ChapNews Vol. 13: Talk About a Bad Grade...

The Seattle Times reported last week that two sixth graders tried to incapacitate their teacher with lip gloss. Those girls are either really smart or really stupid.

Two 12 year-olds spent Thursday night in juvenile detention for allegedly trying to sicken their teacher — who has a severe allergy to strawberries — with a dose of synthetic strawberry-scented balm, applied to a drinking glass.

The girls, students of Sakai Intermediate School on Bainbridge Island, told police they considered using real strawberries, but did not want to kill their teacher, just provoke an allergic reaction, said Mark Duncan, deputy chief of the Bainbridge Police.

The girls' alleged motive? To avoid trouble for not getting parent signatures on a progress report.

"They thought if they could make the teacher sick, then the progress report would not be an issue," said Duncan. "This is 12 year-old thinking."

The teacher, Kasey Jeffers, had a reaction after drinking from either a water bottle or coffee cup — both were slathered in lip gloss — but avoided anaphylactic shock with medication, said Duncan. Her allergy is well-known at school and is so severe that her class is a strawberry-free zone, said Jo VanderStoep, principal of the 600-student school.