By Jessica Williams, The Lens staff writer Your kid’s public-school cafeteria may not be as clean as you think. Although the majority of New Orleans’ public-school cafeterias have gotten out of recent health inspections with little noted beyond a few run-down kitchen appliances, 36 of 82 public schools in state files were cited as having critical violations of state health code in 2011 and early 2012, records show. There are 88 public schools in New Orleans. The state health department lists data for 82 schools, sometimes listing one result for facilities that house two or more school sites. Scroll to the end of the story to check the reports on each school. Of the 36 with critical offenses, nine schools were specifically cited for rats or rat feces, live and dead roaches, or flies in the kitchen at the time of inspection. Inspectors also noted rat feces at four schools – one of which received only a non-critical offense – in the comments section of the inspection report, although they chose not to give these schools the official pest-control violations because either updated pest-control documents were on file, appropriate rat bait was set out or pest control visits were scheduled.
