Texas mother arrested for mixing drink that put son’s classmate in hospital
Jennifer Lynn Rossi ‘intentionally’ created the concoction to stop her son’s drink from being stolen
A Texas mother was charged after she allegedly mixed her son’s drink contents on purpose to prevent the drink from being stolen - yet it landed one of his classmates in hospital.
Jennifer Lynn Rossi, 45, was charged with injury to a child causing bodily injury after an investigation into the incident, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office announced.
Police were called to the Legacy Traditional School Alamo Ranch in San Antonio on Tuesday over a report of a sick child.
The deputies learned that the sick child was given a drink by a classmate in PE class.
Placed inside a sports drink bottle, the drink was found to contain a mix of lemon, salt, and vinegar.
Not long after the child consumed the drink, he began to experience nausea and a headache, police said.
During the investigation it was learned that the mother of the student who provided the drink had intentionally mixed the contents of the drink, the police claim.
This was allegedly done to prevent her son’s drink from being stolen by other students while he was at school.
"Whether the allegations of bullying at the root of this situation are substantiated or not, there is never an excuse to take matters into your own hands and injure a child," Sheriff Javier Salazar from the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
While the contents of the drink were non-toxic, the incident resulted in the child being hospitalised.
The hospital staff told investigators that the child required additional medical monitoring and would eventually be discharged.
In a statement toKSAT, Legacy Traditional Schools said, “Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our students, teachers and staff members,” their statement said.
“The student who initially brought the drink to school will be subject to disciplinary actions in accordance with Legacy policies governing student conduct,” they added, saying that the drink was immediately confiscated and law enforcement was notified.