Upstate New York fourth grade teacher becomes the subject of murder threat

Three students spread the word to their fellow classmates that they planned to kill their fourth grade teacher by poisoning her.

The plan was to douse the room with anti-bacterial hand sanitizer, because their teacher is extremely allergic to it. They figured if they did this right before the holiday break, she wouldn't be there when they got back. No one is sure if the students genuinely intended to kill her, but the mere threat garnered the attention of law enforcement officers and the School Board.

After investigating the threat, the Genesee County Sheriff's Department concluded that the only motive was that their teacher was mean, as reported by Daily News. It was also shared with Huffington Post that in the Sheriff's report, one student claimed the teacher "yells at us," and "the class has problems with her."

Chief Deputy Jerome Brewster was quoted by USA Today as saying, "I think the school took it very seriously. Although there was some discussion about doing this, it never actually happened. They never carried through with it." As a result, the students are not being charged. However, two of them were suspended. No other information was shared due to student privacy rights.

Jerome Piwko, the Elba County School District Superintendent, made the following statement: "The District does not condone any of the behaviors that have been reported and is in the process of working alongside the Sheriff's Department to use this incident as a vehicle for educating the District's students regarding appropriate behaviors."

Exactly how the District's students will be educated is not known, but hopefully the consequences will curtail such idle talk, if indeed it was only idle.