A pre-school teacher is out of a job after being charged with giving her toddler students sleeping pills at nap time. INSIDE EDITION reports.
A beloved pre-school teacher has been arrested for allegations you may not believe.
Deborah Gratz was apparently stressed out trying to handle the toddlers in her class at Kiddie Academy in Morgan Hill, California.
But rather than freak out like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kindergarten Cop, she allegedly found another way to calm the children: try to secretly give them sleeping pills.
Gratz allegedly used Sominex sleeping pills. According to police, the teacher ground them up into powder and mixed it up in the children's sippy cup drinks, hoping the concoction would put the restless kids to sleep.
The warning on the Sominex package is clear, "Do not use in children under 12 years of age."
Dr. Jim Sears of TV's The Doctors, said, "As a physician, I'm disturbed this was happening but as a father, I am outraged."
Dr. Sears says an adult dose of Sominex could have devastating side effects on a toddler.
He said that Sominex might cause "Extreme sleepiness, or sometimes the opposite, extreme agitation, they could get weakness, confusion, blurred vision, even seizures or hallucinations."
Luckily, somebody saw what Gratz was allegedly doing and the faculty confronted her.
Sergeant Troy Hoefling of the Morgan Hill Police Deptarment said, "She told another employee that the substance was Sominex, and that she was sorry and glad that the kids hadn't ingested it."
Gratz was fired, and arrested on felony child endangerment charges.
Now, parents at the Kiddie Academy are left to wonder how long this outrageous situation has been going on.
Gratz's lawyer said she will enter a plea of not guilty.
