Student Who Challenged Big Dairy in Landmark Lawsuit Speaks Out After Judge Dismisses Case Against USDA

Los Angeles—Student Marielle Williamson sued the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on May 2, 2023 for violating her free speech right to criticize dairy products after she was told she could not share literature explaining that the dairy industry harms human health, animals, and the environment unless she provided pro-dairy content, as well. Agreeing that Williamson’s free speech rights had been violated, LAUSD settled in November 2023 in the first legal settlement of its kind. However, a judge has just dismissed the lawsuit against USDA because Williamson graduated from LAUSD, and because she settled with the school district.

Of the case’s dismissal, Williams, now a college sophomore at Duke University in China, said, “This is one small setback on a long positive road to improving student health and increasing choice. It is also a reminder that the longer the conversation on dairy propaganda continues, the more students can pressure the USDA to follow new health research and prioritize student health.”

A federal law says that any school participating in USDA’s school lunch program “shall not directly or indirectly restrict the sale or marketing of fluid milk products by the school (or by a person approved by the school) at any time or any place.”

The USDA interprets that statutory language to mean that cafeteria displays, printed material, and layout may not promote beverages other than dairy milk in a way that may detract from dairy milk sales. Even water may not be offered on the lunch line in a way that might interfere with a student taking milk. By law, “fluid milk,” or cow’s milk, must be offered at every school lunch and breakfast served under the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program.

“While I now attend university, I continue to hear the same story from my high school peers—one of minority youth being made sick from lactose intolerance and dozens of unopened, wasted milk cartons in the trash daily,” Williams said. “Students clearly need alternative, healthier options that are not damaging to the environment. While this specific legal route may have been halted, the conversation regarding the monopoly of dairy propaganda in schools has only just begun.”

As a part of the November 2023 settlement with LAUSD, the school district issued new guidance to parents about how to obtain soy milk in the lunch line and a memorandum to school principals and food service personnel stressing a student’s right to criticize dairy. The Physicians Committee donated the proceeds received from the settlement back to LAUSD to conduct a soy milk versus cow’s milk taste test in March 2024, during which soy milk was deemed favorable.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, the medical ethics and public health nonprofit that brought the suit with Williamson, has not ruled out another lawsuit. “USDA’s rules throw up roadblocks for students who need to obtain a dairy alternative and even for students who simply want to talk about the harms and inequities of serving so much milk in schools. Why is a food that most students can’t digest a staple of school lunch? The National School Lunch Program needs to change.” said Deborah Press, Physicians Committee associate general counsel.

Approximately 75% of the LAUSD student population is Latino/Hispanic, most of whom are lactose intolerant. Messages like “Got Milk?” convey to certain students that their schools’ programs are not meant for them. Having several students interested in or in need of cow’s milk alternatives is not unique to LAUSD. Nationwide, 25.7% of high school students are Hispanic, 12.8% are Black and 4.9% are Asian. Lactose intolerance is a trait for the majority of each of these groups.

In 2018, the American Medical Association passed a resolution encouraging the USDA to “recognize that lactose intolerance is a common and normal condition among many Americans, especially African Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans, with a lower prevalence in whites, often manifesting in childhood.” The resolution called for legislation to modify the National School Lunch Act to eliminate the need for a doctor’s note for a child to receive cow’s milk alternatives in school.

The Healthy Futures Students and Earth Act, introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Reps. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), would remove the barriers currently in federal law that prevent students from accessing nondairy milks at school.