Not at my kids' school, but a public elementary school nearby had a 7 year old girl be dared by her classmate to drink hand sanitizer. The hand sanitizer was located near the entrance of the classroom. She took him up on the dare, and drank two squirts of hand sanitizer. She then went to the bathroom, felt dizzy from the alcohol, fell down, bumped her head and became unconscious. She was rushed to the hospital during dismissal time.
She is perfectly fine now. The hospital said she had alcohol poisoning. It was a very unfortunate thing to happen, of course. Her father is livid. He wants to know where the teacher was when she drank the hand sanitizer (reasonable question), but he also is blaming the whole school for what happened ENTIRELY (I'm not so sure if that is reasonable).
This is obviously a big deal, what happened to that little girl, I just don't think I would react the way her father did. He has pulled her out of that school, and is trying to get her to go into a different public school (same county) instead. I guess I would NOT do that. This action had big consequences, yet I take it as this must have happened SO quickly, that I find it a bit crazy to blame an entire school for it. Once my daughter was well, I'd also give HER some part of the responsibility of the outcome. You don't drink hand sanitizer, and you DON'T do something just cause someone dares you. It is a reasonable question to know where the teacher is, however that teacher can't see all kids at once, especially when it is close to dismissal (she may be putting papers in their notebooks, talking to a child, getting the kids lined up near the door, and the girl did two quick squirts in her mouth when her back was turned. Stuff HAPPENS, and kids do dumb things. I also think the little boy who dared her should be taught a lesson in this, too. How mean to pressure your classmate to do that!
Bottom line... I would not even think about switching schools because of this. I WOULD, however expect some good explanation from the teacher (and accept whatever the teacher said... I would not make the teacher responsible) and DEMAND that the boy who dared her apologize and perhaps be disciplined some sort of way. I also wouldn't want to give my daughter the impression that when SHE makes bad decisions that it is everybody's fault except hers. Her father says she's at home watching cartoons right now.
I'm not using this to slam the father at all (I, for one, am not in his position at all), I just was perplexed at how he is handling it, cause it is so different than I think I'd handle it...
What do you moms think?
ETA: yes, I didn't say it, but YES the girl should be disciplined along with the boy... I mean, of course!
Dawn: I thought the same thing. The girl said two squirts, the father says two squirts to the local paper, although he's just going by what he was told (I assume)...
Sheila: Yes, I'm actually writing this because I'm worried that the teacher may be fired due to the up-roar about this. That is unjust.
Talkstotrees: The girl was pulled out of school, and watches cartoons now... HMMM, I do something bad, I get a lot of attention for it, and now I don't have homework, get to stay at home and watch cartoons! I think that is out-weighing ANY lesson she could have learned naturally.... the "fun" aftermath, that is certainly lasting longer than the hospital visit. And the WORST part of this lesson is giving her the idea that it was NOT her fault.
I know I have said a lot about this, so I'll try and let this be the last thing I say. My daughter's 1st grade teacher talked to the class about this (same county school system), so my daughter heard about this before I did. I JUST asked my daughter "who should be in trouble because of this?" W/O telling her my opinion. She said "They BOTH should be!" referring to the two kids involved. I said, "you don't think the teacher should be?" She said "NO! Why would the teacher get in trouble?!"
We live in a world where so many children are not held accountable and everyone else is responsible for the child's mistakes. It's sad but true :(
I think I don't know why you are even writing about this???? No child can be watched 100 % of the time.
Blessings.....
His 7 year old did something totally idiotic and he of course, wants to blame everyone but his daughter. In fact, she is being rewarded by being spoiled at home and facing no consequences for her actions. I'm sure all she ahs is a 'poor me' attitude. As for the teacher, it takes 2 seconds to drink from a bottle. The little girl likely snuck and did it while the teacher was teaching or helping a student, I would not place all blame on her, though I would want an inquiry of the situation in which it happened. Had the teacher left the room for a few minutes or something? That would change things slightly. But it is impossible to not miss every single thing a child does.
I worked at a fashion store in the mall. A parent allowed her 2 year old to eat fake cherries off of a purse. Then, she had the nerve to try and sue ME claiming that our store shouldn't stock 'chokable', unedible items. Geeze.
The girl and boy should both be disciplined by the way. Her scary trip to the ER is not going to teach her what she needs to learn here. Some stupid teens did something similar at my high school. They took some weird drug someone mixed up and all went to be checked out at the hospital. The school was not held responsible for sneaking teens doing something stupid.
