Schools on ‘high alert’ as energy drinks trigger health scares

They’re landing kids in the nurse’s office and the emergency room, but super-caffeinated energy drinks are easily accessible to children – sometimes even at school.

Despite a growing body of evidence about the harm excessive caffeine can have on children, energy drinks are everywhere, and there’s not much that parents can do to keep their kids from drinking them.

At Sparta, N.J., Middle School, a student went to the nurse with heart palpitations, tingling in her limbs and sweating. A Warwick Valley, N.Y., High School senior’s blood pressure was high enough to qualify as stage-two hypertension. The principal of Wallenpaupack North Intermediate School in Pike County, Pa., reported a student was sent home with an elevated heartrate. A minor in Newburgh, N.Y., was rushed by ambulance to the Crystal Run Urgent Care with breathing problems.

All of these incidents, which occurred between 2022 and 2026, involved the consumption of high-caffeine energy drinks like Celsius, Alani Nu, Prime, Ryse, Red Bull, Monster and Bloom. Straus News obtained documentation through open records requests.

Notwithstanding “not recommended for children” warning labels on the cans, they flow freely to that demographic. There’s nothing stopping a child from walking into a gas station or big-box store and walking out with an Alani Nu, which contains 200 milligrams of caffeine, the equivalent to two cups of coffee – or twice the recommended daily limit for 12- to 18-year-olds. Kids are bringing energy drinks to school starting at age 9, budding entrepreneurs are selling them to their peers in the halls and on the bus, and some high school cafeterias actually sell them directly to students.

The dangers of too much caffeine for adolescents are coming into focus. Emergency room visits related to caffeine overdose or adverse effects more than doubled for middle schoolers between 2017 to 2023, and nearly doubled for high schoolers. Male high schoolers were most at-risk of ending up in the ER for ingesting too much.

The problem is not new

In 2011, 1,499 adolescents aged 12–17 years went to the ER for an energy-drink–related emergency, according to the CDC. But it’s growing, along with the potency and popularity of these products.

One school nurse circulated a warning in 2023 about a “pre-workout powder drink” that a student had consumed, which had 325 milligrams of caffeine in a single scoop. “I heard that some people are taking anywhere from 2-3 scoops! Very concerning,” wrote School Nurse Melissa Hansen of Butler Public School District in Morris County, N.J.

The female-tailored brand Alani Nu, created by a fitness influencer in 2018, was recently implicated in the sudden death of a 17-year-old cheerleader in Texas, whose family is suing a beverage distributor. The parents claim that the teen’s one-a-day energy drink habit was the cause of her enlarged heart.

Celsius Holdings, which owns Alani Nu as of 2025, issued a statement in response to cheerleader’s death. “We take product safety seriously and believe consumers should have clear information about what they are drinking. Alani Nu energy drinks disclose 200mg of caffeine on the can, and the label states the product is not recommended for children, people sensitive to caffeine, pregnant women, or women who are nursing. Our products comply with applicable federal labeling requirements, and our policy is not to market or sample to anyone under 18, consistent with those label warnings.”

The medical community is unified in its opinion: kids should not be drinking energy drinks, which can contain nearly as much caffeine as six sodas. “Caffeine and other stimulants in energy drinks have no place in children’s and adolescents’ diets,” according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

But the “just drink water” advice is falling on deaf ears. About a third of 12- to 17-year-olds consume energy drinks regularly, according to research from Johns Hopkins Medicine, for many of the same reasons adults drink coffee – to combat exhaustion, keep up with a demanding schedule, for an athletic edge – but also because the drinks’ candy-like flavors and influencer marketing are particularly appealing to this age group.

Schools on ‘high alert’

In Sussex County, N.J., “Students are bringing in more and more caffeinated drinks that have the potential to be 2-3x the amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee,” wrote Glen Meadow Middle School Principal Jaqueline Van Orden to the school nurse, asking her to draft a message to parents about the health concerns of too much caffeine for children.

“Another student arrived today into the health office with heart palpitations, pins and needles in face, arms and legs, and sweating. The student revealed that she drank an Alani energy drink,” wrote Sparta Middle School Nurse Erin McMeen to the principal in 2025.

“We have 9 and 10 year olds bringing Prime to school,” wrote Sparta Township School District nurse Lillian Farrell, in a 2023 draft of a letter to the company, Prime Hydration, asking them to label their products more clearly as for adults only. “If it took me that long to find your recommendation, I can assure you that parents of kids asking for this drink are rarely researching your drink, and if they do, your recommendation is not forthcoming.”

Prime Energy contains 200 milligrams of caffeine and is labeled for adults 18 and over. U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer called the drink “a cauldron of caffeine” marketed explicitly to children, in a 2023 letter asking the FDA to investigate the company.

Even if they’re not bringing energy drinks from home, it’s easy for kids to get their hands on them. A parent reported that a student from Helen Morgan School in Sparta, N.J. – which serves grades four and five – was selling Prime Energy drinks on the bus for $5 a can, according to an email from the transportation supervisor to the principal.

The racket was going on at the Sparta Middle School, too, where students were allegedly selling Prime Energy drinks to their peers, according to a 2023 letter from the school nurse to parents. “It has also been alleged that some students drank so much of this that they became sick,” wrote then-Sparta Middle School Nurse Alexa Griffin, adding that the administration would speak to the entire student body and teachers were on “high alert.” A student later received detention for selling energy drinks in the hall.

Cracking down on student bootlegging is one thing, but it’s hard to keep kids from sharing with their friends. A middle school student was sharing his energy drink with another student at lunch in February, according to an email from Glen Meadow Middle School Nurse, asking the assistant principal to speak to the student about why that’s a problem. “I don’t think just coming from me will make much of a difference; also I don’t always have success with getting the parents response to issues,” wrote nurse Stephanie Ash. The next day, an aide confiscated another energy drink that a student was drinking, which the student said they were holding for a friend.

