A Northgate Elementary School in Spring, Texas, has placed a teacher and two aides on administrative leave after one of their 4-year-old students reported being given a sleep-aid at school.
'The sticker makes me fall asleep,' 4-year-old Layne Luviano said.
Worried about what her daughter was describing, Layne's mother Lisa asked her daughter to bring one of the sleeping patches home with her, and the child managed to sneak one out of the classroom.
Luviana researched the patch online.
It was an over-the-counter sleeping patch called the Sleep Z Patch, which was full of melatonin and a bunch of other ingredients.
She took the patch to the school, presented her evidence, and nothing happened.
Then she took the patch to the other parents, and when they asked the kids about it; they all recognized the "sleepy sticker." When confronted with an angry mob of parents, the school took action and suspended the teacher and the aides while they investigated.
While it's not clear the teachers necessarily broke a law here, if they really gave the kids over-the-counter drugs, they certainly broke one of the school's policies, and they released the following statement:
'Northgate Elementary administration was notified by a parent that their child was given a sleeping aid patch in the classroom by their teacher. Upon learning of the allegation the teachers in that classroom were immediately removed and placed on administrative leave. As a precautionary measure, two paraprofessionals in that classroom have also been placed on administrative leave pending the ongoing investigation by the Spring ISD Police Department, as this incident violates our Board Policy FFAC (LOCAL).
'The safety of our students is our highest priority, and we take every allegation of misconduct seriously. We ask for our community's patience as the SISD Police Department conducts their investigation.'
The district also provided the policy they said was violated:
'No employee shall give any student prescription medication, nonprescription medication, herbal substances, anabolic steroids, or dietary supplements of any type, except as authorized by this or other District policy.'
It's terrible what these teachers did, but as a father, I can remember what my kids were like at four.
So, uhh,
Just consider that these Z patches are $34 for a pack of 28 on Amazon.
You'd need like five packs a week for a classroom of tiny tots, and that's a ton of money, especially on a preschool teacher's salary.
Which tells me these teachers must've been extremely desperate for some quiet time!
This isn't the first time we've seen a story like this:
I think it's time we get a hard "no sleep-aids" rule in place at all schools and daycares nationwide.
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