<p>First of all, nobody said they were guilty and yes, in this country, you are innocent until proven otherwise. Nonetheless, apparently this food was laced. </p>
<p>Even if they are minors, there are courts of law for minors who violate the law. You don’t get off just because you are a minor. The consequences may be different. But the law is the law. </p>
<p>Your contention that no harm was done…like what does that matter in terms of the criminal behavior? It only matters that we are fortunate that it wasn’t worse. But the criminal behavior still occurred. You know, you can be tried for attempted murder even if your gun missed its intended target. The intent to cause harm is the issue. There could be no intent other than to cause harm if one laces food with rat poison or Chlorox…those are not meant to be injested and could cause great harm or even death. Even laxatives could cause harm in the amount given or if someone who digests it would have a problem with such a medicine. </p>
<p>You mention they likely won’t learn anything from it? I bet they will if the consequences are stiff enough! </p>
<p>You know, this made the news for a reason. Think about it.</p>
<p>I also know that I don’t trust the media, and like AMB2005, I have to wonder where the girls thought of this and how they did it (and again, where the hell were the parents?), what the media’s proof is, and how anyone found out before the girls gave the cupcakes to their opponents.</p>
<p>When you ask where were the parents…let’s remember that many kids do bad things and their parents are not entirely to blame. You can be a great parent and your kid can still screw up. One does wonder about moral values here but perhaps a mob mentality took over. Regardless, parents can’t oversee every move their kids make. The girls could do some baking at someone’s house when the parents are not even home. That is hardly far fetched. I’d wonder more about how parents in some cases don’t know their kid owns guns in his bedroom and stuff like that but I can totally see a parent not being aware of a baking “project.”</p>
<p>As far as proof…all of it remains to be seen. But apparently SOMETHING happened if some parents are pressing charges. </p>
<p>Who knows how it was found out before the cupcakes were ever eaten? You know, as with many teen crimes, one kid who has an honest streak tells someone else and the word gets out. Even a rotten kid could have told others of the plan and someone else picked up on it and reported it.</p>
<p>I came across a more recent article…from yesterday:
</p>
<p>HisGraceFillsMe…they are ADMITTING it. Now the issue is just what was put in the Brownies. Not sure how the allegations of Clorox or poison came up but there must have been some cause for that concern. Could be rumor. Could be fact. Time will tell.</p>
<p>Well, recent events close to me tell me that such allegations could have started with school administrators. </p>
<p>I’m not in any way defending what happened; just saying I know all too well how administrators can and do spread misinformation to the detriment of the school community and the children they are supposed to serve.</p>
<p>“Suspension for three days. Boo hoo. I’m sure they’ll learn a lot from that.”</p>
<p>Also placement to an alternative location for the rest of the semester. Trust me, they are not going to enjoy that. </p>
<p>Still seems rather lenient to me, but as has been pointed out, not all the facts are known yet. If it turns out that additional poisons were put in the brownies, school district discipline will be the least of their worries. Also, Texas has been known to try juveniles (particularly high school-age students) as adults for felonies.</p>
<p>What do you mean by asking where the parents were, hisgracefillsme? We have Clorox in our house, and it is not locked away now that the youngest child is 10. If my HS-aged son decided to bake brownies and add Clorox, he could easily do it without my knowledge. I can’t imagine that he would ever do such a thing - even the 10-year-old knows better.</p>
<p>I hope that it turns out that they “only” put laxatives in the food, and that the reports of more dangerous substances were only rumor.</p>
<p>The substituting-ExLax-for-chocolate thing has been an urban legend of prankdom since <em>I</em> was a kid and probably started as soon as ExLax went on the market in that form, whenever that was.</p>
<p>IMHO, that qualifies as a “prank,” albeit a nasty one. IMHO the girls who did it ought to be kicked off the dance team either permanently or for the remainder of the year at least. Competing for your school is a privilege, and they should lose it. Such lack of sportsmanship should result in the individual being ineligible to represent the school in any capacity for at least the remainder of the year. </p>
<p>The fact that the trick was revealed before anyone was harmed qualifies as luck, not as a mitigating circumstance, unless it was revealed by one of the girls themselves who didn’t want to go through with it.</p>
<p>Chlorox and/or rat poison qualifies as poisoning. Note that it is the parents of the <em>target</em> dancers who are saying that those substances were in the brownies. Either the person who revealed the addition of substances said they were, or someone else started speculating after the laxatives were made public and it got out of hand. I’m hoping that it turns out not to be true.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, these girls have poisoned what was a nice, sportsmanlike tradition. And their parents have nothing to do with it. When I was in HS my friends and I baked for events and our parents never thought of standing over us to make sure we didn’t poison someone!</p>
<p>This is so sad and is how bad rivalries and serious misunderstandings start and run amok. It does make you wonder what was in the mind of the people involved in the “prank” as I consider adulterating anything meant for consumption pretty dangerous, especially these days as so many of us have health conditions that can make us more at risk than a “healthy” person."</p>
