Seventh-graders arrested, accused of putting pepper flakes in teacher’s soda
Three seventh-graders at Deltona Middle School are facing criminal charges after allegedly putting crushed red pepper flakes in their teacher’s can of Mountain Dew, a Volusia County sheriff’s spokesman said.
The three 12-year-old girls who were arrested are being held at the Volusia Regional Juvenile Detention Center. Two face charges of poisoning food or water and tampering with consumer products.
The third faces charges of tampering with consumer products and being a principal to poisoning food or water.
The language arts and English for non-native speakers teacher, Jayne Morgan, said she wanted to press charges but did not know that the students would be arrested and taken into custody. Morgan declined to say much else about the case Saturday morning. “My principal at Deltona Middle School has been very supportive, and the district is making the decisions as to how the case is handled,” she said.
The school will also discipline the girls internally, said Nancy Wait, a district spokeswoman. The Orlando Sentinel is not naming the students because they are minors.
One of the students was mad at Morgan, who sent her to the principal’s office Monday for
“Our investigation confirmed that felony offenses were committed.” Volusia County Sheriff spokesman Gary Davidson
pouring glue into a classmate’s backpack, sheriff’s spokesman Gary Davidson said. Morgan also suspected that the girl stole a laptop, records show. The student was upset with Morgan, and wanted to “vandalize her car with paint,” according to her arrest affidavit. Her friend, one of the other students later arrested, told her it was not a good idea.
The next day, the student brought crushed red pepper flakes to school and convinced two friends to help her with the scheme, Davidson said.
The student handed the red pepper flakes to one friend, who poured them into Morgan’s can of Mountain Dew while another friend distracted the teacher, Davidson said. In the arrest report, deputies said this “was done in retaliation for the teacher upholding her duties and responsibilities as a teacher, maintaining control of her classroom and attempting to protect the other children from [the first student’s] unacceptable behavior.”
Morgan told deputies she took two sips of the soda and felt like her throat was constricting. She then poured the rest of the can’s contents into a clear plastic cup and saw the red pepper flakes floating inside. Morgan went to the school nurse, who said her blood pressure was higher than usual, records show. The nurse checked her blood pressure again about 15 minutes later and said it was “noticeably lower,” records show.
Morgan later told deputies she had a sore throat and a stomach ache until that evening. School officials called deputies on Thursday, Davidson said. “Our investigation confirmed that felony offenses were committed,” Davidson said.
One Florida law the girls are facing charges under makes it illegal to add “poison, bacterium, radioactive material, virus, or chemical compound” to food or drinks, intending to kill or injure another person.
It is a first-degree felony. Deputies defined “poison” as “any substance that interferes with normal body functions after it is swallowed, inhaled, injected, or absorbed,” records show. The students also face a first-degree felony charge under Florida’s Anti-Tampering Act, which prohibits changing consumer products “with reckless disregard” for another person’s health and safety.