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Pill dropped in teacher's soda
By KELLEY BENHAM TARPON SPRINGS -- A frustrated eighth-grader wanted to pay back his math teacher for six weeks of aggravation, so Tuesday morning he dropped a sleeping pill in the teacher's Diet Coke. The student told police he wanted attention and never wanted to hurt the teacher. It was just a prank, the boy said. It was no big deal, the teacher said. It's a first-degree felony, the law says. The 13-year-old, whose name is being withheld by the Times because of his age, was charged with tampering with food under the Florida Anti-Tampering Act. The boy was struggling in John Loftus' first period pre-algebra class, he told police. The first grading period ends tomorrow at Tarpon Springs Middle School, and report cards come out next week. The boy told police the teacher had been mean to him. He said he'd debated how to retaliate. Laxatives? No, he decided, sleeping pills. He brought two non-prescription Unisom pills to school from home. Loftus, a first-year teacher, was walking the aisles checking homework on integers when he turned his back on his beverage. The boy saw the Diet Coke unattended at the front of the class, left his desk and slipped one of the pills into the drink, police said. That period, students in the class repeatedly asked Loftus if he felt okay. He didn't think anything of it, he said. After class, a student told assistant principal Wynne Black they had seen the boy put something in the drink and heard it might be a sleeping pill, police said. Black and the school resource officer walked out to Portable 10, told Loftus what happened and collected the Diet Coke as evidence. Police found a soggy, partially dissolved Unisom in the bottom of the can. They found the second pill on the boy later in the day, still in its foil wrapper. Loftus, normally a coffee drinker, said he felt a little drowsy later, but nothing serious. The school nurse checked him out, but he just wanted to get back to his classes. "It really wasn't a big deal," he said. "I don't think he did it with vicious intent." But if Loftus had been allergic to the medication, the result could have been much more serious, police said. "What he thinks is just a practical joke could have turned deadly," said Tarpon Springs police Sgt. Jeffrey Young. Florida's Anti-Tampering Act carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, though Young said juvenile judges have a great deal of latitude in how they handle such cases. Word spread quickly through the eighth grade, said social studies teacher Margaret Paschal. Loftus is a popular teacher, she said, and popular math teachers are hard to find. "We veteran teachers were just mortified," said Paschal, who has taught at the school for 25 years, and said she has never seen anything like this. She hopes this won't dampen his enthusiasm for teaching, she said. "It won't," Loftus said. Loftus, 42, was an electrical engineer in Wisconsin who moved to Florida this year to escape the cold and change careers. He wanted a more exciting job, and he found it. "There's never a dull moment," he said, "especially today." Principal Keith Davis was off campus at a meeting Tuesday, but he said administrators will speak to students Wednesday about the seriousness of the offense. Several students knew about the sleeping pills, he said, and he wants to make sure they report rumors like this in the future. "I want to tell them we're all responsible," he said. "We're all in this together." The school will discipline the student according to county guidelines, he said, which typically call for suspension with recommendation for reassignment. School resource officer Steve Tsataros talked to the boy at school before he was taken to Juvenile Detention Center. The boy did not cry, Tsataros said, but he was upset and sorry. "I said 'Look, we all make mistakes,' " he said. "I feel sorry for the kid." -- Kelley Benham can be reached at (727) 445-4182 or benham@sptimes.com.
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From the Times North Pinellas desks Letters |