This spring, Ash was working on caffeine awareness slides to be displayed on hallway monitors, “as kind of a gentle reminder to the students,” she said in an email to administrators.

“It is absolutely a concern here. Students have them in the a.m. as well as lunch. We had to send at least one student home from the nurse due to drinking one in the morning and feeling sick with elevated heartrate,” wrote Principal Lissa Ussia of Wallenpaupack North Intermediate School in Pike County, Pa., which serves students from third through fifth grades, in an email exchange with fellow administrators this March.

“We have seen an increase in students bringing in Red Bull, Monster, Celsius, etc. We only allow water outside of the cafeteria, but we have students now bringing these drinks in for breakfast and lunch... It’s something we will need to address,” wrote Wallenpaupack Area Middle School Principal Jim Kane.

In Orange County, N.Y., 14 students in two school districts have ended up in the nurse’s office for an energy drink-related complaint since 2022 (one was a finger cut on a Red Bull can). A Minisink high schooler came in with elevated heartrate, asking to have his temperature taken. “Reports not sleeping much over weekend because he was ‘gaming.’ Reports drinking a lot of energy drinks,” the nurse noted.

Some schools have instituted campus-wide bans energy drinks, but in a stark display of the power of the dollar, others actually sell them to students during the day.

Schools selling energy drinks

There’s no shortage of ways that kids can get their hands on energy drinks, with or without their parents’ knowledge. But parents are particularly frustrated to learn that sometimes they can even buy them at their high school. As of 2024, more than one in 10 secondary schools nationwide sold energy drinks in vending machines, school stores or snack bars, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Orange County, Washingtonville High School sold Celsius in 2024 and Ryse in 2025, before administrators ordered them pulled. Goshen High School sold Celsius in 2023 until “administrators requested we discontinue sales because students appeared to become overly hyperactive after consuming the beverage,” according to Goshen Food Service Director Roderick Isaac.

It was a father of three high school girls who sounded the alarm at Washingtonville High School in 2023. Scott Gisler’s girls, all athletes, liked their energy drinks, though their parents did what they could to keep the habit to two a week.

“They drank it for sports when they were tired, and then they would drink more of it after sports to do their homework and then they would kind of crash. Then you can’t get ‘em up the next day for school. It kind of feeds into itself,” said Gisler, reached by phone. “They need their sleep. I was worried about them being a little irritable,” and one of his daughters has a heart murmur, so he also worried about elevating her heartrate too much.

The fact that the drink was for sale at school was confusing. “The schools are very conscious about not selling coffee, and this has more caffeine than coffee,” said Gisler.

It also undermined the warnings that Gisler had been trying to convey to his daughters. “It’s available at the school, the kids go, ‘It’s okay – the school said it’s okay,’” he said.

Gisler wrote to the district, requesting the drinks’ removal. “We try and discourage energy drinks and do not allow them in the house due to the high caffeine content. I do not have as much control outside the house, but I would expect the school would not be selling products (Celsius) that are labeled as ‘Not recommended for children under 18.’”

Gisler wasn’t “super happy” with the initial reply from the school. It turns out that high schools – unlike middle and elementary schools – that participate in the national school lunch program are allowed to sell beverages with added caffeine, and there’s no limit to the amount of caffeine the drinks can contain. State and federal nutritional guidelines are mainly concerned with sugar and calories, which is why public schools aren’t allowed to sell sweetened soda during the school day.

“Since Celsius only contains 10 calories and is loaded with 6 different types of vitamin B and vitamin C it is considered a compliant beverage and can be sold in the high school,” wrote Washingtonville Food Services Director Robert Gellman, in response to Gisler’s complaint.

Plus, energy drinks are profitable, as the young entrepreneurs selling the stuff on the bus and in the hallways figured out.

“Because the Food Services dept is self run and does not use tax dollars to operate we are always looking for different items to help us generate revenue so when I heard about Celsius and how popular it was I thought we would give it a try,” Gellman went on. “With that being said I have had a conversation with our HS administrators. We are going to keep an eye on the sales to see if students are purchasing more than one can per day.”

Six months later, after administration got involved, Gellman confirmed that all Celsius products had been removed from vending machines and serving lines.

Gisler’s girls were not exactly appreciative of their father’s efforts. “My kids did yell at me when they got home and the school stopped selling the Celsius,” he said. “They were like, ‘What are you doing to us?’”

Gisler realizes his victory was a minor one, since it was only that particular brand of energy drink that was removed. It wasn’t until last September that Ryse, another energy drink with 200 milligrams of caffeine and an 18+ label, was pulled from the high school, per district communications, and those communications suggest they are still selling other, less potent energy drinks.

“You get rid of one and then they just replace it with another one, because they’re trying to make a little extra income and that’s what the kids want,” said Gisler. “The energy drink companies are smart, right? They know what the guidelines are for the school and they check all the boxes. Because based on the nutrition guides, there’s nothing here that would disallow this at the school.”

Celsius Holdings did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

As of the most recent communication furnished by the district, Washingtonville High School was still selling Bloom (180 milligrams of caffeine) and Sparkling Caffeine Ice (70 milligrams) as of 2025. Administration did not respond to an email by press time inquiring whether that was still true.

“There should be no issues with the sparkling ice everyone is selling it,” wrote Gellman to Superintendent Larry Washington, who said he’d take a look.

As for Gisler’s girls, they still get Celsius at Planet Fitness when they go to the gym. And his eldest daughter, who’s now in college, can buy it by the 12-pack at the cafeteria with her college bucks.