SPRING, Texas — Parents of preschool students at a Spring ISD elementary school said teachers have been giving their children sleeping aids.
They said their children told them they were given "sleepy stickers" that would make them fall asleep.
An email from Northgate Crossing Elementary School's principal on Tuesday said two staff members were put on leave after allegedly providing sleeping supplements to students.
The email also said the Spring ISD Police Department is also investigating.
"The sticker makes me fall asleep," 4-year-old Layne Luviano said.
Layne broke the case open in September when she snuck one of the stickers home. Lisa Luviano, Layne's mother, said the sticker was suspicious and she immediately started doing some research online. She quickly found the sleeping patches being sold on Amazon. The patches are for adults and contain melatonin and other ingredients.
Lisa said she took what she found to the school but said other parents were never notified, even after she told administrators that Layne said other students were getting the stickers, too. That's when Lisa took matters into her own hands and started contacting other parents, advising them to speak with their children.
"I showed it to my 4-year-old and she said, 'Yes, that's the sleepy sticker,'" Melissa Gilford said.
Gilford's 4-year-old daughter is also in Layne's class and she also went online to research the sticker.
"They're called Sleep Z Patch, and if you read the ingredients it has a lot of things I've never even heard of," Gilford said.
Najala Abdullah said she noticed changes in her son since school started. She said he was crying more than usual and was not eating. She said he would bring home lunches that had not been touched.
"They're giving them drugs to make them sleep to keep them quiet," Abdullah said.
Parents said they met with Spring ISD administrators on Tuesday, who told them not to discuss the allegations because doing so would harm the investigation. They also said two teacher aides assigned to the preschoolers were put on leave on Tuesday.
KHOU 11 legal analyst Carmen Roe looked at the legal ramifications of the alleged incident.
“I don’t see anything that makes these actions criminal because there seems to be no actual or potential harm to the children," Roe said. "As far as civil liability, parents could sue the teachers or school district for negligence, gross negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and arguably civil assault. Keeping in mind teachers and districts have significant civil immunity protections in Texas. I did look up Klova patches used and they don’t appear to be marketed to children which raises the question about what effect it has on children versus its claims for use with adults."
Spring ISD released the following statement Wednesday morning after KHOU 11 reached out to them:
"Spring ISD is aware of allegations that two staff members at Northgate Crossing Elementary School allegedly administered sleeping supplements to students on September 24. These staff members were immediately removed from the classroom and placed on administrative leave, pending an ongoing investigation by the Spring ISD Police Department. The district takes every allegation of educator misconduct seriously and will take all necessary measures to ensure that our students are educated in a safe and nurturing environment."
Later Wednesday morning, the district sent an updated statement:
"Northgate Elementary administration was notified by a parent that their child was given a sleeping aid patch in the classroom by their teacher. Upon learning of the allegation the teachers in that classroom were immediately removed and placed on administrative leave. As a precautionary measure, two paraprofessionals in that classroom have also been placed on administrative leave pending the ongoing investigation by the Spring ISD Police Department, as this incident violates our Board Policy FFAC (LOCAL).
"The safety of our students is our highest priority, and we take every allegation of misconduct seriously. We ask for our community's patience as the SISD Police Department conducts their investigation."
The district also provided the policy they said was violated:
"No employee shall give any student prescription medication, nonprescription medication, herbal substances, anabolic steroids, or dietary supplements of any type, except as authorized by this or other District policy."