2 Girls Charged in Assault Against Teacher

By Brian Alexander, Seattle Times

Apr. 3–Two Bainbridge Island girls accused of trying to poison their teacher with strawberry lip gloss were charged with third-degree felony assault in Kitsap County Juvenile Court on Monday.

The girls appeared in a Kitsap County courtroom Monday afternoon and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

According to charging papers, the 12-year-old girls, knowing their teacher, Kasey Jeffers, has a severe allergy to strawberries, put the lip gloss on her water bottle and coffee cup on Thursday. The girls wanted to make their teacher ill to get out of a progress report, police said.

When the teacher drank from her cup while teaching a class Thursday she had a minor reaction to the strawberry lip gloss and suffered from watery eyes and shortness of breath, according to Bainbridge Island schools. She countered the symptoms using Benadryl and went home early.

The children, who were students of Sakai Intermediate School, were arrested and spent Thursday night and most of Friday in the Kitsap County juvenile-detention center.

The Seattle Times generally does not name juvenile suspects.

Brian Alexander: 206-464-2026 or balexander@seattletimes.com

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