Education

Careful Letting Students Near Your Coffee

By Liana Loewus — May 20, 2011 1 min read
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There are two eerily similar stories this morning about students trying to poison teachers by putting things in their coffee.

The Orlando Sentinel reports that a middle school student in Kissimmee, Fla., dropped one of his prescribed blood pressure pills into his teacher’s coffee cup after she yelled at him. He told investigators he “wanted her to go to sleep.” The teacher felt ill and went home early.

And according to the Oakland Tribune, a high school student in Oakland, Calif., spiked his teacher’s coffee with dry erase cleaning fluid. The teacher “immediately spit it out and was unharmed.”

Is this a serious concern for teachers? Do you take precautions against drinking poisoned beverages?

A version of this news article first appeared in the Teaching Now blog.