The only person I would hold responsible would be my daughter, for being so stupid as to drink hand sanitizer...
And, because I also doubted that two squirts of hand sanitizer could have this kind of effect, I went looking and found this:
http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/sanitizer.asp
It seems that some brands are 62% alcohol or equal to 120 proof. So, in a small child, it wouldn't take too much to cause symptoms of alcohol ingestion...
You are exactly the person who I would want in my camp Bless you for thinking of all the people who work so hard to protect children as they work day by day with these little ones. This is an unfortunate mistake, the child is alright and it was a little person who made a choice that could have been far more dangerous. Parents of course want to protect their children. And of course a little person doesn't always make the right choices. And really truly people who work in schools work soooo hard to protect these children but sometimes something like this happens.I think you are right to vent. You care and you are showing it. Glad the little girl is alright. And so sorry Dad is hurting so bad that he cannot forgive.
I agree with Momma L. I wouldn't blame the school. I would have taught the seven year old not to drink things that aren't meant for drinking, dare or not, before she ever got into the school environment. And that's just what I did with my own kid. I'm sure she learned her lesson but seriously? My kid knows that if she drinks stuff that's meant for cleaning ANYTHING it will make her very sick and she could go to sleep and never wake up again. She freaking knows better. And she's five. She can point to any shampoo, hand soap or cleaning supply and say "That's hazardous!" and understand what hazardous means.
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Non alcoholic hand sanitizer is available. Why are schools still using the alcohol kind?
The father is taking this overboard. Switching schools is a bit extreme. The girl who drank the hand sanitizer should be held accountable for her actions. This could happen so fast that the teacher could have had her back turned for just a minute. I don't think the teacher is responsible.
Disciplining her more than the trip to the ER? I think that's the natural consequence for her actions, and she doesn't deserve more than that. As well, for the little boy, what more does he need than the knowledge that what he "dared her to do" was enough to send her to the hospital?
Lots of over-reacting happening here.
Yes, I agree that both students should be disciplined. The father almost acts like "this is the last and final straw" as if he's fed up. Maybe he was having other problems and he's tired of dealing with the school.
I agree that this might have been the final straw, that there may have been other issues. That being said, he overreacted.
I can't help but feel so bad for the teacher.
you sound sooooo sensible, this father does NOT
i personally would think it would be best to keep the child at the same school because you know that the entire staff will be on their toes with keeping an eye on all the children, meaning that all the teachers will be watching all the kids like hawks
I think a child could find all kinds of toxic things at school to drink if she really wanted to. She's 7, not 2. No, I would not blame the school.
Interesting question!
We live in a society where accidents happens. I don't believe this is a true example of an accident but rather some student/student bullying. I don't think we can blame the teacher b/c as you said the teacher most likely tending to one million other matters at the end of the school day.
Our school district has removed large containers of hand sanitizer but allows students to bring individual containers to be kept in their desk/backpack. The parents are responsible for instructing their child on how to properly use it.
Would I remove my students? No but I would ask the school and district to look at what is done on a wider level. What are the recommendations of the district, state, Dept of Education? Should modifications be made? And I would impress upon my child the importance to use this product as instructed. And not to accept a dare from some idiot student. This is an opportunity for this father to instruct his child to stand up for herself.
Is it the teacher's fault? No!
If she's doing this at the age of 7, I'd hate to see what kind of dares she'll be falling into in junior high. Maybe he should lock her up in his cellar now & demand the home instructor my daughter is still waiting for since her knee surgery!
Most of us love our children enough to teach them not to put in their mouths non food items. That father should be punished. At seven kids know how to sneak when the teacher's not looking therefore impossible for her to have prevented it.
My son is in the same county, different school. I was so upset that I emailed the principal because they have the kids using this stuff all the time, right before lunch, etc.
My principal responded that they were going to talk to the kids about the dangers of such dares. They were installed after the H1N1 issues, so they would not remove the sanitizer. They would just make sure the kids were more informed.
I would want to know what the teacher was doing, if there was a substitute, etc. Why shouldn't the teacher be responsible. If they weren't in control of the class, know what the kids were doing. It's their job to be in control.
I do think that if the teacher was not paying attention or was out of the room that they should be disciplined, as well as the kids involved. There should always be an adult in the room with young kids.
I would not remove my kid from the school, but I would request a different teacher.
