State: Mice infest school food storage

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - State inspectors say a New Mexico school district's food warehouse is infested with rodent droppings, food hazards and improperly placed rat poison, and district officials refused to discard the food in question.

The state Environment Department says officials cited last week five "high risk violations" at the food warehouse of Gallup-McKinley County Schools. State inspector Andrew Wilson wrote in a memo that the warehouse was littered with rodent droppings throughout, contained rat poison in a walk-in refrigerator and had cases of food with ice accumulation on top.

Wilson said after the inspection district administrators rebuffed requests to throw out cases of possibly contaminated food, and were "obstructing" inspectors from enforcing food safety regulations.

Gallup-McKinley County School superintendent Raymond Arsenault did not immediately return an email and a phone message.