Life is like a burrito–you never know what you are going to get. One day it could be carnitas; the next it could be black tar heroin or a meat thermometer.

One LAUSD student was the unlucky eater of a thermometer burrito served up by her school's cafeteria. Yesterday, the parents of Dahlia Douglas filed suit against the school district over the incident, alleging that negligent supervision and negligent hiring of cafeteria workers were to blame, the L.A. Daily News reports.

The lawsuit stems from an episode that occurred on March 25, 2011 when Douglas, a student at Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts, took that fateful bite.

“As she began consuming the burrito, (the girl) bit into a large metallic item that was concealed within the food item,' the suit states. 'She immediately felt pain and discomfort from biting into the metallic foreign object within the food item.”

An ambulance was called to the scene to provide emergency medical attention to the student, who says she developed a rash with painful sores and blisters from the incident.

According to the suit, cafeteria workers admitted to Douglas that they had accidentally left a thermometer in their burrito fixings. The family is seeking unspecified damages from the school district.

This is just the latest in a string of recent incidents, including the aforementioned smuggling of black tar heroin-filled burritos into a Los Angeles County jail, that suggest the public may have lost sight of what a burrito is. We're here to help.

A few safety tips:

  1. Inspect burrito before consuming.
  2. Remove any foreign objects.
  3. When in doubt, play it safe and purchase from one of these joints.

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