Texas teachers placed on leave amid claims of giving kids 'sleepy patches'

Oct. 10 (UPI) -- Elementary school teachers in Spring, Texas have been placed on administrative leave after allegedly giving students as young as 4 years old sleep aides in the classroom, the school district has announced.

Two teachers and two aides have been placed on leave while the school district investigates complaints by parents that their children were given stickers that contain melatonin, a natural sleep aid, during nap time, the parents allege.

The patches are a peel-and-stick Sleep Z patch, which contains over 10 ingredients including Ashwagandha and Melatonin, and can be found online at shopping sites like Amazon, KHOU-TV reported.

One of the mothers, Melissa Gomez, whose 4-year old son attends a preschool class at Northgate Elementary, said she asked another parent about the sticker her son brought home.

She said the other mother, Lisa Luviano, told local media that when her child brought a sticker home, she researched it online and found it being sold on Amazon as a sleeping patch with melatonin.

"The sticker makes me fall asleep ," 4-year-old Layne Luviano, Lisa Luviano's daughter said.

"She said, 'It is a sleeping sticker,'" Lisa Luviano said her daughter told her about what her teacher said in the classroom. "I asked, 'Where did you get this?' And she said, 'My teacher gives it to me for sleeping time,'" she told KTRK-TV .

Gomez said when she questioned her son about the patch, he told his mother he recognized it and indicated that his teachers had placed them on his forehead, stomach and the back of his hand.

"I asked my son, and he was able to identify what it was and where he got it and what part of his body it was placed," said Gomez.

Gomez said she wants more information and that the school district, teachers and aides be held accountable. Other parents want criminal charges .

"I was really mad because with everything going on you're just hoping and praying nothing happens to your kid," Gomez said.

Gomez said she and other parents gathered to discuss the patches and discovered multiple children said they had received the stickers, and claimed the school district did not look into the use of the stickers until several weeks after parents asked questions about them.

Northgate Elementary administrators were notified about a sleeping aid patch on Sept. 24. It has now responded by putting two teachers and two classroom aides on leave.

"These staff members were immediately removed from the classroom and placed on administrative leave, pending an ongoing investigation by the Spring ISD Police Department," according to a Spring ISD statement. "The district takes every allegation of educator misconduct seriously and will take all necessary measures to ensure that our students are educated in a safe and nurturing environment."

Spring ISD has a policy against giving kids medications of any sort, including herbal substances, steroids or supplements, the statement notes. Distribution of the sleep patches by teachers could violate that policy, police said.

"The safety of our students is our highest priority, and we take every allegation of misconduct seriously," the school district statement reads.