<p>Putting poison and things not meant for consumption in goods to be consumed continstutes a crime to me, IF it is proven to have happened. I can think of no mitigating circumstances to excuse high school children of average or above intelligence from doing such a thing, even as a “prank.”</p>
<p>While the laxatives are not a poison per se, and not as bad as if perhaps Clorox or rat poison were used, it still is meant to harm and it COULD harm. Supposedly it was a large amount of laxative (likely not yet proven) and if so, that could cause health problems for some people, including dehydration. It isn’t a poison but it also has intentions to harm or cause one to be sick. So, in my view, this goes beyond a prank such as hiding the uniforms or something like that which doesn’t cause harm to another physically.</p>
<p>Daughter is on the varsity drill team (yes, in Texas). During the third quarter, the officers and a few other team reps go to the other side to visit the other drill team, always bearing goodies. Then, reps of the other team go to the other side and do the same. Daughter said that last Friday they did NOT do that. She said she had heard that they are stopping the tradition because in a prior game, some of the candy they delivered was “poisoned.” I told her that if poison was suspected, a whole heck of a lot more would be done that just stopping the tradition. I bet that the El Paso story got around and that all the schools are stopping it. (Unless the El Paso thing happened on the 7th, too.)</p>
<p>I know when our student council exchanges gifts before the game (yes, in Texas!), the goodies are always prepackaged. It never occurred to me that potential poisoning was the reason.</p>
<p>Am surprised no one else picked up on ek4’s question asking how this would have been handled if the poisoning had been directed at a teacher. Now I’m asking this based on the assumption that all that has been reported will be found true, meaning, if poison is found after lab tests are completed, then the consequences should be relevant to the crime.</p>
<p>However, I am having mixed feelings about the admission of the laxatives. I think of all the GI disorders that people might have, and wonder if even laxatives could be seriously damaging to someone who should not have laxatives. I say this after having an odd reaction to some drugs I had this week. My allergies went through the roof last week after working out in the yard, and my post-nasal drip was so bad it was causing bronchospasms. The doctor put me on an inhaler, and a steroidal nose spray. After a couple of days, I realized the nasal spray was causing my pupils to dilate. It didn’t happen with inhaler-only use, but did happen when I used the nasal spray. Even the pharmacist said pupil dilation was not listed as a side effect of the spray. But last May when I developed a bad infection, and was put on a tapered-dose steroid pack, I had a borderline psychotic reaction, so we know now that steroids don’t agree with me. But the inhaler and spray are supposedly more topical, and not supposed to have these strange effects like I had.</p>
<p>Sorry to give you all too much information, but it did make me think of all the potential side effects that medications can cause, whether they’re listed as potential side effects or not. No one can ever predict how someone else might react to what seems like a completely innocuous drug. And to give one to someone who would ingest it unknowingly, I think is criminal, especially when the intentions are malicious, and not intended as helpful.</p>
<p>You make some very good points, teriwtt. People can have unexpected reactions to all sorts of substances, and laxatives are powerful. I once ended up in the ER after having eaten a small amount of a nutritional yeast, having gone on a health kick, and twice I have had my entire body covered with red, itchy hives. One time it was at the end of a 10-day course of a sulfa-containing antibiotic, and once it was a result of having changed to Dreft laundry detergent when S1 was born.</p>
<p>HisGraceFillsMe: The suspension may not just be time off from school. I may be wrong, but I think suspensions must be reported on college admissions applications. If any of the girls are planning to go to college, this could be more of a consequence than just time off from school.</p>
<p>These days, so many folks are allergic to so many different things that it IS extremely dangerous to consider adding unexpected things to goods to be consumed by others. There was a boy at camp who started an anaphylactic reaction just from having a few drops of milk spilled on him. I started getting itchy last night from being around shellfish though I didn’t consume any of those I was allergic to. Switching sugar for salt (or vice versa) is also extremely dangerous for diabetics, hypoglycemics and those many with heart issues.</p>
<p>Actually, just eating things that are prepared as they are supposed to can be tough enough for many folks these days with so many “hidden” chronic health concerns. They “look” healthy but eating things they don’t expect can really cause serious harm.</p>
<p>Can’t understand how putting poison and OTC meds (which laxatives are) is a “prank” and not criminal, really I don’t. So many folks try to lessen the severity of dangerous things by saying it’s a “prank,” but when it’s dangerous to other people, it’s far over the line of a “prank” (even if the people pulling the “prank” didn’t foresee the logical consequences of their actions–stupidity is no excuse).</p>
<p>I agree HImom, but I also think that by the time girls are old enough to be on the varsity drill team, the highly allergic among them know not to consume any non-packaged, homemade “treats.” (At least you’d hope so. A couple of years ago, one of Son’s (normally very intelligent) friends was over around Christmas and popped a cookie in his mouth and THEN said, “Do these have peanut butter in them?” Jeez, they had mini-peanut butter cups visible in the center! He said “aw-oh” and went home for some Benedryl…glad his peanut allergy wasn’t fatal!)</p>