Two 12 Year Old Girls Charged With Attempted Poisoning of Teacher

[mondo joe]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/310278_lipgloss05.html?source=mypi

Kitsap County prosecutors filed third-degree assault charges Monday against two 12-year-old girls accused of lacing their teacher's coffee cup. At a Monday court hearing, the Bainbridge Island girls -- who were trying to avoid punishment in class on March 29 -- pleaded not guilty to the charges, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office said.

Officials have said the Sakai Intermediate School pupils had reports due that day -- and one of them was unprepared. Students at the school apparently knew that their 58-year-old teacher would have an allergic reaction to strawberry flavor.

Prosecutors allege the girls hatched a plot to put strawberry lip gloss on their teacher's coffee cup and drinking containers. The teacher drank from the cup, prosecutors said in court papers.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Waiting for the blame the teacher posts . . . .

:eyes:

[devilgrrl]

2. What a couple of sick individuals - I bet their parents are assholes too.

BTW, isn't Bainbridge Island rather affluent? No surprise that such a community would produce sociopaths like those two.

[Tyler Durden]

3. Stupid, too.

Strawberry Lip Gloss uses ARTIFICIAL STRAWBERRY FLAVOR.

You don't get allergic reactions to things that look, taste or smell like the actual thing you're allergic to.

Little "ladies" should have paid more attention in BIOLOGY!

[mondo joe]

5. According to a number of news stories she did suffer a reaction.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/309755_poison31.html



Jeffers, 58, is violently allergic to strawberries -- common knowledge at Sakai Intermediate School, according to police, who arrested the youths on suspicion of assault after they were accused of coating the rim of their teacher's coffee cup and water bottle with strawberry lip gloss.

"They had discussed using real strawberries but decided that would be fatal and this would just make her sick enough to leave school, which was what they wanted," said Mark Duncan, the island's deputy police chief. "It's 12-year-old thinking at its finest."

****

"Apparently, even synthetic strawberry flavor can cause a reaction like this," said Duncan. "It smells the same and tastes the same because, chemically, it's close to the same thing."

[Tyler Durden]

6. In my long experience with antigens and allergies...

What is suggested is impossible; "Close" does not count with allergens. One of two things: the gloss contained "natural strawberry flavor," or it was a psychosomatic reaction (which is still dangerous but not life threatening.

A "reaction" is like having a very small "reaction" to a few molecules of bee venom if you're allergic to bee sting: it doesn't work that way.

It doesn't make these little idiots any less culpable: it's like holding up a 7-11 with an empty gun and claiming you're not responsible for the clerk having a heart attack.

[TechBear_Seattle]

8. Synthetic strawberry flavoring uses some natural components

A friend of mine has a mild allergy to strawberries, and he has to treat artificial strawberry flavoring the same as regular strawberries. It seems that the allergen most often responsible is one of the components put into the test tube to recreate the flavor of an actual strawberry.

[juno jones]

11. Agree with you

I had a friend who was allergic to both natural and artificial strawberry. Apparently they are close chemically.

[TechBear_Seattle]

13. "Chemically close" is not correct, though

The issue is not that artificial strawberry flavor is chemically close to one of the more common allergens in a strawberry allergy; the issue is that the allergen itself used in creating in many formulae to create the flavor. Because the natural components make up less than a minimum amount of the entire mixture, it is artificial flavor under federal law.

[mondo joe]

4. I don't know Bainbridge -- I don't think of it as being especially affluent -

not like Mercer Island or even Vashon. But I might be wrong.

[Cetacea]

7. Were they on Prozac or similar ADs?

I wonder why contemporary kids are so angry. Usually I don't have to wonder for too long.

[dysfunctional press]

9. Prosecutors are asking for a punishment of five days detention...

...community service and probation, said Leslie Myette, a legal assistant with the prosecutor's office.

5 days detention...? i'm guessing that these girls are white.

[shanti]

12. well, it IS washington state

so your guess is pretty good.

[dysfunctional press]

14. i hadn't noticed where it was-

but i do know that if they were black- prosecutors would be talking about trying them as adults.

[BreweryYardRat]

15. I'd bet it's because their parents are putting pressure on the school.

Race has nothing to do with it, I suspect.

Frankly, I'm of the opinion that we should just give the two little brats a shot of whatever they're severely allergic to, see how do they like it then.

[Madspirit]

17. ...and what is it

That makes you a liberal? Yeah...poison the kids. That will help. Except that it won't.
Lee

[BreweryYardRat]

18. I've never denied that I've got a sadistic streak.

I think it's a good way of making them understand what they put their poor teacher through. And I'm not suggesting we let them die from their reactions.

Let's just agree to disagree, though. I'm not in the mood for an argument right now.

[earthlover]

10. another day in the life of a teacher....

Obviously what needs to be done is to place a letter in the teacher's permanent record admonishing that the teacher did not have adequate control over the students and calling into question, in front of the students and parents, the teacher's rapport with students and classroom management strategies. In the future, the teacher should be observed by the principal once or twice a week, other students should be called in to the principal's office to check if the teacher is behaving appropriately in class, and the teacher should be placed on a instructional improvement plan, where the teacher needs to submit daily lesson plans to the principal showing what Standards of Learning objectives are being met each day, and put on the class chalkboard every day the State SOLs being covered by the teacher.

Think I am making this up? I have seen ALL of these occur to a teacher who had the misfortune of having his glasses stolen by a student. I hate to think what would have happened at this district if a student had tried to poison him--probably fired him on the spot! PS, the student admitted his guilt and had no disciplinary action taken against him. The teacher was humiliated, however.

And we wonder why there is a teacher shortage? I am seeking employment elsewhere.

[Madspirit]

16. Wow

Poor teacher. I saw where some are afraid the teacher criticisms are going to start. I don't have a teacher criticism. I do however know that people are not born Evil. These girls sound disturbed. They need counseling and to be put somewhere they can't hurt people. It's the parents I would look at for figuring out this behavior. Behavior doesn't happen in a vacuum. Things have causes and reasons and just saying.."bad bad girls" doesn't figure anything out and doesn't help anything. I would look to the parents. Healthy, happy normal kids don't do these kinds of things.
Lee