For years students like senior Ashley Moore had relied on the vending machines for their before class pick-me-up. The drinks in question were none other than the popular Celsius energy drinks. Despite their popularity according to Moore, the school made the decision to remove the drinks from the vending machines two weeks ago.

“Every once in a while I would buy it, because I’m extremely tired and I stayed up studying for tests,” Moore said.

Moore correlates the consumption of Celsius drink to her mood and how it affects her in-class habits.

“I feel like it makes me less irritable sometimes,” Moore said. “With it, I’m able to focus, I’m able to understand the questions and I’m not falling asleep.”

Moore says she is against the removal, being concerned for herself and her fellow students who drink it on a regular basis.

“I’ve never heard any people complain about it being there, but I do hear people complaining about it being gone,” Moore says.

Just as the matter of Celsius removal is out of the hands of the students, the matter involves a more compounded decisive group than just Principal Kevin Hunt.

“In many ways I have a lot of autonomy as the principal to lead and direct the goings on at this school or any school I’ve ever been principal,” Hunt said.

Despite having the final say, Hunt listened to a recommendation stemming from concerned locals that got passed down through administration and opted to approve the removal. Even though the drinks have been removed from the vending machines, they have not been banned from the campus altogether.

“I mean, the kids can still buy and bring Celsius drinks to school, I’m not gonna police that,” Hunt said. “I don’t have any problem with kids having them at school and I don’t see it as causing any huge problems or affecting people’s learning or anything like that.”

Though Dr. Hunt doesn’t have any direct issues with Celsius, concerned parents came to the school with the desire to have it removed.

“Somebody above me got feedback from a parent, from a group of parents, I don’t know the details, but somehow it was brought to their attention,” Hunt said. “They asked me to look into it. Their concern was that it said on the label ‘not recommended for people under the age of 18.’” 

Those parents may have reason to be worried according to researchers, as not all the students know exactly what goes into their bodies or those drinks.

Texas A&M professor Ivan Rusyn has done research on how different energy drinks affect the heart, testing various brands of drinks.

“[Celsius] did have facts that were rather substantial,” Rusyn said. “So when we prepared an extract from the beverage it was one of the most active of the ones that we’ve examined on human cell drive cardio sites and culture.”

It goes beyond whether an energy drink is particularly “bad” or not for you, and more so that they can affect you in ways that depend on your lifestyle and environment.

“These are stimulant drinks and they contain a lot of different ingredients that may have different effects on different individuals, especially in a high school where their people could be strenuously exercising.” Rusyn said. “Our understanding of how strenuous exercise and some of the ingredients in these types of beverages may interact is not as well developed.” 

Aside from potential negative effects, it’s important to ask if there are any real benefits to drinking Celsius at school as well.

“I would ask myself what are we missing if we don’t have these drinks because potential concerns are there and making them available to students has no direct benefit to my personal knowledge.” Rusyn said.