A Florida middle school teacher will be suspended for 10 days after an investigation found she put hand sanitizer in a student’s mouth.
The teacher, Guyette Duhart, was accused of putting hand sanitizer in a child’s mouth on one occasion in October 2019 at Polo Park Middle School in Wellington.
Duhart, a science teacher, admitted to holding a bottle of hand sanitizer to the student’s mouth after he kept talking in class but claimed the child pumped sanitizer into his mouth.
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She stated, “You need to have your mouth washed with soap,” according to an executive summary submitted to the Palm Beach County School Board.
Several students allegedly witnessed the episode and corroborated the student’s account.
The student spat out the sanitizer and left the classroom. When he returned to class, he said Duhart allowed him to wash out his mouth.
“I was really unaware that anything occurred until he left,” Duhart told investigators, according to The Palm Beach Post. “He returned to the class and I allowed him to wash out his mouth.”
The school district concluded the allegation against Duhart was substantiated. On Wednesday, the board approved a 10-day suspension without pay.
The suspension is set to begin March 12, but Duhart is appealing, Julie Houston Trieste, a school district spokeswoman told NBC News.
“She remains reassigned out of the school pending the outcome of the investigation,” Trieste said.
NBC News reached out to Duhart but did not immediately hear back Friday morning.
