High school students share cookies made out of cremains with classmates

Police are investigating two California students who offered cookies to their classmates, and after they were eaten revealed that the cookies had been made using their grandmother's ashes. Not only are they working to determine whether the cookies did in fact contain human remains; but police are also having to do research to answer the question as to whether a crime was actually committed if that ends up being true.

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Though morbid and disturbing, the incident would not be considered poisoning as cremated human remains are not toxic. Doroshov said it was a “good question” whether baking human remains into food could be considered a crime. There’s an “obscure” penal code section defining improper disposal of human body or remains, he said. “It would take probably some legal debate to figure out if that’s even the case here,” Doroshov said. “I think the intent of that (section of the penal code) was more like a death, and then somebody goes and does something with the body or remains.” Doroshov said the school district is working with the Police Department’s school resource officer to determine the best possible resolution.

I don't know any better than the police do whether what happened is actually criminal. I would venture to say though that it is certainly actionable in a civil sense, and would even predict a fairly easy victory for the plaintiffs in court. Learning you were duped into consuming human remains is horrifying and one of the more reasonable bases for a complaint of emotional distress and suffering if I ever heard one.