Mom faces felony charges after daughter licks tongue depressor

In the grainy cellphone video, a hand lifts the lid off a clear jar filled with tongue depressors and playfully swirls the light-colored wooden sticks around.

“PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH MEDICAL SUPPLIES! THANK YOU,” warns an all-caps notice posted on the wall above the container.

Moments later, another hand pops into view. It belongs to a young girl wearing a baseball cap and a turquoise tank top. She, too, reaches for the jar but goes a step further, plucking one of the tongue depressors from the bunch and bringing it to her mouth.

Then, she appears to lick the length of the flat stick before placing it back in with the others. She slaps her now-empty hand against the open mouth of the jar twice before the lid is swiftly replaced.

“Don’t tell me how to live my life,” text superimposed on the video reads.

But what might have been intended as lighthearted social media content could have serious consequences for the girl’s mother, who reportedly filmed the incident and posted it on Snapchat earlier this week, according to WTLV.

Cori Ward of Jacksonville, Fla., was arrested Thursday on a felony charge of tampering with a consumer product without regard for possible death or bodily injury, according to records from the Jacksonville Sheriff ’s Office. A judge set the 30-year-old’s bond Friday at $2,500, and she was ordered to not contact the doctor’s office and to not go on social media.

In an at times emotional interview with WJAX the day before her arrest, the mother of five defended herself against accusations that she filmed the video as part of a recent viral social media challenge that involves people licking ice cream in stores and placing the containers back on the shelves.

“I mean, honestly, I wasn’t thinking,” Ward said, later adding tearfully, “I know what it’s like to have to worry about your kids’ health and stuff. I would never put somebody else’s kid at risk.”

The video, Ward insisted, shouldn’t have been seen by anyone beyond a handful of her Snapchat friends, WTLV reported, citing a post from her now deleted Facebook account.

The short video also doesn’t show that “the items were thrown away” afterward, she wrote.

In a statement to WJAX, the All About Kids & Families Medical Center, where the incident took place, said it was notified that “a patient had violated our trust with behavior that is inconsistent with the practices and standards that we uphold and expect at our facility.”