Pupils Arrested in Attempt to Poison Teacher

Two sixth-grade girls were in custody Tuesday after spiking their teacher’s Gatorade with rat poison--motivated, perhaps, by one of the student’s bad grades, authorities said.

Two boys also were arrested after allegedly hiding the emptied box of rat poison.

The tainted drink was sitting on the teacher’s desk when a student in the class warned her not to drink it, said Deputy Cheryl Huff, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. The student was among the 15 or more classmates who witnessed the poison being poured into the drink behind the teacher’s back, Huff said.

After the incident, which occurred Friday at Lucerne Valley Middle School but wasn’t disclosed until late Monday, the children were arrested by the Sheriff’s Department for suspicion of attempted murder.

On Tuesday, lesser felony charges were filed against the four students, Huff said. The 12-year-old alleged ringleader and her 11-year-old classmate were charged with an enhanced violation of food poisoning. The two boys, ages 12 and 11, who allegedly stashed the rat poison, were charged with being accessories after the fact.

Chemical tests were being conducted to determine whether the amount of poison would have made the drink lethal, Huff said.

The teacher, identified by authorities as Sondra Haile, 54, took the remainder of her class on a field trip Tuesday.

School officials refused to discuss the incident, but the Sheriff’s Department gave this account:

The 12-year-old girl brought the poison to class Friday morning, and the other girl grabbed the bottle of Gatorade when the teacher was not looking. At least 15 students watched as the 12-year-old poured an unknown amount of rat poison into the bottle and placed it back on the teacher’s desk.

The two boys then removed a vent cover and stashed the box of poison beneath a portable classroom.

Prior to lunch, one of the other class member walked up to the teacher and told her what happened. Haile saw green crystals at the bottom of the bottle, dismissed the class for lunch and called for her principal and vice principal.

After lunch, the two administrators queried the children in class. Classmates identified the four suspects, who were taken to the principal’s office where a sheriff’s deputy interrogated them.

The four “admitted to their involvement” and were taken to Juvenile Hall in San Bernardino, the department said.

“The actual motive is unknown, however, it is suspected that one of the girls may have been failing” in her classwork, authorities said.

“I’ve never been around a case involving children this young, involving this type of crime,” Huff said.

San Bernardino Dist. Atty. Dennis Stout said, “Oh, my God,” when told of the details of the case. “This is another example of why the juvenile justice system needs reform. It’s set up to deal with juvenile delinquents--but not people who do drive-by shootings or bludgeon babies--or try to poison their teachers.”

Stout’s reference to the bludgeoning was to last month’s severe beating of a 4-week-old baby in Richmond, Calif., allegedly by a 6-year-old boy who wanted a plastic tricycle.

Karen Bell, who supervises the San Bernardino district attorney’s juvenile division, declined to elaborate on the case.

“I wouldn’t have filed felony charges if this were some silly prank,” Bell said. “But the limitations about what we can talk about are pretty significant. These are extremely young minors who will benefit by this confidentiality.”

A detention hearing was scheduled for today to determine whether the children, whose names were not released, should remain in custody.

The incident in Lucerne Valley--a rural desert community 15 miles east of Victorville at the base of the San Bernardino Mountains--was similar to a 1994 incident in Lancaster, where a 15-year-old boy pleaded no contest to assault with a deadly weapon after pouring cleaning solution into his teacher’s Diet Pepsi. The teacher was hospitalized, and the boy was sentenced to three to five months in a youth probation camp.

Stout, the district attorney, said he was unable to downplay the severity of Friday’s incident, despite the age of the children.

“It’s hard for me to imagine someone at that age level who doesn’t know that it’s wrong to try to kill someone,” Stout said. “I can understand someone of that age not understanding that stealing is wrong, or that lying is wrong, but not that killing is not wrong. It’s a sad commentary on the state of our values and morals.”

Town residents said they could not explain the children’s actions.

“You’re assuming there’s a cause-and-effect relationship,” said Chuck Bell, a member of the town’s Municipal Advisory Committee. “We have an active scouting program here, an active Little League, park programs, a multitude of community service groups and clubs and probably more volunteers per capita than any other community. This is not at all typical for Lucerne Valley.”