Daughters water contaminated at school

[ZebraD]

Just that - daughter went out to play at school break time. Came back in and thankfully noticed her bottle had bubbles in it so didn’t actually drink it. However it turns out that someone has put hand sanitizer in the water. (She opened the bottle and could smell it I think)
school didn’t ring me until an hour after school ends (it happened morning break). Daughter was at her dad’s last night so I knew nothing of it until they rang.
they don’t know who did it. The only thing the teacher explained at is that it is dangerous to do things like that - he said they spent 20 minutes talking about the dangers and then carried on with lessons.
how would you feel?

Bottle would look like that if shaken. I'd keep sanitiser in central supervised area to mitigate any risk.

I’m not sure about that, but I do think that by aged 10, they should know better. The child who was messing with packed lunches at my child’s school was a nasty bully and did show lots of other worrying behaviour. He has grown into a very unpleasant young man.

For some, it may just be a bit of silliness that they’ll grow out of.

Exactly that @PeaceOnThePorch . In this case I hope it's a case of silliness. It would be worrying if a child had a pattern of worrying behaviours. But in this case the school just doesn't know, so IMO they've handled it as best they can. If it were to happen again (or similar) then sterner warnings and potential con sequences can be issued.

In the event of parents being told, there is no guarantee that any of them will talk to their kids about it, especially those parents who believe their child can do no wrong.

This is awful OP and I'm shocked at some of the responses on here.

I bet the teacher has a good idea who did it, even if they can't prove it.

Aged 10 and 11 means they must be year 6. At the very minimum I'd be requesting that all staff ensure all bottles of hand sanitizer are confiscated. There's no need for the kids to be carrying them around. I'd also expect the school to write to parents requesting parents do not allow sanitizer in school. Presumably they have soap they can use!

But then, I work in safeguarding so maybe I'm more risk averse than some on here....

I would want the water bottles locked away when the teacher isn’t present though. I know my daughter would have refused to drink from them otherwise. They’re 10/11 so year 6, only a few months to do it for.

Dangerous or not (and you are right, ingesting sanitiser clearly is), the kids are old enough to know that they should not be touching each others' things, and even less so tampering with them. I remember my former Year 6 teacher - if something like this had happened he would have told us all that we had until the end of the day, and nobody was getting break time until somebody owned up.
I agree with you OP, don't see this as funny or light at all. And I agree with @IsadoraQuill there is no need for hand sanitiser in schools. The kids can just wash their hands.

Locking away water bottles causes it's own set of problems though, not least parent complaints about children not having access to their water at all times.

I agree with you that they should be old enough to know that, but it does occasionally happen. As another poster suggested I reckon the school has a pretty good idea of who it is but without concrete proof their hands are rather tied on this. Keeping all the kids in at break or whatever guarantees a whole heap of aggro from parents. And I know this isn't an ideal situation but also keeping kids in means they need supervising and that will fall to the teacher, who probably might themselves have a duty to go to, or have a meeting scheduled, or have books to mark... It's never just that easy.

I also agree that there is no need for hand sanitiser in schools but loads of kids still come in with the stuff.

Then they need to be told that it is preferably to drinking hand sanitiser. It’s a safety issue and children can have access to them before breaks and after, and during their lunch if water isn’t provided in the lunch hall.

Not sure what else they could do tbh.

When there’s no soap in the toilets half the time, it’s no wonder that parents send their kids in with hand sanitiser. If children get a sickness bug and have time off, parents are then harassed about attendance.

I’m so glad my youngest only has a year and a bit left of school. I can’t wait to not have to deal with it all. 😅

It's such a passive attitude, oh what can the school do with no proof etc.

Well, let me extrapolate this for you. I sat on a jury recently. We let a rapist go free. No proof, you see. 2 accusers, but no proof. I would bet my house he did it and nearly all of us agreed he did. He even admitted the sex with one of them, but said he thought she agreed. Alleged that the other had MH issues.

