Emily Chan
At an elementary school in Texas, two teachers have been suspended after allegedly giving students stickers containing melatonin to make them drowsy and quiet them down.
The incident occurred on September 24, and the teachers were removed from the classroom immediately.
The Northgate Crossing Elementary School educators are under police investigation after parents reported their children were given “sleeping stickers” during school hours that later affected their mood at home.
“Upon learning of the allegation, the teachers in that classroom were immediately removed and placed on administrative leave,” read a statement from the Spring Independent School District (SISD).
In addition, the two paraprofessionals in the classroom were also placed on administrative leave “as a precautionary measure.”
However, parents at the school claimed they were only officially notified about the investigation two weeks after the alleged incident took place.
The stickers were first brought to parents’ attention when a mom named Lisa Luviano reported them to school administrators.
She became alarmed after her four-year-old daughter came home from school on September 24 and showed her a blue sticker with a moon, stars, and clouds on it. Luviano’s daughter told her it was a “sleeping sticker.”
“She said, ‘It is a sleeping sticker,'” Luviano told ABC Houston. “I asked, ‘Where did you get this?’ And she said, ‘My teacher gives it to me for sleeping time.’ The next day, we went to the school. We brought the evidence up there, and we filed a report. We did say we wanted to file criminal charges if this is something that is true.”
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