milk as a treat
once a week. The Washington Post's online article linked to the
McDonald County Press story about Esteban's petition.
On March 31, students in Johnni Ernst's fourth-grade class read
the Scholastic News story that inspired Jordan Reed. Ernst read
the story aloud to the students while they read along and had some
strawberry milk and brownies. The piece presented pros and cons
of schools serving flavored milks. Some of the pros were benefits of
milk to the immune system and preventing food waste from students not
drinking the white milk that is offered. One of the cons was that flavored
milk has almost twice the sugar of white milk.
Esteban said of the Scholastic News story, "I'm like, whoa, it's actually all
there. They didn't miss a single thing."
Regarding having inspired Jordan to lead a protest, Esteban said, "It makes me feel
amazing. If you put your mind to it, it can happen."
He said he would like to thank his friends and family.
Ernst said, "I'm super proud. I didn't expect it to go from just our district to a kid
in California. I am very proud of Esteban and it doesn't surprise me that he's done this
because he's very smart and outgoing. I thought maybe he would go to Mrs. (Principal
Sarah) Messley and we would have strawberry milk. To go to the whole district and then
this Jordan Reed in California — you don't see outside your district sometimes."
She said of the Scholastic News article, "I loved it. I was a little surprised they posed it
in a way of the good side and the bad side," but that was because there is a poll on the
website to vote on whether schools should serve flavored milks, she added.
"They took something fun and made it educational," she said.
Name: Kids Mag
4 x 2"
Customer Name: WEDINGTON ANIMAL HOSPITAL
Ad Number: 052922NWR4332
https://twitter.com/
wedingtonanimal
www.facebook.com/
WedingtonAnimalHospital
"Best Friends"
... make thE
4363 W Wedington Dr. • Fayetteville • 479-444-6600
www.WedingtonAnimalHospital.com
7:30am-10pm Monday-Friday • 9am-5pm Saturday & Sunday
"Best Friends"
student's
strawberry milk story goes
nationwide
RACHEL DICKERSON/SPECIAL TO OFFICIAL KIDS MAG
Esteban P., a fourth-grader at Anderson Elementary
School, holds up a copy of Scholastic News in which
he was mentioned and pictured. He made national
news after circulating a petition at his school to get
strawberry milk served again, leading to the return
of the drink to the entire district.
26 • JuNe 2022 • www.OfficialKidsMag.com