Society is truly rotten. And lazy.

I'd have banned hand sanitiser in the classroom and anyone caught with it would miss playtime or whatever. I'd have written to the parents as well. And tried to get to the bottom of it by interviewing the kids.

oh but never mind, no proof, had a chat, can't do anything else. You mean won't

Also, it isn't up to the OP to have to determine the way forwards - people keep asking her what she wants done - she wants it dealt with properly so that it won't happen again. She isn't the one responsibly for the actual strategy - the school need to keep the kids safe and deal with badly brought up children who think drink spiking is OK.

Quite a lot

-ban hand sanitiser
-ask children if they know about who did it
-write to parents
-put water bottles out of reach and only allow access at certain times

It's a school. Teachers are actually trained and qualified to teach, not supervise inanimate objects, police, conduct investigations or discuss children's alleged actions in a court of law.

Absolute proof wouldn't be needed to punish a miscreant, but with no obvious clue as to who's to blame for breach of basic rules and common decency, of course educating them all is the only possible response.

No more learning time can be wasted on one incident with only potential negative consequences.

You don't know what you wanted to happen about it so I guess the teacher couldn't think of anything either. It sounds like school have done what most schools would do- educate the children about the dangers and ask them not to it again. They can't punish the child if they don't know who it was, can they?

It's not a nice thing to do, but it's a silly prank at the end of the day and no harm was done. Your daughter wouldn't have been poisoned by drinking water with a bit of sanitiser in as it would be heavily diluted, and she didn't drink it anyway and even if she did attempt to she would have been able to taste it so would have known.

Most schools use hand sanitiser in the classroom which is provided by school.

Banning the use of something teaches the children nothing and is not more effective than educating them of the dangers of their prank? They could just as easily have put hand wash, glue, spit, toilet water etc. in the water bottle- it's not having sanitiser in the school that is the problem, it's the fact the children think it's funny to play silly and potentially harmful pranks on each other that is the issue.

I'd be pissed it wasnt dealt with immidiatly. & you should have been called to either bring her a new drink or brought her home if she wanted too.

I think its worth taking up again (if your daughters upset) & thr kids who did it would have known it was dangerous hence doing it in the first place

I'd be getting the local pcso's in to talk to the kids about the consequences of poisoning people. Frighten them a little.

There should be a zero tolerance on messing about with people's drinks.

Kids of that age do daft stuff all the fucking time. I'd be perfectly content with that response.

Actually I think that's a brilliant idea

Your 10 year old daughter had her drink spiked with a dangerous substance by a fellow child in what is supposed to be a safe space. And you trust that she is protected when she is there. It’s fucked up! And you have every right to be pacing like a mama bear right now. The school should be adjusting their processes quick sharp to make sure this can’t happen again. Food and drink sadly cannot be left unsupervised. I’d be filing a police report - 10 is over the age of criminal responsibility. Also it’s unlikely that the kids (and probably the teachers) don’t know who did it.

how many kids did it happen to? Is your daughter being bullied? Fuck that shit - you need to show your daughter that threats/physical abuse is NEVER ok. If you let people shrug it off, what happens when she’s 15 or 20 and a boyfriend does something to hurt her? She’ll have learned that it’s not that big a deal to have someone do something like this. I wouldn’t be sending her into school until the school has done a proper job on making sure things like this can’t happen again.

Edited to add that the school should be bringing the police in to talk to the kids and scare the fuck out of them.

Or they can do what they seem to be doing a lot: whole class is staying back at recess etc…

It was extremely dangerous. So I can see why the OP thinks the answer is weak.

Sorry - the good old days when children had to be thirsty during the day? Ooh yes I remember those excellent wholesome days.

also please do tell us all, how would you feel if you were at a restaurant, popped to the loo and came back to hand sanitiser in your drink? Mmmm yeah bet you’d just shrug right?