Parents will do almost anything to protect their kids, but one Texas mom’s plan to help her son get back at an alleged school bully backfired spectacularly after the child was hospitalized.
Jennifer Lynn Rossi, 45, allegedly mixed a sports drink with salt, lemon and vinegar to “prevent her son’s drink from be stolen at school by other students,” the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
But when her son gave the bottle to another student during gym class, the kid ended up getting quite sick from the non-toxic concoction and ended up in hospital with a headache and nausea.
“On Tuesday, March 5, 2024, Bexar County Sheriff’s Deputies were dispatched to Legacy Traditional School – Alamo Ranch for a sick child,” the sheriff’s office wrote in a statement on Facebook. “Upon arriving to the school, deputies learned that the sick child was given a drink by a classmate during P.E. class.”
An investigation by police found that Rossi had “intentionally mixed the contents of the drink.”
An arrest warrant affidavit, reviewed by ABC News, found that Rossi told her son to give the drink to the particular student because he had stolen her son’s drink the previous day.
“Whether the allegations of bullying at the root of this situation are substantiated or not, there is never an excuse to take matters into your own hands and injure a child,” Sheriff Javier Salazar said in a statement.
Police confirmed that the sick child was eventually released from hospital after additional medical monitoring.
Rossi was arrested and booked into jail. She was charged with injury to a child causing bodily harm.
Police say they continue to investigate.