Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : 70 Students Questioned About Teacher Poisoning : Crime: A Littlerock High School official says a cash reward helps narrow the possible suspects to a few.

Authorities interviewed about 70 students Monday as they stepped up the investigation into the poisoning of a Littlerock High School teacher who became violently ill after she took a gulp from a Diet Pepsi can laced with toxic dry-eraser fluid.

“We’re interviewing any and all students . . . to determine who did this,” Littlerock Principal Jeffery E. Foster said.

No suspects were arrested Monday in connection with the Thursday incident, but Foster said that a $200 cash reward offered to students last week for information leading to the successful arrest and prosecution of the culprit generated several solid leads. He declined to elaborate.

“I am cautiously optimistic that we’re closing in,” Foster said. “We have several students we are centering our investigation around right now.”

Susan Ennis, 32, an English teacher, was rushed to the hospital Thursday after she took a gulp from a can of soda laced with dry-eraser fluid. She was listed in stable condition Monday at Palmdale Hospital Medical Center, where she has undergone tests to determine whether her kidneys or stomach have suffered any damage.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jerry Wolf said the Diet Pepsi can and the dry-eraser container were both submitted to a lab for fingerprint testing. Results from the test are expected today.

Ennis was taking the last sip of a can of Diet Pepsi that she had left unattended when she immediately felt a burning sensation in her throat and began to vomit.

Wolf said sheriff’s deputies planned to interview about 70 students Monday from Ennis’ first- and second-period English classes. If arrested in connection with the poisoning, a student could face charges ranging from attempted murder to assault with a caustic chemical, Wolf said.

Foster also confirmed that the day after the poisoning, a substitute teacher assigned to replace Ennis was shoved by a student in the same classroom. The student involved in the incident has been suspended from the school and may face expulsion, Foster said.

Reaction to the poisoning at the Littlerock campus, located about 70 miles northeast of Los Angeles, was mixed in the sense that students were shocked that a popular teacher such as Ennis had fallen victim. However, they appeared unsurprised that violence had once again struck their campus.

Students told of numerous food fights breaking out in the school’s cafeteria and stink bombs exploding throughout the campus in recent weeks.

“Students have really just been out of control here lately. I mean they have been acting really stupid,” said one student sitting outside on campus, who declined to give her name.

She and other students, such as sophomore Lafayette Bailey and freshman Frankie Culver, said a Friday pep rally ended abruptly after somebody let off a stink bomb.

“Everybody ran out and the pep rally wasn’t even over,” Bailey said.

Foster said he could not confirm the report.

Other students said that an escalation in food fights in the cafeteria prompted school officials Monday to ban students from eating inside the cafeteria and instead had them eat outdoors on campus.

The recent string of events has prompted parent John Parsons to rethink where he wants his daughter Yvette to go to school. Parsons said he is going to look into having her transferred to Highland High School in Palmdale next year.

“We came out here to get away from the problems,” said Parsons, as he sat parked outside the school waiting to pick up his daughter. “But they’re cropping up here too.”

More coverage of the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys appears today on B14.