WELLINGTON, Fla. — A teacher at a Wellington middle school was suspended 10 days without pay by the Palm Beach County School Board after officials said she got mad at a student and put hand sanitizer in their mouth.
According to the school district, Guyette Duhart is accused of putting hand sanitizer in a child’s mouth at Polo Park Middle School on Oct. 15, 2019.
Duhart said the student kept talking and she stated "you need to have your mouth washed with soap."
Several students allegedly witnessed the offense.
Duhart, a science teacher at the school, claims she “did not squirt any item into the (victim’s) mouth.”
Duhart’s 10-day suspension without pay is set to go in effect Thursday, March 12.
The CDC website says swallowing alcohol-based hand sanitizers can cause alcohol poisoning. From 2011 to 2015, the CDC says U.S. poison control centers received nearly 85,000 calls about hand sanitizer exposures among children.